a balanced diet & vitamin supplements

Your parents were probably always after you to finish your vegetables before dessert or to have an apple for a snack instead of candy. This was all part of making sure that you had a balanced diet. If you’re like most people, you may stray from good eating habits and wonder if using vitamins as supplement can help.

Just what is a balanced diet?

Moving toward a healthy diet may mean changing your eating habits, for starters. You might need to include more fruit, vegetables, bread, cereals and pasta. A balanced diet includes a variety of foods from the basic food groups:

• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Grains
• Meat and beans
• Milk
• Oils
• Fats and sugars

Eating a balanced diet will keep your energy level up and improve your overall health. With our busy lifestyles we often don’t allow time to prepare meals, opting instead for something quick and easy. Yet even when you are choosing healthy foods, how you prepare them can impact their value in vitamins. For example, overcooking vegetables or steaming them too long may cause you to lose the valuable vitamin C they normally furnish.

What about vitamins?

Vitamins are chemicals required by your body in certain quantities and correct proportions to keep you healthy. Most vitamins are consumed as part of a daily diet. We have all heard of vitamins A, B and C, but our bodies require many other vitamins for proper nutrition. You can check with your physician for a complete list, and he or she can also show you if your diet lacks any vitamins, of which your body needs a larger amount. After all, vitamin deficiency diseases aren’t from someone else – their prevention depends on the diet you choose for yourself.

What can I do if I know that I don’t eat right?

Ideally we would all consume a balanced diet and have ample time to digest our food in a relaxed atmosphere. But realistic lifestyle factors can tax your body heavily: stress, illness, depression, age, vegetarianism, pregnancy, obesity, smoking and alcohol use all can create vitamin shortages in your system. Vitamins provide your body with the building blocks to strengthen your immune system so the body can better heal itself.

Natural or synthetic vitamins?

If you search shelves of any health food store, you will be overwhelmed with the number and variety of new, synthetic vitamin supplements. How do these differ from natural vitamins? Synthetic vitamins are produced in a lab with the same chemical structure that exists in natural vitamins. The difference is that natural vitamins occur within a family of nutrients (natural foods) and are absorbed into your body naturally. You should carefully read supplement labels and always check with your physician if you have any questions.

Healthy Living is provided by Nationwide Health Programs Marketing Department. To comment on this article, contact info@ourohio.org

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