Nutritional Supplements: Are they Necessary and Can They Help to Protect Your Health

“I just started a new Vitamin C diet. Candies, cookies and cupcakes.”

Take this, no take that! With so much contradictory information on nutritional supplements it has become very difficult for the average person to get a clear read on what works and what doesn’t, what has benefit, and what just makes expensive urine. Today, you can purchase vitamin and supplement preparations for pretty much every disease condition known to man as well as a plethora of preparations and concoctions for health enhancement and performance just to hedge your bets. 

When I started practice almost half a century ago, other than iron supplements in the form of products such as “Geritol”, cod liver oil in the winter (Yuk), some yeast tonics as sources of vitamin B (Yuk again), vitamin C, and of course “One-a-Day” multivitamins, nutritional supplements were essentially relegated to the fringes of health care. For the most part, traditional medicine has consistently denied or ignored both the validity and health benefits of nutritional preparations and vitamins, claiming a lack of firm regulation, purity failures, and the dubious clinical value of some products available in the marketplace. Sadly, I can’t disagree! 

Acknowledging this, still begs the question; does that mean that in today’s world, nutritional supplements are unnecessary, a sham, or waste of money? I believe that the answer is both yes, and no, so let’s unpack the question and start by examining the evolution of the industry.

Most of us believe that vitamins and the concept of nutritional supplementation is a 20^th century phenomenon. In truth, the recognition that certain compounds contained within specific foods were indeed responsible for health improvements goes back eons. The first evidence of such is found with the ancient Egyptians who recognized that in feeding sufferers of night blindness, liver, (a good source of Vitamin A), often the symptoms would resolve or reduce. In 1747, the Scottish surgeon James Lind discovered that citrus foods helped prevent scurvy, a particularly deadly disease resulting from Vitamin C deficiency. The actual word “vitamin” first appeared in print in 1912 in an article by Polish-born biochemist Casimir Funk. At the time he was working on the problem of “beriberi”, a disease endemic to mostly Asian populations who subsisted on diets of polished white rice. Funk concluded that the disease was caused by the absence of an essential nutrient in the rice (later referred to as Vitamin B) rather than by the presence of a toxin, as earlier believed. He coined the term vitamine for this substance and proposed that similar essential elements could prevent such diseases as pellagra (Vitamin B3 deficiency), and rickets (vitamin D deficiency), whose symptoms included, respectively, sores, delusions and bone deformations.

Since early in the 20^th century, well over a dozen Nobel Prizes have been awarded for advances in the identification and study of vitamins and their impact upon health and disease. Today, their relationship to health and vitality are fundamentally irrefutable. Any attempts to discredit the benefits of vitamins or value of nutritional supplementation is just not logical and demonstrates a dangerously shallow understanding of physiology and health. 

In an ideal world, most vitamins and other nutritional essentials are obtained from a balanced diet, but a few are acquired by other means: for example, microorganisms in the gut flora supported by probiotics produce vitamin K and biotin; and vitamin D is synthesized in skin cells exposed to a certain wavelength of ultraviolet light present in sunlight. In fact, many cases we can produce some of the vitamins we require from precursors we consume. For example, vitamin A is synthesized from beta carotene; and niacin is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. Vitamin C long recognized for its health benefits cannot be naturally synthesized by humans. Interestingly, vitamin B12 is the only non-plant-based vitamin with best sources derived from seafood such as clams, oysters and crab as well as organ meats such as liver.

Across the world, many jurisdictions have mandatory supplementation/fortification guidelines for vitamins such as folic acid, niacin, vitamin A and vitamins B1, B2 and B12, recognizing their critical importance to health. Examples such as bread, milk and juices have been fortified for eons. So, there is no doubt that there is value in supplementation, as evidenced with vitamin D which has been incorporated commercially in milk, since the 1930’s due to regional deficiencies that resulted in growth abnormalities in children such as rickets. So then, what do we know as fact?

