Dietary Supplements "Supplement" a Healthy Diet

The rush of modern life and bad food choices often rob you of essential nutrients. 

A typical Western Diet is unhealthy for at least two reasons. First, it contains unnecessary ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, omega 6 fats, monosodium glutamate, pesticides like glyphosate, and other harmful chemicals. 

A recent study has suggested an average Western Diet can promote chronic inflammation. Second, it misses the healthy ingredients that should have been present at any cost. All things considered, it is now more important than ever to focus on changing our eating habits. But what about dietary supplements? In fact, dietary supplements are a great way topping up vitamins and nutrients that even a healthy diet often cannot deliver.

What are Dietary Supplements?

As a matter of fact, dietary supplements are nothing really all that new. It’s just now that we have started to notice them. We have been taking them, maybe in other forms or unknowingly, since time immemorial.

Remember when your mother suggested hot lemon tea with honey when you got a nasty cold?This is not a fad or unproven practice, because lemon is rich in immune-boosting vitamin C and honey is rich in minerals, the combination making an effective home remedy for relieving common cold symptoms. Now, what if vitamin C is available in a pill? We call it a supplement.

According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “dietary supplements are products which are not pharmaceutical drugs, food additives like spices or preservatives, or conventional food, and which also meet any of these criteria:

Dietary Supplements Can Promote Health

It’s not that you should take dietary supplements only when you have some serious deficiency problems. Many dietary supplements have been known to promote health, delay aging and balance systems in the body. 

For example, omega-3 fatty acids from fish oils can help people with heart disease. Folic acid decreases the risk of some birth defects. Likewise, probiotics can help to balance gut microbiota, treat or prevent diarrhea, and may ease the symptoms of depression. 

Turmeric curcumin is highly effective against inflammation and works to reduce pain in joint diseases. A recent study suggests turmeric curcumin can also help to lower blood glucose levels in diabetics.