When it comes to fueling your body with essential nutrients, the debate often arises: should you rely on whole foods or supplements? The answer isn’t one-size-fits-all—it depends on your unique health needs, lifestyle, and goals. Here’s a breakdown of the benefits and limitations of each approach and why a combination might be the best solution.
Why Food Comes First
Whole foods are the cornerstone of a healthy diet. They provide nutrients in their most natural and bioavailable forms, often accompanied by fiber, antioxidants, and other compounds that enhance nutrient absorption and overall health.
- Complete Nutrition: Foods like fruits, vegetables, and wild animal protein contain various vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that work synergistically.
- Digestive Health: Foods high in fiber support gut health, which is crucial for nutrient absorption.
- Satisfaction and Satiety: Eating whole foods helps you feel full and satisfied, reducing the likelihood of over-consuming empty calories.
However, even the healthiest diet can fall short in today’s world. Whether it is the Carnivore diet, the Vegan diet, the Paleo diet, or the Keto diet- all diets will fail to give your body everything it needs. Soil depletion, long supply chains, and modern agricultural practices often mean that the foods we eat are not as nutrient-dense as they once were. This is where supplements come in.
Why Supplements Are Essential in Today’s Modern Diet
Our modern food system has been completely hijacked, leaving our bodies overwhelmed and undernourished. In the United States, a staggering 70% of the food supply consists of processed foods loaded with added sugars, artificial ingredients, GMOs, glyphosate, heavy metals, emulsifiers, microplastics, and refined sodium. These aren’t just empty calories; they’re harmful substances your body doesn’t even recognize as food. Instead of fueling your body with energy, these additives steal energy, clog detox pathways, trigger inflammation, and even stimulate fat cells to grow as they attempt to “store” these toxins.
Even "Clean Eating" Has Its Limits
A “whole food” diet aims to focus on real, unprocessed foods—how nature intended. It’s a great foundation for health, but let’s face it: our modern world is working against us. Even when we eat “clean,” the toxins we are exposed to are “stressors” that compromise our detox pathways and metabolism, making it harder for our bodies to process even the most “healthy” whole foods.
What was once a perfect diet for optimal health now requires extra vigilance to avoid triggering inflammation, oxidative stress, and metabolic disruptions.
Why You Can’t Get Enough Nutrients from Food Alone
As I’ve learned more about our food system and how our bodies work, it’s become clear that even the most diligent eaters can fall short. Here’s why in more detail:
Soil Depletion Has Drained Nutrients
Our grandparents’ vegetables were far more nutrient-dense than the ones we eat today. Decades of industrial farming have stripped the soil of essential minerals like iodine, magnesium, zinc, and selenium. When the soil is depleted, so are the crops grown in it. Even organic produce isn’t immune to this problem—it’s just the reality of modern agriculture.
Toxins Are Wreaking Havoc on Our Gut Health
We live in a world full of toxins—pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, and pollution. These toxins don’t just harm the environment; they can damage our gut lining, leading to leaky gut. When your gut isn’t functioning properly, it struggles to absorb the nutrients from even the healthiest foods. So, even if you’re eating a rainbow of vegetables, your body might not be getting the full benefit.
GMOs and Artificial Ingredients
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and processed foods packed with artificial ingredients can further disrupt our digestion and nutrient absorption. Many GMOs are engineered to withstand heavy doses of pesticides, which can linger on the food and accumulate in our bodies over time. These additives and chemicals can also create inflammation, making it even harder for your body to utilize nutrients effectively. Just one meal with any of these factors can inhibit the absorption of the nutrients from the whole, organic nutrient-dense meals that you eat afterward.
Food Is Picked Before It’s Ripe
To survive long shipping times, much of our produce is picked before it’s fully ripe. This means it hasn’t had time to develop its full nutrient profile. By the time it reaches your plate, it may look fresh, but it’s not nearly as nutrient-packed as it should be.
Long Supply Chains: Fresh Isn’t Always Fresh
Most of the fruits and vegetables you buy at the store were picked weeks ago, often before they were ripe. That long journey from farm to table means nutrient loss along the way. By the time you eat that “fresh” carrot or apple, it’s nowhere near as nutrient-packed as it was when harvested.
Modern Agriculture Practices: Quantity Over Quality
Today’s farming focuses on producing bigger, faster-growing crops. While this may feed more people, it comes at the cost of nutrient density. Many of the fruits and vegetables we eat today are bred for size and appearance, not nutrition. The result? They look good but lack the vitamins and minerals your body needs.
Stress and Modern Lifestyles Deplete Nutrients
Let’s face it—we’re all under more stress than ever. Chronic stress drains your body of key nutrients like magnesium, iodine, salt, B vitamins, and vitamin C. Combine that with less-than-perfect sleep, inability to absorb nutrients in the compromised gut, environmental toxins, and the demands of daily life, and it’s no wonder so many of us are running on empty.