We know that vitamins and other nutritional elements are critical to health and longevity. We also know that for the most part, those health essentials can be derived from eating a balanced diet and it is here that things get a little sketchy. Any belief that what would be considered a balanced diet today has the same nutritional benefits of that same plate 50 years ago is an absolute falsehood. Let me give you an example: Research has demonstrated that nutritional values of the foods that we eat has plummeted over the last half-century. This decline is attributed to factors like soil depletion, modern farming practices, and breeding for yield over nutrition. Specific nutrient deficiencies have been documented, including lower levels of vitamins, minerals, and proteins. Studies indicate significant declines in vitamins like riboflavin, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and vitamin A. Calcium, iron, phosphorus, and other minerals have been found to be lower in modern fruits and vegetables compared to those grown decades ago. To make it a bit clearer, an analysis by The Globe and Mail and CTV News found that to obtain the same amount of vitamin A as a single orange consumed by your grandparents, you would need to eat eight oranges today. The analysis also indicated a decrease in iron levels, with five oranges required today to match the iron content of one orange from 50 years ago. To say chickens have changed is an understatement. Compared to the poultry of 1950, today's chicken is a mutant. Selective breeding and changes in feed and farming techniques have resulted in poultry that reaches market weight almost twice as fast. Modern chickens tend to have more fat and calories than their predecessors, while potentially having a lower protein content, particularly in examples affected by white striping and hyper-hydration to plump up the meat. Martin Zuidhof, a poultry science teacher at the University of Alberta and researcher behind a study on historical changes in the poultry industry noted that chickens on average have quadrupled in size since the 1950s.

Although there is evidence that today’s beef and pork are of better nutritional value today than half a century ago, some questionable feeding practices and prophylactic use of antibiotics may compromise the overall health benefits of consumption.

Ok, so, even if you eat what would be considered a sound diet, as you can see from the above information, the actual nutritional value may be deficient. A rather sobering statistic is that approximately 80% of Americans fall short on their recommended intake of fruits and vegetables and that ultra-processed foods make up a significant portion of the diet, ranging from 58% to 70% of calories consumed. Studies indicate that here in North America, nearly half of all calories are sourced from ultra-processed foods with little or no natural nutritional value, again making the case for needed nutritional supplementation stronger. To my mind, there is no logical argument to justify not employing a reasonable degree of nutritional supplementation to support health. The question now is, what is reasonable? Kind of the million-dollar question, so let’s dive in!

I am not going to pretend to be an authority on nutrition or supplementation, but I do have 47 years of clinical experience in natural health care and have been a student of effective aging practices and proven longevity strategies for most of my practice life. I have explored nutritional supplementation extensively and engaged in hundreds of meaningful discussions with patients and colleagues on their personal approaches to living a healthy and long life. The following is the culmination of my experience to that end.

Although nutritional supplementation is important at all stages of life, for the purposes of this writing, I am going to focus my attention on a 50 plus demographic. The reason for this is simple: It has been my experience that in my clinical dealings with patients, fifty seems to be the pivotal age when the impact of lifestyle insults, genetic predispositions and general wear and tear start to become consistently evident. Many chronic diseases which may have been sub-clinical suddenly become health impacting concerns. These include Type II diabetes, hypertension, cancers, (according to WebMD, more than nine out of 10 cancers are diagnosed in people 45 and older) established obesity, and mechanical compromise as seen with arthritis, consistently come to ruin the party during this time in life. To offset the potential negative impact of the first fifty years and hedge our bets for the remainder of our time on the planet, there is a need to be much more proactive with our health and work harder to sustain the viability of this magnificent machine we call the human body. This is where it becomes complicated because there is no “one-size-fits-all” strategy when it comes to nutritional supplementation, but there certainly are reasonable game-plans, or template options which can help to enhance vitality and reduce metabolic stress and deterioration.

