Supplements — Are they Necessary?

“Don’t eat any­thing your grand­moth­er wouldn’t put on your plate.” It’s an adage that has been trans­lat­ed and rewrit­ten over time and in dif­fer­ent places. The premise is sim­ple, eat healthy, bal­anced, home-cooked meals, and you’ll get all the nutri­ents you need to live a long and healthy life. But how many of us take the time to prep meals and ensure we’re get­ting the right bal­ances of foods?. The fast-food indus­try rakes in a few hun­dred bil­lion dol­lars each year in the Unit­ed States alone. That num­ber could be in the tril­lions world­wide when you take into con­sid­er­a­tion snacks such as chips and choco­late bars, and not only fast-food restau­rants. So it would come as no sur­prise that we as a species are look­ing for a faster way to sat­is­fy our hunger and nutri­tion­al needs. Maybe that’s why the sup­ple­ment indus­try pulled in a whop­ping 30 bil­lion dol­lars last year in the US. That rais­es a lot of ques­tions regard­ing the neces­si­ty of these sup­ple­ments. Are they effec­tive? And if they are effec­tive, is there a lim­it we should be taking? There are thou­sands of dif­fer­ent types of sup­ple­ments sold in health food stores and super­mar­kets across the world. While it would be impos­si­ble to ana­lyze them all, there are, in fact, some sta­ples that are found in most households. Let’s take a look at some of the most com­mon sup­ple­ments sold and see if they belong in your cup­board or not.

Vitamins and Multivitamins

These sup­ple­ments are by far the most pop­u­lar among those sold across the world. You can go into almost any house­hold across any first-world coun­try and find some vit­a­min bot­tle in the home. Mul­ti­vi­t­a­mins are a key favourite among con­sumers sim­ply because the con­cept sells itself. With one small pill, you can fill your basic vit­a­min needs. Oth­er peo­ple choose to buy vit­a­min pills sep­a­rate­ly as they come in much high­er dos­es than those found in a mul­ti­vi­t­a­min. For exam­ple, the aver­age amount of Vit­a­min C in a mul­ti­vi­t­a­min pill is any­where between 70mg — 200mg. Vit­a­min C tablets, on the oth­er hand, range from 500mg up to 1000mg. How does your body react to these vit­a­mins?. Well, that most­ly depends on what you eat and how much of these nutri­ents you’re get­ting from your food intake. Some­one fol­low­ing a strict veg­an diet would have to go much fur­ther than just tak­ing a mul­ti­vi­t­a­min every day. Due to the omit­tance of ani­mal food prod­ucts. It is strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed that veg­ans sup­ple­ment with a vari­ety of essen­tial vit­a­mins they no longer con­sume through meat, eggs, and dairy. The two main vit­a­mins are B12 and D3. Veg­ans who ignore rec­om­men­da­tions to sup­ple­ment with these two vit­a­mins could end up with seri­ous health consequences. But what about some­one who eats a healthy and bal­anced diet?. Is it nec­es­sary to sup­ple­ment with 1000mg of vit­a­min C per day? The answer is no. One orange alone gives you all the vit­a­min C you need in one day. Along with fibre, which helps with diges­tion, some­thing not found in a vit­a­min C pill. If you’re eat­ing lean cuts of meat and fish, you do not need sup­ple­ment­ing vit­a­min B12 or D3. A healthy and bal­anced diet usu­al­ly does the trick. If you find you’re not able to eat healthy meals reg­u­lar­ly. Ana­lyze your rou­tine and see where changes in your sched­ul­ing can be made. Pri­or­i­tize your time towards prepar­ing healthy food options before you reach for a bot­tle of pills.

Greens Plus Products

This par­tic­u­lar item has tak­en the sup­ple­ment indus­try by storm over the last two decades. Its pop­u­lar­i­ty has sky-rock­et­ed with sev­er­al brands offer­ing their ver­sion of a “Greens” supplement. Due to its high nutri­ent con­tent, The “green-line” of sup­ple­ments is con­sid­ered to be a super­food. Is it com­plete­ly nec­es­sary to have in your diet? The short answer is no. Is it ben­e­fi­cial to include in your dai­ly diet? The fact of the mat­ter is yes; it is. These sup­ple­ments con­tain vit­a­mins and min­er­als that are not usu­al­ly con­sumed in a reg­u­lar diet such as bar­ley grass, spir­uli­na, and oth­er dis­ease-fight­ing antioxidants. If you’re search­ing for a brand to pur­chase, and you find that you’re over­whelmed with the options avail­able. Stick with the prod­ucts that are NON-GMO, organ­ic, and low-heat processed.  The low heat pro­cess­ing pre­vents and nutri­ents from being destroyed if they were pro­duced in high­er tem­per­a­tures. Pro­tein pow­ders also adver­tise low heat pro­cess­ing for this same reason.

