During your life span you will consume in excess of 82.000 meals.The presence or not of essential nutrients in your diet will directly affect the state of your health and disease. Consumption of nutrient rich food is an important key factor in the maintenance and the development of good health status. Poor nutrition coupled with inactivity is a well known formula for chronic diseases and conditions that could threaten your life.
It is most likely that you are here reading this article because yourself or somebody else you know need to improve their nutritional status. It is a well known fact for many centuries that the best medicine is no other than the medicine provided by nature. The quality of your food is essential in maintaining sound health throughout your life.
Some foods contain biologically active ingredients, which provide us with the possibility of minimizing our risks to disease. The health benefits of these foods go beyond their traditional nutritional benefits they contain. Hippocrates, the Greek doctor and "father of modern medicine", about 2500 BC said that we should let our food be our medicine and medicine be our food.
Common examples of foods with such qualities are fruit and vegetables. If such foods are not consumed in your diet nutritional food supplements can fill these gaps. But we must be realistic; supplements can not stand in for a life time as a substitute to your bad eating habits and lack of exercise. Good health is partly an outcome of a lifelong good diet and physical exercise. You need to have these in place.
The aim of food supplements is to cater for various nutrients, including amino acids, minerals, vitamins and fatty acids, when these are not present or are in insufficient quantities in a diet. Supplements may be based on synthetic, plant or inorganic elements and most make claims for prevention or treatment of certain conditions. When purchasing food supplements it is your responsibility to know what food supplements are safe and beneficial to your health.
The basic minimum requirement for nutrients is a good healthy start. It's very crucial to be mindful of the amount of nutritional elements provided from your daily eating habits, so you can meet at least the RDI proposed amounts. Moreover, if you want to enjoy optimal health, the mounting evidence on requirements and needs of these nutrients, suggest that these are much higher than those of RDIs recommendations.
For the majority of us to be able to achieve optimal levels of health, we would have a very hard time to do so through our regular diet alone. The reason is, we mostly consume processed, fast foods who are poor or deficient in nutrients. The dally nutrient intake and nutritional elements that promote health are generally non existent in many of these foods.
Some individuals would like us to believe that the food pyramid regime would be enough to provide us with the requirements for good health and there is no need for supplements such as minerals, essential fatty acids, trace elements and vitamins. However, the reality is, these are important for living a life with sound health. In the absence of the necessary quantities deficiencies could create a state of ill health.
If these nutritional deficiencies are present for long periods of time, they can develop in health issues. If your eating habits fail to provide your needs with the necessary and sufficient amount of micronutrients, it is essential that you supplement your diet with nutritional supplements such as minerals, vitamins, essential fatty acids, and antioxidants. While these are readily available they should not become a substitute for healthy eating habits.
The life-style of the 21 century with its fast pace, processed, fast and nutrient deprived foods let your health down each and every day. Additionally, with time as we all with age, our bodies have greater difficulty in using what little nutritional value such foods have which in turn leads inevitably in to health problems . Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the availability of quality supplements.
Taking supplements it is important for reasons such as the above. However, you will need tot make your decision on the subject of nutritional supplements based on good information regarding effectiveness, safety and resources.
The FDA specifies food supplements as foods and they are under a distinct set of rules different to those of conventional drugs. It is for this reason your responsibility to know as to what food supplements are most safe and beneficial choices for your health.
