Food supplements ruining our bodies?

olin.msu.edu

Sometimes life moves way too fast for us and we are not able to do the basic things in life that everyone enjoys such as eating.  We either have to multitask and eat while we work, or just skip meals altogether. While it is never good to miss a meal and not eat, we often times put it lower on our list of priorities than things like work and school.  With this being said, there have been new ways to make sure that you still get the nutrients from that meal you missed, without having to take time out of your busy day to eat. These things are called supplements, and in an article titled “Pros and cons of dietary supplements”, Elle Paula will delve deeper into the good and bad of food supplements that many of us have turned to.  When taking food supplements be sure to keep in mind that they can lower the effectiveness of medicines, and are not naturally occurring so your body does not receive the nutrients the same way.

One of the main downfalls of food supplements is the fact that it lowers the effectiveness of some common medicines that many people take.  For example, Paula wrote in her article that, “Vitamin K can reduce the effectiveness of blood thinners; St. John’s Wort can reduce the effectiveness of antidepressants and birth control pills; and antioxidants, like vitamin C and E, can reduce the effectiveness of some types of chemotherapy.” This is very important information to know before you consider taking food supplements, because if you start taking these supplements on these medicines it can be life threatening.  It would be foolish to have a serious life threatening situation arise because you did not know basic information on the food supplements you are taking.  Always as your doctor if the supplements you are considering are safe to take to avoid any situations that could be fatal. Another argument against taking supplements is the fact that the nutrients are not naturally occurring, they are synthetic meaning they were made artificially.  The difference between synthetic and natural nutrients is that natural occurring nutrients are absorbed by the body while the synthetic nutrients are tougher for the body to absorb.  This means that while you may think you are getting enough vitamin C through your synthetic supplements, since it is synthetic vitamin C you are absorbing less vitamin C than you need.  Doctors everywhere recommend that you actually eat the nutrients, for example vitamin C, instead of taking supplements for it because of this reason.

One good thing that supplements can provide us with is the fact that they can be used to combat chronic diseases.  For example, fish oils are used to combat heart diseases to keep cholesterol levels at bay.  This is good for people who are prone to heart diseases or other chronic diseases because it will allow them to live a normal life without the fear of heart failure or liver failure or other dangerous chronic diseases.  If taken correctly and not misused, they have a lot of benefits for you and your diet.  While you still want to try and eat all of the nutrients that you need in your diet, it is good to have something to fall back on in case you have struggled to eat a healthy diet.  Supplements are a lot faster to take and do not take a lot of time out of our busy day to consume.  If you can take supplements in order to benefit your diet, as well as prevent you from getting diseases that are life threatening, then they are definitely worth taking.  But what we know now is that there are many downsides to taking supplements, especially if you abuse them.