Taking Supplements for a Varied Diet

If you are conservative about taking medication (and it is not a bad thing if you are) you may be wondering, “Why Do I need supplements – that’s why there is healthy food for all the nutrients I need.” The issue is that eating well isn’t enough to keep you healthy and many of us are currently living with vitamin deficiencies.

Some of these deficiencies contribute to chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis. Individuals who have problems in taking and absorbing vitamins, for instance, the elderly, vegans, alcohol-dependent individuals and those who have issues absorbing nutrients properly should take supplements.

Medical experts believe being prudent is recommended, so every adult should consider taking a vitamin supplement. Here are some more reasons why you should be taking supplements.  

Trying to get your nutrients from healthy foods is honourable and scores you very high brownie points from others around you and the medical field, but isn’t going to make you the healthiest person in the world. “Why not?”, you ask. It’s because the food that is produced today doesn’t have enough nutrients to give you.

Over 100 years ago food did have enough nutrients to keep us healthy, but today’s food is highly processed and genetically modified. Modern-day farms use pesticides and fertilizers that grow and protect the plant from pests, but destroy its nutrient value.

Over farming has left the soil depleted in its own minerals like zinc, manganese and calcium. Also, farmers are forced to grow high amounts of crops in a short space of time to cope with demand. 

If your digestive system isn’t up to standard then you won’t be able to obtain high-quality nutrients from foods. In the United States about half of its population has issues producing enough stomach acid.

This is concerning since humans need stomach acid to absorb nutrients from food and without acid it increases the probability of experiencing inflammation, bacteria and various other health issues like bloating, stomach pain and depression. The catch 22 for low stomach acid is a deficiency in vitamin B. Go figure.  

With the urgencies life throws at us, it is easy just to bang something in the microwave and called it a meal. Foods in many fast-food restaurants are processed, which lack nutritional value.

If we do find the time to cook nutritionally, most of us have the tendency to overcook and add too much heat to our food, which annihilates its nutritional value.  

Stress can rob you of nutrients such as calcium, magnesium and zinc. Zinc is usually the first to go and leaves the body after the first few minutes of the arrival of stress. You can sometimes find that you are zinc deficient when you notice white spots on your fingernails.

Stress can cause an increased sympathetic nervous system activity in the body, which lowers the digestive strength. A reduction in nutrient absorption and using nutrients ineffectively follows. When a person is stressed, they will need more nutrients than those who aren’t. 

When you take the plunge to lose some weight, you could be missing out on all the excess fat – hooray, but all the important nutrients as well.

Going on a calorie-reduced diet lowers the amount of nutrients you are consuming, resulting in nutrient deficiencies. As you go through the battle of the bulge, you will find that your body relies more on protein as an energy source.

It is very common for people on a weight loss program to go on a protein supplement to avoid muscle loss, prevent hunger and stabilize blood glucose levels.

Supplements are also a good way to add protein into your diet without adding any carbohydrates and fats.

Athletics taking supplements to out win their opponents is not new news to anyone, and supplements are not taboo and damaging like steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) are.

Athletes take supplements that contain amino acids such as leucine, isoleucine and valine, which is a group are called branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs).

Branched-chain amino acids are different from other amino acids, because they provide energy to the muscle cells and can be used during training sessions to increase the quality of the athlete's workout.

BCAAs additional benefits include increased muscle mass and strength while reducing body fat. On top of that, athletes take BCAAs to lower post-workout muscle soreness.   

Giving your body the essential nutrients it needs, can greatly improve your quality of life. One specific nutrient that can help you achieve this is resveratrol, which was discovered in 1939 in plants. It helps plants to develop through protection from fungi and bacteria.

In humans, it raises the metabolism, increases energy, suppresses appetite, stabilizes blood sugar, speeds up the breakdown of fat deposits, encourages insulin sensitivity and carbohydrate metabolism, lowers inflammation, boosts muscle mass, suppresses oestrogen and gives protection to the stomach lining.