The body requires 13 vitamins to properly function and maintain health day after day. All of these vitamins occur in readily available foods. Moreover, the body produces some of them naturally. Nonetheless, some diets are not balanced enough to meet the nutritional requirements for optimal health, necessitating supplementation. Alternately, some people may engage in certain activities or have certain illnesses that deplete nutrients, also requiring supplementation. However, food remains the best means of obtaining nutrition, given other mitigating factors such as special activities or illnesses do not come into play.
Complete Nutrition
Complete nutrition is more than simply vitamins and minerals; it also includes fats, proteins and carbohydrates. As necessary components of a healthy human diet, the body cannot function without them. Accordingly, food is the only source of complete nutrition. With a well-planned diet, meals eaten throughout the day can provide not only all of the required vitamins and minerals, but also all of the necessary energy and protein as well, resulting in complete nutrition unobtainable from vitamin supplements.
Vitamin Overdose
Although all vitamins are water or fat soluble --- and are either excreted, used up or stored within in the body --- some vitamins can be dangerous in high doses. Among the most toxic vitamins are vitamins A, B3, B6 and C.
Symptoms of vitamin A toxicity include headaches, anorexia, light sensitivity, abdominal pain and vomiting, irritability, drowsiness and seizures, while chronic toxicity could result in damage to mucousal membranes as well as osseous and neurological tissue. Vitamin B3 toxicity can result in respiratory disturbances and liver dysfunctions, including jaundice. Vitamin C toxicity can cause rectal bleeding. Other potentially toxic vitamins include vitamins B1, B2, D, E, K and folate. Whereas it is definitely possible to overdose on vitamins from supplements, it is extremely unlikely that you will overdose on vitamins procured from foods.
Complimentary Nutrition
Many vitamins complement other vitamins, enabling the body to absorb or utilized them. For example, the body requires vitamin D to facilitate calcium absorption and calcium reuptake from bone, thereby regulating its concentration in the blood. Appropriately, many foods that contain calcium also have vitamin D fortification, for example, milk and dairy products. This may come with other complements --- for example, while rice contains some amino acids in dietary protein, beans contain the rest. Accordingly, while a full meal may contain complementary vitamins and minerals, it may contain other complimentary aspects as well, resulting in more complete nutrition. Multivitamins are still incapable of this degree of completeness.
Moreover, dietary requirements differ from person to person; retrieving vitamins from food renders daily vitamin intake more malleable, as each vitamin does not have a predetermined dose.
What Supplementation Suggests
Although there are circumstances that render vitamin supplements necessary, they usually indicate a disparity in your diet. Therefore, supplementing your diet with vitamins in pill form only solves part of the problem. Not only is it likely that you may incur various imbalances despite supplementation, it also suggests that you are ingesting empty calories. This is a description of foods that provide energy, but have no nutritional value. Usually, this means that the food contains calorie-dense constituents or additives, such as fat or sugar, that provide energy but not nutrition. This can result in long-term health difficulties or weight gain, even despite proper nutrition from vitamin supplementation.
References
- MedlinePlus: Vitamins
- "Vitamin C: The Real Story: The Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor"; Steve Hickey and Andrew W. Saul; 2008
- "Nutrition for Dummies, UK Edition"; Nigel Denby, Dietician, Sue Baic, Dietician and Carol Ann Rinzler; 2005
- "Age-Proof Your Body: The Complete Guide to Looking and Feeling Younger"; Elizabeth Somer; 2006
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