Many different nutrients are involved in managing blood sugar. If you are deficient in even one, your blood sugar regulation will be impaired. This is why it’s so important to cover the basics by taking a good multivitamin, and getting the right fats (especially the essential fatty acids) and enough vitamin C and vitamin D, all of which are critical for healthy blood sugar regulation. Best of all would be our Ultimate Wellness Kit. If you have chronically high blood sugar, you are especially at risk for nutrient deficiencies in some of the very nutrients required for healthy blood sugar control. Even in controlled diabetes, blood sugar levels frequently spike to 160-170 mg/dL after meals. The body gets rid of high levels of sugar like these with excessive urination. This removes unwanted sugar, but also depletes the body of water-soluble vitamins and minerals (all the B vitamins, for example, which are so important in energy production). A seminal 1987 study found diabetics defici…

Necessary for the function of more than 300 different enzymes, zinc is “essential for virtually all processes in the human body.” But even though Mother Nature wisely put a little zinc into most foods, it’s still easy to come up short. Known as the cold-fighting mineral, zinc is needed for every aspect of immune function. Zinc is also used in the synthesis and function of DNA and RNA, making it essential for reproduction and growth. It’s needed for neurological, eye, and heart health, and for healthy bones and glucose metabolism. Vitamin A can’t function without it. Zinc reduces inflammation and oxidative stress, supports detoxification, and plays roles in digestion, metabolism and protein synthesis. But like other minerals, zinc is significantly depleted in US soils: A carrot today may have 95% less zinc than a carrot grown sixty years ago. Phosphate fertilizers and sewage sludge used in conventional agriculture are also highly contaminated with cadmium, which competes with zin…

Raymond Francis often says, “If you are deficient in only one nutrient, you will get sick, guaranteed.” Although many people still focus single-mindedly on calcium, bone-building is a team sport. While calcium may be the star player, it’s ineffective and even dangerous without its teammates. If even one member of the team goes AWOL, your bones will suffer. Bones are about half mineral and half protein. Minerals give bones their hardness—an important quality if you want to stand up straight. However a large part of bone consists of “bone matrix:” flexible tissue made of collagen and studded with hard minerals. Calcium accounts for about 64% of bone’s mineral content, but phosphorus and magnesium also contribute to bone hardness. Zinc, manganese, silica and copper are used as co-enzymes in constructing bone matrix. Vitamin C is needed to create collagen. Vitamins C, D and K and the minerals boron, chromium, germanium, selenium and vanadium play various roles in what’s called bone…