John Arts Abundant Living www.johnarts.co.nz

It is estimated that about 50 per cent of Kiwis use supplements on a daily basis. Having formulated supplements for 15 years I have seen the positive effects of supplements with thousands of people.

It is quite daunting to walk into a large health store or online shopping site to see the huge range of products available. Over the next few weeks I want to walk you through this confusion to ensure that you are getting the right product for you circumstances. Feel free to call me if you want a review of what you are doing.

The first step is to divide supplements into their major groups of medicinal and nutritional supplements. Medicinal products include herbal and homeopathic products. The second major group of supplements are nutritional supplements. These are compounds that are extracted from foods or soils that should be in our diet. These include vitamins, minerals and a wide group called phytonutrients which are my area of expertise.

Rule number one with supplements is not to use medicinal products to solve nutritional problems. For example, I cannot see the point of adding immune-stimulating herbs like echinacea when the immune system is deficient in vitamin D and trace minerals. Always apply nutrition first, medicinal products second.

I like to think of nutritional supplements much like the food pyramid. At the base are those nutrients everybody needs, all the time. For most people, most of the time they need products that cover all the vitamins, all the minerals, and at least, the most important antioxidant groups. Doses should of course be set according to individual circumstances. Further up the pyramid are products that are used in addition to base multi-style products. Next week we look at multi-type products and identify the nutrients that should be included.

Give me a call if you need more information. To join my weekly newsletter visit www.johnarts.co.nz and www.abundant.co.nz

John Arts is a nutritional therapist and founder of Abundant Health. To contact John phone 0800 423 559. To read more go to www.sunlive.co.nz