It’s easy to justify eating food every day by supplementing your diet with pills and powders. But is it better to get essential nutrients from a bottle than from real food?

You’re probably familiar with a number of the nutrients your body needs and why they’re essential. As kids, many of us were told to eat carrots for better eyesight, drink milk for strong bones, and drink eight glasses of water daily. But how applicable is that advice today?

KEY NUTRIENTS OUR BODY NEEDS

To maintain proper bodily functions and brain development,  we need a variety of foods in our diet. The primary nutrients our body needs include the following:

• Water
• Protein
• Carbohydrates
• Thick
• Vitamins
  • A, C, D, E, K
  • B vitamins – thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, B6, B12 and folate.
• Minerals
  • Calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulfur.
  • Microelements: chromium, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc.

HOW TO GET THE RIGHT NUTRIENTS

No matter how bland water may seem, drinking it is the most effective way to stay hydrated. Of course, you can experiment with flavored water or other water additives to motivate yourself to get the amount you need. You can also find water in fresh foods. Still, it would help if you consumed it daily to get enough water to function optimally, right down to the cellular level of your body. Drinking about half of our body weight in ounces each day is recommended. So, if you weigh 130 pounds, you should drink 65 ounces of water daily.

Although carbohydrates have a bad reputation, carbohydrates are essential for providing energy to the body and brain. We use carbohydrates to make glucose, a powerful fuel for the body. Without carbohydrates, the body will use protein to make glucose, breaking it down before it gets to the muscles. Using protein for energy means our muscles need to get what they need to maintain and/or build muscle.

• Simple carbohydrates are sugars that can be found naturally in food or added purposefully. They can be found in fruits, milk, and dairy products. Table sugar is also a source of simple carbohydrates. It is added to several foods (baked goods, juices/sodas, cereals).
• Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest, which makes you feel “full” longer. Good sources of complex carbohydrates include whole grains, vegetables, and even fruits.

Protein is made up of amino acids that help cells grow. You can get protein from animal or plant sources, including eggs, dairy, nuts, and beans. Wherever you get your protein, you want variety to give your cells the energy to regenerate. If you’re a meat eater, try to choose lean cuts of meat to get more protein and fewer calories and fat.

There is “good” fat and “bad” fat. Contrary to what fad diets promote, we do need fat in our diets. Fat helps us absorb vitamins and provides protection for our bodies. Fat provides insulation to keep us warm and cushions our organs, acts as a reserve storage for energy, fuels cell growth, and helps regulate cholesterol and blood pressure. There are different types of fat, and understanding their effects on the body is critical.

• Saturated fats are less desirable because they can raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels. This is usually found in animal meats, cream, butter, full-fat dairy products, and cheese.
• Unsaturated fats can be divided into two types:
  • Monounsaturated: avocado, peanut butter, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils.
  • Polyunsaturated: vegetable oils, walnuts, seeds, fish.

You can focus on consuming suitable forms of unsaturated fats. Still, you also need to reduce the amount of saturated fat in your diet. Try replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats, as simply eating more unsaturated fats will not offset the amount of saturated fat you consume.

Remember those carrots we talked about? As kids, we were told to munch on them to get our eye health vitamins. While the health benefits of carrots are actual, research shows that you’d have to eat about 4.5 ounces of carrots six days a week for six weeks to see an improvement. However, not all bodies can successfully convert beta-carotene into enough vitamin A to improve vision. So what’s the point of eating vegetables?

Vitamins promote healthy skin and eyes, bone and muscle development/growth, immune support, and nervous system strengthening. Our diets should include a variety of foods to provide us with all the vitamins our minds and bodies need. The same goes for minerals. Like vitamins, minerals can promote healthy bones, muscle function, and circulation.

ARE DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS EFFECTIVE?

There are so many great ways to supplement our diets these days. Adding vitamin powders or capsules to our daily diet can be helpful, but there is a science to it. Finding the right balance of supplements is more complex than popping a Flintstones vitamin every morning; we may simply be giving ourselves too much of one vitamin or mineral and not enough of another.

If you decide to go the supplement route, research to find out what your body needs. Consider your activity level and how you can best support your health goals with the right combination of foods and supplements.

If you have any additional questions,  schedule a free consultation with one of our nutrition experts today.