Do you need vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements for your
health and wellness! If you do, which vitamins should you take!
Most of us are willing to concede the necessity of having a good balance
of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in our daily diet for good
health, but many of us wonder if it is necessary to use vitamin pills
and other dietary supplements to do this.
Can't we get enough of the vitamins we need from our daily diet.
I suppose that some of us might be in good enough health not to need
additional vitamins, minerals, and other dietary supplements, but IF YOU
FALL INTO ONE OF THE GROUPS BELOW, you might want to consider adding at
least a daily multivitamin supplement to your diet.
If you are a woman: Women are possibly deficient in such minerals as
magnesium, folic acid, zinc, calcium, and in some
cases, iron. If you are pregnant, or using birth control, you may
require additional vitamin or mineral supplements for good health and
wellness.
If you diet for weight loss, such as being on a low carbohydrate diet, or follow a fairly limited diet or
restricted nutritional regimen: Important vitamins and minerals are
scattered widely across a broad range of nutritional options (i.e.
foods), and if you are limiting your intake by volume or by type, you
are likely limiting your intake of vitamins, minerals, and other
nutrients vital to your health.
If you eat the normal American diet: Actually, the normal American diet
is not very normal, nor is it good for your
health! It is, however, terribly lacking in the vitamins, minerals,
enzymes, hormones, and other nutritional elements a healthy body needs.
Additionally, if your diet does contain all of these in optimal
quantities, you are probably eating way too much food - Catch 22!
If you smoke or drink alcohol often: Smoking and excessive drinking
(roughly more than two drinks a day - which is GOOD for you), depletes
certain vitamins and other nutrients.
If you are already NOT in good health, physically or mentally: Your body
may not be processing the vitamins, minerals, etc. that your are
providing in your diet. Also, the EXTRA vitamins,
minerals, and other nutrients you provide with supplements may have a
positive affect on the condition.
It goes without saying that an
appropriate supplementation program MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED or lessened the
impact of the health problem in the first place.
If you love junk food and it tends to be a major part of your diet: Once
again, you are probably not getting the dietary
balance of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional elements necessary
for good health. Sadly, many of the constituents of these types of food,
particularly refined sugar, actually leach vitamins, minerals, and other
nutrients from your body, or prevent the effective use, transport, or
absorption of these nutrients.
If you cannot afford a steady diet of the foods that you realize are
most valuable to your health: A multivitamin pill costs only a few cents
a day, and without changing another single fact of
your life, can contribute significantly to your health and well-being.
If you are over 65 years of age: You have specific deficiencies and
needs, as well as a possible array of health problems. Odds are that you
are lacking in B-12, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, folic acid, zinc, Vitamin C,
and other vitamins and minerals. As our bodies age (I'm 60, so I can
talk), they become less efficient at processing nutrients of all types,
so even if your typical
diet contains all the nutrients you need, your body is probably not
getting the complete benefit from them.
I mentioned some possible
deficiencies above. Let's look at only one - Vitamin D deficiency - as
this is very common in folks over 65. This vitamin deficiency may
contribute to some forms of cancer
(including breast and colon cancer), muscular weakness, joint pain, and
the well published one - osteoporosis.
Again, a daily multivitamin can
go a long way towards promoting health in the
years both before and after age 65.
OKAY, WHO'S LEFT!
If you are male, under 65, in excellent mental and physical health,
exercise regularly, have a nutritionally rich and
diverse diet, do not smoke or drink, and are NOT QUITE CERTAIN that YOUR
DIET contains all the vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional elements
necessary for good health: You MIGHT want to tilt the odds in your favor
with a good daily multivitamin supplement.
EVERYBODY ELSE CAN LEAVE!
Your health is fine. You don't need to supplement your present diet with
vitamins and minerals.
Author: Donovan Baldwin
Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin
About the author:
The author's interest in fitness and health began in 1970 when he first
read Dr. Kenneth Cooper's "Aerobics". Find health, fitness, and weight
loss tips at
http://nodiet4me.com . You can
find additional articles on fitness, health, and weight loss at
http://nodiet4me.blogspot.com
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