Should You Take Vitamins and Minerals Supplements?

It’s not breaking news that vitamins and minerals are essential to good health.

Most of us have been told that since we were in diapers.

Vitamins and minerals are essential parts of food. If you eat a variety of foods from the 5 food groups and have a balanced diet, you’ll get all the vitamins and minerals you need. Most people don’t and that can cause problems.

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The Role Of Vitamins And Minerals.

Vitamins and minerals prevent disease, but also help us feel energetic and healthy.

The body has thousands of chemical reactions going on in each cell, every second of the day. The cells continually process the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates from food.

Vitamins and minerals are essential parts of those chemical reactions. Without them, essential body functions couldn’t take place, but you only need very small amounts of them. Most people can get all the vitamins and minerals they need from a healthy diet.

Every person needs thirteen different vitamins and about ten minerals just to remain alive! Vitamins and Minerals are important for you in order for you to remain healthy and active.

Health Supplements: Why Are They Important?

Vitamins and Minerals are also required to manufacture the thousands of enzymes, hormones, and other chemical messengers that a body requires in order to grow, mend, create energy, remove wastes, protect you against infection and generally keep your body functioning in optimum conditions.

You also require them to help keep your bones strong, your eyes sharp and your brain active and alert. Also, you have to remember that vitamins and minerals help to protect you against cancer and heart disease.

The only way to get vitamins and minerals in your body is to consume them or eat them. This is why it only through correct Diet and Nutrition Planning that you can eat the foods through which you can get all the nutrients that your body needs.

This brings us to the next question – Can you get all the vitamins and minerals that you need just by eating right?

The right answer is that it depends.

You need to answer the following questions.

Do You Eat An Unbalanced Diet?

Do You Have Any Chronic Disease?

Do You Have A Special Medical Need?

If the answer to any one of these questions is yes, you need to consider vitamin and mineral supplementation.

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Should You Take Vitamins and Minerals Supplements?

Do You Need Vitamin And Mineral Supplements?

The answer is most likely Yes!. As much as you might try, most people fail to eat a properly nutritious diet at every meal every day. This is why most people need the extra help that vitamin and mineral supplements can offer. A vitamin and mineral boost can really help you deal with a whole host of health issues. For example, some vitamins like Vitamin E are most valuable in large quantities and doses – doses that are far greater than the amounts that you would normally get only from your food.

Should You Take Vitamins and Minerals Supplements?

Supplements are a safe and inexpensive way to ensure that your body is getting the vitamins and minerals it requires for optimal health levels.

Studies have shown that most adult women do not meet the minimum requirements for iron, zinc, Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), calcium, magnesium, and Vitamin E.

Most adult men don’t meet the minimum requirements for zinc and magnesium.

Kids and teenagers drink 15 % less milk than they did in the previous generation, but they drink 25 % more carbonated soft drinks.

We also eat fewer and fewer dark-green leafy vegetables and deep yellow vegetables. Less than 1 in 5 people eat 3 helpings of fresh fruits and veggies per day. Most people don’t even have fruits and veggies on most days! Women between the ages of 25 and 50 need about 1000 mg of calcium per day in order to keep their bones strong and healthy. That kind of calcium would be present in 3 glasses of milk. One could easily drink that kind of milk but there are problems. Some women don’t like milk. And then there is the problem of trouble digesting all that milk.

It should be clear that vitamin and mineral supplementation is not a substitute for healthy eating. They also do not protect you from bad health habits like smoking, alcohol addiction, and leading a sedentary lifestyle. Vitamins and Minerals cannot cure health problems but prevent them from happening in the first place. Taking a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement is good insurance because it ensures that you are getting everything that your body needs.

Vitamin and Mineral Supplements: The Showdown

Many people take multivitamins and other supplements. But supplements should be used just like supplements. They are not a replacement for their naturally occurring counterparts.

A balanced, varied diet that contains plenty of fruits and vegetables should be the primary source of vitamins.

Fortified foods and supplements may be appropriate in some cases, however, such as during pregnancy, for people with restricted diets, and for people with specific health issues.

Anyone taking supplements should be careful not to exceed the maximum dose, as research shows that taking too much of any vitamin can lead to health problems.

Also, some medications can interact with vitamin supplements. Overall, it is important to speak with a healthcare provider before trying any supplement.

Should You Take Vitamins and Minerals Supplements?

And What Happens If You Don’t…

If you don’t have a particular vitamin or mineral for a long period of time, you develop a deficiency.

If the deficiency goes on for long, you have what is known as a deficiency disease. The classic example of a deficiency disease is scurvy, caused by a lack of Vitamin C.

Vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements.

You might be marginally deficient if:

You hardly eat fresh fruits and vegetables.
You are going through a long period of high stress or are suffering from burnout and exhaustion due to overworking. Due to this, you are most likely not eating right and you are in the process of using up a lot of minerals and vitamins to create extra stress hormones. You can compare this situation to that of a car battery that is running down.
You are sick with fever or bronchitis or you are recovering from surgery. At such times when your appetite is down, you require loads of extra vitamins and minerals to help you heal and recover faster.
You have chronic diseases such as asthma or diabetes. Low mineral or vitamin levels might have caused the problem or maybe making it worse. A lot of people who suffer from Asthma are low on magnesium. Many diabetics are low on Vitamin C.
You are pregnant or are nursing. Your body needs extra vitamins and minerals because you are passing some of your reserves on to your baby.
You are suffering from acute depression. When you are depressed your appetite goes for a toss. That in turn can make your depression worse because marginal deficiencies of many vitamins and minerals actually cause depression or make it worse!
You smoke. Smoking nicotine greatly increases your need for vitamins especially Vitamin C.
You drink lots of alcohol. Heavy drinkers become marginally deficient in almost all Vitamins and Minerals especially B Vitamins.

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In Conclusion.

Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients that mainly come from foods. Each performs various roles in the body, and deficiencies of different vitamins can harm health in different ways.

The aim should be to get vitamins from a balanced, varied diet that contains plenty of fruits and vegetables. If a person is pregnant or has a health issue or a restricted diet, a doctor or nutritionist may recommend supplements.