Here, I am going to make it simple. As dealt with in depth in my book” The Un-Diet Diet”, when you drill down to the core facilitators of health, vitality, and effective aging, everything revolves around the functional viability of the mitochondria. These are the tiny powerhouses contained within the cells that are responsible for energy metabolism. The equation now becomes simple and logical…the more efficiently your body can produce energy, the better the innate systems responsible for health perform. Where the rubber hits the road is in understanding that it is the ability of the body to produce that energy that is life in its most simplistic of forms. This process of converting food to power is one of the determinants of what it means to be alive and is essential to every living organism. The mechanism for how it occurs is very different between plants and animals, and may vary from species to species, but one thing is certain, without energy, there cannot be life. 

It is inside the mitochondria, with the use of oxygen and water that we convert the food we consume into energy. The process is called oxidative phosphorylation, and it happens within these magnificent energy makers embedded inside our cells. Contained within the mitochondria, the reaction known as the Krebs cycle produces a chemical called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). This is then used by enzymes within the mitochondria to generate ATP, which is chemically stored within the cells and provides energy for all our various metabolic functions. Most cells have at least some mitochondria. Together, they account for nearly 90 percent of the energy our bodies produce. Mitochondria are often described as cells living within a cell, and each one has its own DNA. Interestingly, mitochondrial DNA is only inherited through the maternal line. Any mitochondrial DNA contributed by the father is actively destroyed by programmed cell death after the sperm fuses with an egg. There is a message here: Be kind to your mother.

In a July 2018 online work published by Dr. John Mercola, the author states: “In recent years, it’s become increasingly apparent that most of what we refer to as health and disease really links back to the function of your mitochondria. If your mitochondria are not functioning well, your risk for chronic degenerative diseases will radically increase.”An article published by PubMed entitled “Mitochondria in Health and Disease” notes that “…mitochondrial defects or dysregulation have emerged as having key roles in ageing and in the cytopathological mechanisms underlying cancer, neurodegenerative and other diseases.”

What science is just starting to appreciate is how instrumental the mitochondria are in the ageing process and health maintenance. Aside from energy production, they also have two other critical roles in health: essential co-ordinator of the apoptosis process (the death of cells which occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism’s growth or development) and in controlled cell repair and removal. A brilliant article published in the British Journal of Cancer, 2015, by Lopez and Tait reveals that “Every minute of life, millions of cells in our bodies undergo a regulated form of cell death called apoptosis. This altruistic cellular process plays varied and essential roles in keeping us healthy, not least in protecting us from cancer.”

Cellular breakdown is inevitable, whether immediate or over time, and once that damage crosses a critical threshold, the mitochondria send chemical signals to the cell to initiate the self-destruction process. If mitochondrial functions are impaired, they could fail to recognize when cell damage thresholds have been reached. This allows damaged cells to remain active beyond their functional intent and results in the accumulation of damaged or dysfunctional cells, which raises the potential of disease.

Since mitochondrial health is critical to every bodily function, optimizing functional efficiency and preventing mitochondrial impairment by making sure you get all the right nutrients and stimulation that your mitochondria need is pivotal for repair, ongoing health and disease prevention. Therefore, in examining supplementation strategies, we are going to focus first on the optimization of mitochondrial function. This is the fountainhead for health and longevity from an energy management standpoint.

In a 2016 paper entitled “The Mitochondrial Basis of Ageing,” authors Sun, Youle and Finkel state: “A decline in mitochondrial quality and activity has been associated with normal ageing and correlated with the development of a wide range of age-related diseases.” In a related article published on the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) website, author Sarika Srivastava notes that “The intricate regulatory network that balances the generation of new and removal of damaged mitochondria forms the basis of ageing and longevity.”A scientific study published in Frontiers in Physiology concluded that “Mitochondrial dynamic processes with their strict interconnection with mitochondrial bioenergetics are involved in energy balance.”

