What You Need to Know About Dietary Supplements
People need dietary supplements for a variety of reasons. Bodybuilders, for example, would need supplements to aid muscle buildup and strengthening of muscles such as concentrated protein, glutamine, creatine and weight gain powders. Athletes take in supplements to optimize or enhance their performance.
People with illnesses often require dietary supplements such as concentrated iron for anemia. And those on a diet also take supplements to ensure they get the required amount of minerals, vitamins, amino acids, herbs, enzymes and other nutrients. Most however take supplements for optimum overall health. A lot of people also take them to relieve stress and to boost their energy.
What are dietary supplements and how are they different from medicines and over-the-counter drugs?
The Congress in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which was enacted into law in 1994, defines dietary supplements or nutritional supplements as supplements to the diet. These supplements contain one or more ingredients or their constituents. These are taken orally in the form of liquid, capsule, pill or tablet and are labeled as dietary supplement in the packaging.
Dietary supplements come in different forms, thus the confusion with over-the-counter drugs. The market is flooded with different types and forms of supplements such as capsules, tablets, drinks, energy bars and powders. Most can be purchased even without a prescription. They are available in drug stores, supermarkets, grocery stores, natural food stores, merchandise retailers and in health stores. One can even buy supplements on line. In order to distinguish these supplements from over-the-counter drugs, always read the Supplement Facts label.
Unfortunately, most of these dietary supplements are not regulated. Unlike with drugs, the US Food and Drugs Administration does not check the safety and effectiveness of supplements before they are sold to the public. In fact, the FDA only has authority over supplements once they have already entered the market. Usually, actions are taken by the FDA once a complaint against a certain brand has been received.
Many dietary supplements are guilty of false claims. Testimonials and so-called proofs of the efficiency and effectiveness of supplements abound in print, broadcast and on line media.
Worse, some are even unsafe. And so, extra precaution must be taken when choosing which dietary supplement to take. Always check with the manufacturer for more information. With the tons of promotional materials that abound, always be wary of the information being presented.
Keen in mind that dietary supplements are not intended to cure or prevent illnesses. In addition, although some supplements have beneficial effects, a significant number of them have potential health risks. Some supplements contain active ingredients that can have negative effects on the body, specially when taken in large doses and with other supplements and medicines. Supplementslike calcium, for example, interact with heart medicines like Digoxin, vitamin K counteracts with blood thinners etc.. In addition, too much intake of certain vitamins and minerals such as oil-soluble vitamin E and A, can be toxic to the body.
Pregnant women, nursing moms, those undergoing surgery and people with chronic illnesses should take extra care in deciding whether to take dietary supplements or not.
And so, when choosing supplements, it is always best to consult with a health care provider to avoid serious side effects. Remember, safety first!
The very first step is to undergo a nutritional assessment or evaluation with a health care provider. This will find out what your nutritional needs are and what dietary supplement is best suited to your medical condition.
Dietary supplements are supplements and not are not meant to replace some of the food needed in a healthy daily diet. Thus, bear in mind that no supplement can ever replace a healthy diet.
Never assume that “natural” is always safe. Some natural ingredients, specially if taken in large doses, can interact with medicines and may even result to life-threatening situations.
In addition, there are certain considerations in purchasing dietary supplements such as the quality, availability, your nutritional needs and price.
On a final note, dietary supplements are meant to supplement the body’s nutritional needs. It can never replace the overall health benefits of regular exercise and a healthy diet. And in choosing supplementary diets, safety should always be the main consideration.
Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.a2z-vitamin-and-herbs.com where you can learn more about dietary supplements and learn how vitamins can help keep you healthy.
3 Things You Need to Know about Living a Healthy Lifestyle
In the next two minutes, you are going to learn what you need to know and do in order to successfully live a healthy lifestyle for good.
Thing You Need to Know about Living a Healthy Lifestyle #1 The Beginning
The first thing you need to do is meet with your doctor. Have him give you a physical so you can find out how much weight you need to lose, if any, and what might be the best way to go about losing it. If your doctor tells you to lose 25 pounds, then lose 25 pounds, don’t strive to lose 40. Listen to the doctor. He didn’t spend a decade in school so that you could ignore him.
