Targeting Your Unique Wellness Needs

Many factors contribute to the customization of your unique nutrition needs. Stress, physical exertion, improper diet and aging affect the way your body processes vitamins and your long-term health.

The variety of fruits and vegetables offered today in grocery stores, supermarkets and even your local farmers' markets aren't the same as they were just 50 years ago. The pesticides and chemicals used to treat the soil have helped grow bigger crops and larger produce, but they've also resulted in foods that depleted of nutrients.

Most foods today-from the bread you eat, to the milk you drink, to the steak you cook-include chemicals, preservatives or additives meant for convenience, not for health.

Understanding that our foods are less nutritionally dynamic than previous generations has led to a population that is "overfed and undernourished". Trying to achieve optimal well-being means evaluating factors beyond food and looking at sleep habits and avenues for mental emotional support. While getting a full spectrum of nutrients is necessary to maintain health, knowing how much and in what combination to consume nutrients is based on your individual needs. Start with ensuring adequate amounts of essential nutrients. Essential nutrients represent the ones your body cannot make on their own and therefore need to be consumed on a daily basis.

Categories of essential nutrients include vitamins, dietary minerals, essential fatty acids and essential amino acids.

Lifestyle and physical/genetic makeup play a large role in what you should be putting into your body. By understanding your modifiable risk factors, as well as your genetic factors, you can devise a plan for customizing your lifestyle to support your unique needs.