Vitamins and Supplements: Do You Need Them?

How Do You Know If You Should Take Supplements?

Do you ever become confused about all the information about “vitamins”? Most people do, especially when there is conflicting information about whether we even need to take them. Add to this the confusion among the words “vitamins”, “supplements”, “vitamin water”, “protein drinks”, “fish oil” and many others, and it becomes far easier to procrastinate really learning what the differences are and if it’s worth making that time investment.

I’ll give you the details of each vitamin as well as many supplements and what each one   does, in separate sections of this tab. But if you want a quick understanding, here’s the quick explanation:

Vitamins are substances which the body needs to function, as opposed to what makes up our bodies. We are make up of proteins, fats, bone, fluids and connective tissue which come from the foods we consume (protein, fats, carbohydrates). Vitamins come in two basic kinds: the ones which dissolve in fats (Vitamins A, E, D) and the ones which dissolve in watery fluids (Vitamin C and all the B Vitamins). In a perfect world, with a nutritionally perfect food supply, without environmental toxins and stress, and a pure water supply, we would be able to obtain all of our vitamins from the foods we ingested.

Supplements include a very wide variety of substances which includes “vitamins” as well as other groups of capsules, tablets, powders and liquids which help our bodies improve their functioning. The difference is that without vitamins, our cells would not be able to function at all. Supplements help us to overcome and repair the daily damage that happens to our cells from food additives, environmental toxins, stress, aging, genetic predisposition to disease, and pharmaceuticals. So in other words, just living damages our cells. Supplements help to overcome the “biological experiences” of life.

Protein drinks and powders are just that: they contain various amino acids (which are the building blocks of proteins) and sometimes some supplements which help to build muscle fiber.

Fish oil typically comes in a capsule or liquid, and should contain two types of essential fatty acids like DHA and EPA (essential meaning we cannot synthesize them ourselves and must take them in from our diet). These oils have beens shown to improve cardiovascular health and reduce the incidence of heart attacks and stroke.

Vitamin waters are typically flavored drinks which are marketed to health conscious people. The problem is that they are not able to provide you with any appreciable degree of a daily requirement for a vitamin.

1. 

   Salley Frieden says:

   February 10, 2012 at 10:33 pm

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