Many people believe that eating a well-balanced diet
provides all the vitamins and minerals necessary for good health. In ideal
circumstances this may be the case, but in reality there are many reasons
why you need nutritional supplements to cope with living in the twentieth
century environment. Taking vitamins and minerals on a regular lifelong
basis is a safe method of optimizing your dietary source of nutrients,
providing you follow the instructions on the product labels.
1.
Poor digestion
Even when your food intake is good, inefficient digestion can limit your
body's uptake of vitamins. Some common causes of inefficient digestion are
not chewing well enough and eating too fast. Both of these result in larger
than normal food particle size, too large to allow complete digestion by
digestive enzymes. Also, many people with dentures are unable to chew as
efficiently as those with a full set of original teeth.
2.
Hot coffee, tea and spices
Habitual drinking of liquids that are too hot, or consuming an excess of
irritants such as coffee, tea or pickles and spices can cause in a drop in
secretion of digestion fluids and poorer extraction of vitamins and minerals
from the foods that we eat.
3.
Alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol is known to damage the liver and pancreas, which
are vital to digestion and metabolism. It can also damage the lining of the
intestinal tract and adversely affect the absorption of nutrients, leading
to subclinical malnutrition. Regular heavy use of alcohol increases the
body’s need for the B-group vitamins, particularly thiamine, niacin,
pyridoxine, folic acid and vitamins B12, A and C as well as the minerals
zinc, magnesium and calcium. Alcohol affects availability, absorption and
metabolism of nutrients.
4.
Smoking
Smoking too much tobacco/cigarettes is also an irritant to the digestion
tract and increases the metabolic requirement of vitamins C, all else being
equal, by at least thirty per cent more than the typical requirements of a
non-smoker. Vitamin C, which is normally present in such foods as paw paws,
oranges and capsicums, oxidizes rapidly once these fruits are cut, juiced,
cooked or stored in direct light or near heat. Vitamin C is important to the
immune system, amongst its many other functions.
5.
Laxatives
Overuse of laxatives can result in poor absorption of vitamins and minerals
from food, by hastening the internal transit time. Paraffin and other
mineral oils increase losses of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Other
laxatives used to excess can cause large losses of minerals such as
potassium, sodium and magnesium.
6.
Fad diets
Bizarre diets that miss out on whole groups of food can be seriously lacking
in vitamins. Even the popular low fat diets, if taken to an extreme, can be
deficient in vitamins A, D and E. Vegetarian diets, which exclude meat and
other animal sources, must be very skillfully planned to avoid vitamin B12
deficiency, which may lead to anemia.
7.
Overcooking
Lengthy cooking or reheating of meat and vegetables can oxidize and destroy
heat-susceptible vitamins such as the B-group, C and E. Boiling vegetables
leaches the water soluble vitamins B-group and C as well as many minerals.
Light steaming is preferred.
8.
Food storage
Freezing food containing vitamin E can significantly reduce its levels once
defrosted. Foods containing vitamin E exposed to heat and air can turn
rancid. Many common sources of vitamin C, such as bread and oils, are
nowadays highly processed, so that the vitamin E content is significantly
reduced or missing totally. Yes, such processing increases storage life, but
at the same time lowers nutrient levels. Vitamin E is an antioxidant, which
defensively inhibits oxidative damage to all tissues. Other vitamin losses
from food preserving can include vitamin B1 and C.
9. Convenience foods
A diet overly dependent on highly refined carbohydrates, such as sugar,
white flour and white rice, places greater demand on additional sources of
B-group vitamins to process these carbohydrates. An unbalanced diet
contributes to such conditions as irritability, lethargy and sleep
disorders.
10. Antibiotics
Some antibiotics, although valuable in fighting infection, also kill off
friendly bacteria in the gut, which would normally be producing B-group
vitamins which are absorbed through the intestinal wall. Such deficiencies
can result in a variety of nervous conditions, therefore it may be advisable
to supplement with B-group vitamins when on a lengthy course of
broad-spectrum antibiotics.
11. Food allergies
The omission of whole food groups from the diet, as in the case of
individuals allergic to gluten or lactose, can mean the loss of significant
dietary sources of nutrients such as thiamine, riboflavin or calcium.
