To Supplement or Not??

A multi-vitamin with iron & calcium, Omega-3 and Vitamin D are what I believe are most important, especially for women.

I think Omega-3s are particularly hard to get in today's diet.

I truly believe that if you eat well/right, exercise, & get a full night of sleep....then, unless there are metabolic issues, you can lead a full & healthy life. Properly prepared foods can provide so much of your daily needs. Processed foods can obliterate all of the good in many foods. So it breaks down to a choice at the grocery store & then at home with prep.

Good Luck! & I also believe a 1st step should be a metabolic panel at the dr's office to see where you are & where you need to be!

I've been studying nutrition for a long time. I know that our soil is nutritionaly bankrupt. We have allowed farmers to use pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals that have completely distroyed the ecosystem of the earth. because of this, as an example; spinach grown in the 1950s was so good for you, and so full of nutrients. Today we would need 30 times more spinach to equal the amount of nutrients. So I know that we have to suppliment our diet with more than we get. I also believe that we need to regularly cleanse on the cellular level to get rid of toxins in our air, in our water, and our food that has been sprayed with chemicals. I know that this works! People who do a cellular cleanse lose body fat! Get more energy, and sleep better at night. You can do this nutritional cleanse along with a high nutrition shake for breakfast for about $150.00 per month.

Go to www.nutrimirror.com and track your food intake for a week. The site will produce a 'nutrition label' for your meal/day/week. It is a free site. Based on my personal eating, I found it easy to get my basic vitamins (A, B, C, etc.) and protein from food. However, getting the RDA of iron was more difficult, especially if I didn't eat an enriched cereal that day, and it was even more rare for me to get my RDA of calcium from food. So now I take a calcuim supplement, and make sure my 11-year-old daughter does too. I also take fish oil (actually, I take the Mega Red Krill oil) for brain health. Right now, I'm not sure how to measure whether I get "enough" Omega-3 from food. So that's how I have decided to spend my supplement $.

BTW, I love Nutrimirror. By using the site to guide me in making sensible decisions about what I ate (mostly whole, unprocessed foods), I lost 28 pounds (from 148 to 120 lbs; I'm 5'3"), at a pound per week. My weight loss was healthy, and sustainable, and I can use the education I learned while using the site intensely to guide me as I maintain my weight now. Good luck.

I take some supplements for insomnia that I think are necessary because once I started taking them I started sleeping. Sleep is important to me so the money I spend is irrelevant. However I do have a budget and I shopped around I have found that puritans pride has the best prices and there shipping costs are reasonable. Also they are a reputable company so I trust the products that i buy from them.

You can absolutely meet your nutritional needs without supplementing. Most people don't though.if you aren't eating lots of fresh fruit and veggies everyday then a multivitamin wouldn't be a bad idea. the best way to get vitamins though is through food. You can "supplement" your fridge and pantry with some super foods though......like broccoli, avocados, sprouts, spinach, seaweed, miso, tofu, kale, almonds, walnuts, pomegranate, e.v. olive oil,blueberrys, acai nectar, grade b maple syrup,beets, etc...

I have some metabolic issues that are still being figured out by my doctor. My body does not use food properly and is very sensitive tot he exact amounts of protien and carbs I eat. My muscles are actually slightly damaged all the time and even Mayo Clinic could not figure out why. Along withthis came a pretty intense fatigue which led me to research supplements. I now take Usana, which is the only thing that makes me feel somewhat normal and function regularly. I only take a half dose of the essentials, which turns out to be about $25 month. Totally worth it, I'll pay that for the rest of my life if I have to. It's an amazing company and an amazing supplement. Check out usana.com if you want. You get a cheaper price by buying through someone who sells it rather than through the website. I also take Calcium and Fish Oil. I think you just need to find what works for you, everybody is different. I do know that lots of recent research shows that we are all painfully deficient in Vitamin D and Omegas, so that would be a place to start. If you can afford organic produce, that's a great way to get the nutrients that you need. Organic produce is proven to have higher nutrient value than conventional. We buy organic when we can.

