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Vitamins and minerals, our essential micro nutrients, have unlimited functions in the human body, but do we get enough of them?
Unfortunately for many people, the answer is no. According to the US Department of Agriculture, about 90 percent of us do not get enough magnesium, chromium, Vitamin A, B vitamins, vitamin E, zinc, and many other nutrients. The typical woman gets less than two-thirds the calcium she needs to help prevent osteoporosis, and many women are deficient in folic acid, which is important for preventing birth defects in the fetus.
The question is- how can you make sure that you are getting enough of these essential nutrients?
It is possible to get the required amount of these nutrients from a varied and healthy diet, but unfortunately most people don't eat a balanced diet. As a result, some people may use supplements to compensate for an unhealthy diet, which is not the proper function of supplements
Vitamin and mineral supplements do serve a useful purpose- they can help you get the extra nutrients that you need when your diet is less than perfect, and they can also provide you with the mega-doses that are required for preventative measures, that you can't easily get from foods. For example, large doses of Vitamin E (at least 100 IU) are recommended to lower the risk for heart disease and cancer, but to get that much you'd have to eat 25 cups of cooked spinach or drink 1 ¼ cups of vegetable oil (not recommended).
For that purpose, supplements can be a healthy addition to your diet, but they should not be used to replace a healthy diet. Supplements cannot provide all the other nutrients, such as fiber, phyto-chemicals, and macro nutrients that our bodies need. Furthermore, scientists are learning that the vitamins themselves may not be preventing disease. Instead the benefit may come from the way these nutrients interact with other components in food.
To sum up, you should aim to get most of your vitamins from a healthy, balanced diet, and take the word supplement for what it means- a complement or reinforcement, not a replacement.
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