Nutrition in a pill? Wouldn’t life be so easy if we could jam all of our nutrients into a few pills a day and eat whatever we want without paying the negative consequences? Does it sound too good to be true? It is!
Supplements are beneficial to the diet, in a manner of filling in the missing nutrients of your day. However, depending only on a multivitamin or other vitamin will leave your body feeling neglected of great nutrition. Supplements are not meant to replace whole foods because they do not replicate all of the nutrients and benefits of whole foods.
Whole foods offer three main benefits that supplements lack:
- Dietary Fiber can help prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes and manage constipation. Whole foods that provide dietary fiber include: fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains.
- Superior Nutrition is found in whole foods. Whole foods are complex, containing a variety of micronutrients that your body needs-not just the advertised ones on the bottle of a supplement. An orange, for example, provides vitamin C plus some beta carotene, calcium and other nutrients. A vitamin C supplement lacks these other micronutrients.
- Protective Substances are found in whole foods. Fruits and vegetables contain protective substances called phytochemicals, which may help prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.
So now what? If you are generally eating a nutrition plan high in a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, fish and low-fat dairy products, most likely you don’t need supplements.
Eat and love your whole foods!
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