Health & Fitness

Layman's Take on Vitamin Supplements & Some Myths

DISCLAIMER: As per my usual spiel, I am not a medical profession nor am I a nutritionist. All of the information provided is sourced from research and the advice of my own doctor. Before making any radical changes that could affect your health, please consult a professional.


Your Daily Essentials - Multivitamins & Other Supplements


If you were to talk to any dietitian or doctor they would tell you exactly what I was told: it is difficult for most people to get all of the vitamins they need from their diet alone.So, today I figured I would share with you the knowledge I learned about vitamins over the past two years. All thing's considered let’s face it: as much as we want to believe we can get every vitamin and mineral we need from our food, most of us won’t.


It might seem as easy as just taking a multivitamin, right? Well, not necessarily. There are a lot of things you have to consider, actually.


Layman's Take on Vitamin Supplements & Some Myths


There is a daily recommended dose for all vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, so simply popping a fist-full of pills may not be the best course of action for you. While vitamins are good for you, supplements should still be treated like all over-the-counter drugs: with caution. You can actually overdose on certain vitamins, most people simply aren’t aware of this because many (if not most) vitamins are completely safe to take beyond the recommended limit, which is known as the DRA (Daily Recommended Allowance). In fact, some professionals may actually recommend you take more than the daily limit depending on your age, weight, and other deciding health factors. However, even if you are safe to take more than the daily recommended dose, you still need to stay within what is known as the UL, which stands for Upper Tolerance Intake Level, lest you risk overdosing.


So, with all of that said, what supplements should you ideally be taking every day? Doctors will almost always recommend a daily multivitamin that contains 100% of your daily intake, no more and no less. However, there are still important things to remember when taking a multivitamin.


Firstly, look for a vitamin that contains 100% of your twelve essential vitamins and minerals – like I said, no more and no less. And important thing to note is that unless you are a woman who is menstruating or if you are anemic, you do not need to take a multivitamin that contains iron, you can get that from your diet. Ideally, your multivitamin should contain vitamins such as vitamins A, B, C, E and zinc. Calcium is another necessary vitamin that has many benefits to the body, but it can have negative effects, such as hardened stool. So, taking this with a daily dose of magnesium and vitamin D will help combat those potential side effects. If you can find a multivitamin that contains most of these vitamins, then you’re almost golden. If you can’t, then you can take separate supplements, just be sure to follow the label and don’t go about the RDA.


Additional Supplement Facts & Suggestions


Antioxidant-Specific-Supplements:


A lot of people hear the term “antioxidant” and immediately think of berry-based pills that supposedly promote weight loss. Well, sorry to say, but studies don’t actually suggest that this is true.


Layman's Take on Vitamin Supplements & Some Myths


Without going too deep into a science lesson, let me break this all down into really simple terms: antioxidants help treat free radical damage, which is the damage of cells caused by free radicals. Cell damage from free radicals is not 100% preventable, so simply taking more and more antioxidants is not necessarily going to prevent it from happening. The system is too imperfect to be completely avoidable, but is manageable. And guess what? You don’t need an antioxidant specific pill to do that. You just need an adequate amount of vitamins. Yes, vitamins: that’s all antioxidants are. Well, vitamins and proteins, actually, these are known as antioxidant enzymes. These are made inside the body.


Let’s focus on the vitamins though: they are vitamins like vitamin A, C, E, folic acid and beta-carotene. The issue with antioxidants is that people have this falsified, over-glorified idea in their minds that simply taking more of them will stop all free radical damage. This isn’t at all true. In fact, it’s actually been proven that antioxidants don’t do as much as people assume. They do help in preventing free radical damage, but they don’t stop it completely and they don’t necessarily prevent disease, according to studies. Taking too many of them can actually promote some of these diseases.


So, why do people link antioxidant rich pills with weight loss? It’s simple: appetite curve and energy. There is actually no direct link between antioxidants and weight loss: it’s all attributed to the kinds of foods you eat that just happen to be antioxidant rich. The only proven method of weight loss is reduced calorie intake and exercise.


So, in short, antioxidant pills are not going to necessarily make you lose weight, but they can give you an additional boost of vitamins and a slight appetite curve, but that’s about all. They aren’t necessary as you can get antioxidants from a proper vitamin regiment and diet, but there’s not necessarily any harm to adding them to your diet if you choose to, just be sure to consult a doctor and read the label.


Fish Oil


This one should be quick and easy: fish oil contains omega-3 fatty acids known as DHA and EPA, which are essential for the proper function of the heart and the brain. They can reduce the risk of a heart attack and have even been proven to help fight breast cancer. They’re good for you, basically. You just need to make sure that whatever fish oil supplement you take contains at least 600 mg of DHA.


That’s all you literally need to know about fish oil. Pretty simple, right?


Layman's Take on Vitamin Supplements & Some Myths


THE CONCLUSION

Your vitamin intake can be managed by your diet, but it can be difficult, so adding supplements to your life can be extremely beneficial to you and your health if done so correctly. Of course, I always suggest that you talk to your doctor before starting any sort of vitamin regiment, especially if you have past health issues.


If you all want to know what my daily vitamin regiment is, here you go:



- 2 Multivitamins containing additional calcium
- 2 Teaspoons of effervescent magnesium powder
- 4 Fish oil tablets


That’s all I have for this myTake, I hope you read it all the way through (I know it was long) and if you did I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you all have yourselves a wonderful day and I look forward to seeing your feedback.

Layman's Take on Vitamin Supplements & Some Myths
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