Nutritional vitamin supplements are a big business. Many say that they are unnecessary, whilst others contend that they are more necessary than ever. They have been a source of controversy and debate for many years. Why is this?
Vitamin supplements have been around a good long time in one form or another. Cod liver oil was widely given to children every day only 100 years ago. Those same children would never have dreamed that some day people would pay lots of money not only to take fish oil, but to take it more than once a day. You have probably seen the daily vitamins sold in most stores that even many doctors are now grudgingly stating are fine to take regularly.
The heart of the controversy is both the types and potencies of many of the supplements. Often, one single dose contains a nutrient in such high concentration as to be completely impossible to consume in a proportionate amount in foods that contain that same nutrient. Many people in the medical establishment insist that this is at best a foolish and at worst a potentially dangerous practice. They state that some nutrients, being water soluble, are simply passed through the system and others that are fat soluble can be absorbed into fat reserves in hazardous levels if consumed without caution.
Those who promote the use of supplements counter that passing part of a dose of a water soluble nutrient is worthwhile because it ensures saturation of that nutrient at a cellular level, maxing out the body’s available supplies. The supplement industry itself has added precautionary statements to their labeling to warn people of the potential hazard of consuming a high level of fat soluble nutrients.
Nevertheless, for vitamins and minerals, there is some monitoring by the Food and Drug Administration. For others that aren’t recognized as essential nutrients, the truth becomes more hazy.
If you truly wish to take nutritional supplements, start with small doses under the advice and supervision of qualified some professionals such as a registered dietician. After all, they aren’t called supplements for nothing.
John Rifkind is a contributing editor at FitnessHealthArticles.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.