Vitamins and Nutritional Supplements - Why Do We Really Need Them?

There is so much hype these days about using natural products, taking natural source vitamins and supplements, and eating natural, fresh foods. How important is this, especially if we try to eat a healthy diet? Do we really need dietary supplements such as vitamins and minerals? Aren't words like "natural" and "natural source" just advertising buzz words?

Back in Grandma's day, everyone enjoyed their moms' home-cooked meals, from natural ingredients, and enjoyed a diet rich in unprocessed foods. Cattle and other food animals were relatively steroid and hormone free, especially by today's standards. We all started the day with a hot breakfast, and soaked up our Vitamins C and D by being out of doors.

We didn't much think about naturally sourced vitamins, and herbal supplements had yet to appear on the horizon for most of us, let alone become part of the popular lexicon.

In Mom's day, everyone still ate home-cooked meals, even if their moms worked full-time, and enjoyed a diet rich in natural foods - with some processed "time-savers" added to the mix.As well, some families were beginning to add a multivitamin to the family medicine chest.

We all started the day with breakfast, though some had replaced their porridge with cold cereal and toast, and the school lunch program offered a cod-liver oil capsule with the carton of homogenized milk. Some days, we were allowed to watch TV after our homework was done, but most often, we were sent outside to play as a matter of course.

Fast forward to the present, and take a look at the differences. Today, we tend to rush from work to home, picking up "something quick" on the way, and then dash back out the door to deliver one or more of the kids to dance class, hockey practice, music lessons, or an activity with their friends, or to make an evening class, meeting, or activity of our own. We are devoting more and more time to "activities" and less and less time to being together as a family, particularly at mealtimes, yet we are more concerned with natural supplements, dietary supplements, and good health.

Take a walk down the aisles of any local supermarket, and notice how many shelves are devoted to pre-made, packaged "time saving" items. Take a close look at some of the labels - and I don't mean the instructions, either.

Most of the savings in time and effort comes at the cost of an ever-growing list of chemical additives, and less and less real food in that "time saving" package. Yes, we can have dinner in five minutes - as long as we don't want to eat anything resembling real, natural, fresh food, full of real, naturally occurring vitamins and minerals - the building blocks our bodies need to remain healthy.

Many foods dehydrate well, but their pleasing, natural texture and much of their flavor is lost, and they are best used in soups or stews, which will mask most of those deficiencies. The freeze-drying process mitigates this somewhat, preserving much more flavor, but again, unless the foods are used in soups and stews, or covered with some kind of sauce, their texture leaves much to be desired.

As well, these processes remove most of the foods' natural nutrients, leaving little for our bodies to use. Some manufacturers pay lip service to adding back the missing nutrients, but the small amounts of vitamins and minerals that are added don't come close to replacing what has been lost in processing.

Most of the chemicals added to pre-packaged, ready-made, just-add-water foods nowadays are needed to give the reconstituted ingredients a pleasing texture and flavor. A lot of money is poured into research and development, but it's generally aimed more at boosting sales, and making product for a lower cost to the manufacturer, than in providing us with nutritious food.

Until we refuse to purchase some of the products now available, and demand better, more nutritious foods, there will be no incentive for any manufacturer to do anything else.

As the quality of our food sources declines, and until we can bring about wholesale changes in food production and processing, we need to take steps to safeguard the health of our families.

Many of us are turning to naturally sourced vitamin and mineral supplements, in addition to changing our eating habits to include more fresh, organic produce.

In addition to staying in the outer aisles of our supermarkets, where most of the unprocessed, fresh foods are displayed for sale, we can educate ourselves about natural vitamins. Not all nutritional supplements are created equal, and there is much debate over natural and synthetic dietary supplements.

Before beginning any vitamin or supplement regimen beyond a modest multivitamin, and additional Vitamin C during cold season, talk to your doctor. You might also consider consulting a practitioner of naturopathic or homeopathic medicine. Even picking up a magazine in a health food store will give you some more information, and help guide your choices.

© 2009, Text by Elle Fredine, All rights reserved