Why are natural foods better than supplements?

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

Why are natural foods better than supplements?

Supplements are not meant to replace food. They cannot replicate all the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Natural products are plant products, which can be fruits or vegetables. They score on supplements so that they contain a lot of good nutrients along with vitamin C, iron or zinc that one seeks to obtain.

Taking the example of amla, it has vitamin C present naturally and in large quantities up to 600 mg in 100 grams of fruit. Information released by the Global Cancer Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research recommends meeting nutritional needs only with diet and not using dietary supplements to prevent cancer. The American Heart Association also recommends eating a healthy diet for heart health instead of taking supplements. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics encourages children who are generally healthy to get their daily nutritional needs from food alone.

When you replace whole foods with supplements, you lose the components of foods that benefit your health, but are not yet fully understood. Researchers have found that nutrients in food may be linked to lower risks of death, while excessive intake of certain supplements may have the opposite effect. Regulation of dietary supplements falls under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but in the U.S. UU.

Although it is clear that natural nutrients are associated with many health benefits, the evidence for synthetic supplements is mixed. Therefore, the use of supplements is an exposure that cannot be ignored in relation to (i) nutrient deficiency, sufficiency and toxicity, (ii) biomarker associations, and sometimes (iii) disease, in case of suboptimal nutrient status or food intake (e). Particularly, since intake of supplement sources could exceed food-based intake and therefore approximate intakes associated with biomarker saturation. Since public health nutrition guidelines are expressed in terms of food, there is potentially a discrepancy between the supplement oriented to nutrients and the quality of the dietary pattern.

Potentially, since foods contain more than vitamins and minerals alone and dietary patterns as a whole play an important role in health (. Getting nutrients from healthy foods is the best way to keep your vitamin and mineral levels high. Traditionally, essential nutrients have been studied in relation to health, and although micronutrient deficiencies are still prevalent in the UK population, relatively high nutrient intake may not be an indicator of healthy food choices, as reflected in low consumption of fruits, vegetables and fish of the country surveys. A nutrient supplement group distinction by nutrient can provide information not only on potentially differential intakes from food sources (as described above in the intake distribution section), but also on potentially differential dose-response associations.

Whether vitamin C was derived from foods or supplements), they vary in baseline time (may reflect recent or prolonged exposure) and some nutrients are homeostatic or may be affected by disease. Fat-soluble vitamins as antioxidants in high-fat foods), there is collinearity in nutrient intake from supplements (for example, since nutrients can be derived from a variety of foods (potentially fortified), and not necessarily from foods that are recommended for public health, you can argue that food intake may be a better marker of optimal intake than nutrient intake. .

Sylvia Sako
Sylvia Sako

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