12. Crop nutrient
losses
Some agricultural soils are deficient in trace elements. Decades of
intensive agriculture can overwork and deplete soils, unless all the soil
nutrients, including trace elements, are regularly replaced. In one U.S.
Government survey, levels of essential minerals in crop were found to have
declined by up to 68 per cent over a four-year period in the 1970s.
13. Accidents and
illness
Burns lead to loss of protein and essential nutrients such as vitamins and
minerals. Surgery increases the need for zinc, vitamin E and other nutrients
involved in the cellular repair mechanisms. The repair of broken bones will
be retarded by an inadequate supply of calcium and vitamin C, and conversely
enhanced by a full dietary supply. The challenge of infection places high
demand on the nutritional resources of zinc, magnesium and vitamins B5, B6.
14. Stress
Chemical, physical and emotional stresses can increase the body’s
requirements for vitamins B2, B5, B6 and C. Air pollution increases the
requirement for vitamin E.
15. P.M.T
Research has demonstrated that up to 60 per cent of women suffering from
symptoms of premenstrual tension such as headaches, irritability,
bloatedness, breast tenderness, lethargy and depression can benefit from
supplementation with vitamin B6.
16. Teenagers
Rapid growth spurts such as in the teenage years, particularly in girls,
place high demands on nutritional resources to underwrite the accelerated
physical, biochemical and emotional developments in this age group. Data
from the USA Ten State Nutritional Survey (in 1978-80 covering a total pf
24,000 families and 86,000 individuals) showed that between 30-50 percent of
adolescents aged 12 to 16 had dietary intakes below two-thirds of the
recommended daily averages for calcium, iron and vitamins A & C.
17. Pregnant women
Pregnancy creates higher than average demands for nutrients to ensure
healthy growth of the baby and comfortable confinement for the mother.
Nutrients which typically require supplementation during pregnancy are the
B-group, especially B1, B2, B5, B6, folic acid and B12, A, D, E and the
minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and phosphorous.
18. Oral
contraceptives
Oral contraceptives can decrease absorption of folic acid and increase the
need for vitamin B6 and possibly vitamin C, zinc and riboflavin.
Approximately 22 per cent of Australian women aged 15 to 44 are believed to
be on the pill at any one time.
19. Light eaters
Some people eat very sparingly, even without weight reduction goals. U.S.
dietary surveys have shown that an average woman maintains her weight on
7560 kilojoules per day, at which level her diet is likely to be low in
thiamine, calcium and iron.
20. The elderly
Research showed that the aged have low intake of vitamins and minerals,
particularly iron, calcium and zinc. Folic acid deficiency is often found in
conjunction with vitamin C deficiency. Fibre intake is often low. Riboflavin
(B2) and pyridoxine (B6) deficiencies have also been observed. Possible
causes include impaired sense of taste and smell, reduced secretion of
digestive enzymes, chronic disease and physical impairment.
21. Lack of sunlight
Invalids, shift workers and people, whose exposure to sunlight may be
minimal, can suffer from insufficient amounts of vitamin D, which is
required for calcium metabolism, without which rickets and osteoporosis
(bone thinning) may eventuate. Ultraviolet light is the stimulus to vitamin
D formation in our skin. It is blocked by cloud, fog, smog, smoke, ordinary
window glass, curtains and clothing. The maximum recommended daily
supplemental intake of vitamin D is 400 I.U.
22.
Bio-individuality
Wide fluctuations in individual nutrient requirements from the official
recommended average vitamin and mineral intakes are common, particularly for
those in high physical demand vocations, such as athletics and manual labour,
taking into account body weight and physical type. Protein intake influences
the need for vitamin B6, and vitamin B1 is linked to kilojoule intake.
23. Low body
reserves
Although the body is able to store reserves of certain vitamins such as A
and E, Canadian autopsy data has shown that up to thirty per cent of the
population have reserves of vitamin A so low as to be judged ‘at risk’.
Vitamin A is important to healthy skin and mucus membranes (including the
sinus and lungs) and eyesight.
24. Athletes
Athletes require larger amounts of food and experience considerable stress.
These factors affect their needs for B-group vitamins, vitamin C and iron in
particular. Tests on Australian Olympic athletes and A-grade football
players, for example, have shown wide-ranging vitamin deficiencies.