Millions of people take daily vitamin supplements to encourage good health. With all the different kinds of vitamins, minerals and herbs flooding the market these days, it's sometimes difficult to know what to choose.
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The first thing you need to know is that vitamin supplements are not a replacement for eating healthy, vitamin rich whole foods.
Food contains the nutrients your body needs in their very purest form, and interact with each other and your body in a way supplements cannot. However, taking vitamin supplements in addition to eating a vitamin-rich diet can be a great way to stay healthy and protect against damage from harmful free radicals.
When shopping for vitamin supplements, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
Always read the label
Reading labels is a wise practice you should do every time you shop for supplements. Labels can tell you more about dosages, ingredients, safety precautions, and other important information.
Choose a reputable manufacturer
Always choose products with “USP” on the label. “USP” is the abbreviation for the U.S. Pharmacopeia and the inclusion on the label means the product has been tested and checked for quality and safety.
Check the Date
Expired vitamins can lose their potency. Always make sure there is an expiration date printed on the bottle, and never purchase or use expired supplements.
Avoid Giant Doses
Do not choose supplements that offer extremely high doses of a particular vitamin or vitamins. Too much of anything can be harmful, sometimes even fatal.
Store Safely
Always keep your vitamins out of the reach of children. Store in a cool, dark, dry place as heat and humidity can affect the integrity of the vitamins.
Always Do Your Homework
Research is always a good idea before deciding to take vitamin supplements. Consult with your doctor. Perform some Internet searches or visit your local library.
There is a wealth of resources available for you on the topic of vitamin supplements and the benefits they offer.
Dietary supplement can provide that, with the assiduous use of vitamins and minerals, we can often achieve optimum health for our age group and certainly ease the symptoms of diseases we may suffer from.
Dietary supplements can be divided into two main types; nutritional, (vitamins and minerals and amino acids) and botanical (herbal types).
But is it really necessary for someone who is young and healthy to take dietary supplements? You may consider that your diet is healthy enough, but vegetables and dairy food can only be as good as the soil in which they are grown and many farmers will agree that their soil is worn out.
Why else do they have to add chemical fertilizers at ever increasing rates? If the soil were farmed organically, instead of with an eye to profit all the time, it would be in much better health and so would we.
Another point to consider is the freshness (or otherwise) of the products we buy. Most vegetables are at least a week old by the time they get to our homes. Although many are kept in cool storage, this length of time causes the nutritional value to greatly decrease.
Fruit is often picked before ripe and put into cold storage for weeks or months, then when it is needed, hit with a gas to make it ripen quickly. This gas is supposed to be safe in small amounts, but it is carcinogenic….
Some dietary supplement exponents declare lack of magnesium to be a major cause of high blood pressure. People who have found the usual blood pressure medications to cause more discomfort than they cure tried out magnesium supplements and in some cases were able to stop using their prescription medication entirely within two months.
Of course, you should never do this without consulting your health care professional.
There are some people who claim that dietary supplements do nothing but give us expensive urine.
That may be true if you have a super healthy diet and are therefore less likely to be lacking in vitamins, but health-care professionals are increasingly advising extra supplements for those under stress such as illness, pregnancy, or periods of sudden growth spurts.
If your tongue is inflamed and you suffer from loss of appetite, shortness of breath, are irritable, forgetful and mentally sluggish, you may have a folic acid deficiency. Folic acid is one of the B group of vitamins and most animal and plant foods are poor sources of it.
The exception is liver which most people don’t eat a lot of these days. Some habits and diseases like celiac disease, alcoholism and irritable bowel syndrome, also play a major part in causing a deficiency of this vitamin, so if you suffer from any of these problems, ask your doctor if you need a supplement.
