Supplements - Do You Really Need to Take Them?

There is often much controversy that can be stirred up when the subject of supplementation arises. Most of it stems from the world view that you have about nutrition. There are 3 groups that you can fall into on this subject. The first says that you get all your minerals and vitamins from your food so supplementation is not just unnecessary but in fact a waste of money. The second group feels that since Americans in general have such poor diet habits that supplementation is absolutely necessary for good health.

They are the type of people that are ingesting maybe 7-10 supplements a day to aid in their nutrition. Then there is the third group to which I belong. We believe that you should be receiving the vast majority of minerals and vitamins from quality food that you consume. At the same time, however, there may be one or two ingredients missing in your diet that you can get through proper supplementation.

Let me tell you what I tell my patients when they ask me about whether they should be taking nutritional supplements. I will tell you three good reasons why you should take supplements, explain to you how too much may be bad for you, and the 3 things to look for in a good supplement company.

There are three good reasons why you should be taking nutritional supplements. The first is that our farm soil is depleted. That means that the soil produces less quality food. Over farming, use of super strong chemicals and pollution have changed the soil dramatically over the past 50-75 years. In fact research shows that it takes close to ten bowls of salad today to equal the nutritional value of one bowl of salad in 1940.

The second good reason for supplementation is that most of us walk around with high mineral deficiencies. Things like alcohol, stress, air pollutants and contaminated water leach us of our vitamins and minerals. Due to this loss being so high it is almost impossible to replace them all through food alone.

The third good reason to supplement is that we eat way too much processed foods. When a company processes food it that food loses most of its nutritional value. Vitamins and minerals are lost and replaced with chemical additives, preservatives and emulsifiers. An example would be something like banana pudding. Bananas are a good source of vitamin B6, Vitamin C, and potassium. The banana pudding on the other hand has only trace amounts of these nutrients left because of the harsh processing the banana goes through before making it to the grocery store as pudding.

Too much supplementation like everything in life can work against you instead of for you. For example Vitamin C at 2000mg and under is wonderful. At mega doses of 3000 mg and higher you could experience diarrhea and kidney stones.

Three things to look for in a supplement company:

• Good manufacturing practices (GMP) - which are standards set by the FDA in the way materials are handled, sampling, and even labeling
• Biologists, chemists and medical doctors on staff - assures better quality product
• Research and development department - not all companies have this, but doesn't it make sense that you want to company to continually improve the product and that if there is a problems they can do instant testing to find a solution?

My final recommendation is to look for supplement companies that only sell through licensed health care providers. These companies tend to be higher quality because they need to show the trained health care provider the quality product before he recommends it to his patients.