The Truth about Supplements and Vitamins
The industry of Supplements and vitamins has increasingly grown throughout the past years. Acording to euromonitor.com the supplement and vitamin industry reached $27.7 billion in 2015 increasing by 4% . As Supplements and Vitamins become more popular in the US many questions are raised as well as controversies. Exactly what is a supplement ? You might not be aware of it but you most likely have taken a supplement . “A supplement is something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.” A vitamin is “any of a group of organic compounds that are essential for normal growth and nutrition and are required in small quantities in the diet because they cannot be synthesized by the body.” There are benefits and controversies regarding supplements.
Supplements and vitamins are becoming part of the american lifestyle. Helping aid to a more sufficient way of reaching the nutritional dailey values. Many athletes, men and women take supplements weather is to keep up their health or perhaps to make gains in the gym . As bodybuilding.com writes in an article Stacked Your Guid to supplement dosage and timing. It explains ” whether your goal is to increase strength, decrease body fat, or improve overall performance, adding supplements to your daily regimen can give you that extra edge” . Getting that extra edge as the article explains is one of many reasons why athletes and bodybuilding fanatics take supplements. Supplements have been proven to help people reach their physical goal.
There are countless supplements for different physical goals many of which have been proven effective. Supplements can help provide the vitamins that are essential to your body. By taking vitamins such as multivitamins, people are able to reach their nutritional health levels more easily. In the article “20 Little-Known Reasons To Take a Daily Multivitamin” by Dr Julian Whitaker explains one of the key reasons to why you should take vitamins he says, “As you get older, your body has a harder time absorbing nutrients from food. At the same time, your nutritional needs increase.” This is true because by taking a supplement such as a multi vitamin you help increase the levels of your nutritional intake thus enhancing your health. This is also important because not only are you increasing your nutritional intake but you’re also protecting yourself from health problems such as dental problems, diabetic complications, allergies and the list just goes on and on. A Lot of doctors may also recommend taking vitamins for those people that lack the nutritional intake. Choosing the right supplement can help you improve your health.
A Lot of the daily Vitamins can simply be achieved by just having a well balanced diet. In the article ¨The Dark Truth About Nutritional Supplements” by Amir Mourali touch on the important topic of on unregulated supplements he explains “By 2017, national sales are expected to reach just under $50 billion. All of this growth is in part due to the industry having nearly free rein to sell whatever it wants to the American people without having to worry about the FDA analyzing its products and claims beforehand¨ This is important because the majority of the population who is buying these supplements is buying them without being aware of possible effects the supplements can cause to their bodies in the long term.Not only this but we are unaware of some of the products that are actually found in these supplements. Yet the supplement and vitamin industries keep thriving each year making billions. People continue to buy these substances.
There is the controversy that americans consume countless vitamins and supplements that aren’t really needed. A study was conducted on nearly 200 dietary supplements intended for children. It was very surprising to find that the quantity of vitamins amounts ranged from 300%-900% of which depended on the type of vitamin. Are supplements doing more harm than benefit to us ? This really puts the saying ¨too much of a good thing is a bad thing ¨ up to the test. Can supplements and Vitamins really give you the same nutritional benefits that you get from food that already has them naturally ? The human body isn't made to consume so much concentrate of certain vitamins at once.Maybe next time that you think of getting that double cheeseburger at Mcdonald’s and think that you’re going to be fine taking that handy multivitamin might just think twice and choose a healthier option.
After reading and researching information regarding supplements and vitamins. I took it upon myself to interview a few students in my communications class Most students ranging from the ages of 17–18. I went ahead and took a study asking every student in my class if they currently take any vitamins or supplements. I was actually quite surprised when I found out that only 7/19 students take supplements or vitamins. How ever what I did find out was that the majority of the people interviewed had taken a supplement or vitamin sometime in their life .
I than went back and interviewed some of the few people that did say that they were currently taking some sort of vitamin or supplement. The first person I interviewed was Cody Holt a current senior. When I asked him the question whether he had ever taken any supplements and why, he answered ¨ Yes I actually take protein, creatine and I use preworkout before i lift. I take the protein and the creatine because they really help build mass as long as you still put in work. The pre work out you know just really gets me going ! I love it makes me feel amazing.¨ When I asked him if he had ever felt any side effects he said ¨ GAINS!¨. Next up I interviewed Bob Robinson also A senior .As I asked him the same question I had asked the previous interviewee. He told me that he took vitamins because his mom made him so that he could be healthier. The answer seemed fairly reasonable.
I was starting to realize that there was a trend that not all but most people who worked out or played sports took some kind of supplement like protein or vitamins as in Vitamin A or B. Most people that answered no to taking any supplements or vitamins answered that they didn’t feel any need for taking any supplements or vitamins.
After doing intensive research i’ve come to the conclusion that most vitamins or supplements aren’t needed but also don’t necessarily hurt you unless you have some kind of health condition that prevents you from taking that supplement . It’s more of an option whether you choose to take supplements or not. There will always be controversies on the topics and people will continue to purchase vitamins and supplements. They have simply become a part of our lives just like technology. Your best bet is to consult a doctor about you taking supplements. As we find better and faster ways to get to where we need to be physically people will continue turning towards supplements and vitamins.