The Water Isn’t Helping
Even the water we drink is often stripped of minerals or contaminated with toxins like chlorine and fluoride, which can interfere with thyroid and gut health. This makes it even harder to stay properly nourished and hydrated.
Why Supplements Are No Longer Optional
The unfortunate truth is that no matter how carefully you choose your foods, diet alone isn’t enough to combat the toxic load of modern life. It’s not about blaming your diet—it’s about understanding the challenges and finding ways to overcome them. This is why I believe in using supplements strategically. They’re not a crutch; they’re a tool to help your body thrive in a world where food alone can’t do it all. By combining the best-quality supplements with a nutrient-rich diet, you can bridge the gaps and give your body the support it needs to feel its best every day.
Our bodies need targeted nutritional support to:
- Restore Detox Pathways: Modern toxins overwhelm your liver, gut, and other detox systems. Supplements designed to support these pathways help your body clear out harmful substances more effectively.
- Replenish Depleted Nutrients: Even nutrient-dense foods aren’t immune to contamination from GMOs, pesticides, and depleted soils. Supplements can bridge the gap, ensuring your body gets essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
- Reduce Inflammation: Chronic exposure to modern food toxins keeps your body in a state of constant inflammation. Anti-inflammatory supplements can help cool the fire and protect your cells.
- Support Metabolism: Toxins and stressors from the modern diet disrupt metabolism, making weight management a challenge. Supplements can help reset your metabolic health and boost energy levels.
The Top Supplements For Overall Vitality
Incorporating Accelerated Health supplements into your regimen is not just a good idea—it’s essential. Let me walk you through why each of these supplements is a game-changer for your health and how they address critical deficiencies food alone can’t solve.
Acceleradine® Iodine
Did you know most iodine supplements come in forms your body struggles to absorb? Many are bound to molecules like potassium iodide, requiring your body to break them down—a process that’s inefficient, especially if you’re already dealing with stress, gut issues, or inflammation. Most iodine supplements only achieve 10 to 20% absorption.
Acceleradine® Iodine changes the game by delivering a pure, monatomic iodine molecule suspended in alcohol and enhanced with Scalar frequencies. It’s close to 100% bioavailable, meaning every drop gets absorbed and put to use in every cell in the body. This iodine supports your thyroid, liver, cellular membrane integrity, and overall metabolism like no other.
Food alone can’t provide sufficient iodine, especially with modern soil depletion. Add in exposure to halogens like fluoride and bromine (which block iodine absorption), heavy metals like mercury and lead, and increased exposure to radiation, and it’s clear why Acceleradine® is essential.
Accelerated Ancient Salt®
Salt often gets a bad reputation, but Accelerated Ancient Salt® is a game-changer for nutrition and overall health, especially when paired with a whole food diet. Unlike conventional table salt, which is stripped of nutrients and often loaded with chemicals, this salt is packed with 62 essential minerals and hand-mined without the use of explosives or harmful processing methods. It’s more than just a seasoning—it’s a vital supplement to fill the nutritional gaps that food alone can’t address.
One of its standout benefits is its ability to support liver detoxification. By promoting bile production and aiding in fat breakdown, it enhances your liver’s detox pathways, making it more efficient at clearing toxins and focusing on absorbing the needed nutrients from food. This is needed more than ever, as most people have fatty liver disease and are unable to metabolize fat effectively.
It also plays a role in apoptosis, the regulated process of cell turnover, helping eliminate damaged cells to maintain healthy tissue. Additionally, Accelerated Ancient Salt® stimulates DNA repair mechanisms, reducing the risk of genetic damage and preserving cellular integrity.
This unique salt also helps balance hormones by detoxifying excess estrogen, which is crucial for fat loss and overall metabolic health. Its ability to optimize intracellular hydration through the sodium-potassium pump ensures that nutrients are transported into your cells while toxins are effectively removed. By enhancing bile production and fat metabolism, it also improves digestive health, boosting nutrient absorption and supporting metabolic function.
What makes Accelerated Ancient Salt® truly unique is its unmatched purity and advanced enhancements. This all-natural blend combines salts from the Himalayan mountains, the Andes, and Utah, meticulously inspected and mined from deep sedimentary layers to ensure it’s free from toxins, microplastics, and pollutants. Enhanced with Scalar frequencies, it carries a negative charge that attracts and eliminates positively charged toxins, undigested fats, and parasites from the body.
With its ability to fill critical nutritional gaps, support detoxification, and enhance digestion, Accelerated Ancient Salt® is far more than a pantry staple—it’s an essential tool for optimal health.
Accelerated Scalar Copper®
Copper deficiency is shockingly common today, thanks to over-supplementing with zinc, diets rich in processed foods, and environmental toxins. Copper deficiency is worsened even more by the fact that most people don’t choose to eat the copper rich foods like liver. But not all copper supplements are created equal—most have poor absorption rates, with only about 5% actually being used by your body.
