The Health Advantage is guided by five primary principles:
- The absence of disease does not guarantee health.
- The foods of commerce do not supply essential nutrients, and laws in many states prevent us from obtaining the healthiest foods. (In addition, farming techniques used for the last 100+ years have left virtually all farm soils seriously depleted - and ALL soils are contaminated to some degree with a variety of pollutants, which is itself a threat to health and a drain on body stores of essential nutrients.)
- We are all biochemically unique.
- In addition to maintaining optimal health, a personally tailored diet/supplement program can help overcome many, if not most, health problems.
- You are your own best "health insurance provider."
The Health Advantage approach to health is drawn from basic physiological and biochemical precepts taught in most high schools and colleges today. Key among these is that the various systems of body, including the circulatory system, respiratory system, endocrine system and so on, do not operate in a vacuum but in highly complex, interrelated ways. And because our body systems are interrelated, when an imbalance occurs in one body system, other body systems are affected as well.
Put another way, the body is a biological terrain - an ecosystem - in which, as Pasteur himself admitted on his deathbed, "the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything."
Moreover, more and more health care practitioners are recognizing that the single most frequently overlooked and yet most important factor for good health – for each and every one of us – lies in maintaining insulin/blood sugar (or endocrine system) balance. And yet today’s world of chronically depleted and contaminated soils, over-consumption of processed and packaged foods AND overexposure to chemicals, toxins and other forms of stressors to the body almost guarantees at least some disturbances in proper insulin/blood sugar balance.
Many times imbalance will manifest itself in a variety of ways - "body signals" - and create other imbalances along the way. Experience and well over a decade of research has taught us that “tuning in” to body signals can represent – even in today’s high tech world – one of the most important tools you can use to guide you toward making safer, better, more personally appropriate choices in diet, lifestyle and – specifically for today’s world – nutritional supplements. Your job is to learn how to read some of these body signals and what preventative measures might be taken to keep you functioning at the highest possible level.
In keeping with the spirit of Public Law 103-417 passed October 25, 1996 by the U.S. Congress, which states in part:
“The importance of nutrition and the benefits of dietary supplements to health promotion and disease prevention have been documented increasingly in scientific studies . . . There is a link between the ingestion of certain nutrients or dietary supplements and the prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis . . . Preventative health measures, including education, good nutrition and appropriate use of safe nutritional supplements will limit the incidence of chronic diseases and reduce long term health care expenditures . . .”