Research goes on to show that mitochondrial function is directly impacted by diet; more specifically, when there is a preponderance of saturated fats, as often found in ultra-processed foods or those with highly refined sugar content, the efficiency of the mitochondrial function is reduced, which can contribute to the development of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and other spin-off diseases. 

This magnificent physiological process called life, which started 3.7 billion years ago, is still as it was then, essentially one thing--- energy. When we impact the sources of that power, we impact the viability of the organism as a whole. Let’s cut to the chase and examine which supplements impact mitochondrial function, and through that, health, vitality and successful aging. In uncovering what will protect and enhance the viability of our new best friends, the mitochondria. Surprisingly, it is not that complicated.

As this is a relatively new field of exploration, only a few studies have been conducted to determine the best diet to repair and support and rebuild damaged mitochondria. Research has shown that certain nutrients, including foods rich in coenzyme Q₁₀, D ribose (raw material for the ATP molecule), magnesium, vitamins like C, E, and A, or minerals like selenium, are known for their antioxidant properties, acetyl-L-carnitine, lipoic acid, vitamin E, lutein, and zeaxanthin support mitochondrial function. 

Coenzyme Q₁₀ sources aren’t found in a lot of foods, although fish, organ meats (yuck) and the germs of whole grains are reasonable choices for this valuable nutrient. Good whole food examples of antioxidants such as beta-carotene and vitamins C and E include almost all fruits and vegetables. The other nutrients shown to be of potential benefit include lutein and zeaxanthin, which are found in eggs and leafy greens. Green tea, kale, walnuts, red wine, turmeric, blueberries, strawberries, and tofu have all been shown to be beneficial in support of sirtuin health and viability.

In his article “Can Antioxidant Diet Supplementation Protect against Age-Related Mitochondrial Damage?” in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, J. Miguel reported that diets with high levels of antioxidants such as vitamins C and E appear to reduce the risk of age-related immune dysfunction and hardening of the arteries. Miguel also found that other antioxidants, including coenzyme Q₁₀, (CoQ10) may protect mitochondria against damage and increase their functional life span.

Resveratrol, found in red wine, and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) have also been found to be major promoters of mitochondrial function as demonstrated in the papers, “Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Metabolism and Neurodegeneration”, as well as in “NAD+ and Sirtuins in Ageing and Disease.”

To make it a little easier, my top suggestions for vitamin-rich foods which promote health at a cellular level while stimulating energy production include:

• Green leafy vegetables such as spinach and kale. These are also among the best sources of fibre, as well as vitamins and minerals such as sulphur and magnesium, and should constitute a substantial part of your diet.

• Protein should be sourced mainly from fish, poultry, beans, and nuts. Red meat in moderation is acceptable.

• Whole-grain cereals and buckwheat should be chosen over refined grains such as many soya products, white rice, and refined flours.

• Fresh fruits over frozen, when possible, for the greatest nutritional value.

• Use healthy oils such as olive, avocado or coconut when cooking or for salads.

• Oysters and molluscs such as mussels are rich in minerals such as zinc. They are also high in protein, relatively low in calories and packed with other valuable vitamins and minerals, including vitamin B-12, iron, and selenium.

• Grass-fed beef is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), which have their own host of incredible benefits. It’s also a mitochondrion boosting food because a serving contains 37 percent of your recommended daily amount (RDA) of zinc.

• Cashews, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds are rich sources of zinc and protein. They taste wonderful and help to cut cravings between meals.

• Eggs are among the best of nature’s super foods. They’re rich with essential fatty acids and protein, and the yolks provide around 0.52 mg of CoQ₁₀ per one-hundred-gram serving.

• Tuna, mackerel, and herring are amongst the best seafood choices out there. They can be enjoyed fresh, smoked in moderation, or canned. 

• An average avocado offers around 60 mg of magnesium and is a wonderful source of healthy fats.

