Vitamin supplements can help you to round out your diet and are an easy way to meet your nutrition goals. But, not all vitamin supplements are good for you. Also, the way you take them plays a role in their efficacy as well.
Make sure to consult your primary care physician or a reliable naturopathic herbalist to ensure that you are using healthy vitamin supplements that will not cause unwanted effects on your body.
This consultation is a necessary step as you cannot take just any supplement. Some have uncomfortable side effects and others may cost a lot but have very little benefits for your health.
You Do Need a Supplement
You may wonder whether you need to add supplements to your diet and the answer is yes, you do. This is because we would need to eat a very wide range of fruits, vegetables, meats, and more to meet all the nutritional needs of the human body.
Vitamin supplements can help provide the nutrients you need to round out your existing diet. Naturally, it is better to receive your nutrients from your food but where this is not possible, a well-made supplement can be a good substitute.
This is especially important for people who cannot eat certain foods due to intolerance such as lactose intolerance or for people who have strict dietary requirements such as vegans.
A Multivitamin is a Good Overall Supplement
Because of the above reason, even if your diet is healthy and full of fresh food and you do not have any dietary restrictions, a multivitamin can be a good idea to include in your diet.
Multivitamins can come in different amounts of vitamin content, but avoid choosing the ones with a higher number. It may seem like a better deal, but your body can only absorb a set amount of the vitamins and the rest will be excreted. If you are otherwise healthy and pregnant or beginning a period of higher than normal exercising, then you should add a multivitamin supplement to your diet.
What You Need Changes With Age
As we age, the nutrition requirements of our bodies change as well. Try to add a regular vitamin D supplement to your diet to help protect against osteoporosis and glucosamine supplements to help your joints stay supple.
Vitamin supplements that provide extra doses of antioxidants focused on eye health is highly recommended as the wear and tear on our eyes gets worse with age. These nutrients will delay degradation and help you stay healthy for longer.
The Way You Take Supplements Matters
Vitamin supplements can make you feel nauseated if you take them on an empty stomach. Some supplements are fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, and K and will require you to eat food with some fat content to work best.
The right foods to aid supplement absorption guarantees that you will receive the full benefit of the vitamins. Otherwise, you may just be eating them without proper absorption and are unlikely to see an improvement in your overall well-being.
Vitamins Have Best-By Dates
There is a myth that because most vitamin supplements are pills that they are good even past the expiry date. Indeed, some supplements can still be absorbed into your body even if they are well past the expiry date.
But the efficacy of the supplement will have been greatly reduced. The potency of the pills can no longer be relied on to supply the full milligram level it is supposed to provide. Dispose of any supplements that have reached their expiration date as their quality is no longer guaranteed.
Dispose Correctly
Avoid disposing of vitamin supplements in the trash as stray animals may get into them. Not all vitamins that are healthy for humans is good for animals, especially in the large milligram amounts humans take.
Place expired supplements in a disposable and biodegradable container before putting them in the trash. This will keep the animals safe from ingesting them as well as ensure that the pills will be destroyed correctly.
Vitamin supplements can be a wonderful addition to your diet as long as you are cautious about the way you incorporate them. Pay attention to the times at which you take them as well. It may be tempting to take all your supplements at the same time but this does not guarantee that your body is absorbing them all.
Your body is likely to absorb what it needs at that time of day and then excrete the rest. Find out the best times of days for your body to absorb the different supplements and set alarms to remind yourself to take them till it becomes a habit.
