Here at Belmont Pharmacy, we're big fans of dietary supplementation, both for ourselves and our customers. You've probably heard vitamins, herbs and supplements being put down in the popular media with the chief argument against their use being that you should get everything you need from your diet.

Fair enough point, in a perfect world and probably true in our great grandparents time. Back then the soil wasn't so intensively farmed as it is these days and they also used to rotate the crops and even let the land lay fallow to allow the soil to recover. Modern farms are commercial enterprises and all the farmers I know happen to be very smart people, applying the best science available to improve crop yields. The focus is purely on improving the size of the crop for harvest. Who can blame the farmer for wanting to maximise his financial return?

If the intention is to maximise the percentage yielded per hectare then nutritional value is a secondary consideration. Certain fertilisers increase the crop yield but can cause a nutritional imbalance. Have you ever tasted a home grown tomato from someone who really was good at gardening. It's fresh, rich tasting and you can just tell that it good for you. On the other hand have you ever tasted a hot house tomato, that looked good but tasted bland and generally disappointing. You can bet that tomato was grown for yield and not for nutritional value. Also you have to wonder how long it took to get from the place it was grown to the supermarket shelf and what conditions it was stored under.

If you have a busy life and grab more than a few meals on the run you are probably not getting all the nutrition you need. If you eat too quickly then you are compromising your digestion and not getting all the nutritional value out of the food that you eat. So when you factor in compromised soil and growing conditions, poor food storage and handling issues you really are a candidate for a nutritional supplement to help your body function at it's optimal best.

A good supplement should help you to feel more energy, support muscles, allow your body to heal and recover from exercise and fatigue and boost your immunity. Additionally your supplement should provide a decent amount of protection against ageing and disease causing free radical damage.

We like to recommend Lifestream Spirulina Blue as a dietary supplement for it's energy and immune enhacing properties and it's hard to go past Lifestream Acai Supreme Antioxidant for its ability to protect against cellular damage. Here's wishing you good health.

Click here for more information about Lifestream Spirulina Blue

Click here for more information about Lifestream Acai Supreme Antioxidant