Supplements

To function optimally as human beings and to help us get the most out of a healthy and happy life, vitamins and minerals from food are very important. However, with the lifestyles of most people in the modern world, attaining our essentials from the food we eat is often very difficult and not a priority.

Vitamins and Minerals

What Are Vitamins?

These are the nutrients we need in small amounts and they are broken down into two main categories

• Fat soluble vitamins – found in fatty foods such as salmon, olive oil, avocadoes; basically all the things we’re being told are the good fats. We only need them in small amounts because as many of us are aware, we humans are good at storing fat away for a rainy day.
• Water-soluble vitamins are the vitamins that we need more of and more often because unlike fat, water soluble vitamins are not stored in the body. They are found in fruit, vegetables and grains; the things that we are told to have multiple servings of each day.

What Are Minerals?

Minerals are related to the optimum working of our immune system; they provide us with an ongoing supply of energy and strengthen our teeth and bones. We get these from things such as meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables.

How Do Supplements Help?

The idea of supplements is to account for the vitamins and/or minerals that individuals may be lacking. There is an incredible amount of supplements on the market for specific mineral and vitamins and from a range of companies.

Multivitamins

Rather then pinpoint specific nutrient deficiencies many people take a multivitamin each day with the idea that it will take care of any deficiencies automatically. These are very popular because a majority of people are not aware of specific deficiencies they may have and like the idea of a multivitamin as a bodily safe guard.

Some people on the other hand, are aware or suspect of their specific deficiencies and as a result take the relevant supplements.

Specific Supplements

The following are some of the more popular vitamins and minerals which are supplemented

Zinc - Zinc is very important for the immune system and will therefore help you heal better from illness. It keeps the skin healthy and helps your eyesight. People who may be at risk of zinc deficiency include vegans, mothers who are breastfeeding and alcoholics.

Vitamin C - Vitamin C is the most popular supplement taken in a variety of ways in the market. Another requirement of a strong immune system vitamin C also contains the important ability to make collagen. Collagen is the protein responsible for healthy skin, bones, teeth and gums.

Iron - Iron is essential for carrying oxygen from your blood to your tissue. Women are constantly under the microscope for not taking enough iron into their diet with red meat being a particularly good source of Iron.

Supplement Limitations

Of course, supplements can never be a real replacement for the foods that supply us with essential vitamins and minerals. Why is that so?

• Not even multivitamins will sufficiently sustain your body with everything it needs. Foods provide you with much more then can be provided by supplements such as a whole range of micronutrients and fibre. An orange for example has far more to offer then just vitamin C alone.
• There can be side effects of having too much of a vitamin or mineral in our body, like anything, dangerous in the wrong dosage
• Sometimes the excess minerals are just excreted, which can be seen as a waste of money since supplements are not cheap