Dietary Supplements
What are "dietary supplements"?
Nutritional supplements are what we add to our diet to supplement what we may be lacking. And a good dietitian will tell you that you should never have to supplement your diet, but the fact of the matter is in this day and age there are many reasons why you do. What we need to look for in supplements however, are things that actually have in them what they say they have in them, in the amounts they say they have in them. And also not to overdose or mega dose, because there's a lot of research today that's showing that higher dosages of one or two fractionated, isolated nutrients may not be good for you, and in fact may be hazardous. So you want a good nutritional product that has a good base of natural - a natural foundation. You know, the whole food base foundation.
What kinds of dietary supplements should I take?
The most important thing with supplements is to be sure that you are getting what you are told you are buying. For example, in Consumer Reports a few years ago, ConsumerLab.com, they actually took hundreds of different supplements and broke them down to their most minute particles, and discovered that only seven of the hundreds of things they tested had in them what they said they had in them. Only seven. So, most of the stuff that we buy out there, if we're not really aware, may have no value whatsoever, and may be just a waste of money. For example, with fish supplements; fish oil supplements, many of them were rancid, which in fact would do more harm because of the rancidity, which results in major production of free radicals (the unstable little molecules that are the basis of all degenerate illness). What you want to do is make sure you are getting a quality brand that is not going to be rancid when you buy it, and has been taken care of before you got it. With respect to supplements in general, what I recommend people do is look for as close to a whole food base type of supplement as possible, because we know that for example in an apple there are over 10,000 nutrients. In broccoli, there are over 13,500 nutrients. So, if you're getting a supplement that has 13 vitamins, 10 minerals, and a few things we extrapolate from the research on rats and mice that may or may not be good for us, and find out a few years later it isn't good for us, compare that to something that has the nutrient density of something that is whole food based; there is a huge difference in synergy within your body.
Will dietary supplements make me healthier?
No, dietary supplements may not make you healthier, because as have we have found out from a lot of the research with Vitamin C, and Beta Carotene, and Vitamin E. There's actually research that shows there could be hazardous effects, or at least effects that are not so healthy from taking fractionated, isolated vitamins in large amounts. What I would recommend is something that is good balance of a lot different nutrients, and not in high dosages of any one particular nutrient.
When should I take dietary supplements?
The best time to take your nutritional supplements is with the meal. It's best to take it at the beginning of the meal, middle of the meal, or the end of the meal, but with food. So you don't want to take a lot of water with the supplement because you don't want to dilute your digestive enzymes. The food is like a carrier for the nutrients, it's like a cargo ship. You've got the carbohydrates, fats and proteins which are the cargo ships carrying the nutrients which are the cargo to where they have to go.