As you get older the metabolism does slow down. Eating a well balanced healthy diet is essential but we can't get everything we need in our body everyday with food. Good supplements do cost but it is so worth it to be healthy and to be able to keep up with the kids. When searching for healthy supplements look for supplements that are cold pressed, standardized, made with no added sugars or dyes. My company has a discount program and our Essential Vitamins and Omega 3 plus, and our Figure 8 Protein Drinks are the top of the line and you can save with a discount membership (which I compare to Sams or Costco) PM me for more information or a couple of days of the womens essential sample you will feel the difference in your energy level. Congratulations on wanting to become healthier.

Higher quality foods, of course, cost more money, but if you want to go that route, eat grass-feed or free-range type LEAN meats only, and as much organic veggies and fruits as possible, and stay away from ALL refined foods, foods with added sugars, synthetic stuff etc.

And still.... Some of us cannot meet our needs without supplementation. I guess I did not eat enough fish & other sea foods, so I did end up with an iodine/iodide deficiency. Without that, our thyroids cannot work as well (goiter) and we have reduced energy, gain weight more easily, and our brain may not even work as well (http://itsnotmental.blogspot.com/2011/01/brain-health-thy...)

In addition, I have allergies. There are some foods I cannot have, so that complicates my diet... AND since I am also allergic to pollens and more, I have other inflammatory processes going on in my body. I have arthritis. So what do I do? I either must take LOTS of prescriptions meds with some major consequences or take LOTS of supplements and simply feel healthier while taking care of the inflammatory processes in my body. I think that because of my poor past eating habits, and environmental toxins, yes - I need supplements now to combat damage in my body. Maybe if I had grown up with only excellent, wholesome only, clean non-processed foods and in a pristine environment with little stress (ha ha ha) I would not need extra fish oil and other supplements today, never would have had any severe or chronic health conditions.... but like I said - "ha ha ha"

There is more to it. Some genetic variances requires us to need different supplements and there is not a good way to get what we need from our modern diet. For instance, some of us have a glitch where we need extra methylated B vitamins (see http://itsnotmental.blogspot.com/2008/06/nutrition-genes-.... Some of us need extra vitamin D due to a vit D cell receptor polymorphism (we need more vit D in general than previously thought http://itsnotmental.blogspot.com/2010/12/brain-health-vit....

I suggest you consult with an MD who is specially trained in integrative, anti-aging or functional medicine. He/She will probably run a lot of tests on you including nutritional and hormonal ones, to determine how best to optimize your health.

Do I get tired of taking the supplements? No, but they are hard to remember, so I had to set up a schedule. I have my cell-phone alarm go off several times in the morning as reminders to TAKE them (some before breakfast, some after). I have no problem remembering my bedtime pills (which includes a pharmaceutical antihistamine). As for the rest of the day? Nope - I don't take them, and feel I am doing well enough taking my morning pills and nighttime ones.

BUT - I would probably be better off if I took them during the day as well.

My mother who has been in the medical field for 40+ years raised us under the understanding that if you pay attention to what you eat and be sure to eat all of the food groups you should have no need to supplements. In short, she is a BIG believer in eating right and trusting the good Lord knew what he was doing when he built us.

All that being said, it is so easy to fall into the "pill/powder/supplement" trap. If I were you, I would research outside of the seller of these products on what each item really does and how you can get it in food or what other means are suggested. I would also be very aware of what is actually in these supplements. In today's world we are SO inundated with chemicals, additives, hormones and God knows what else that not knowing what you are getting into can be just as frightful as picking up a burger from McDonald's.

There are also risks with herbal supplementing as well. A very dear friend of mine had an herbal specialists that was prescribing him a cocktail of wonder-herbs. Sadly, he was diagnosed with cancer of the throat and come to find out, the specific mix of herbs he was taking every day was actually working against him and breaking down the function of his internal organs. His numbers on most functions in his body were so off they could not perform surgery to remove the cancer for 2 months while they cleaned out his system. I have also heard other stories where herbs or other supplements can cause problems with surgery or anesthesia.

All this being said, I am not completely opposed to supplements, I just cautiously move forward. There is a lot of gimmick out there without concern for you, they are just concerned about the money.

Happy health!

Suppliments are not truely necessary when you are eating properly, rather than snacking throughout the day or do not have any med. issues.

How about forfeiting the prepackaged foods in favor of homemade goodness for health and flavor. Also realize that a few pounds here and there is not that big of a deal after baby, it is the more than a few that may need to be reduced.

But if you were to give up pop, juicy drinks and prepackaged foods most likely the extra pounds will come back off.