Your health depends on optimal nutrition

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

Without a doubt, eating well and having optimal nutrition is the number-one strategy for creating lifelong health, regardless of your starting point. You may be highly conscientious and diligent about your diet, or you may be in despair about your nutrition and miles from reaching your goal. Or, you may be “good” one day then wobble or fall down the next. Whatever the case, this section of our site is all about how to make nutrition and eating well the cornerstone to your health foundation.

Conventional medicine has only recently begun to catch on to the enormous impact nutrients have on disease prevention and even disease reversal. But over the years I’ve seen it time and again in my practice: getting the right combination of nutrients through healthy food choices and high-quality nutritional supplements can make all the difference in a woman’s physical health, energy level, and overall vitality.

As women, we’re taking care of children and aging parents, working outside the home, and still doing much of the housework and cooking — it’s no wonder we reach for frozen dinners or take-out menus when it’s time for dinner! But I’ve found that educating my patients on a new approach to food can make those tough decisions about what to eat and whether or not to use nutritional supplements much easier.

The other problem today is that even when we make an effort to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, they’re often grown in nutrient-depleted soil so they can’t offer us the full armor of vitamins and minerals our bodies require. This means that nearly every woman could benefit from some level of nutritional supplementation, but you need to know which ones are right for you and what to look for to make sure you’re getting all the potential benefits.

Take a look at our many articles on the subject of nutrition and nutritional supplements for guidance. What’s wonderful is that you can optimize your health naturally every day — and it’s not as difficult as it may seem.

Our most popular resources on nutrition

To access an article, just choose from the list of excerpts below. To find more articles, use the search function below. Don’t see a topic that’s important to you? Let us know.

• Food safety
  Sometimes a diet of whole, fresh foods isn’t easy to accomplish, particularly when food safety is a concern. Here are tips on ways to limit contaminants in your everyday fresh foods.
• Choosing the best multivitamin
  Not all dietary supplements are created equally, so here’s a primer on what to look for when you pick the perfect multivitamin for your individual needs.
• Omega-3 fatty acids — essential to health and happiness
  From the day we’re conceived to our golden years, each and every cell in our bodies requires EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids that trump all other fats. Learn how omega-3 fatty acids benefit your health on every level, and why they hold such great promise for health, happiness, and long life.
• Personal Program Nutritional and Lifestyle Guidelines
  How well your body is working right now, and how well is it able to handle its daily challenges? With Women to Women’s Nutritional and Lifestyle Guidelines, you will delight in how well you begin to feel when given the right ingredients!
• New health information on the controversy about soy
  Competing claims about whether soy can be used safely to address menopausal symptoms create confusion about soy’s health benefits. Women to Women looks at the science behind both sides of the controversy to help you sort fact from fiction.
• Health benefits of soy
  From soy’s role in allergies to breast cancer, thyroid health, and menopause, conflicting reports abound. Read about Women to Women’s own findings on soy foods, proteins, isolates, and isoflavones in this update from Dr. Dixie Mills on the safety of soy.
• What is gluten — and why are we so sensitive to it?
  Women to Women explains where gluten comes from and some of the theories about why gluten sensitivity is on the rise.
• Is vitamin D deficiency casting a cloud over your health?
  Vitamin D plays multiple roles in the body. It helps us to absorb calcium, keeping our bones strong; serves to regulate our metabolic rate, playing a key role in weight loss; wards off several forms of cancer; and may help regulate mood. Learn how to address symptoms of deficiency and how to maintain optimal levels of bioavailable vitamin D in the body.
• Vitamin D testing and treatment
  Here are the questions we hear most from our patients and readers about vitamin D testing:  how to tell whether or not you even need testing; which specific test to ask for; what levels are optimal and how to keep them there; how to supplement even if you decide not to get tested; and more. We include a table of typical vitamin D test results, explaining why today’s “normal” range may be far from optimal for your health, as well as information for those concerned about vitamin D toxicity.
• Omega-3’s, phytonutrients, and the Mediterranean diet
  Your body understands the language of the Mediterranean diet, rich in plant nutrients and omega-3’s that speak to it with greater clarity and truth than fast food, junk food, or any other facsimile of true nourishment. Simplicity, beauty, and health — the concepts embodied in this way of eating are timeless.
• What’s the difference between omega-3’s, 6’s and 9’s?
  Many women are confused about the differences between fatty acids and may wonder what the fanfare’s all about. Read the ABC’s of the 3’s, 6’s and 9’s and learn why they matter.
• Vegetarians and omega-3’s
  Two factors limit adequate levels of omega-3 fatty acids in people today: their relative scarcity in our diets, and our bodies’ limited capacity to convert other fats into two of the most valuable forms — EPA and DHA. For vegetarians and vegans of all stripes, the first limitation is an even greater one than it is for omnivores. If this includes you or your loved ones, here’s important info about the best plant sources — old and new — of these supercritical nutrients.
• Health and vitamins — who should take dietary supplements, and why?
  We’ve been recommending nutritional supplements and dietary changes as medical therapies for over 20 years, and we’re ready to answer your questions on the vitamin controversy. We also discuss how dietary supplements can work to reverse the impact of genetics, as well as that of nutritional deficiencies and other environmental stressors, on your overall risk of disease.
• Why doctors are often opposed to nutritional supplements
  True, many doctors have little background in nutrition, but there are genuine reasons behind their hesitancy to advocate for nutritional supplements.  We share their concerns on how multivitamins are marketed and used.  Here’s a look at how we reconcile their line of thinking with our own.
• Are tanning beds a safe source of vitamin D?
  Tanning beds are inviting for many of us, especially as the winter months drag on and we haven’t seen the sun for days, or when we just need a little glow to prepare for a special event or a holiday in the sun. But here’s a word of caution about using tanning beds as a substitute for the benefits of natural sunlight.
• Basics of nutrition and healthy eating
  Written by Liz Lipski, PhD, CCN, author of Digestive Wellness, this article covers the fundamentals of healthy eating and how to choose healthy foods.

 

Original Publication Date: 11/14/2005
Last Modified: 02/16/2010
Principal Author: Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP