Five Reasons Why You Should Be Taking a
Multivitamin
Many if not most doctors will claim
that you get all the vitamins you need from your daily diet. They say
this because they have almost no nutritional training at all. It's
not good medical practice, nor is it good science, but you will more
than likely get this advice from most medical professionals.
Needless to say the vitamin-mineral
formula you take should have certain things in it. A good high end formula will run you about $30 to $40 a month. Don't shortchange
yourself by buying some cheap supplement you see at Walmart or your
local CVS.
There is no substitute for quality, so
spend some extra money on the most worthwhile thing you CAN spend it
on...YOUR HEALTH!
With that said...there are many reasons
for using a good multivitamin, but here I will list just five of the
most important reasons.
1) Poor food choices.
People mostly eat what they like. The
problem with this is that our modern processed diet is engineered to
make people crave these foods that are lacking in good nutrition.
Most people give no thought at all as to how beneficial the foods
they eat actually are.
I am not saying that you can eat diet
of junk food and make up for it by taking vitamins. Eat as clean and
nutritious a diet as your lifestyle and time will allow, but, using a
high grade multivitamin will help fill in the gaps left from your
daily diet.
2) Deficiencies caused by lifestyle and
environment.
The environment we live in and our busy
stressful lifestyles can actually cause us to burn through certain
nutrients faster than we otherwise would. Most of us are deficient in
nutrients like vitamin-d (which is actually a hormone), magnesium,
and choline.
Using a good multivitamin can help
address these deficiencies, even though good eating and stress relief
is still essential for health.
3) Food absorption is aided by certain
nutrients.
Most people aren't aware that certain
vitamins and minerals are needed by your body in order to absorb your
food properly. B vitamins in particular are needed in order for your
body to take up nutrients properly and convert them to energy.
Since the b-vitamins (unlike some
others) are water soluble and get eliminated from your system in your
urine and stool, you need to supply them to your body every day. This
makes a very strong argument for supplementing on a daily basis.
4) Nutrient depleted soils.
It is a known fact that our soils have
been systematically depleted of important minerals though
over-farming and lack of crop rotation. Modern fertilizers only put
back nitrogen, and phosphorous. Many other minerals and trace
minerals are needed for the body to function properly, and the food
grown in our depleted soil does not
contain them.
5) To make up for age related
malnutrition.
Most people are not aware (but would
not be surprised to learn) that older people don't absorb nutrients
as efficiently as younger people do. Thus they can still have
nutritional deficiencies even if they eat correctly.
Some high end multivitamin formulas
have digestive enzymes in them to help people absorb the nutrients in
their food, which is why vitamin supplements should be taken with
meals.
Recent evidence indicates that you
should stay away from multivitamin formulas with added iron, because
this can increase risk of heart disease. Iron is extremely reactive
and adding extra to our diet via supplement form is probably not a
good idea.
Companies that I like for quality and price are Jarrow Formulas, Pure Encapsulations, Thorne, and Life Extension.
Eat as well as you can within your personal circumstances, and do add a good multivitamin and multimineral supplement to your daily diet for some extra insurance against nutritional deficiencies.