Accelerated Scalar Copper® stands out with its proprietary water implosion technology that delivers close to 100% bioavailable nano scalar copper. Enhanced with water implosion technology and Scalar frequencies, Accelerated Scalar Copper® supports fat metabolism, collagen production, brain health, and cardiovascular health while reducing oxidative stress.
Processed foods and environmental factors deplete your body’s copper levels far faster than food alone can replenish, making this supplement essential for maintaining balance and optimal health.
Accelerated Fast™
This isn’t your average fasting supplement. Accelerated Fast™ acts as a metabolic turbocharger, enhancing nutrient absorption while helping you unlock the incredible benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Here’s why it’s essential:
Daily Liver Detox: A Game-Changer for Absorption
Your liver plays a starring role in breaking down and assimilating nutrients from your diet. If it’s sluggish or overloaded with toxins, even the best whole foods can’t give you their full benefits. Accelerated Fast™ gently detoxifies your liver, reducing fatty deposits and optimizing its function. Why is this critical? Because the liver also converts T4 into T3, the active thyroid hormone that powers your metabolism and fat-burning potential.
Curbs Cravings and Keeps You on Track
We’ve all been there—those sugar and processed food cravings that can derail even the best intentions. The ingredients in Accelerated Fast™ push your body into ketosis, where you burn fat for energy instead of relying on carbs. This shift provides a steady, clean energy source, making it easier to stick to whole, nutrient-rich foods and avoid the junk that sabotages your metabolism.
Optimizes Thyroid Function for Maximum Metabolism
Did you know that relying too much on glucose for energy can actually slow your metabolism? By promoting ketosis and enhancing the conversion of T4 to T3, Accelerated Fast™ signals to your body that it’s thriving, not just surviving. This helps your thyroid work more efficiently, keeping your metabolism humming and your fat-burning mechanisms fully engaged.
Accelerated Thyroid®
If your thyroid isn’t functioning at its best, your body struggles to absorb nutrients, regulate energy, and maintain a healthy metabolism. Accelerated Thyroid® is like hitting the “reset” button for your thyroid—and here’s why it’s a must for anyone serious about their health.
This isn’t a one-dimensional supplement. It combines the power of grass-fed thyroid glandular, ancient Ayurvedic herbs like Kanchanara, and cutting-edge Scalar frequencies to clear emotional and physical shock. Together, they create a formula that goes beyond thyroid support, addressing your overall well-being.
Even whole foods can expose you to halogens, heavy metals, and radiation—factors that wreak havoc on your thyroid. Accelerated Thyroid® enhances your body’s detox pathways, helping you eliminate these harmful substances and keep your thyroid functioning optimally.
The benefits of Accelerated Thyroid® extend far beyond thyroid function. It helps prevent fatty liver, strengthens connective tissue and bones, accelerates wound healing, improves mood, and enhances digestion and B12 production. When your thyroid is supported, your entire body feels the difference—it’s easier to maintain hormonal balance, metabolic health, and the vibrant energy that makes a healthy lifestyle sustainable.
BiOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough
Magnesium is involved in over 600 biochemical processes in your body, yet modern diets are woefully low in this critical mineral. Stress, poor soil quality, and even cooking methods strip magnesium from our food.
BiOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough offers all seven forms of magnesium, each targeting different parts of your body—from muscles and digestion to heart and brain health. This isn’t just about replacing one nutrient; it’s about restoring balance across multiple systems, something food alone can’t achieve.
Accelerated Liver Care®
Your liver is your body’s detox powerhouse, but modern life constantly bombards it with toxins from food, water, and the environment. Even the healthiest diets can’t counteract the daily strain on your liver.
Accelerated Liver Care® combines 13 potent herbs, enhanced with Scalar frequencies, to detoxify and regenerate liver cells. By improving fat metabolism and reducing inflammation, it supports not just your liver but also your metabolism, immune system, and cardiovascular health.
What Makes Accelerated Liver Care® Truly Unique?
Accelerated Liver Care® stands out because of its holistic, synergistic approach to liver health. Every herb and nutrient in this formula is carefully selected to work in harmony, amplifying each other’s effects to provide comprehensive support for detoxification, healing, and rejuvenation. Here’s how it works:
- Powerful Detoxification: Targets and clears “Damp Heat” and “Toxic Heat” from the liver and gallbladder, ensuring the smooth flow of energy (Qi) throughout the body for balance and vitality. This optimizes the absorption of the nutrients you are consuming from food.
- Supports Gallbladder Health: Breaks down and prevents gallstones, ensuring bile flows freely while alleviating gallbladder pain and discomfort. Your gallbladder helps digest the fats from your food.
