Why Your Doctor Offers Nutritional Supplements, 4th Edition

Many holistic practitioners say there’s one question in particular that they hear often: “Can’t I get all the nutrients I need from my diet?”

In a perfect world, the answer would be yes. But in the imperfect world we live in, it is next to impossible for most of us to get all the nutrients we need from diet alone. Not from the processed foods too many of us eat too often, and not even from the commercially produced fruits and vegetables that most of us buy.

For anyone who has ever questioned or considered the value of nutritional supplements, this revised and expanded fourth edition of Why Your Doctor Offers Nutritional Supplements by Stephanie Selene Anderson is a must read.

For reasons you will learn about in these pages, much of the food we eat today is tragically deficient in the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients our bodies require. Worse, much of the food in today’s standard diet also contains synthetic chemicals that are toxic to the body. It’s yet another fact that can only exist in today’s upside-down nutritional landscape: not only is our diet deficient in what we need, but it’s actively harming us with what we don’t. Decade upon decade of consuming these counterfeit foods have put our health behind the eight ball.

Another wrinkle—most supplement bottles sold in this country are full of synthetic “vitamins,” which are nothing like vitamins as they exist in whole foods. As Anderson explains, vitamins in food are never just the “active” compounds listed on supplement labels. Rather, they are groups of nearly countless compounds that work in concert to deliver a “vitamin effect” to the body.

Synthetics, on the other hand, merely isolate one of a vitamin’s many cooperating compounds, not delivering a beneficial vitamin effect as much as upsetting the body’s biochemical balance. Unfortunately, this means that people who take synthetic supplements rather than supplements from whole food concentrates are doing precisely nothing to truly supplement their diets.

Only one course correction is available to get us out of this mess: we must not only learn to make better food choices, but we must also feed our body concentrated whole food supplements to get it back on track.

Let this brilliant, deeply informed guide to nutrition and health be your first step. From the earth’s rich soil to the sun’s healing rays, you’ll learn about every aspect of nutritional supplementation. But Anderson doesn’t stop there. Going beyond supplementation, she also examines the basis of sound eating, from the eye-opening revelations of the Seven Deadly Fallacies of the Western Diet to the good, the bad, and the ugly at your local “health” food store.

And practitioners, take note: this one-stop reference on whole food nutrition, holistic health, and dietary supplementation is the pinnacle of patient education resources.

For bulk order inquiries, please call (866) 407-9323.

From Amazon Customer Reviews:

“I would like to add a note here that if Amazon allowed 1/2 star ratings, I would have given this book 4½ stars rather than just 4. If you’re looking for a simple starting point to understand why so many of us have come to a point of poor health, Why Your Doctor Offers Nutritional Supplements by Stephanie Selene Anderson with Mark R. Anderson could be just the ticket. It’s a great book for the layperson to gain some understanding, or a refresher, on topics like the role the sun and soil play in nutrition. It encourages self-knowledge and seeking out exactly what you want for you and your family’s health. My favorite part was probably the section on “’The Seven Deadly Fallacies of the Western Diet.’ In it, Anderson gives a brief overview of why we have been thinking incorrectly about such things as the safety of water with chlorine and fluoride in it and our overuse of refined sugars. This section alone will get you rethinking your food choices. Anderson also offers up some basic information on the difference between the synthetic and ‘isolated’ supplements you find in the average shopping center versus seeking out whole food supplements. This can be a touchy subject, with many believing that there is no point to taking supplements at all. However, Anderson clearly explains how working with a healthcare provider who is well versed in nutrition, and the type of supplements that actually contain the nutrients your body is able to use, can make all the difference in the world when it comes to your overall health. I really enjoyed reading Why Your Doctor Offers Nutritional Supplements. It offered up easy to understand information, on some complex issues, without getting too complicated. And, as always, Anderson includes an overabundance of books, articles, and online resources to further your education on the topic of nutrition. Knowledge is power.”
—Paula Widish