Are Vitamin Supplements For Me? By Mike Friedman

Do you ever wonder if you're getting enough nutrients from the burger you had yesterday or if the banana you ate for lunch would supplement the large fry you consumed for dinner?

Eating a healthy and well-balanced diet can be difficult. Unfortunately, preparing your own meals and taking the time to read about which vitamins you will need on a regular basis seems like an impossible feat to many people struggling with their diets and health.

Consuming all of the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy may be hard, but with supplemental vitamins, there may be a way to help you after all.

Food First

While supplements can be beneficial to keeping your body healthy, it is crucial to try and eat healthy before anything else.

Although vitamins and supplements will provide you with lost nourishment that food is not, it isn't a substitute for not eating healthy. Eating a well-balanced meal is an important part of keeping your body constantly fueled for whatever events or activities you may get into.

Regardless of whether you are a meat-eater or choose to only eat vegetables, there are many different kinds of foods that provide the vitamins and minerals you need on a regular basis to keep your health optimal.

Fuel For Later

One of the biggest benefits that supplements and vitamins can provide, if you're unable to eat nutritiously for whatever reason, is promoting healthy tissue growth and bone strength.

During each day, your tissues and bones can begin to wear down from simple and basic activities. Vitamins, such as Calcium and Vitamin D, help promote growth in these areas so that you can replace old tissue with new tissue. If you're not eating a well-balanced diet, you need to take supplements that will provide you with these vitamins so that your body doesn't wear itself down.

Disease Prevention

If you are eating healthy, it can still be a good idea to take vitamins and supplements to ensure you are getting the recommended daily dose for everything. Sometimes many people think they are eating healthy because they have an orange or banana for lunch, but if that is all they eat, they're certainly not getting enough vitamins to promote regrowth and fight diseases.

Many supplements and vitamins, including vitamins A, C and E, work as antioxidants in the body and fight against some of the chemicals in your body that promote cancer growth. When you take these vitamin supplements that act as antioxidants, you are doing what you can to help promote cancer prevention.

Who Should Take Supplements And What Kinds?

While anyone can take supplements regularly, it is important to look at your daily diet and why you may be taking a vitamin supplement in the first place. For example, make a list of what kinds of foods you eat everyday. This can help you decide which vitamins you may be missing from your diet.

Another way to measure what kinds of vitamins you are missing from your diet is to consider your daily activities. Are you constantly on the road for work and eating fast food? Do you have time to prepare home-cooked meals or eat a lot of processed, canned foods? These questions can help you decide what sort of supplements you should be consuming.

Some of the people who should regularly be taking vitamins or supplements can include:

* Pregnant women

* Children, because many have unhealthy eating habits

* Vegetarians

* If you’re dieting and aren’t allowed to eat carbs or other food groups

Educate Yourself

Educating yourself about a proper supplement regimen and what kinds of vitamins you will need is a great way to guarantee you will be consuming these vitamins safely and correctly.

A doctor can help you find a beneficial vitamin regimen and also provide you with information you may need about what kinds of supplements are available and what purpose they serve. It is important to remember that diet supplements and other 'instant result' pills are usually too good to be true and can often have negative side effects.

Be sure to read the instructions on each vitamin and supplement you take. It is often recommended that if you're unsure of what vitamins you need, to simply take a multivitamin. This way you aren't mixing together supplements blindly.