Glutamine

While glu­t­a­mine has always been con­sid­ered an ath­lete sup­ple­ment, it does have some prac­ti­cal uses for the aver­age person. Glu­t­a­mine is the most abun­dant amino acid found in pro­tein and is respon­si­ble for the repa­ra­tion of mus­cle tis­sue as well as ener­gy dur­ing intense exercise. But how nec­es­sary is it for an aver­age per­son to con­sume? Does it pro­vide any ben­e­fits to a non-athlete? Well, the fact is that glu­t­a­mine does a lot more than help to repair mus­cle. Glu­t­a­mine helps to fuel our immune cells and keep our immune sys­tem run­ning properly. If you have diges­tive issues, glu­t­a­mine may also be a sup­ple­ment you’d want to con­sid­er. Some­one who suf­fers from “leaky gut,” a con­di­tion in which the intesti­nal walls devel­op weak­ness and per­me­abil­i­ty. Would ben­e­fit great­ly from sup­ple­ment­ing from glu­t­a­mine as it helps to strength­en our intesti­nal cells. It’s impor­tant to keep your intesti­nal walls strong and unwant­ed bac­te­ria out. For healthy adults, glu­t­a­mine is most like­ly not going to be nec­es­sary since your body does pro­duce some amounts, and the rest can be obtained through prop­er dietary choices. But if you suf­fer from immune defi­cien­cies and intesti­nal prob­lems, glu­t­a­mine sup­ple­men­ta­tion is some­thing you should strong­ly consider.

Protein Powder/Meal Replacement Shakes

Whether you’re an active per­son who devotes a few hours each day to train­ing, or some­one who sim­ply doesn’t have time to eat while work­ing, pro­tein pow­ders and meal replace­ments make for a con­ve­nient way to hit your macros. Usu­al­ly, all it takes is to add some water or juice to the pow­der in a shak­er cup and voila! In mere sec­onds you have your ready-to-drink meal all set. Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, pro­tein pow­ders tend to be low­er in carbs and fats and high­er in pro­tein, where­as meal replace­ments are a healthy dose of carbs and pro­teins and may even con­tain some lev­els of fat (although not much). Pro­tein pow­ders are avail­able in many dif­fer­ent forms for faster (Iso­lates, Hydrolyzed) and slow­er absorp­tion (Con­cen­trates, caseins). Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, the faster absorb­ing pro­teins should be con­sumed when the body is in the utmost need of replen­ish­ing, i.e., imme­di­ate­ly after training. The slow­er absorb­ing pro­teins are typ­i­cal­ly tak­en before peri­ods of fast­ing, i.e., before bed­time, to pro­vide the body with a time-released source of pro­tein while the body rests and repairs. So how nec­es­sary are these shakes for the aver­age per­son? The fact is not very nec­es­sary at all. A semi-active per­son who trains with mod­er­ate inten­si­ty a few times a week can get all the nutri­tion­al require­ments they need from a bal­anced diet. A cou­ple of hours of meal prepa­ra­tion a few times a week should be more than enough time for some­one to pre­pare the food they need for the next 2–3 days. Com­bine that with some serv­ings of fruits and maybe a few healthy take-out options, and you’re all set. A more active per­son, on the oth­er hand, may want to con­sid­er keep­ing a pro­tein shake in their dai­ly nutri­tion plan. If you’re the type of per­son who trains intense­ly every day, hav­ing a shake after a hard work­out is a fast way to get mus­cle-build­ing pro­tein into your system. Fur­ther­more, an athlete’s pro­tein needs are much high­er than the aver­age per­son. And get­ting all your pro­tein from ani­mal sources might be a lit­tle tir­ing for your diges­tive system. Pro­tein shakes have come a long way from their orig­i­nal­ly chalky-tast­ing days. They digest a lot more eas­i­ly due to low heat pro­cess­ing and added enzymes. Now there are high-qual­i­ty veg­an pro­tein sources on the mar­ket that give you more vari­ety and less depen­dence on ani­mal pro­tein pow­ders (whey, bovine blood sources).

Final thought!

Sup­ple­ments should be con­sumed as a way to sup­ple­ment the nutri­ents and macros you’re miss­ing when sched­ul­ing issues or health prob­lems that make it nec­es­sary to take them. If your dai­ly rou­tine makes it com­pli­cat­ed for you to pre­pare healthy meals, ana­lyze how you spend each day and try to devote some time to meal preparation. If health issues are the prob­lem you’re fac­ing, be sure to con­sult with your physi­cian before start­ing with any sup­ple­ment regimen. In this arti­cle, we touched on just a few of the most pop­u­lar items sold over the counter. There are many more sup­ple­ments out there that can ben­e­fit or harm you depend­ing on the dos­es you take, and some will have no effect what­so­ev­er and be a total waste of money. Before buy­ing into the hype and throw­ing your mon­ey away, do a bit of research on the sup­ple­ments you’re inter­est­ed in tak­ing. And always do your best to find the nutri­ents you need in Grandma’s home cooking. 😉