Should I Be Taking Supplements?
A common question from people looking to improve their overall health and wellbeing is whether or not they should take a dietary supplement. The idea of taking a supplement seems intuitive, that by taking these little pills you can ‘insure’ yourself against a less-than-perfect diet and lifestyle. On the other hand, as long as you eat a well-balanced diet and have a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise and maintaining your weight, there is no need to take a supplement.
So should you take a supplement or not? The answer is: “It depends”. To start, every individual is unique and as such the decision to take a supplement is not something we’re going to decide for you in this blog post. The best we can do is to give you some information that will help you decide what the best choices are for you. We are going to explore these ideas of a “balanced diet” and “maintaining your weight” in this article.
Well balanced diet:
A well-balanced diet means that your diet contains all the nutrients that are essential to an optimal, healthy life. There are 6 classes of nutrients; carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. The 3 macronutrients; carbohydrates, proteins and fats, provide us with energy in the form of calories where the other 3 classes of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and water, do not.
Included among these nutrients are the vital or essential nutrients. These are nutrients that are required but that we are unable to produce through our own endogenous, or internal pathways. Vital nutrients include all the essential vitamins and minerals that must be obtained from our diet or else we suffer from deficiencies. Vitamins, both water and fat soluble, and minerals, both macro and micro or trace minerals, are all essential nutrients.
In addition to the essential vitamins and minerals, there are other essential nutrients including omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and 10 of the 20 amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Like the vitamins and minerals, we are unable to synthesize these molecules endogenously and therefore must obtain them either from our diet or as a supplement. The lack of vital nutrients necessary for the growth and the maintenance of vital functions often leads to stunt growth and delayed cognitive development.
In the US and most developed countries, we most often find nutritional imbalances that are caused by excessive consumption. It may be surprising but you can be overweight and still be deficient in a vital and essential nutrient. One of the greatest challenges for developing nations today is not starvation, but over-consumption. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is common, serious and costly. More than one-third (36.5%) of U.S. adults have obesity. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death.
So our challenge is to make knowledgeable food choices so that the foods we select provide us with all the essential nutrients we require for optimal health while maintaining a healthy weight!
Maintaining your weight
Exercise, any type of activity, builds lean muscle which is a more metabolically active tissue that fat. So, the more lean muscle compared to body fat that you have, the more calories you can consume without gaining weight. To have a good chance of getting all the vital nutrients you need, including all the micro and macro-nutrients, you need a well balanced and thoughtfully considered diet.
Our goal is to “eat a variety of foods, exercise, and maintain your weight”. So, if you are consuming a diet low in nutrients the likelihood is that you will consume excess calories in order to meet your nutrient requirements; “overweight but nutrient deficient”. I believe that “exercise covers a multitude of sins”. The more you exercise the more you eat, the more you eat the more opportunities you have to incorporate all the nutrients you need to be healthy without gaining weight. Stay tuned for a future blog titled “To Exercise of Not?”
More is not always more.
It may seem simple, take a supplement, eat a balanced diet and you’re done. It would be nice if this were true, but unfortunately biology is never that simple. For example, Vitamin D is an essential vitamin that’s critical for enhancing the intestinal absorption of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphate, and zinc. A diet deficient in vitamin D can cause rickets, a softening of the bones when it occurs in children. Vitamin D deficiency has become a worldwide issue in the elderly who often struggle to get enough sun exposure. Vitamin D and calcium deficiency results in osteoporosis, or brittle bone disease and affects postmenopausal women preferentially. On the other hand, too much Vitamin D causes hypercalcemia, the symptoms of which include anorexia, nausea, vomiting, weakness, insomnia, and, ultimately, renal failure.
Vitamins and minerals work together. You need to eat a balanced amount of all the nutrients to maintain optimum health and wellbeing.
For some individuals nutritional supplements can actually be dangerous. Taking supplements, particularly megadoses, can cause immediate side effects like an upset stomach or nausea. More importantly vitamins and minerals interact with each other. Some examples include; (1) vitamin D increases calcium absorption and zinc decreases calcium absorption, (2) calcium reduces iron absorption while vitamin C increases iron absorption, (3) vitamin B6 promotes magnesium absorption whereas calcium reduces its absorption, and (4) folic acid inhibits the absorption of zinc while vitamin B12 increases zincs absorption. More is definitely not always better.
Other factors to consider before taking a supplement include;
- While we have a good idea how much we need to avoid serious deficiency, we do not know what the ‘optimal’ levels of nutrients are. The recommended daily values published by the USDA are based in part on large databases that look at healthy individuals and are aimed at preventing serious deficiencies rather than maintaining optimal levels for peak performance.
- Everyone’s body needs and utilization of vital nutrients are different. A one-size-fits-all approach to supplements is unlikely to be optimal in every case.
- We are just beginning to understand the inter-relationship between vital nutrients and how they work together. We noted previously that ideal ratios of certain nutrients are optimal to take together. More research is needed before we fully understand the complex relationship between all the nutrients in our diet.
- We are starting to learn more about the important role our genes play in determining how we absorb, utilize and excrete individual nutrients. By taking a more personalized approach, based on an individual’s genome, it may be possible to develop more personalized recommendations based on how your body handles individual vital nutrients.
So what is the bottom line?
- Get an assessment from a qualified nutritionist or healthcare professional who will be able to evaluate your diet and lifestyle before suggesting an appropriate supplement. Stay away from single nutrient, high dose supplements, particularly if you are taking them for a prolonged time.
- Eat a variety of foods to get all the nutrients your body needs in the forms it most recognizes and can utilize. It is also a great way to get other beneficial phytonutrients, which give more health benefit than the vitamins themselves.
- Be active every day! Exercise allows you to consume more healthy foods, increasing your nutrient intake, while maintaining your weight. Remember in order to maintain your body weight, calories in must equal calories out.
- Keep a food journal to calculate your nutrient consumption and caloric intake. That will give you an idea of where you stand in terms of energy and nutrition.
- Eat fresh food that has been minimally processed to get the maximum amount of nutrition possible from the foods you eat without adding extra calories.
- Grow your own. A garden at home provides ready access to nutritious, organic, vegetables that can go from garden to plate in minutes. There is no better way to save money while adding more nutritious veggies to your diet.
ENJOY GOOD FOOD, GOOD HEALTH, AND A GOOD LIFE!
