Foods not pills

Every nutri­tion text­book that I have ever read urges peo­ple to get their nutri­ents from food rather than from pills. The rea­sons are sim­ple:

  • The human body is adapt­ed to a diet based on unre­fined plant foods.
  • Plant-based foods con­tain enough pro­tein, includ­ing enough of all of the essen­tial amino acids.
  • Even low-fat plant-based foods con­tain enough of the essen­tial fat­ty acids.
  • Plants pro­vide all but two of the vit­a­mins. The excep­tions are vit­a­min D (the sun­shine vit­a­min) and vit­a­min B12 (which comes from bac­te­ria). Vit­a­min B12 is the only sup­ple­ment that is rou­tine­ly rec­om­mend­ed for peo­ple on plant-based diets.