No not the Sunday supplements - vitamins etc.
The diabetes and diet thread got me thinking.
There are many times/reasons to top up on a vitamin or two. I take fish oil (when I remember) for my joints since my Mum has suffered severe arthritis from this age. If I've been ill and couldn't eat, I'll take a multivitamin for a couple of days. If I'm on a low carb diet I'll take a B vitamin complex.
BUT is there an argument for taking a full spectrum (you know the ones "everything you need from A to Zinc") every day?
I would think that if a person was low in all the trace emelements normally got from food, they are either eating all the wrong things (living on smarties or something) or suffering a very rare and serious disorder.
Does anyone take the full lot 'just in case'? Is it a wise precaution, a waste of money or a dangerous interference with the bodies natural processes?
For the past 6 years I have taken “Seven Seas one a day pure cod liver oil plus multivitaminsâ€
One day when I was sitting in my Dr Surgery I was reading a medical magazine article by a nurse who had studied diets across the world for over 20 years. How it affected weight gain/loss and various other health issues.
In her studies she has said that she had found that those people who take in the RDA allowance that is recommended by medical professionals, does aid in weight loss. To be honest I thought to myself “Yeah right, pull the other one†until I read on and what she said made perfect sense.
She put in plain simple language and said if you imagine your body as you would a computer, the brain being the operating organ for every part of the body. It does not distinguish between a tablet and food, all the brain will know it that if the RDA is taken the brain will say to itself I can afford to burn and not store fat or calories as my body has had what it needs to function.
She also went onto say that all these diet supplements for weight loss like the drinks etc if you read the labels on what they contained, they all had the RDA allowance on them, they are also made with milk to line the stomach to help with that empty feeling and so stem hunger.
Well I thought that made perfect sense to me. So I checked on the shelves of the various sliming aids on offer, and yep she was right, they ALL contained the RDA allowance recommended by the medical profession.
So I thought, what the hell, I was then a size 16/18 and was visiting my Dr for the umpteenth time regarding pain in my joints and especially my hips, to the point it would wake me in the night and I could not remember the last time I had slept the whole night through without being woken by the pain.
So I purchased my first tub of vitamins and started taking them. With a busy working life and a single mum raising 4 children, it was 3 weeks later that I woke up and realised that for the last week I had slept through and was not in pain or being woke by the pain.
My Dr had sent me for x-rays etc and other tests, and had said there is nothing that can be done as you are double jointed which was known and I was told in my 20s. The only thing that could help is if you lost some weight.
Well I was now not in any pain with my hips, so I thought well let’s see if I will lose weight. Over the next 6/8 months I went from a size 16/18 to a size 8, I had lost just under 5 stone, and without even really trying. I was not going to the gym or exercising but was in full time work, I changed my eating habits around as suggested by this nurse, to say eat your bigger meal mid day and a light snack/meal in the evening. I ate what I wanted to eat still but the weight still kept falling off.
I started to do yoga which helped with my posture, and to be honest I was eager to do it now, where before because of the pain I was in it would have been agony.
So I will continue to take this a 3 month course cost about £9, I sometimes take an extra one if I feel I might be getting a cold or one was going around at work, and to be honest I can’t remember the last time I felt really ill because I had a bad cold/flu
I struggle to actually put weight on and maintain my weight now, and if I drop below 8 ½ stone which I sometimes do, then I will start eating more chocolate or crisps. I always ate them while doing this, although not regular just on the odd occasion but will just eat more to maintain my weight.
It worked for me, and what the nurse said had made perfect sense, she had also said that if you tried to eat the RDA in food, it was nigh impossible with all the right foods just for one the RDA alone filled a table on a daily basis.
A centrum a day keeps deficiency symptoms away... or something. I pop a vitamin pill most days after breakfast, usually because I'm not eating properly. It would help if they'd deliver my frelling fridge, of course.
It's my understanding that if one vitamin or another is lacking, the body gets grumpy in some specific way. I assume it's harder to overdose on a vitamin than go without it...
I always think my body will take what it needs from a multivitamin/mineral supplement and 'discard' the rest. From my A level biology - back in the mists of time - it is quite hard to OD on vitamins (but not impossible - be careful with Vitamin A especially if pregnant). Read and adhere to the maximum doses on the packaging.
Some supplements should be taken together to improve their absorption, such as Vitamin C to promote the uptake of iron and Calcium is best taken with Vitamin D.
Many vitamins and minerals are dangerous if you exceed the recommended daily allowance, ranging from temporary unpleasant symptoms, to serious conditions.
This website of the Food Standards Agency has all the info:
Click on the vitamin/supplement on the right hand-side - to see the RDA and effects of overdosing.
(Edited for spelling)
I would never take anything "just in case". I would consider it a waste of money. Last year my doc told me to take cod liver oil, omega 3, and glucosamine for a joint pain problem. Being a vegetarian I bawked at the idea, but I did try them. Nothing happened. Still the same problem. So I went back and saw another doc who said those sorts of things would not help at all. Now I know the medical jury is out on all this sorts of things but basically if you are not deficit in the first place, you are wasting your time and money taking extras. Same goes for vitamin and mineral suppements. If you have a good balanced diet you do not need them. Simples. If you are dieting, have health problems that mean you do not absorb your food, are pregnant, or are terribly terribly active, or whatever, then take medical advice and maybe you will need suppements, otherwise, seriously, you don't need them "just in case".