• A medium banana provides around 8 percent of your RDA of magnesium and contains less sugar than you would think.

• Onions and garlic are both rich sources of antioxidants and sulphur. Sulphur-rich foods increase mitochondrial permeability, boosting the strength of our natural immune system. 

• Foods that are rich in D-ribose include lean poultry, eggs, old cheddar cheese and mushrooms.

• Acetyl-L-carnitine can be found in beet greens, peanut butter, broccoli, asparagus, artichokes, and avocados. 

• Zeaxanthin can be readily found in broccoli, kale, orange peppers and peas.

• To naturally boost NAD production, good sources include wild salmon, tuna, sardines, and mushrooms.

Most of you already incorporate at least some of these food choices, but I encourage you to dip deeper into the above whole foods while eliminating even a few of the processed choices that may currently seed your diet. This will support healing, improve energy production, and accelerate weight loss. I know that some of you are thinking, what the heck do I do with mackerel? There are hundreds of recipes online to help you with that as well as any other of the seemingly exotic food choices

For those who wish to add further impact, you may consider augmenting your nutritional regime with some supplementation to enhance gains, speed up healing and increase energy production. Here, quality is paramount. Before purchasing any nutraceutical, I suggest you consult a trusted natural health care practitioner for more in-depth information on the appropriateness of any enhanced nutritional therapy. Each of the above-mentioned core nutrients can be found as supplements but are not necessary in that form if you take the time to incorporate the suggested foods noted in the above list into your diet. Having said that, coenzyme Q₁₀, resveratrol, a naturally sourced omega-3 such as cold-water fish oil, with some additional vitamin C, NAD and curcumin which has potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties can be of real value in helping to jump start mitochondrial repair and support vitality.

In conclusion, where we find ourselves nutritionally in the first quarter of the 21^st century in many ways fails to foster health and longevity. If you are over the age of 50, my recommendation is to consider at least some level of nutritional supplementation to facilitate repair, combat oxidative stress/systemic inflammation and enhance energy production. To do this with efficiency, I suggest that you contact your physician or Naturopathic doctor to best determine the appropriate panel for blood and urinary analysis to reveal areas of potential concern or weakness. That way you are factually addressing what you know, not what could be. As previously mentioned, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to effective nutritional supplementation. Once you know where you are at from a health/disease perspective contact an accredited nutritional consultant to ascertain the best path for you going forward.

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1. Mercola, Dr. John. “HowAgeing Affects Mitochondria in Brain Cells and Contributes to Age Related Disease”, Published online

2. Annesly and Fisher. “Mitochondria in Health and Disease”, Pub Med, 2019.

3. Lopez and Tait. “Mitochondrial apoptosis: Killing cancer using the enemy within”. British Journal of Cancer, 2015.

4. Sun, Youle and Finkel. “The Mitochondrial Basis of Ageing”, Pub Med, 2016. [give the complete journal reference]

5. Srivastava, Sarika “The Mitochondrial Basis of Ageing and Age/Related Disorders.” Publish 2017 MDPI Website.

6. Putti, Sica, Miggliacio and Lionetti. “Diet Impact on Mitochondrial Bioenergetics and Dynamics”. Frontiers in Physiology, 2015.

7. Miguel, J. “Can Antioxidant Diet Supplementation Protect Against Age Related Mitochondrial Damage?” Annals of the New York Academy of Science, April 2006.

8. Pehar, Mariana., Harlan, Benjamin A., Killoy, Kelby M. and Vargas, Marcelo R. “Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Metabolism and Neurodegeneration”, PubMed.gov. By the U.S. National Institute of Medicine, 2018.

9. Shin-Ichiro, Imai and Guarente, Leonard. “NAD+ and sirtuins in ageing and disease”, PubMed.gov, 2014. [give the complete journal citation]

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About the Author: Dr. POOLEY has been in practice for over 46 years, is a former champion bodybuilder and author of the book the Un-Diet Diet.