You are an individual, unique and different from everyone else.  You have your own likes and dislikes.  You have your own special talents and abilities.  Your body's appearance, though in many ways similar, is also quite different from every other person's.  In the same way, your body's nutritional needs are quite different from the next person's needs.  Biochemically, your are an individual.

This principle has been understood for quite some time.  The RDA's nutritional requirements lead us to believe that if we just get these minimum dosages of nutrients, we will be healthy.  However, the RDA does not take into account biochemical individuality.  "Actually there is little justification in nutritional thinking for the concept that a representative prototype of Homo Sapiens is one who has average requirements with respect to all essential nutrients and thus exhibits no unusually high or low needs.  In the light of contemporary genetic and physiologic knowledge and the statistical interpretations thereof, the typical individual is more likely to be one who has average needs with respect to many essential nutrients but who also exhibits some nutritional requirements for a few essential nutrients which are far from average" (1).  In other words, each of us, because of our genetic makeup, will have a need for certain nutrients which is far above average.

In addition to genetic reasons for vitamin deficiencies, cellular toxicity can be both the cause of and the result of those deficiencies.  As we learned in a previous article, cellular toxicity is the result of the kind of diet we feed our bodies.  It is also the result of not cleaning the body properly inside, which we will discuss in a later article.  So both our genetic makeup and the kind of food we feed our bodies contributes to our need for extraordinary amounts of certain vitamins and minerals.  "Every individual organism that has a distinctive genetic background has distinctive nutritional needs which must be met for optimal well-being....If, during embryonic development, a particular ovum has needs which cannot be satisfied in the environment provided, then it either dies or its organs and functions fail to develop in a well-rounded fashion.  If, during childhood, the individual has nutritional needs which are not fully satisfied, his metabolism is altered accordingly; he becomes a prey to infections, and his growth becomes retarded or distorted" (2).  "Nutritional deficiencies result whenever inadequate amounts of essential nutrients are provided to tissues that must function normally over a long period of time.  Good nutrition is essential for normal organ development and functioning, for normal reproduction, growth, and maintenance; for optimum activity level and working efficiency; for resistance to infection and disease; and for the ability to repair bodily damage or injury" (3).  It seems, then, that our individual nutritional needs are very important, and supplying these needs must be the foundation of any self care program.

Go to the next article:   Natural or Synthetic: How To Choose A Good Vitamin

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References:

(1)  Burton, B.T., ed. (1959). The Heinz Handbook of Nutrition.  New York:  McGraw-Hill.

(2)  Williams, Roger J.  (1979). Biochemical Individuality:  The Basis for the Genetotrophic Concept. Austin:  University of Texas Press, p. 167.

(3)  Dunne, Lavon J.  (1990). Nutrition Almanac, 3rd edition.  New York:  McGraw-Hill, p. 1.
 
 
 

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