This is why dietary supplements are important

October 25, 2019

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We all still believe that if you eat a healthy, balanced diet, your body will get enough nutrition. But our daily meals are not what they used to be. With our busy lives it’s tempting to eat something quick and easy. Stress and environmental toxins are affecting our bodies more than ever. A supplement can help your body get the vitamins and minerals it needs. What should you look out for when buying supplements? And which ones should you get?

Why take supplements?

We need food supplements to stay healthy and full of energy. It all starts with a balanced diet with lots of fruit and vegetables. But we all lead busy lives and we don’t always have time to put a healthy meal on the table.

It’s also easy to forget that the toxins we breathe, chemicals in cleaning products, microplastics, phone radiation, computers, etc. also have an impact on our bodies. And don’t forget that stress also puts a heavy strain on your body.

To remove toxins from our bodies and feed our cells, we need more nutrition than we used to. Today’s fruit and vegetables unfortunately contain a lot less nutrients than they did decades ago. Mass production and the use of chemicals in agriculture depletes the soil, and everything we grow in it becomes less nutritious. So taking supplements to get some extra vitamins and minerals is not an unnecessary luxury.

What to look out for when you buy a supplement

A good dietary supplement is made of natural ingredients and doesn’t contain chemical additions. Unfortunately, we’re often tempted to buy cheaper supplements, but they frequently contain synthetic products that are made using chemical processes.

It was in the 1930s that people first started isolating the vitamins in food. This was done using chemicals, but it was done for research purposes, not to make dietary supplements. Unfortunately, people turned away from natural nutrition in the 1950s, and started (mass)producing these synthetic vitamins. And this happened despite the fact that scientists knew that vitamins and minerals are the most effective when they are contained within the nutrients that naturally accompany them, such as secondary plant compounds – so the entire plant.

We’re striving to consume less unnatural substances now. Vitamins and minerals are useless if our bodies can’t absorb them. That’s why you should choose phytovitamins. These are made using natural ingredients and contain the entire plant with all its natural compounds. Phytovitamins are easier to absorb because of their natural character. The body recognises these structures as something natural and not something foreign.

When should you take supplements?

Often people take supplements when they start experiencing health concerns such as tiredness, muscle cramps, hair loss, skin issues, brittle nails, etc. When you don’t feel well you’ll often realise that maybe your body isn’t getting what it needs. A lack of vitamins, perhaps?

It’s great that some supplements combine different vitamins that work really well together. A vitamin B complex contains vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9 and B12, for example. And vitamins for your skin, hair and nails contain several B vitamins in combination with selenium and silica. This is interesting because if you take certain vitamins on their own, you can overdose on them. Too much of one vitamin can affect the function of other vitamins, and cause different health problems.

Improve your immune system

When winter approaches, we often remember to take vitamins because we want to boost our immune system and avoid getting a cold or flu. CitroPlus is an organic supplement with grapefruit seed extract. Grapefruit seed extract is special because it contains a lot of bioflavonoids and natural vitamin C. Bioflavonoids are plant components and they are excellent at stimulating the immune system. Zinc is also a great mineral to support your immune system.

Natural multivitamins

Do you want to stimulate and support your body in its entirety? Spirulina, chlorella, AFA Klamath algae and barley grass are available in powder form and tablets. These superfoods are very nutritious and contain lots of vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes and chlorophyll. Chlorophyll, or green plant pigment, is a natural cleansing agent that helps to clean your intestines, purify your blood and help your body to absorb oxygen more efficiently.

You can think of algae and barley grass as a natural multivitamin that cleanse your body while providing it nutrition at the same time.