Posted on 11th Dec 2008 @ 12:27 PM

A principle of nutrition you need to know is physiological dynamics. Unlike drugs, nutrients do not have rapid effects. No quick fix. The business of nutrition is to build a better body. That also means we have to wait on nature to turn over body cells. A blood cell lasts 60-120 days. In 3 – 4months your whole blood supply is completely replaced. In six months almost all the proteins in your body die and are replaced, even the DNA of your genes. In a year all your bones and even the enamel of your teeth are replaced, constructed entirely out of the nutrients you eat.

This time frame is well illustrated by the course of deficiency diseases. For example, if all the vitamin C was removed from your diet you would find that within 4 weeks your blood vitamin C level would drop to zero, but you would see no symptoms of disease at 4 weeks. You would have to wait until enough of the healthy cells were replaced by unhealthy cells before symptoms would start to become obvious. It would be another 12 weeks before the symptoms of scurvy would start to ravage your body.

So when you implement an optimum nutrition programme don’t expect rapid results. In one of the studies at the Colgan Institute, runners were supplemented to try to improve their haemoglobin, hematocrit, and red blood cell count. After one month of supplementation there was no improvement at all. After 6 months however, all three indices were significantly increased.

Think of it this way, if you take a neglected houseplant and start feeding and watering it, the leaves may perk up a bit from improved nutrition, but you have to wait for the old leaves to die off and new leaves to grow before you get a really healthy plant. It is the same with the human body; when you start feeding it better you have to wait on physiological dynamics of the body to grow new improved cells, in the improved nutrient medium. After 18 months in sports nutrition, the shortest program given to any athlete is six months.


Reference: Colgan Institute of Nutrition vol 2