Are supplements better than real foods?

Supplements are not meant to replace food. They cannot replicate all the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

Are supplements better than real foods?

Supplements are not meant to replace food. They cannot replicate all the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. On the one hand, says Chakravarty, supplements are specific extracts of nutritional components for a healthy diet. When you eat natural foods, there is much more nutritional power in foods that the supplement does not contain.

Research consistently shows that synthetic nutrients are not a substitute for a healthy and balanced diet. A supplement cannot replace a diet. Those who cannot digest their food or eat the required amounts of whole foods; supplements can help them close the gap. Both natural foods and supplements play specific roles.

Taking professional help before you start taking a supplement is the best way forward. Other studies have linked the use of multivitamins to an increased risk of cancer, and iron supplements can be harmful to people who don't need them (66, 67, 68, 6). The same amount when taken as a supplement provides only vitamin C in the prescribed doses and does not provide the other benefits. It is always recommended to have a healthy and balanced diet along with supplements to improve the absorption capacity of the vitamin and mineral in question.

When compared to the 95th percentile of supplement intake among the adult population in the NDNS, it is observed that zinc and vitamin B6 intake could exceed SUL. Supplements that list nutrients individually, such as vitamin C, or that use chemical names such as ascorbic acid, are almost certainly synthetic. Disease analysis of supplements can be fraught with confusion when simply comparing SU to NSU; nutrient intake from supplements may require researchers to maintain detailed data on the composition of the supplement that is time-consuming; while biomarkers will leave the researcher with a sample concentration, but without a clue what was actually consumed. Another item worth noting, he said, is that most supplements are water-soluble, so any excess of what your body needs will usually be passed into the urine and will not cause a dangerous buildup in the urine.

And it turned out that taking 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day as a supplement was associated with an increased risk of cancer, while excess calcium from food did not seem to increase those risks. When food intake was replaced by TNI, associations in the SU+E group weakened to 1% (1.2%); although the adjusted correlation strengthened from 0.09 (food only) to 0.43 (TNI) among SU+E (since vitamin E intake from supplements may be more than 10 times higher than intake from sources food in the United Kingdom). If you already consume a wide range of nutrients through your diet, taking additional supplements may exceed the recommended daily intake of many nutrients. But Beth Mole of Ars Technica reports that supplement users tend to be richer and more educated than non-consumers, smoke less, exercise more and have a healthier overall diet.

In this last section, the balance between foods and supplements is discussed in the light of positive and negative health outcomes. In addition to the harmful effects of excessive calcium intake from supplements, researchers found that people without signs of vitamin D deficiency who use vitamin D supplements may have a higher risk of all-cause mortality. People tend to start taking supplements and replace prescription drugs for illnesses with these supplements. The marked differences in the prevalence of supplement use between countries and continents should be taken into account when comparing results with respect to nutrient intake from supplements between studies.

The American Heart Association also recommends eating a healthy diet for heart health instead of taking supplements. .

Sylvia Sako
Sylvia Sako

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