Nutritional Supplement - The Good Food, Bad Food Myth
We've all seen stories on the news about a new miracle food. "Eat more carrots and your eyesight will improve," or "Eating raspberries reduces heart disease, cancer, etc..." and what about the reports on wine and alcohol consumption? Is a glass of wine good for your health or bad? It is easy for physicians and the news media to describe foods as good or bad, but most nutritionists realize there are no such things - only good diets and bad diets. Regardless of whether the news reports are based on fact or fiction, what's important to realize is that no single food will bring you good health or destroy your health.
Unfortunately people persist in classifying foods as healthy or unhealthy. Relying on various media and advertising adds to the confusion as terminology used implies that a food is either 'good' or 'bad' based on which term is used to describe the food. For example, 'starch is bad because it makes you fat', but 'complex carbohydrates are good because they contain fiber and take longer to digest'. Look up starch in a nutrition textbook and you'll find out that it is defined as a complex carbohydrate. Here's another one, 'calories are bad because they make you fat'; 'energy is good because it gives you stamina to finish your activities'. The reality is that a calorie is a unit used to measure energy; the same way inches or miles measure distance.
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Classifying a food or nutrient as 'good' or 'bad' and reducing concepts in nutrition to the most simple terms is usually not going to give you a correct answer. These oversimplifications are not only incorrect, but in the long run detract from achieving balanced nutrition.
Although nutrition and diet shouldn't be oversimplified, it also doesn't need to be rocket science either. A good diet is about sensible choices and choosing foods that are nutrient dense. The more nutrients you can include in your diet the more balanced your nutrition will be.
This shift in focus reflects the fact that few people in industrialized countries today are deficient in nutrients, but many die from major diseases that could be prevented with better diets. The guidelines acknowledge that the need for certain nutrients varies with people's age, sex, and other important characteristics.
There are 13 vitamins, 16 minerals, and one additional dietary component that your body needs but cannot manufacture in sufficient amounts. Acting in concert, these essential vitamins and minerals help keep billions of cells healthy and encourage them to grow and reproduce. Some supply the keys to unlocking the energy in the carbohydrate, fat, and protein in the foods you eat.
These essentials are often called micronutrients because your body needs only tiny amounts of them. Yet failing to get even those small quantities virtually guarantees disease.
Old-time sailors learned that living for months without fresh fruits or vegetables — the main sources of vitamin C — causes the bleeding gums and listlessness of scurvy. In some developing countries, people still become blind from vitamin A deficiency. And even in the United States, some children develop the soft, deformed bones of rickets because they don't get enough vitamin D.
While the absence of key micronutrients hampers good health, their presence in sufficient quantities promotes it.
Getting a full complement of iron helps proteins in your blood and muscles pick up and release the oxygen that's vital to all of your cells. It also fends off the absorption of lead, a heavy metal that can cause widespread damage. The B vitamin folic acid can be a powerful agent in protecting against birth defects and may help ward off heart disease and some forms of cancer. And a combination of calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K, magnesium, and phosphorus protects your bones against fractures.
Many of these micronutrients interact with one another. Vitamin D enables your body to pluck calcium from food sources passing through your digestive tract. Vitamin C helps you absorb iron. Vitamins and minerals differ in basic ways. Vitamins can be broken down by heat, air, or acid.
Minerals are chemical elements that do not change. That means the minerals in soil and water easily find their way into your body through the plants, fish, animals, and fluids you consume. But it's tougher to shuttle vitamins from food and other sources into your body because cooking, storage, and simple exposure to air can inactivate these more fragile nutrients.
from EveryDay Health
Are you getting enough?
Even if you eat a variety of foods, if you are 50 or over, you may not be getting all of the vitamins and minerals you need. You should be taking in the following daily:
- Vitamin B12 — 2.4 mcg (micrograms). This vitamin keeps your blood and nerves healthy, but up to one-third of older people can no longer absorb the natural vitamin from their food.
- Calcium — 1,200 to 2,500 mg a day. As you age, you need more calcium to keep your bones strong. Loss of bone density can lead to fractures, especially of the hips, spine, and wrists. A calcium-deficient diet is a cause of ostoporosis. Calcium fortified milk, cheese and spinach are all good sources.
- Vitamin D — 400 IU (international units) for people 51 to 70, and 600 IU for those over 70, but not more than 2,000 IU each day. You need vitamin D in order to absorb calcium. Vitamin D can affect bone mineral density, preventing fractures. Good sources includes fatty fish, such as salmon.
- Iron — 8 mg a day. Without enough iron, you're likely to feel lethargic. Iron in the body helps make hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells. Without it, we supply less oxygen to our tissues. Get iron from beef, a variety of beans, oatmeal and spinach
- Vitamin B6 — 1.7 mg for men, and 1.5 for women. This vitamin is needed to form red blood cells and to keep you healthy. Talk to your doctor or a registered dietician to find out whether you need to take a multivitamin to get your daily doses of these essentials vitamins and minerals.
