Are Dietary Supplements Necessary?

The short answer is: NO.

Here's what the Mayo Clinic has to say:

There are, of course, some exceptions. If you are pregnant, it's important to take prenatal vitamins. If you live in the North, there is a 30% chance that you will be short on vitamin D in the winter.

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David
Co-Founder of DailyHealth.net

Lots of controversy on this and that is fine with me. I almost died in 1972. Was finely diagnosed with Lupus and was very very sick. After putting in 100 days in the hospital I decided to do some research and educated myself on vitamins, etc. I have been taking supplements since then and I KNOW it has made a difference in my health. My opinion and no one else's matters on it to me, including my own doctor and they know what I'm on and have only had one fault me on it.

I'm a vitamin taker. I have been since the birth of my first child. Do I think it is possible to get all the nutrients and vitamins you do from your daily food choices? Sure! Absolutely! Do I think it is achievable for the average American? Nope. Not even close.
In my personal opinion I don't think that it is achievable to reach you nutrient requirements daily unless you have attended a nutrition course or have some kind of training/background in it. From what I have read up on it is quite a fine tuned process to get all of these nutritional values through out the course of the day.
Even when I try my hardest to eat a wide variety of foods I still find that a good multi-vitamin gives me that extra boost of energy. Women in particular don't get enough calcium in their diets and so I always say ANY women should take an extra Calcium supplement to prevent osteoporosis... No matter how much red meat I eat I always seems to be iron deficient... I hate fish too. Very rarely will you see me eat fish. The only time I eat it is if it is prepared by a professional chef (Not just any chef either... a REALLY good chef)
David I totally agree with you that is can be possible I agree with Dusty though. It's a controversial subject.

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LeAnn

I would like to add that your diet doesn't need to be well-balanced every day. If you have twice of something one day and half the next, it' still the same in the long run. I think people can make themselves crazy with their individual diet choices when it's the big trends that are most important.

However, it is certainly possible that you are short on certain vitamins. But I do worry about some people who take too many and don't realize that there can be negative consequences. For example, there are certain vitamins that can cause serious complications if taken in excess, including increasing risks of diseases that they prevent in lower doses. As in all things in life, moderation is important.

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David
Co-Founder of DailyHealth.net

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LeAnn

I've just started taking a multi-vitamin that contains Vitamin D. I live in dreary Cleveland, so there's a good chance I have a deficiency in the winter. Between that and my sun lamp, I'm feeling pretty peppy.

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David
Co-Founder of DailyHealth.net

I take echinechea o help prevent colds in winter

Tess

I have type 1 diabetes and if I do not take suppliments that are greater than the recommended daily allowance my health deteriorates quickly. So I will have to agree to disagree with the Mayo Clinic but of course they have mentioned what they say applies if you are generally healthy. Maybe as I have a chronic disease they would not count me as generally healthy so maybe we are in agreement.

We give our learning delayed 5 year old Omega 3 every day and if we miss a day for any reason his behaviour the next day is noticeably worse. He won't eat oily fish thought the rest of his diet is quite good. It surprises me that it only takes 24 hours for his behaviour to deteriorate.

What kind of behaviours does it curb?

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~~~~Becky

~ ~ ~ "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
~ ~ ~ Anais Ain

When given Omega 3 he is calmer, less excitable and concentrates better. I think he learns better when taking it but this is very difficult to quantify accurately it could just be that learning is easier when he's not bouncing around so much.
Hope this answers the question Becky.

Jane

in all my life i have not taken supplements, except for when i was pregnant with kidlet

i eat plenty of the 'free veggies' that have lots of anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals in them

we are supposed to eat 35 grams of fibre a day............if you do that from natural sources, and not a supplement, there is a good chance that you are getting all the nutrients you need from your food :)

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kate