Vitamins - To Supplement or Not To Supplement?
Over half of Americans today take a multivitamin
of some kind, believing that it will help them
to stave off chronic disease and health deficiencies
- but health experts are in disagreement over
the necessity of these supplements. Some doctors
and nutritionists feel that a multivitamin a day
is absolutely critical to a healthy body, while
others point out that with a proper diet and exercise
vitamin supplementation may be simply redundant.Some
people even take multivitamins or other supplements
as a way of replacing the need for a healthy diet
rich in fruits and vegetables, or before engaging
in damaging behavior such as binge drinking or
recreational drug use.
Health experts are largely in disagreement on
the subject of vitamin supplements, but on this
area they agree - a multivitamin does not obviate
the human requirement for a healthy diet. In contrast,
many health experts believe that a healthy diet
renders vitamin supplements unnecessary, but none
suggest that vitamins alone reduce the need for
healthy eating.
Some individuals claim that a proper
vitamin supplementation regimen can resolve problems
ranging from digestive issues to irregular heartbeats,
but there are still insufficient clinical studies
to conclusively indicate whether a multivitamin
is beneficial to most healthy adults.Ironically,
those who use multivitamins the most are generally
healthier, more active, and more conscious about
their diets than those who choose not to use vitamin
supplementation at all. As such, those who would
likely see the greatest benefit generally avoid
using a vitamin supplement at all.
The major issue that most health professionals
have with readily available mass produced multivitamin
supplements is their "one size fits all" approach
- without individualized testing and custom design
for a vitamin supplement program to suit the individual,
even when taking a multivitamin there may be a
serious surplus of one element despite a significant
deficiency of another.
Since people of different
age groups, body types, and activity levels all
require different types of supplements, it is
advisable to get full testing done in order to
determine what vitamins really are necessary rather
than simply purchasing an over the counter multivitamin
tablet.Jeff Matson is a nutritional consultant,
and a regular contributor to vitamin-insight.com
- an online guide to the wonderful world of vitamins
and supplements, with information about the benefits
of Acidophilus, Saw Palmetto, Ginko Biloba and
more.
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