RACHAEL RICHARDSON: Hi. I'm Rachael Richardson, and I'm a registered dietitian and a licensed nutritionist. I'm from Nutrolution, Inc., and we are located in Miami, Florida. This is a beginner's guide to taking supplements. Supplements are a wide variety of things. They include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, probiotics, antioxidants and many, many more things, so one of the most important things that you do before you start taking supplements is to identify which of those things that your body is deficient in. Now, you may not be able to do that on your own or you may be able to start to get an idea if you're someone who's a vegetarian, if you're someone who has avoided fat for many years, then you can pretty well be sure that you're going to need either protein and/or fatty acids in those cases. Another way to figure out what you need is to consult a nutritionist, and this might be the best thing to do before you start taking supplements. So there are about five major categories of supplements that I really focused on. One of those is fatty acids and it's because we're in a society that has eliminated fat for so long and our diets don't have enough of the essential fatty acids, and I'm not talking about french fries. Another major category that is way underused right now are probiotics, and those are good bacteria that our guts need and that have been wiped out in most of our bodies by antibiotics in our lifetime. Another category is minerals, and our soil is very deficient in minerals and therefore we now have a very mineral-deficient population so minerals are huge. Antioxidants is another category and that's because we are exposed to so many toxins in our lifestyles through our food and our environment that we have more free radicals and we need to fortify with antioxidants. The five points to remember are take what your body needs, remember to individualize, take it slow, consult a physician if needed and consult a nutritionist to find your needs.
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