Better Health with a Daily Vitamin Regimen

There's no doubt that a healthy diet is the best approach toward achieving good nutritional status. Unfortunately, various reasons exist why a person won't be able to eat a healthy meal each day, which may ultimately impact his overall health. Factors such as busy work schedules, vices, stress, and pollution can impede a generally healthy lifestyle.

Furthermore, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a program of studies designed to evaluate the health and nutritional status of the U.S. population, revealed that many people are falling short in meeting set requirements for certain important nutrients, including vitamins A and E, calcium, choline, magnesium, and folic acid.

As part of your journey toward better health and well-being, choose a healthier diet to help you stay well, along with a dietary supplement regimen custom-made for your personal nutritional needs. Keep in mind, dietary supplements are meant to complement a healthy diet, not replace it.

Rarely do Americans receive all of their daily nutritional needs by food alone. As a starting point, make a list of multivitamin products that is both gender and age-appropriate. Afterward, talk to your healthcare provider for advice on which of these supplements can help you achieve and maintain optimal wellness and health. 

Things You Need to Know about Taking Vitamins

Commercial vitamin brands are promoted by their manufacturers with the goal of getting more customers to patronize their products. It isn’t a surprise, therefore, to find multiple brands claiming that they are better than the rest. If you want to be smart about the vitamins you’re buying, you need to discern between what is stated in ads and what the case really is.

When choosing vitamins to take, you need first to identify the very reason why you are taking them, since this will greatly impact its efficiency. What you take should supplement an essential nutrient that may be lacking in your body. Vitamin C, for instance, cannot be produced naturally by humans. Consult your doctor or a dietician to know your supplement needs.

Learn to sift truth from a pile of marketing terms; use your common sense to weed out exaggerated claims. No vitamin supplement 'cures' a disease or medical condition; in fact, this claim is illegal. Other terms to watch out for include 'natural' and 'high-potency'; these claims mean little to actual quality (this also applies to food items).

Look at the label and inspect the measurement of the vitamin in your supplement, then compare it with the recommended Dietary Reference Intake. Make sure the content does not exceed the recommended amount; otherwise, you may just be wasting money on vitamins that your body will just excrete without using.

Characteristics of an Ideal Vitamin Manufacturer

Manufacturing vitamins is very serious business. Given the fact that vitamins can directly impact people’s health, the last thing people want to happen is to place their trust in a company that provides useless, or even harmful, vitamins. Consumers need to look for certain things in a vitamin manufacturer; with this knowledge, they can identify more quickly which vitamins they can rely on for the rest of their life.

Most of these characteristics are actually rooted in common sense. For one, the company should not have, at any time in the past, been accused and found guilty of falsely labeling its products, or claiming nutritional information that isn’t true. If you can’t even trust the label alone, there’s a good possibility you can’t trust the product itself; you’d want to know what you’re taking exactly and how much you need, and you’d want the label to reflect these facts accurately.

You'll also want to see if a particular manufacturer's products actually meet the standards of the government agencies that regulate them. If this isn't the case, then consider that to be a major red flag and seriously contemplate dropping the label altogether. Thankfully, many major manufacturers of vitamins and food supplements today are compliant with government regulations and standards; thus, you are assured that their products are safe.

Nutraceuticals: Are They Medicine or Food?

The answer? They're both.

In recent years, there has been a boom of nutraceuticals in the US. Derived from the words “nutrition” and “pharmaceuticals,” nutraceuticals are medicinal compounds or products derived from food and sold in medicinal form. In addition to their nutritional value, they also carry specific health and medicinal benefits that can help prevent diseases. An example is lycopene, which is extracted from tomatoes and helps prevent cancer.

The description of nutraceuticals often depends on how they are sold or marketed, as they come in different types. They can be sold as dietary supplements, or as isolated drugs or botanicals, such as ginseng and gingko biloba. Nutraceuticals can also be marketed as “functional foods.” These come with constituents or vitamins that provide additional benefits not usually offered by the food alone. This could be in the form of processed food and drink like milk fortified with Vitamin D, or eggs enhanced with Omega-3.

More and more people are becoming concerned with their health, and part of maintaining health is to have a balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals. The use of nutraceuticals aims to achieve that balance, in a relatively modern and more proactive way. These products are found in local supermarkets and come at an affordable price. Why, then, would anyone still opt to get sick and spend thousands on medicines if they can spend less on food supplements and remain healthy?