Vitamins and Minerals as Nutritional Supplements
There are many reason why people who live in the modern world need to use vitamins and minerals as supplements to the nutrition that they get from the food they eat. This article looks at some of these reasons.
Most of us rely upon others to produce our food for us - this means mass agricultural systems that work to get the most from their farming business. In the process of doing this the soils have been extensively and heavily worked for, in some cases, generations of farm producers and sometimes the soils were already old and depleted. The soils are our source of essential nutrients. Increasing we are finding that many soils around the world do not contain sufficient essential minerals - selenium is an example of a mineral that is often lacking in soils. If the soils do not contain the mineral then it is unable to enter our food supply. In addition to the depleted state of the soil, farming practices have encouraged rapid growth in plants and animals. This means the use of chemicals which do not add to the nutrition of the food but detract from the nutrition. These factors alone make it difficult for us to obtain the nutrition that our bodies need from the food we eat - but there are many other factors that also contribute to the problems.
Even when we have the time and energy to prepare foods that we would think should contain sufficient vitamins and minerals some of the nutrients have already disappeared from the foods. Fresh foods, such as fruit and vegetables, begin to lose their nutrient qualities as soon as they are picked at the farm. There can be long time between the picking and the appearance of the food on our plate.
We all have occasions when we don't eat the right things - we only have to think about what we eat during festive season to realize that even the best of us will sometimes 'go off the rails'. Our busy, stressful life styles and social circumstances often mean that we neglect our vitamin and mineral needs and we eat foods which are often low in the nutrients. These foods need more vitamins and minerals to deal with the chemicals (including free radicals) that our bodies produce when processing them. Sugars, for example are considered 'anti-nutrients' as they draw nutrients from the body's existing supply in order to deal with them. The same is the case with the many toxic chemicals that are in our environment. The air pollutants (cigarette smoke and car fumes), water pollutants, pesticides, herbicides, dust and pollens to suggest just a few add to the needs of our bodies for vitamin and mineral nutrients.
If you smoke cigarettes, drink too much alcohol, don't get enough rest or sleep and drink too much tea and coffee you also increase the vitamin and mineral needed by the body.
The body also has increased needs for vitamin and mineral demands because of pregnancy, child birth or nursing a baby. Athletes who want to be sure that the body is performing at its most efficient level will also require addition nutrition.
You can see from these factors that we can all be aided by the taking vitamin and mineral supplements. The emphasis here needs to be on the supplement - that is, a supplement to a generally healthy diet and not a substitute for a healthy diet. We do not know all that needs to be known about the nutrition that the body needs so the idea that we can just take a few pills and be healthy is not reality. There are still components in whole food that are needed by the body for health. It is important that for general health needs that the balance between the nutrients in maintained and that we don't take too much of one nutrient or the absorption and utilization of another nutrient will be affected. The use of specific vitamins and minerals to create desired health outcomes in the body is the realm of vitamins and minerals as medication and not vitamins and minerals as a supplement. Inmy next article I will look at the use of vitamins and minerals as medication - that is aimed at correcting specific health problems.
11.09.2007. 19:48
This article hasn't been commented yet.
Top
Write a comment
* = required field