Any Radio 4 listeners, queue the Desert Island Disc music…

If I was a castaway on a desert island, there are three supplements I would hope to have stashed in my bag. They are:

A Wholefood Multi and Mineral Supplement. This would help to boost my internal soil. Even if you and I eat an amazing diet, we have no idea about the condition of the soil in which our food has been grown. Most soils are now close to being completely deficient in selenium, as well as being low in magnesium and many other nutrients. If you are a gardener, you can get your soil tested to find out which minerals are in abundance or are deficient. My partner and I took soil samples from many areas of our land before we started working on the biodiversity and found we were deficient in many minerals. We are now working to improve the minerals in the soil, which will, in time, also help to improve the minerals in our bodies.

I find supplements can be a great way of ensuring I get the nutrients I need, while a food state supplement (i.e. one made from food) is recognised as food by the body and fully utilised. This will also provide the raw ingredients I need to make my own prostaglandins.

Omega Vegan. This would help me maintain, and continue to create, a healthy cell membrane, as well as having a good supply of essential fatty acids. Cell membranes are vital for a healthy immune system, as they prevent substances escaping into the blood stream and causing an immune response, such as an allergy. Omega oils are also essential for the creation of prostaglandins

I hear you ask… What are prostaglandins?

Prostaglandins are the super tissue hormones in our body responsible for tackling inflammation and our bodies’ own anti-inflammatory response. We have three main series of prostaglandins. One is in charge of creating inflammation when needed, such as when we get bitten and the white blood cells rush to that area and gobble up all the nasties! But it’s key that we have the raw ingredients to create the next lot of prostaglandins, the ones responsible for stopping inflammation. Due to a lack of raw ingredients, many of us now simply don’t have enough to be able to make the prostaglandins to prevent inflammation in our bodies, resulting in being locked into a constant state of inflammation…. Not fun!

Right, back to the desert island. The last supplement I wouldn’t be without it is:

Magnesium – Magnesium dances with calcium in the body and together they are responsible for the dance of contract and relax. Magnesium is the chill pill! Many of us are deficient in magnesium, as it has become very depleted in the soils. One reason for this is because it is not one of the nutrients on which farmers focus, as it doesn’t make things grow fast and big like NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium). I was shocked by how little magnesium was in the soil on our own land, which hasn’t even been intensively farmed. This is important, as the foods we eat can only be as magnesium dense as the soils in which they are grown. If the body is deficient in magnesium, we can get stuck in contract mode and suffer from tension, anxiety, headaches, period pain, cardiovascular problems and general aches and pains over the body. I recommend magnesium citrate, as this is a highly absorbable form of magnesium, found in breast milk, so our body instantly recognises it and laps it up.

Personally speaking, I use a great supplement company called Cytoplan. The majority of their supplements are food state, which means they are made from food, so the body recognises them quickly and gobbles them up. They are also run as a charity and use the profits from the supplements to support a number of great projects and research.
Links to my desert island supplements from Cytoplan:

https://www.cytoplan.co.uk/wholefood-multivitamin-mineral

https://www.cytoplan.co.uk/vegan-omega-3

https://www.cytoplan.co.uk/magnesium-citrate-2091a

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