Vitamins & Minerals

Vitamins and minerals are essential ingredients for health, and the question is are you getting all the ones that you need from your diet, or do you need to take a supplement. If you get the answer wrong your health will suffer because most modern diseases are caused by a lack of vitamins and minerals in the right amounts. We come down strongly in favour of everybody taking a balanced vitamin and mineral supplement every day, in addition to a good a diet. Other vitamins to take with this could include extra vitamin C and vitamin E and Omega-3 fish oils. There are also vitamin and mineral supplements for the 50+ age agoup.

Topics within Vitamins & Minerals

Calcium : Folic Acid : Selenium : Vitamin B : Vitamin C : Vitamin E : Vitamins For Children : Vitamins For Adults : Vitamins For 50+

Surely we get all the vitamins and minerals we need from our diet?

Ask your doctor if you need to take a vitamin and mineral supplement the answer will usually be a resounding "No!". They will then usually tell you that it's just a way of making expensive urine, because the body throws out what it doesn't need. However the amount of training in nutrition that the average doctor has received is minimal, and the fact that nutritional therapy is not part of the NHS has lead to a total lack of interest in nutritional therapy by most doctors. We could be cynical and say that if there isn't a target for it, and if doctors are not paid for it then it won't happen in the NHS. There is probably an element of truth in this, which just reinforces the fact that your nutritional health is down to you to sort out.

Nutritionists are more up to date with the immense importance of nutrition on our health, and the fact that most modern diseases can be prevented by optimum nutrition. The amount of published research on nutritional health is immense, and all points towards the fact that we should take an active interest in nutrition and what we eat, because most people are living in a state of nutritional poverty.

The average diet doesn't provide all the nutrients you need for optimum nutrition. In fact the best diet can't always reliably ensure that you are getting all you need for optimum nutrition. Also remember that your nutritional needs are often significantly above the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) levels quoted, because these are based on the amounts of nutrient needed to prevent deficiency diseases, rather than the intake recommended for optimum health.

Are you eating your five a day?

The current government nutrition guidelines recommend that we should all be eating at least five portions of fruit and veg a day. This implies that we will then be getting all the vitamins and minerals we need for optimum health because the people who eat their five a day have better health and less disease than those who don't, such as reducing heart disease and cancer by about 20%.

The average fruit and veg intake is less than 3 a day, so most people are already missing that target. It is also worth remembering that this target is also a minimum, and that increasing this to a higher figure is good for your health.

Food isn't as good as it used to be

The trouble is that fruit and veg isn't what it used to be. Only a generation ago we bought our fruit and veg from the corner shop. Most of it was grown locally and eaten fresh. Today much of what we eat is intensively produced in a different country, if not a different continent, and flown round the world to reach us. It may look good, but nutritionally it will have lost a lot of nutritional goodness by being stored for too long, and some crops are picked while unripe and artificially ripened during storage, which reduced the nutritional goodness.

Buying fresh, local food in season is the thing to aim for as the main part of your diet, and then adding other things in just to give variety. If you can also get this food in an organically grown form at a reasonable price, then this is even better, but the fresh and local but non organic will normally beat the organic form from half way across the world nutritionally. There is also a much smaller carbon footprint with local produce.

We are all mineral deficient

Intensive farming practices result in the depletion of minerals in the soil, which are not replaced. Fertilisers are added which boost crop growth, but these only replace the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which make the crops grow bigger and faster. This has resulted in the steady reduction of mineral content in modern foods of essential minerals such as zinc, magnesium, iron, selenium, calcium and chromium, all of which are just as essential as vitamins to maintain our health.

Essential minerals are refined out of food such as white flour, white rice and refined breakfast cereals, so choose wholemeal bread and pasta, brown rice, and unrefined muesli as the healthier options.

The average diet is deficient in zinc and iron, and while there is no government recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for selenium, manganese and chromium, it is generally agreed that their intake is below a healthy level.

Animal feeds are enriched with minerals, because it is recognised that such mineral deficiencies cause disease in animals. Humans are left to decide for themselves if they should take a mineral supplement to improve their health. 

Should you take a vitamin and mineral supplement?

SuperLiving recommends taking a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement as well as eating at least five portions of fruit and veg a day and concentrating on your diet and working towards optimum nutrition. We regard this as the minimum that should be taken, and other vitamins and health supplements can be taken to improve on this further. We also recommend supplementing with extra vitamin C and vitamin E , and with omega-3 fish oil unless you are eating the recommended three portions of oily fish a week.

You get what you pay for with vitamin and mineral supplements, and we offer our own brand SuperLiving Vitamins, Minerals & Health Supplements as our best buy range, together with popular brands such as Sanatogen , Multibionta , Centrum and Higher Nature .

Special supplements are made not only as adult vitamins but also as children's vitamins and vitamins and mineral supplements for the 50+ age group .

Optimum nutrition

Optimum nutrition is the goal to aim for, and this is specific to you as an individual. We recommend applying the information contained in Patrick Holford's books on optimum nutrition . Many people are confused about nutrition by the conflicting stories that appear in the press every few weeks, so having one authoritative source for your nutritional health information saves confusion.