Thing You Need to Know about Living a Healthy Lifestyle #2 The Middle
This is the hard part and will take you the longest to complete. Your doctor probably told you the best way to live healthy is through diet and exercise. Well, he’s right, but he probably didn’t tell you that there are a number of regimens to choose from. You’ll need to do some research to find out which one best suits you.
Once you’ve picked out a healthy lifestyle regimen, you need to stick to it. You also need to reprogram the way you think. Research which foods are good for you and which ones are bad. You may want to consider investing in some cook books that provide healthy recipes. This will allow you to plan your meals and keep them inventive so that you don’t find yourself getting bored and wondering down to the corner for a hamburger and French fries.
You’re also going to want to become inventive and create ways of helping you avoid cravings during moments of weakness, and trust me, there will be plenty of them. You might consider taking up a hobby that occupies your down time so that you can turn your mind from your hunger. You should also strongly consider creating some kind of reward program for yourself to reward you for your gains. Perhaps allow yourself your favorite snack food for every five pounds you lose or every successful week that you stick to your healthy lifestyle.
Thing You Need to Know about Living a Healthy Lifestyle #3 The End
Living healthy is a lifetime commitment. If you want to live long and maintain an attractive body then you have to continue eating healthy and exercising regularly. Continue to reward yourself for a job well done each week that you stick with your healthy lifestyle and always seek new ways to keep being healthy interesting.
And there you have it. Everything you need to know about living healthy in two minutes. It won’t be easy, but you can do it. People do it all of the time. You just never hear about them because it’s more lucrative to the diet industry if you don’t. Living healthy is not temporary. It’s a decision you make and stick with for the rest of your life, but it is one decision that you will never regret.
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Healthy Foods That are No so Healthy
Men and women who are doing their best to stick to a diet and lose weight often look for what has come to be known as healthy food, food labelled as “low fat”, “fat free” or “diet”. Since people don’t always read the labels and since the producers do their best to conceal the effect of such foods, it’s no wonder that some people fail to lose as much weight as possible on a particular diet. Trying really hard to stay away from sweets and sodas is useless when the supposedly healthy food makes it harder to lose pounds.
The biggest problem is the fact that a lot of healthy foods contain ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil and plain sugar. This is the trick that producers use to sell food labelled healthy, despite it not being so. The words “fat free” is printed in attractive letters on the label, but nowhere does it say that the lack of fat is more than compensated for by the sugar content. While producers have to meet a certain standard in order to be able to call their foods “low fat” or “fat free”, there are no regulations for the word “diet”.
Be careful when buying yogurt and all sorts of yogurt-based desserts because the dairy companies really like to brag about their support of healthier lifestyles. Since people who like yogurt worry about the quantity of fat found in such products, the dairy companies have rushed to launch low fat and fat free versions of their best selling brands. What they are not very eager to tell the world is that desserts need sugar and that “low fat” doesn’t mean “no sugar”. In fact, customers may be very surprised to find that the low fat yogurt may be the equivalent of a candy bar, in terms of sugar.
Energy bars are another problem. People like them because the drastic cut in calories, which is one of the basic features of every diet, puts energy reserves under severe strain. It’s hard to get through the day and does all the things one’s used to do during the first couple of weeks of dieting, when the body is still adjusting to the lower intake of food. Energy bars sound like a great way of getting through the day without eating, but it’s not that simple. The main source of energy for the body contained in energy bars is, of course, sugar.
And let’s not forget fruit juices. A lot of people like to drink their daily helping of fruits instead of eating it, but fresh fruits and fruit juices are not the same thing. Producers need to add various substances to juices in order to keep them from spoiling. They also add sugar to juices, because some fruits are not naturally sweet enough to suit the tastes of customers. It is useless to say that all that extra sugar is not good for people trying to lose weight. The best thing to do is to skip juices and eat fresh fruits.
Find out more about how to reach your healthier lifestyle targets and weight loss goals.
