Can you skip your daily servings of fruits and vegetables and take a vitamin and mineral supplement instead?
Unfortunately, no. Vitamins and minerals, sometimes referred to as micronutrients, are substances that the body cannot produce. These important nutrients must come from what we eat.
Whole foods are your best sources of vitamins and minerals. Whole foods contain a variety — not just one — of the micronutrients your body needs.
An orange provides vitamin C plus some beta carotene, calcium and other nutrients. A vitamin C supplement lacks these other micronutrients.
Fiber, as part of a healthy diet, can help prevent certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and it can also help manage constipation.
Whole foods contain other substances recognized as important for good health. Fruits and vegetables contain naturally occurring food substances called phytochemical and antioxidants that help protect you against chronic diseases.
If you’re generally healthy and eat a wide variety of foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, lean meats and fish, you likely don’t need dietary supplements. However, if you can’t or don’t eat enough healthy foods, you may need a daily dietary supplement.
Dietary supplements may be appropriate if you:
- Don’t eat well or consume less than 1,600 calories a day
- Are a vegetarian and don’t substitute or complement your diet appropriately
- Are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or are breast-feeding
- Are a woman who experiences heavy bleeding during your menstrual period
- Are a postmenopausal woman
- Have a medical condition that affects how your body absorbs, uses or excretes nutrients, such as chronic diarrhea, food allergies, food intolerance or a disease of the liver, gallbladder, intestines or pancreas
- Have had surgery on your digestive tract and are not able to digest and absorb nutrients properly
The Mayo Clinic recommends that you consider these factors:
- Check the supplement label. Product labels can tell you what the active ingredient or ingredients are, which nutrients are included, and the serving size.
n Avoid supplements that provide ‘megadoses.’ Choose a multivitamin-mineral supplement that provides about 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV) of all the vitamins and minerals, rather than one which has 500 percent of the DV for one vitamin and only 20 percent of the DV for another. The exception to this is calcium.
You may notice that calcium-containing supplements don’t provide 100 percent of the DV. If they did, the tablets would be too large to swallow.
- Look for ‘USP’ on the label. This ensures that the supplement meets the standards for strength, purity, disintegration and dissolution established by the testing organization U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP).
- Look for expiration dates. Dietary supplements can lose potency over time, especially in hot and humid climates. If a supplement doesn’t have an expiration date, don’t buy it. If your supplements have expired, discard them.
- Store all vitamin and mineral supplements safely.
Store dietary supplements in a dry, cool place. Avoid hot, humid storage locations, such as in the bathroom.
- Store supplements out of sight and away from children. Put supplements in a locked cabinet or other secure location. Don’t leave them on the counter or rely on child-resistant packaging
And remember, a balanced diet is an excellent way to fight the flu and prevent illness.
