Nutrient Intake in the U.S.
In recent nutrition surveys it was discovered that levels of nutrients such as Omega-3s, antioxidants, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc were found to be very low in large amounts of people in the USA. Think of this: how much Omega-3 do you think you consume per day? Omega-3s are found in salmon, fish, flaxseed oil, walnuts, soy beans and cold extra virgin olive oil (if you heat it, it will damage the fatty acid chains). And they are terrific anti-inflammatories, boosting your immune system as well.
The Importance of Calcium
Calcium is a mineral that was found to be low in our diets as well. Calcium is extremely important to the maintenance of bones and teeth. It helps to prevent osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become fragile and break more easily. Osteoporosis attacks both men and women, although women are four times more likely to develop it than men.
For this reason, the National Institute of Health recommends that adult women have a daily intake of 1000 to 1200 mg of calcium every day before menopause and between 1300 and 1500 mg after menopause.
Milk, cheese, yogurt, tofu, dried beans and dark green vegetables are very good sources of calcium, Yet it is better to complement with calcium supplements, since it’s hard to get the daily recommended amounts just from food, mainly if you want to prevent bone illnesses.
Vitamins and Minerals
Your daily diet should provide your body with 13 essential vitamins, 7 major minerals and trace minerals. Besides that, you should also include antioxidants and fatty acids. Now, how are you going to manage all that? That is why multivitamins are recommended.
There are many brands of multivitamins, but at the moment of purchase, check the labels to see if they contain the following vitamins and minerals in the amounts recommended by the FDA. You should see in the back a “DV”, which stands for “Daily Value”, and it is normally based on a 2,000 or 2,500 calorie diet. This information is normally found at the bottom part of the label, along with information on important nutrients, such as fat, sodium and fiber.
These are the 13 essential vitamins you need to look for in multivitamin supplements:
Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B7, Vitamin B9, Vitamin B12.
The seven major minerals you should look for in your nutritional supplements are:
Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfur and chloride.
The difference with trace minerals is that you need many fewer trace minerals than you need major minerals. The trace minerals are:
Chromium, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc.
The FDA and Nutritional Supplements
Does the FDA approve nutritional supplements? Depends. In 1994, the DSHEA, or Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, was passed, which gives nutritional supplement manufacturers the right to sell their product as a dietary supplement and total control over what type of information they disclose in their labels.
In other words, the FDA doesn’t regulate dietary supplements the way they do food and drugs. It is the manufacturer's responsibility to be truthful with what is printed on its product’s labels. What the FDA does is take action against unsafe products after they have reached the market. So it is up to the consumer to read the label, research the product to see if there were any safety issues related to that manufacturer in the past and determine whether to trust the label or not.
Although it might seem a little disconcerting that the FDA doesn’t regulate the dietary products before they go to the market, it is not very common to find safety problems regarding the multivitamin products. The general concern regarding the way the FDA regulates multivitamin supplements is that the manufacturer might provide a smaller amount of nutrients than what is claimed in the label.
Having all the nutrition your body requires not only will give you optimal health, but also will speed up your metabolism, burning more calories, hence increasing weight loss. So if you are looking into a weight loss program, you might also want to add daily multivitamins to your diet.
Discussion of weight loss supplements can be very polemic because of the type of regulation the FDA uses for these supplements and because some manufacturers make far-fetched claims that seem unlikely to be true.
What Good Supplements Can Do For You
However, there are some very good products on the market that do help with losing weight, by speeding up the metabolic process when used along with a good diet and exercise. Some brands help balance your levels of hormones such as insulin and cortisol as well as balancing your blood sugar, all of which play a great role in controlling your appetite and cravings, not to mention controlling stress and mood swings.
On the other side of the coin, there are some products that make you lose only body water and not really burn fat, and some of them might even have undesirable side effects depending on your health conditions, such as headaches, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, arrhythmias and addiction.
But, whether it is an effective or ineffective product, if you have pre-existing conditions, it is highly advisable that you consult your physician before taking weight loss supplements.
Many people turn to supplements as an alternative to exercising and dieting. Losing weight is a team effort in which the weight loss supplement is just another player that comes to complement the team. The other two players are exercise and a good diet. Along with them, a good supplement should help you reach your fitness goals faster.
The bottom line is: a weight loss supplement is not a magic wand. So if you are a couch potato who hates vegetables and fruit, don't expect the supplement to transform you in a Calvin Klein underwear model or a Victoria's Secret catalogue girl. Get up from the couch, put on your running shoes and start eating right!
