Health and Fitness Hints

You can not skip your daily servings of fruits and vegetables and take vitamins or minerals supplements instead. Dietary supplements aren’t meant to replace real food, as they can’t provide the nutrients and benefits of whole foods.

However,
dietary supplements can still play a role in your health by complementing your regular diet if you are not getting enough nutrients due to poor eating habits or some health condition.

Vitamins and minerals also called micro nutrients are substances your body needs in small but steady amounts for normal growth, function and good health. Your body can’t make most micro nutrients, so you must get them from the foods you eat and in some cases, from dietary supplements. Whole foods are your best sources of vitamins and minerals. They offer three main benefits over dietary supplements:

*Whole foods provide a variety of micro nutrients your body needs. An apple for example provides some vitamin A but also vitamin C, calcium and iron.

*Whole foods provide dietary fiber. Fiber can help and prevent certain diseases.

*Whole foods such as fruit and vegetables contain natural substances called phytochemicals and antioxidants. They may help to protect against diseases and slow the oxidation process from damaging cell tissue.

There are a large number of people who don’t receive all of the nutrients they need from their diet. Simply they don’t eat enough a variety of healthy foods or they are on restrictive diets. For such people, dietary supplements can provide the vitamins and minerals their eating habits often don’t. Pregnant women and older adults have special nutrient needs and may also benefit from dietary supplements such as vitamins and minerals.

Breakfast cereals, Sports drinks, and many other processed foods claim to be packed with vitamins and minerals that will rev up you energy levels and health. You’ve seen the TV ads. This or that Amazing new cereal boosts athletic performance or the new dietary supplement, a miracle substance that will make you thinner, smarter, or better at whatever you do. You do know dietary vitamins and minerals are good for you.

But which and how much your body really needs? And is it possible to get too much of a good thing? The best way to get your daily dose of vitamins and minerals is from food. Although there’s usually nothing wrong taking a basic multivitamin, If you decide to take vitamins or minerals, consider these factors:

* Check and read the labels carefully. Product labels can tell you what the ingredients and active ingredients are the serving size and the amount of nutrients in a serving.

* Avoid dietary supplements that provide mega doses of vitamins and or minerals. Choose those brands that contain no higher doses than 100% of the RDA for any vitamins or minerals - that provides about 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV) of all the vitamins and minerals, rather than one which has, 500 percent of the DV for one vitamin and 20 percent of the DV for another.

* Look for ‘USP’ on the label. This ensures the standards for strength, purity, and dissolution established by U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP).

* Look for expiration dates. If a dietary supplement doesn’t have an expiration date, don’t buy it. If your supplements have expired do not use them.

* Store dietary supplements in a dry, cool place and away from children.

If you do choose to take supplements remember that some vitamins or minerals if taken in excess can build up in the human body and cause problems. However special groups of people, athletes, body builders, pregnant women and the elderly do have special nutritional needs. Use your supplements wisely.

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Both fish and the fish-oil supplements are a rich source of the important Omega-3 essential Fatty acids. The Omega-3 or n-3 fatty acids are a special class of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The have been named essential because they are essential for life and Omega-3 because of their chemical structure; the first double bond occur three carbon atoms away from the terminal end of the carbon chain. Abundance of scientific research has shown that omega-3 is an essential health component with many benefits at every life stage.

The three forms of n-3 fatty acids are LNA or alpha linolenic acid, EPA or eicosapentenoic acid and DHA or docosahexenoic acid. While LNA is a plant based source EPA and DHA are from marine sources. These together with n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids are considered essential since the must be consumed to become available to our bodies. The body is unable to synthesize Omega-3, or Omega-6 fatty acids

Current research suggests that we should include a regular intake of LNA in our diets or one of its related Omega-3 fatty acids. This would certainly require twice weekly consumption of fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, herring, mackerel trout and eel; regular intake of walnuts, pumpkin seeds, leafy vegetables or flax seeds. They are all sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. Once consumed essential fatty acids with further metabolism by cells contribute to the synthesis of some very important biologically active substances.

