What Are Nutritional Supplements?

By Clifford H Woods 

Sometimes referred to as dietary supplements or even food supplements, nutritional supplements are substances or products that you can consume to add nutrition in your diet. These substances include nutrients beneficial to the human body and they include: vitamins, Amino acids, minerals and herbs among others. 



You can also find products, such as fish oils, glucosamine and Probiotics in these supplements. 

 There are many reasons why people use nutritional supplements and these include:

• To boost the immune system
• To improve mental and physical performance
• To support healing
• To enhance the overall health
• To reduce risks of age-related illnesses and other conditions
• To supplement inadequate nutrition

While supplements are mainly to improve one’s health, they are not treated as medicinal drugs or regulated, and this is why they are labeled as dietary supplements. They come packaged in form of pills, tablets, capsules and also come in liquid form. Taking supplements does not substitute for an unbalanced diet, however, they do come in handy when you have shortfalls and could provide your body with the nutritional support you lack from time to time. 

With that said, it is important to reiterate that they do not substitute your nutrients and you cannot compare the value you get from fresh fruits or vegetables with vitamin supplements. 

Who Should Be Taking Nutritional Supplements? 
We could all benefit from nutritional supplements. However, there are certain groups of people who definitely need these supplements more than the rest of us and these are:

• Infants
• Seniors
• Adolescents
• Expectant and breastfeeding mothers
• Strict vegetarians
• The chronically ill
• People with dire food allergies
• Alcohol and drug dependent people

The reason why these groups of people could benefit more from nutritional supplements than the rest of us is because they are more prone to nutritional deficiencies. A good example is infants and adolescents. These supplements could come in handy to support their greater need for nutrients because of their rapid growth. Women who are expectant or breastfeeding also require supplements to provide for adequate development of the child and provide health maintenance for themselves as well. 

People with dire food allergies and vegans compromise on certain nutrients due to dietary restrictions and these nutritional supplements could help them nourish their bodies from the low intakes of various nutrients. 

People who are on drugs, including those on medication, such as the chronically ill and elderly; tend to have lower absorption rates of nutrients. This could be due to changes in dietary regime or interference from drugs. 

 As you can see, nutritional supplements can help encourage a healthier body. Remember that the word supplement simply means ‘in addition to’ and this means that nutritional supplements should be taken in addition to a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. 

 It is always recommended that you follow the intake prescription and most importantly, you talk to your doctor or a nutritionist, so as to identify which supplements will be most beneficial for you. 

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Author: Clifford H Woods is the Executive Director of Vibrant Life.
We Provide Great Products, Excellent and Useful Information with Exceptional Customer Care Service

Multivitamins is Your All-in-One Answer to Good Health

Multivitamins is Your All-in-One Answer to Good Health 

By Clifford H Woods

A lot of people already know that taking vitamins and minerals is important for the improvement of one’s health. Everybody also knows that the most natural way to get these multivitamins is through vegetables, fruits, meat and other food that are rich in these supplements. 

However, there are some individuals who think that they can get all the needed health supplements just by eating foods that are healthy. They think that as long as they eat healthy, they do not need to buy and take food supplements anymore. Little did they know that even if they eat healthy in sufficient quantity all day long, the amount of minerals and vitamins that they get are still not enough.

Years before when farming plants did not involve too much chemicals and when cooking these food did not contain too many artificial products, there were indeed a lot of healthy supplements that you can acquire in these food. Today, the practices for harvesting, producing, processing and cooking food has become less healthy and nutrient dense. For instance, did you know that it would take several cups of today’s harvested spinach just to get an equal amount of nutrients that you can harvest in one cup of spinach years ago?

Today, there are numerous vitamins in tablets, capsules and liquid form that have been developed to pair with your balanced diet. These were developed to provide individuals all the required nutrients to protect them from illnesses and to strengthen their immune system. By taking your daily dose of multivitamins, you will be able to protect yourself from developing heart diseases, cancer and osteoporosis.

As you all know, there are lists of different nutrients that are known to be good for one’s health. Although taking them may not have too much side effects, lots of people are wondering what could be the difference between those kinds of supplements and multivitamins. Vitamins importance may be plenty, but there are actually greater advantages in taking multivitamins.

Multi-vitamins are capable of preventing diseases, providing you with the Recommended Daily Allowance of nutrients, capable of maintaining the efficiency of cells, supplies the other nutrients that food cannot give and activates the enzymes that are essential to cellular function. You might think that these are actually the same advantages that single tablet vitamins can give. So what could make multivitamins better than the latter?

One of the reasons is that the body cannot store some vitamins. The vitamins are categorized according to the capacity of the body to store them. For instance, vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble which means that the body will be capable of storing them. 

On the other hand, vitamins B and C complex are water-soluble which means that they cannot be stored in sufficient amounts. So with this fact, they must be taken daily. If they are not taken on a daily basis and they are not included in your daily balanced diet, you might develop illnesses. Multivitamins are capable of supplementing both of these soluble vitamins.

Multivitamins are capable of providing the needed nutrients when some vitamins are not readily accessible.  In this case, vitamin D would be the best example. Vitamin D is best acquired through sunlight and the epidermis can produce enough if it is exposed to sufficient sunlight. However, there are people who are living in places where sunlight is not always readily accessible. With this situation, it would be better to take multivitamins so as to not develop illnesses. 

Summary: The main focus of this article is to reflect the roles that multivitamins play in developing and maintaining a good health. The article describes the types of vitamins and their specific roles in preventing diseases.
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Author: Clifford H Woods is the Executive Director of Vibrant Life.
We Provide Great Products, Excellent and Useful Information with Exceptional Customer Care Service