Читать книгу Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone - Abram Hoffer M.D. Ph.D. - Страница 35

Food supplements are those essential constituents of food that are present in very small amounts, do not provide calories, and are essential components of or companions to enzymes. They are needed in relatively small amounts because enzymes are able to transform much larger quantities of substrate and there is little waste.

Plants and animals differ in their need for food supplements, but all living tissues share the same basic nutrients. This is how animals can live on plants and other animals. Plants synthesize every organic molecule, the final product and the enzymes. A plant requires only water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, the necessary minerals, light, and some stability in order to make every natural compound present, except vitamin B₁₂, which can be made only by bacteria. Animals are not able to make the same nutrients—this is why they must have organic foods.

The first major evolutionary change occurred when cells began to engulf other cells. The predator cells became the unicellular animals, our ancestors. The other cells remained as plant ancestors. This was advantageous to the predator cells, since they immediately found a ready source of food that they did not need to make. The saving in energy and in chemical synthetic apparatus was enormous. A plant cell, which must make everything, has no energy left for locomotion. The energy saved by the ready food supply led to locomotion. Animals could not have existed without this separation into plant and animal life. Vitamins are needed by plants, but they make what they need, and only mineral supplements are required by both plants and animals.

In the natural state, vitamins and minerals are combined with other food constituents into a complex, three-dimensional form. For example, pure vitamin B₃ is not found in nature—it is present in nucleotides. These may be so firmly bound that the vitamins are released very slowly and sometimes in inadequate amounts when they are consumed. Adding vitamins to food does not simulate natural food; vitamins and minerals are released slowly from natural food in the gastrointestinal tract, while vitamins and minerals added to food are released quickly. Thus, niacinamide added to flour may be absorbed into the blood long before the wheat starch is converted into sugar and absorbed. This is not harmful but it is important to know.

Vitamins and minerals are food artifacts and therefore must be used intelligently. They are generally helpful, in contrast to sugar, but they can be overly relied on. A good, natural (unprocessed) foods diet must be the basis for any good health plan. “Supplement” means just what the name says.