Supplements: Do We Need Them?

Supplement Secret – Why We Need Them?

Supplements – we all have heard of it. Is its beneficiary? Do we need them? Isn’t it harmful to our body? These are the common questions most of us have. Well to shed some light, health or food supplements are not bad, but without proper regulation, they can become very unhealthy and in extreme cases, harmful. The name actually suggests it all; Supplement should take with proper food, not replace it. In the past 10 years, supplement sales have exploded and have become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Along with this, the “get fit quick” thought with the promise of doing less hard work has attracted a huge number of consumers all around the world.

Now, the most common type of supplements is food and health supplement. The food supplement helps us to fulfill the nutritional deficiencies, whereas the health supplement keeps our health insured. Both the food and health supplements are used extensively around the world.

Dietary Supplement:

One of the most common forms of food supplement comes through our diet, otherwise known as the dietary supplement. Dietary supplements are pretty common as food supplements. They come in a variety of forms like tablets, capsules, powders, drinks and even energy bars. These food supplements include vitamins, minerals, herbals and botanicals, amino acids, enzymes and many other products. In our day to day life, it has become very common to see people taking vitamin D and E, minerals like calcium and iron and many more which are all part of this dietary supplement.

Since different nutrition is found in different sources; if someone is not eating a nutritious variety of foods, the dietary supplements should help one to get adequate amounts of essential nutrition. However, it should be kept in mind that food supplements cannot take the place of the variety of foods that are important to a healthy diet. It is best suggested to follow a proper diet plan and guidelines from a certified dietitian. Here are some of the most popular dietary health supplements:

• Vitamin B-12
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin D3
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B6
• Probiotic Supplements and many others

Natural Supplement:

Now, among the dietary supplements, some come as genuinely natural and others are the laboratory produced. A good number of consumers actually prefer the natural food supplements due to their absence of chemicals or additives. These consumers prefer their food supplements be extracted from nature. This way there is less worry for negative outcomes and less of putting harmful chemicals into their body. The natural food supplements are basically extracted from plants, animals, algae, fungi or lichens. Ginkgo biloba, curcumin, cranberry, St John’s wort, ginseng, resveratrol, glucosamine, and collagen are some of the common sources of the natural supplements. Consumers of these natural food supplements are vastly increasing every day and it is forecasted that their potential market will be about $8.7 Billion by the year 2020. Some of the most popular natural food supplements are:

• Creatine
• Inositol
• Omega-3 Fatty acids
• Melatonin
• Berberine and many others.

Now, the dietary and natural supplements are only the tip of the iceberg; the first few pages of the book. There is a lot more supplement in the market which covers various needs and necessities of our body. Amino acid supplement and antioxidant supplement are two very common health supplements.

Amino acid supplement:

Protein is one of the most taken health supplements in the supplement world. As we all have studied biology in our school; proteins are made by amino acids. Basically, when we eat protein, whether its vegetarian or animal, our body breaks it down to make the amino acid. That amino acid is then reordered and refolded and then turned into whatever the body needs at that time. The amino acid has been known to improve muscle growth, increase endurance, increase fat burn, reduce fatigue, increase mental focus, and improves recovery and many more. Typically, amino acids are found in protein. Whether it’s vegetarian or animal protein they all contain amino acids. Well, one might ask why take the amino acid supplement then? Can’t we just take our proteins and get sufficient amount of amino acid?

Well to answer that we have to know a bit more. There are about 22 standard amino acids and roughly 10 of them are considered essential. They shaped differently and unique in their own way. Among them, three amino acid leucine, isoleucine, and valine are otherwise known as Branched Chain Amino acid (BCAAs) are the very important ones. Now when our body gets the desired proteins all of the amino acids rushes in, and competes for absorption. So, to get the full benefits of BCAAs one needs to get a dedicated amino acid supplement. Hence comes to the amino acid supplements. Amino acid supplements are most popular with the athletes and bodybuilders. The top-ranked amino acid supplements are:

• BCAA Energy
• Essential AmiN.O. Energy
• BCAA 5000
• AminoLean Energy Formula etc.

Antioxidants:

Another popular health supplement is antioxidants. Antioxidants and free radicals are always present in our body. Antioxidants are made by our body itself and other antioxidants we get from our diet. Free radicals are also produced in our body. We take antioxidants to remove the free radicals. What are the free radicals? Free radicals are oxidizing agents also known as oxidative damage or stress. They play a huge role in formatting diseases. Heart disease, cancer, and dementia have been linked directly to the increased levels of free radicals.

So to put it simply; oxidation is the process which produces free radicals that eventually damage our cells. And antioxidants are the substance that prevents this oxidation and clears out the free radicals aka the oxidizing agents. Antioxidant’s help our body in many ways. By increasing antioxidant intake, one can provide added protection against heart problems, eye problems, memory problems, mood disorders and immune system problems. Like every other supplement, you should take it with proper guidelines. The most common antioxidant supplements are:

• Glutathione
• Quercetin
• Lutein
• Vitamin C
• Resveratrol
• Astaxanthin
• Selenium etc.

Antioxidants help you to slow down the effects of aging, protecting vision and eyes, help prevent heart stroke and diseases, reduce the risk of cancer, and keep the skin glowing and more.

Benefits of supplements:

Well, by now we can surely say that food and health supplements have their benefits. Food supplements fill in the nutrition gap in our diet. They provide our body with all the micronutrients like vitamins and minerals; which our body needs. On the other hand, health supplements give us the boost to our growth. They provide us with substances like amino acid and antioxidants which benefits our health and its growth. In total, these supplements ensure a healthy diet. With proper regulation, the food and health supplements can give our diet the total coverage of nutrition that our body needs.

Best diet supplement:

Diet supplements are a kind of health supplement that helps us reduce our weight. They work by reducing appetite, reducing absorption of fat or by increasing fat burning in our body. Diet supplements come in all sort of pills, drugs and natural supplements. You should take them with a proper prescription and diet. The effectiveness of these supplements has shown little success. They tend to work best when you take them with a properly balanced diet. Alone, they are hardly a solution to obesity. Some of the popular diet supplements are:

• GLucomannan
• CLA
• Orlistat (Alli)
• Caffeine
• Green tea extract
• Forskolin and many others.

Best male supplements:

When it comes to men; there are some supplements that are specifically good. Supplements like boron have shown to help prevent prostate cancer, calcium strengthens the bones, and coenzyme Q10 boosts energy, chromium helps with diabetes and many more. Some of the popular male supplements are

• Acetyl-L-carnitine
• Korean red Panax ginseng
• coenzyme Q-10
• vitamin D
• fish oil
• Magnesium
• Probiotics

Truth be told, we all should try to keep our diet very well balanced with a variety of food that keeps our diet healthy. A healthy diet should be able to provide us with proper nutrients and vitamins that in the long run will prove its worth. You should take foods along with the supplements as the extra helping hand that helps us to make us healthier. The supplement helps us ensure that our daily needs of nutrients. But we should remember we do need the extra hand, but more than necessary might not be better. High dosage of one supplement can have toxic effects. It’s best to keep a proper diet of healthy foods and provisioned dosage of supplements and make sure our health is insured.