Next time you put some crisp New Zealand Braeburn apples
or a punnet of out-of-season strawberries into your basket,
it’s worth reflecting on the journey those foods have taken
to reach your plate, writes Dr Rachel Fisher.
According to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, the average amount of miles a food travels from field to
plate rose 15% between 1992 and 2002. But it’s not just the
environmental impact of our modern food chain that we have to worry
about. Produce from far flung places (or even just other parts of
Europe) takes time to reach its destination and is often plucked
unripe, meaning it will inevitably have lost some of it nutritional
value along the way. Compared with locally-produced food, vitamins
A, B, C and E are likely to be lower even with excellent storage
and transport conditions. Massmarket crops selected for their large
cropping capacity or uniformity of colour and size may also be
lower in important phytochemicals than smaller, organic varieties
with less-consistent yields.
Add to this the fact that our busy, time-pressured lifestyle
means we often rely on pre-chopped, ready-cooked, convenience foods
and it’s easy to see how our diets could leave us short of
the nutrients we need. Ironically, despite epidemic levels of
obesity, we’re also eating a lot fewer calories (and
potentially nutrients) than our bodies evolved to expect - a
phenomenon that’s down to our much more inactivelifestyles
than in the past. To redress the balance, packing in as many fresh,
preferably locally-grown foods as possible will help - in
particular five good portions of fruits and vegetables a day. But
it also makes sense to safeguard your basic nutrient intake with a
multi-vitamin supplement - a concept that’s increasingly
being recognised as a sensible course of action by official
channels. As well as being documented that supplements help
specific groups of society such as the elderly and pregnant women,
authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration now
recommend all adults take a multivitamin.
What other supplements you choose in addition will depend upon
your own needs, but top of the list must be fish oils for those who
dislike oily fish (or are concerned about pollution issues and
would prefer to stick to the purity of a pharmaceutical-grade
product). Also worth considering are those supplements that provide
benefits that can’t be found in food at all: glucosamine for
joints that are feeling the ravages of time for example, or the
herb echinacea for those of us whose immune system needs a
boost.
What’s certain is that modern lives require modern
solutions and sensible supplementation can be part of them.
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