No official recommendation exists for optimum dose but on an individual bases the correct amount to be consumed should be linked to the intake of Omega-6 or n-6 fatty acids in the diet. Generally speaking 1-2g of EPA/DHA per day is considered sufficient for the average person. You will need to consume a 100g portion of salmon every day seven days a week. It is important to notice that experts for food standards do recommend to limit the amounts of the fish-oil rich types of fish to 2 portions a week for pregnant and breastfeeding women and 3 portions for every one else.

How are we going to deal with those recommendations and the same time supply our bodies with these very important nutrients? Perhaps the best way would be to look at our individual needs. Most of today’s diets are deficient in nutrients such Omega-3 and excessive in Omega-6 fatty acids. The main source of Omega-6 fatty acids is vegetable oils with a high proportion of linoleic acid. Excess and prolonged consumption of Omega-6 can have deleterious effect on the body especially in the absence of protective amounts of Omega-3. Serious distortion of the 6:3 ratios in your diet can lead to Asthma, Blindness, Heart disease and Cancer.

According to the experts option, eating cold water oily fish to increase your intake of fish-oil rich Omega-3 fatty acid it is the best idea but, we should limit our selves to no more than 3 portions a week, due to the toxicity problem associated with heavy metal build up on the flesh of older and larger fish. So where do we get the additional fatty acid that our body needs? One might rightly think the next best thing would be from fish-oil supplements. Think again. Fish oil supplements can only be as toxic as the fish they come from and, fish oils are easily oxidized to become rancid when exposed to air, heat or light to become unsuitable for human consumption even dangerous.

So what is the solution? High-grade concentrated fish-oil supplements. They have an advantage over the others as they have all impurities removed, have been concentrated to contain higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids and a small number of capsules is required to be effective. It would appear that the best way to ensure a healthy intake of Omega 3 without the risk of harmful pollutants is to consume fish from clean unpolluted waters and/or high-grade fish-oil supplements that has been through processes to filter out the impurities.

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Vitamin and mineral needs generally increase during pregnancy, especially the need for the B-vitamins, iodide iron and calcium. Extra needs for folate, iron and calcium are the most difficult nutrients for pregnant women to satisfy. These, then, should be the focus of the diet planning. The extra prenatal needs of B-vitamins (30%), folate (50%), B-6 (45%) can achieved through either dietary sources prenatal supplements or a combination of both. The use of supplemental folate is advised. The reason is that folate supplements have been used in studies and has shown to be effective in reducing neural tube defects.

Ideally, women should begin folate supplements 8 weeks before conception. Meeting folate needs during pregnancy maybe problematic for women who have taken oral contraceptives for long periods can inhibit folate absorption. Extra iodide is needed to prevent during pregnancy women from developing goiter. Increased iron intake is needed for the synthesis of extra hemoglobin during pregnancy and to provide extra stores for the fetus. Vitamin C supplements will help to increase iron absorption. Additionally, essential fatty acids from fish oil supplements or foods such as walnuts, leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, etc.

Overall, although women may have a natural instinct to consume the right foods in pregnancy, humans have far removed from living buy instinct that relying on our desires is risky. Nutritional counseling on good food choices and appropriate nutritional supplements is a more reliable. One approach to a diet that could support a successful pregnancy is based on the Food Guide Pyramid. This approach should include specific servings of foods that supply extra vitamins, minerals and other nutrients to meet the many needs during pregnancy.

A second approach is to use prenatal vitamin and mineral supplements especially formulated for pregnant women. Many women during pregnancy are not willing to change their diets to meet the increased nutrient needs. They may found it is easier for them to take prenatal supplements than to discuss diet changes. Prenatal supplements include all the critical nutrients for pregnancy. Women who are practicing vegetarians (vegans) they must carefully plan a diet that includes sufficient nutrients to meet the needs associated with pregnancy. The amounts provided by typical prenatal supplements should in most cases suffice.

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