Consume a healthy diet to ensure you receive all the essential vitamins and minerals your body requires, taking any additional supplements only if advised by a healthcare provider or dietitian.
Your food can provide most of the vitamins and minerals you require, particularly if your diet includes an array of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and proteins.
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic substances found in small amounts in various natural foods that play many important roles for our bodies. Vitamin A, D, E and K fat-soluble vitamins store in liver fat for storage purposes and could potentially reach toxic levels if taken in excess.
Water-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin C and the B-complex vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid and folate/folic acid), do not store in your body, instead being excreted through urine. While they do not pose as great of a danger as fat-soluble ones do, replacement should still be taken daily – though higher-numbered B vitamins like cancer treatment laetrile were once classified as vitamins but have now been reclassified.
Minerals
Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic solids with an identifiable chemical composition and crystal lattice structure. A mineral’s classification depends on its color and luster as well as properties like its crystal shape and response to chemicals.
Mineral nutrients are necessary for maintaining human health, but taking vitamin or mineral supplements should not replace a balanced diet. Furthermore, exceeding the daily recommended amount for any vitamin or mineral is not advised.
Minerals can be found in foods like meat, poultry, fish, dairy products and vegetables. Furthermore, certain minerals are also used in making everyday items like glasses, pots and pans, batteries and automobiles; while others, such as gold and silver, are even considered precious metals. All minerals are created through geological processes such as metamorphism, cooling of magma or lavas and precipitation from solutions.
Dietary Supplements
Dietary supplements are a broad category of nutrition-rich products that may include vitamins, minerals, herbs or botanicals, amino acids and enzymes. Dietary supplements come in many forms – tablets, capsules, gummies, powders and drinks can all be sold as dietary supplements; examples include multivitamins, calcium, iron probiotics fish oil. Some dietary supplements are prescribed by healthcare professionals – for instance iron for people suffering anemia; calcium for those at risk of osteoporosis and folic acid for those pregnant or breastfeeding mothers.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) treats dietary supplements like food products rather than drugs; thus they cannot make claims that treat, cure or prevent disease and must be labeled accurately.
The FDA has issued Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), which supplement companies must abide by in order to guarantee the identity, strength, purity and composition of dietary supplements sold in stores. GMPs reduce contamination risks as well as improper labeling issues; additionally they monitor marketplace products to make sure no false or misleading claims.
Side Effects
Vitamin supplements have long been seen as a means to better health; however, large-scale clinical trials have demonstrated otherwise. Multivitamins do not significantly enhance the wellbeing of most normal people. Furthermore, taking too much of certain vitamins may have adverse reactions – for instance taking too much B6 can become toxic at high doses while fat-soluble vitamins such as A can accumulate to potentially dangerous levels within our bodies and accumulate to toxic levels over time.
Vitamins are needed in small doses to maintain normal cell and molecular functions, but should not serve as a replacement for eating healthily and providing ample other sources of nutrition. Pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children must ensure they consume adequate levels of A and D to meet nutrient needs; excessive exposure to E or K must also be limited.
If you experience severe side effects after taking multivitamins, such as hives or difficulty breathing, please consult with a healthcare provider immediately. Some vitamins can interfere with medications prescribed to you as part of medical treatment plans and treatments that you are already undertaking.