- Enhances Detox Pathways: Accelerates both phases of liver detoxification, helping your body efficiently eliminate environmental toxins, bad hormones, and pollutants that inhibit nutrient absorption.
- Optimizes Liver Function: Improves microcirculation in the liver, boosting oxygen and nutrient delivery to support its vital processes.
- Balances Blood Sugar & Cholesterol: Naturally manages blood sugar levels and reduces cholesterol, supporting both liver and heart health.
- Fights Infections: Provides anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties, protecting your liver from harmful infections.
- Relieves Emotional Stress: Helps release emotional tension, anger, and frustration, which are often linked to liver health in traditional medicine practices.
By addressing the liver’s detox, metabolic, and emotional roles in a single formula, Accelerated Liver Care® delivers unparalleled support for nutrient assimilation and overall well-being.
The Wrong Foods To Get Your Nutrients
Ever wonder why some of the “healthiest” foods on your plate might not be as beneficial as you thought? The truth is, while these whole foods are packed with nutrients, certain compounds in them can actually work against your body, blocking nutrient absorption and even triggering health problems. Let’s dive into the five major disruptors in a whole food diet and why supplements might be the key to filling in the gaps.
Sulfur: Essential Yet Problematic
Sulfur is a superstar nutrient involved in detoxification, found in foods like kale, broccoli, onions, garlic, and egg yolks. But here’s the kicker: environmental changes have disrupted how our bodies process sulfur.
Instead of supporting your health, sulfur-rich foods could now be aggravating conditions like Crohn’s disease, arthritis, and even mental health challenges. That’s right—your green juice might not be as innocent as it seems. This shift in sulfur metabolism highlights the importance of supplements designed to support detoxification while bypassing these potential food triggers.
Oxalates: Sneaky Mineral Thieves
Oxalates are compounds found in healthy staples like spinach, almonds, potatoes, and even chocolate. While these foods seem nutrient-dense, oxalates can bind to minerals like calcium, magnesium, and zinc, making them unavailable to your body. The result? Mineral deficiencies can lead to weakened bones, fatigue, and more.
If you’re dealing with gut issues or autoimmune conditions, you might be even more vulnerable to oxalate buildup. Supplements tailored to replenish lost minerals and support gut health can make a world of difference here.
Amyloid Proteins: Hidden Trouble in Meats
We often praise meats like chicken, pork, and, beef for their protein content, but they also come with amyloid proteins—tricky compounds that can build up in your brain, kidneys, and tissues.
This buildup has been linked to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Worse, amyloid proteins provide a protective shield for harmful pathogens in your gut, fueling issues like dysbiosis and leaky gut. Supplements that help break down these proteins and restore gut balance can support your immune system and protect your long-term health.
Wild animal proteins like bison, venison, elk and wild fish, on the other hand, provide the most nutrient dense food on the planet with the easiest absorption for the body. These are the foods to prioritize.
Histamines: The “Healthy Food” Paradox
Avocados, bananas, bone broth, and fish might be your “healthy” favorites, but their high histamine content can backfire, especially if your body struggles to break histamines down. This can lead to symptoms like headaches, hives, or even heart palpitations. Recent stressors on our systems—like the infamous Spike Protein—have worsened histamine intolerance for many. Targeted supplements can help regulate histamine levels, easing these symptoms and giving your body the support it needs.
Why Supplements Matter
Even with the best intentions, our diets are often at odds with our bodies’ unique needs. Environmental factors, gut health, and individual sensitivities can make it tough to absorb all the nutrients from food alone. High-quality supplements bridge this gap, offering targeted support to ensure you get the nutrients you need without the hidden downsides.
Your whole food diet is a great foundation, but when certain foods hinder rather than help, the right supplements can step in to restore balance and optimize your health. Ready to make sure your body has everything it needs to thrive? It might be time to rethink those “healthy” foods and let supplements fill in the missing pieces.
In a world where modern diets and environmental factors work against our bodies, the question isn’t whether to choose food or supplements—it’s how to combine them effectively. Whole foods provide the foundation, offering the natural synergy of nutrients our bodies need. But with depleted soils, toxins, and the challenges of nutrient absorption, even the best diets need extra support.
By integrating high-quality supplements like Acceleradine® Iodine, Accelerated Ancient Salt®, and Accelerated Thyroid® into your routine, you can bridge the nutritional gaps left by modern life. These supplements don’t replace food; they amplify its benefits, helping your body combat stress, detoxify, and thrive. Together, a balanced diet and targeted supplementation create the perfect partnership for optimal health, energy, and vitality in today’s demanding world.
Sara Banta
Sara Banta is a Stanford University Graduate with a Degree in Economics and Psychology, and a certified Natural Supplement Expert & Graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Sara is the Founder of Accelerated Health Products and host of the health & wellness podcast, Accelerated Health Radio.
