FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS PART THREE

1.  Q:  What are medical foods?

        

      A:  Medical foods are formulated with macro- and micronutrients that are recognized by scientific principles to support the dietary management of a disease or condition, and are to be administered under the supervision of a physician or licensed healthcare practitioner. Medical foods contain nutrients in therapeutic amounts that typically cannot be acquired through a typical diet.  Metagenics is one of the few professional nutraceutical companies that formulates, manufactures, and tests medical foods.

 

 

2.   Q:  Why can't I get everything I need from my diet? Why do I need to take a nutritional supplement?

 

 

      A:  The human body has often been compared to an extremely complex and wonderfully efficient machine. To function normally, it is extremely dependent upon a large variety of raw materials such as protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and so forth. If any of these critical substances are lacking in sufficient quantities, the efficiency of the "machine" suffers. Food is always the preferred source of vitamins and minerals. Many nutritional researchers point to the rising problems of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases of modern society as evidence of the deteriorating quality of the diet most people consume.

• Our diets have changed. As a society, our dietary habits have changed over the past couple of generations. A healthy diet consists of plenty of fresh (or fresh frozen) fruits and vegetables, lean meats and dairy, and whole grains—all at appropriate portions to match activity levels. The reality is that few of us meet that goal.
• We eat out more.Recent studies indicate that the majority of meals in the U.S. are eaten in restaurants—where food tends to be high in fat and sugar—rather than at home.
• We eat more processed foods. Convenience foods now make up a much higher percentage of the average diet than they did in the past. In some people well over 60% of their food is from so called "empty" calorie foods (candy, sweets, chips, or other highly processed foods that contain very little real nutritional value other than calories). The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a low nutritional value.
• We have more stress.Today's fast-paced and busy life often means more stress. The greater the external stressors, the higher the nutritional demands on the body. Eating a poor quality diet robs you of the nutritional factors necessary to help you stay healthy—especially in the face of stress.
• We don't know how to buy "healthy" foods. Many people are simply unaware of how to shop for healthy foods. Convenience and taste become the major criteria for food selection, while nutritional value may be given little attention, if any at all.

While a nutritional supplement may provide value in maintaining health, we should never think that taking a supplement (such as a multivitamin/mineral) replaces a good diet. In other words, the first and most important step is to improve the quality of the diet, and then take a supplement as a nutritional insurance policy. Depending on your unique needs, Dr. Johnson may also recommend targeted nutrients that are difficult to obtain through dietary measures—no matter how good your diet may be(Vitamin D, COQ10).
If you have questions about your diet, it's important that you discuss them with Dr. Johnson or Heather, at your next visit.


3.  Q:   What is the "glycemic index"? How is it different from the "glycemic load"?

     A:  The glycemic index (GI) is a ranking of foods on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. Glucose is given a relative number of 100 to provide a baseline to which all others can be compared. For example, an apple has a GI of 38 which is less than half that of glucose, but higher than soybeans (which have a GI of 18). Foods with a GI of 55 or less are considered to be low—glycemic—index foods. The GI considers the quality of a carbohydrate. The glycemic load (GL) carries that a step further and considers the quantity of carbohydrate—namely its fiber content and/or portion size. Fiber is a "good" component of carbohydrates (as opposed to sugar). The higher fiber content a food has, the lower its GL. Carrots are a high GI food. But when served as a handful of raw carrots, it has a low GL. Carrot juice, which has a lower fiber content, has a high GL. Likewise, 3/4 cup of watermelon (also a high GI food) has a low GL, while half a watermelon has a high GL. Research suggests that glycemic load is an important consideration in the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases.
Most complex meals (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) have a moderate GL because proteins and healthy fats (which have a low GI) help balance out carbohydrates that may have a higher GI. Its important to include whole fruits and vegetables in your regular eating pattern to help achieve a balanced, low-GL diet. Research suggests that glycemic load is an important consideration in the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases.

4.  Q:   In order to stay healthy, what is a good basic supplement program?

      A:  Each person is unique, and has unique nutritional needs. A prudent course of action to stay healthy would begin with eating a healthy diet. This means avoiding highly processed foods (candies, snack foods, convenience foods) or foods high in refined sugar or flour, as these tend to have low levels of important vitamins and minerals. A high quality multiple vitamin/mineral supplement is helpful to "fill in the gaps" in the diet. While other nutrients also may be helpful, it is important to remember your individuality and discuss the specific additional nutrients you might need with a nutritionally oriented health care practitioner.

 

5.  Q:  What do vitamins do in the body?

 

      A: In order to accomplish all of the thousands of day-to-day functions of your body, the food you eat every day must be converted into energy and raw materials (building blocks for muscles, bones, ligaments enzymes, hormones, and so on). To do all this, vitamins are required. Since humans lack the ability to manufacture these critical nutrients in our bodies, we have to get them in our diet.

Generally, vitamins perform 3 major functions:

• They are "cofactors" and catalysts for enzymes, which means they are required for the enzymes to do their jobs. The B-complex vitamins B1 and B2, for example are required for every function in the body that requires production of energy-which means every function!
• They act as antioxidants, which means they prevent highly reactive molecules called free radicals from damaging delicate cell membrane structure. Vitamins C and E are powerful antioxidants, protecting cell membranes from free radicals.
• They act as "pre-hormones." For example, vitamin D functions as a hormone to facilitate calcium uptake and utilization.

6.      Q:  What do minerals do in the body?

          A:  Minerals have very many important functions.  Life could not exist without them. Iron is required for the manufacturing of the chemical hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood to all the cells of the body. Calcium is necessary for strong bones, and for transmission of messages within cells and from cell to cell. Magnesium is required for production of energy from the food you eat, and a selenium-containing molecule protects the body from damage by free radicals.

 

7.     Q:  What makes amino acid chelated minerals better than other types of minerals?

 

 

        A: In order to be absorbed, minerals, whether from foods or in supplements, have to be combined with a "carrier" molecule. When this molecule is a fragment of protein (an amino acid), and the mineral amino acid compound forms a stable molecule, it is referred to as an amino acid chelate. Because the body is very efficient at absorbing amino acids, chelated minerals are more easily transported across the intestinal wall than are non-chelated minerals.