Ditch The Vitamin Supplements In The New Year
One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions that thousands of people make each year is to improve their diet and start eating healthier foods. They decide to cut out the unhealthy snacks, start cooking their own meals and stock up on vitamin pills to boost their health. However, this last part is where so many people unwittingly get it wrong. In this article I will be explaining why taking vitamin supplements is such a mistake and suggesting what you should be doing instead.
A Brief Introduction To Vitamins
Before I get into the rights and wrongs of vitamin supplements a bit of background information on the vitamins is required. The vitamins are a group of 13 health boosting nutrients. When you stick to the RDAs they can boost your vision, prevent numerous health disorders, promote healthy growth and much more.
However, when you exceed the RDAs these health benefits can be negated and vitamins can actually be very dangerous. Some of the negative symptoms of vitamin overdose include breathing difficulties, diarrhea, dry skin, headaches, muscle cramps, nausea, organ damage and much more.
What’s Wrong With Vitamin Supplements?
You are probably wondering what all the above has to do with vitamin supplements. Well next time you are planning to buy some take a look on the label at the % RDA section. You will probably be very surprised to see that some of these supplements contain a lot more than 100% of the RDA. In fact I have seen supplements that contain as much as 10,000% of the RDA for certain vitamins. Levels as high as this will almost definitely lead to the vitamin overdose symptoms discussed above and that’s before you even take into account the vitamins you are consuming naturally through your diet.
Additionally, the way vitamin supplements are produced means that toxic ingredients often get added and these can be very hazardous to yoru health. For example, this article reveals that one popular women’s multivitamin supplement contains dangerously high levels of lead.
What’s The Alternative?
The answer to this question is something that you probably eat every day – natural, wholesome food. Instead of looking for magic pills that can fix your diet you should be trying to make sure your diet is the best it can be. Natural vitamins are much safer than those found in multivitamins plus it is almost impossible to consume toxic levels of vitamins through natural foods alone.
How Can You Eat More Natural Vitamins?
As mentioned above, eating a diet that is full of natural, nutrient rich foods will give your body all the vitamins you need. However, I understand that going from a multivitamin every day to ditching them completely is a big transition so here are a few tips to help you out:
1) Eat Eggs At Least Twice A Week: – Eggs are an excellent source of vitamins B2, B5, B12 and D.
2) Eat Fish At Least Twice A Week:- Fish is a fantastic source of many different vitamins. For example, salmon contains high levels of B3, B6, B12 and D.
3) Eat Vegetables With Every Meal: – Different vegetables contain different vitamins. By making sure you are eating a mixture of vegetables with each meal you will supply your body with good amounts of each vitamin.
4) Snack On Fruits And Nuts Daily: –Like vegetables, different fruits and nuts give you different vitamins. By snacking on a range of fruits and nuts between meals you can make sure all your bases are covered.
Summary
I hope this article has proved a bit of an eye opener for you. Overdosing on vitamins is a very serious issue but it can be avoided by ditching the vitamin supplements in the New Year. So if you are committed to your New Year’s resolution of improving your diet and eating healthier foods throw away those vitamin supplements and make this the year where you focus on real, wholesome foods.
