Dietary Supplements Are Necessary

Our diet is the source of nutrients needed by our body. Yet, due to many reasons, this does not happen. Hence, we need to take dietary supplements to make up for deficiencies of vital nutrients. If we did not do so, we might face undesirable consequences like anemia, chronic fatigue, poor immunity and so on.

Put simply, dietary supplements are products that provide nutrients like iron, vitamins and minerals. Ideally, by making a careful choice of the kind of foods you eat, you would have the right intake of your daily requirement of nutrients. But, this rarely happens. Hectic lifestyles that prevent healthy eating habits and availability of easy convenience foods force many to ignore the harmful effects of what is on their plate.

Dietary supplements are necessary to fight off the adverse consequences of improper food habits and age-related disorders. Most of the modern day diseases like diabetes, hypertension, chronic fatigue and anemia are lifestyle-related. As we cannot turn the clock back to the old era, we must therefore rely on dietary supplements as the manna for the new age.

Dietary supplements are essential for most people. Here are a few situations in which they play a vital role in giving positive health benefits:

- If you are a chronic poor eater and you do not get enough vitamins and minerals from your regular diet. You need to have three to four servings of fresh vegetables and fruits every day. If loading up on salad is not your idea of a great meal, then you need dietary supplements to give you what you miss out.

- If you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, dietary supplements ensure that the developing fetus gets appropriate daily requirement of essential nutrients. For example, iron and folate deficiency could cause neural tube defects or poor mental development in the baby. Vitamin C deficiency leads to poor development of gums and Vitamin D deficiency causes impaired development of bones. If you have other pregnancy-related disorders like pica, reduced appetite, nausea etc., you would most probably be not eating right. Therefore, dietary supplements make up for what is lacking in your diet so that your baby is healthy.

- If you are a woman over the age of 45, you are more likely to suffer the effects of menopause. Menopause brings change in the hormone levels and consequently thinning of the bones. Osteoporosis leads to fractures unless women take calcium supplements regularly.

- If you suffer from diseases that interfere with normal absorption of nutrients from the diet, as is often the case in old age, supplements provide the additional quantity required in order to make up for reduced uptake.

- If you are convalescing after surgery or major illness and you have not started on your regular diet as yet, dietary supplements help in speedy recovery by providing the recommended daily allowance. This is true especially for the B group vitamins.

Although there are many benefits of dietary supplements, there are a few precautions one must take. Make sure that you are using pharmaceutical-grade products that have been tested for efficiency in the body. Overdose of some vitamins may be harmful, or wasteful. Many products on the shelves today, do not contain what they say on the label.