And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food" (Genesis 1:29).
As a young minister, suffering from a severe sinus infection, one of my elders told me that I would never be sick another day in my life if I followed his nutritional guidelines--he was a disciple of Adelle Davis. He was the one who stimulated my interest in nutrition, even though I have been sick many more days of my life, and his recommendations might have been the cause of some of them--mega doses of vitamin C.
In spite of that, I'm still interested in nutrition and do believe that it does play a role in mental health. So, when I read the title of an article in Christian Counseling Today by Michael Lyles, M.D. (Vol. 16 No. 3) called Dietary Issues and Mood Disorders, it caught my interest. Dr. Lyles makes a strong statement, with which, from my own experience, I completely agree, "It is my opinion that all treatment resistant mood disordered patients (especially with multiple medical problems) should have their vitamin D status evaluated." Vitamin D deficiency correlates with depression, seasonal affective disorder and schizophrenia. Vitamin D deficiency impairs general immune system function.
I am a regular reader of Dr. Andrew Weil. Dr. Weil has recommended 2000 units of vitamin D per day--especially during the winter months. Last winter I followed his recommendation and found a couple of chronic winter conditions, for me, to be alleviated. Sores at the corners of my mouth and seasonal affective disorder are conditions that have troubled me for years that were relieved this last winter. Was this just a placebo affect? While I have not ruled it out completely, I will have to say that I have tried many supplements over the course of my life and none of them have resulted in the kind of changes that I have experienced with increasing the role of vitamin D in my diet.
From the text: Make sure that you have a wide variety of food in your diet, learn to eat your vegetables, and generally, your nutrition will take care of itself.
Our Father's Blessings,
Tom
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From my statement about the text, one might infer that diet alone will provide all the nutrients we need. Personally, all the supplements I take are a good multivitamin to fill in any nutritional gaps and an additional 2,000 units of D3.
It is my view that most supplements are money down the drain. One should read the research on a supplement before spending hard-earned money on it. The grocery money is most wisely spent on a wide variety of vegatables, fruit, meat and dairy products.
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