Vitamin Supplements
We all want more energy, protection from disease, and an aid to help us reach our healthy living goals. We get these benefits from consuming vitamins in various foods, but can we get the same benefits from a vitamin supplement or are we putting our health at risk by using them?
Vitamin supplements are products intended to add nutritional value to your diet. While they can help you meet certain vitamin needs, they do not provide all the benefits that come from consuming foods.
★Benefits of multivitamin
in general good health and eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods from all of the food groups, then you should not need vitamin supplements to meet your nutritional needs. However, some groups of people gain substantial benefits from supplements.
For example, vegans completely avoid animal products. These individuals would need to supplement their diet with vitamin B12, because B12 is only found in animal-based foods, such as meats, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products.
Older adults can also benefit from dietary supplements that contain vitamin B12. One reason is the high occurrence of atrophic gastritis, which is a condition characterized by an inflammation of the stomach lining. The inflammation interferes with stomach secretions, which are needed to free up B12 so it’s available for absorption.
Another group that can gain a substantial benefit from taking a dietary supplement is pregnant women. In the early stages of pregnancy, the nervous system of the embryo starts to develop. In order for the nervous system to develop properly, the mother-to-be is encouraged to take folic acid, which is an easily absorbed form of folate. Folate is a B vitamin that protects against birth defects.
Other may need to turn to dietary supplements to benefit their health are people taking medications as certain medications can interfere with the body’s ability to digest, absorb or use vitamins.
Cigarette smokers might need to supplement their diet with vitamin C because this vitamin helps break down the harmful compounds found in cigarette smoke. And alcoholics might need to increase their intake of the B-complex vitamins and vitamin C.
Because these vitamins are water-soluble, they flush out of your system in urine. Abusing a diuretic, such as alcohol,
The real benefits of multivitamins come when you have a real deficiency in your diet, if you are a vegetarian, if you’re pregnant, or train extremely hard like an athlete. Vegetarians can really benefit from taking B12, D, Iron, and calcium. These are all found in dairy and meat products that are usually missing from a vegetarian diet. If you are calcium and D deficient it can cause soft bones and osteoporosis. If you don’t get in the sun very much you might also want to think about taking a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D helps absorb calcium so just that deficiency can also weaken the bones. Pregnant women need prenatal multivitamins because of the extra life that they are nourishing. Athletes that train extremely hard need multivitamins to replace what they lose in sweat and energy expenditure.
