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Supplements vs. a Balanced Diet?

frizzantik said:
Unless you know you have a deficiency, there is no point in taking a multivitamin just because you feel cloudy headed or tired, except i suppose for the placebo effect. you could be tired and cloudy headed for any number of reasons.. hell just eating fast food makes me feel couldy headed and fatigued =D

Convincing youself that a multivitamin is equivalent to a balanced diet could defintely do more harm than good.. if your diet consists of a Big Mac with a Centrum for dessert, i wouldn't call that healthy. ;)
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What marcus said. How could a multivitamin possibly hurt when someone is eating just big macs every day? The issue with multivits is overdosing. This isn't going to happen when you eat shit anyways. In this scenerio, mulit vits are better than nothing; they aren't a balanced meal!

Also, from my reading, it looks like just about everyone has a vit/mineral deficency and doesn't know it. There is a point in taking a multi vit even if you don't "know" you have a deficiency (as long as your aren't overdosing of course).

In my case, I'm a vegan who probably doesn't eat enough calories. It is HIGHLY recomended that I supplement certain areas (such as calcium, B family, and omega-3s). I don't eat much crap and cook healthy stuff every day. Even so, a few multi vits each week make me feel miles better. Placebo or not, it doesn't seem to be hurting anything and is worth $5 every two or three months.

yep, that's my take on it anyways :)
 
How could a multivitamin possibly hurt when someone is eating just big macs every day?


the vitamin can help, but it's not going to outweigh the negative of the big macs, and thus a healthy diet without the multivitamin is still going to be better.

the main issue i see with multivitamins is that people take them so they can continue eating poor diets, as opposed to fixing their diet. if you consume enough calories per day, but not enough vitamins, you really ought to stop eating so much junk food, or you need to vary your diet more. if you are not getting enough calories and not enough vitamins, you should eat more food.

Also, from my reading, it looks like just about everyone has a vit/mineral deficency and doesn't know it.
thats funny cause it contradicts my reading that deficiencies pretty much only occur today in third world countries.


i guess if you have the money to spare and you get a nice placebo effect from it, theres no reason to stop...
 
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And its WAY impossible to eat organic unless you are rich as hell.
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This is a common myth....if you buy what's on sale and what's in season and you go to the right stores (trader joe's is great, for example) it's VERY affordable.

I don't eat out very much and I don't buy a lot of processed foods -- I make 1-2 meals every day from scratch -- and buy mostly organic food, and I don't break the bank, but I eat very well.
 
^ The produce section at Trader Joe's leaves a lot to be desired. :| Their products are rather inexpensive, though.

You could try joining a natural foods co-op if there's one nearby. That might save you some money.
 
fairnymph said:
This is a common myth....if you buy what's on sale and what's in season and you go to the right stores (trader joe's is great, for example) it's VERY affordable.

I don't eat out very much and I don't buy a lot of processed foods -- I make 1-2 meals every day from scratch -- and buy mostly organic food, and I don't break the bank, but I eat very well.
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Some places maybe..we dont have a trader joes here..we actually only have one store that carries anything organic and its all really expensive. People in bigger areas probably have a better selection.
 
^^^
That's definitely true. I should have brought that up. Where I grew up (small town middle class area) there was one very expensive health food store, so I feel you.

You do the best you can, for sure. I'm not sure I could ever live in a place again that doesn' thave cheap healthy food though...I'm addicted to having it so readily and affordably available to me. =D
 
You might want to check the local produce stands to see what they have. One of ours has the basic locally grown stuff, but it also has a small selection of organically grown local stuff that they carry, although the selection varies from time to time. It's definitely not that expensive, even when compared to the regular stuff at the chain grocery stores.
 
here's something interesting for all you athletes

While it is clear that vitamin and mineral deficiencies impair athletic performance, there is no evidence that vitamins taken in excess of normal daily requirements will improve physical performance. For example, in one study of 82 athletes from four sports (basketball, gymnastics, rowing, and swimming), 7 to 8 months of daily supplementation with a high-dose vitamin/mineral tablet failed to have an effect on muscular strength, or aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Heavy exercise is associated with an increased need for many nutrients, including iron, zinc, copper, chromium, vitamin B6, riboflavin and vitamin C. However, it is the position of the American Dietetic Association that these demands are usually met when the athlete eats more food to meet the increased energy needs.

...

First, Eat Well

It's much easier to take a vitamin/mineral pill than to change the way you eat. Supplements provide the illusion of caring for your health, but unless you're eating three squares a day, you're not getting the benefits of food itself. Remember that the word supplement means "something extra." No matter what an ad might imply, supplements do not replace food and cannot make up for nutritional deficiencies of a diet based on beer and pizza.

So, before reaching for a vitamin bottle, go straight to the source: your favorite fruits and vegetables. Not only will you get to enjoy the delicious flavor of the real thing, you'll also get the benefits of added energy, fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals (a scary sounding word which means health-promoting chemicals found by the hundreds in plants).

Fiber, the noncaloric plant material that aids digestion, helps prevent obesity, and helps ward off colon cancer and heart disease. In addition, the skins of many fruits contain cancer-fighting chemicals. For example, the skins of grapes contain a chemical called resveratrol which can prevent cells from turning cancerous. Also, those phytochemicals appear to prevent cancer, reduce tumor size, lower blood cholesterol levels and enhance immune function. You can't do all of this with a pill alone. Just as an adequate diet is not enhanced by supplementation, an inadequate diet is not redeemed by supplementation.

If you want to take vitamins, fine, but first stock up on fruits, vegetables and whole-grain bread products. The National Cancer Institute urges all Americans to include a generous intake of fruit (2-4 servings per day) and vegetables (3-5 servings per day). If athletes take care to select those that are dark green or yellow in color, they should meet their requirements for most of the antioxidant nutrients (including phytochemicals) from diet alone. One exception could be vitamin E. The Daily RDA for vitamin E is 15 IU, which may be an amount insufficient for most athletes. Recently, it has been suggested that vitamin E intakes of 100 to 400 IU per day may be reasonable for athletes engaged in moderate to heavy exercise.
http://www.power-nutrition.com/healthy eating/vitamins.html
 
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