When I mention the word vitamin, most people think pill. Thinking pill brings to mind confusing images of medicine and drugs. Though vita- mins can and certainly often do the work of both medicine and drugs, they are neither.
Quite simply, vitamins are organic substances necessaryfor life. Vitamins are essential to the normal functioning of our bodies and, save for a few exceptions, cannot be manufactured or synthesized internally. Necessary for our growth, vitality, and general well-being, they are found in minute quanti-ties in all natural food. We must obtain vitamins from these foods or fromdietary supplements.
What you have to keep in mind is that supplements, which are available in tablet, capsule, liquid, powder, spray, patch, and injection forms, are stilljust food substances, and, unless synthetic, are also derived from living plantsand animals.
It is impossible to sustain life without all the essential vitamins.
What Vitamins Are Not
Vitamins are neither pep pills nor substitutes for food.
A lot of people think vitamins can replace food. They cannot. In fact, vit- amins cannot be assimilated without ingesting food. There are a lot of erroneous beliefs about vitamins, and I hope this book can clear up most of them.
Vitamins are not pep pills and have no caloric or energy value of their own. Vitamins are not substitutes for protein or for any other nutrients, such as minerals, fats, carbohydrates, water—or even for each other! Vitamins themselves are not the components of our body structures. You cannot take vitamins, stop eating, and expect to be healthy.
How They Work
If you think of the body as an automobile's combustion engine and vita- mins as spark plugs, you have a fairly good idea of how these amazing minute food substances work for us.
Vitamins regulate our metabolism through enzyme systems. A single deficiency can endanger the whole body.
Vitamins are components of our enzyme systems which, acting like spar plugs, energize and regulate our metabolism, keeping us tuned up and func tioning at high performance.
Compared with our intake of other nutrients like proteins, fats, and carbo hydrates, our vitamin intake (even on some megadose regimens) is minuscule But a deficiency in even one vitamin can endanger the whole human body.
But, you should always remember that supplements are supplements and not replacement of regular and healthy food. Without food, they will not work.
Learning about vitamins can be confusing, especially when you are trying to figure out just what type of supplements you should be taking. Weve all been told at one time or another, that if we ate a nutritionally balanced meal three times a day we wouldnt need dietary supplements or need to know about vitamins, but of course, this just isnt realistic in our society.
A huge number of us are stressed out on a routine basis, and dont always have time to eat at all let alone a nutritionally balanced meal (and three of them?!). Vitamins should never be substituted for good nutritional intake. Your body needs fuel to accomplish all the tasks you have to attend to in a day. A good diet is one with plenty of calcium, protein, fats, carbohydrates, and fiber supplemented by vitamins as needed for specific health concerns.
Many food items are enriched with vitamins and minerals, like breads, pastas, and cereals. Information about vitamins listed on packaging includes the percentage of the daily recommended allowance of each, which will give you a pretty good idea how much you are getting of a certain vitamin or mineral. Calcium is an important mineral for women, and most sources about vitamins state that women should consume at least 1200-1500 mg of calcium daily. Most calcium supplements only contain 30-50% of the recommended daily amounts and must be supplemented by diet intake of other sources, such as cheese, yogurt, milk, and ice cream. About vitamin D, this is an important vitamin and is essential to bone health, and is included in some calcium supplements as well. Vitamin D can be absorbed through the skin via sunlight as well, but for people living in northern states, or for the elderly, this is not always an option, therefore a vitamin supplement is the answer.
Part of taking care of yourself is learning about vitamins and minerals that our bodies require for optimal health. Many sources are available to you to learn more about vitamins and how certain vitamin deficiencies as well as excess intake can be detrimental to your health. Its important to take an active role in your health, and be knowledgeable about vitamins in your cabinet and which are right for you. In addition to searching on the web, you can find an abundance of information about vitamins in various health publications, or you can even consult a nutritionist or naturopathic physician for advice about vitamins and supplements, and how you can implement them into your diet. Heres to your good health!
Both Johny Rider & Vita V. are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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