Dietary supplements: Using Supplements Wisely

The Following article was copied from the Mayo Clinic website. I have mentioned this before but one of my friends in the European Union asked her doctor about taking the Reliv Vitamins and he told her that it was not good to take high dosage vitamins. 

Is high dosage really necessary? What are the long term affects to high dosage vitamins? Many distributors encourage their followers to take two, three, or even more shakes a day to get the effects they need. The normal dosage according to the can is already high, but two, three or four times that amount is absurd.

Dietary supplements: Using vitamin and mineral supplements wisely

To use dietary supplements wisely, assess your needs, evaluate the merits of taking supplements, and understand how to choose and use them.

Can you skip your daily servings of fruits and vegetables and take a vitamin and mineral supplement instead? Unfortunately, no.

Dietary supplements aren't meant to be food substitutes, as they can't replicate all of the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. But dietary supplements can still play a role in your health by complementing your regular diet if you have trouble getting enough nutrients.

Vitamin and mineral ABCs

Vitamins and minerals are substances your body needs in small but steady amounts for normal growth, function and health. Together, vitamins and minerals are called micronutrients. Your body can't make most micronutrients, so you must get them from the foods you eat or, in some cases, from dietary supplements.

Vitamins. These nutrients are needed for a variety of biological processes, among them growth, digestion and nerve function. Vitamins are involved in many processes that enable your body to use carbohydrates, fats and proteins for energy and repair. Though vitamins are involved in converting food into energy, they supply no calories.

Minerals. These nutrients are the main components in your teeth and bones, and they serve as building blocks for other cells and enzymes. Minerals also help regulate the balance of fluids in your body and control the movement of nerve impulses. Some minerals also help deliver oxygen to cells and help carry away carbon dioxide.

Whole foods: Your best source of micronutrients

Whole foods are your best sources of vitamins and minerals. They offer three main benefits over dietary supplements:

Greater nutrition. Whole foods are complex, containing a variety of the micronutrients your body needs — not just one. An orange, for example, provides vitamin C but also some beta carotene, calcium and other nutrients. A vitamin C supplement lacks these other micronutrients.

Essential fiber. Whole foods provide dietary fiber. Fiber can help prevent certain diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, and it can also help manage constipation.

Protective substances. Whole foods contain other substances recognized as important for good health. Fruits and vegetables, for example, contain naturally occurring food substances called phytochemicals, which may help protect you against cancer, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Many are also good sources of antioxidants — substances that slow down oxidation, a natural process that leads to cell and tissue damage. If you depend on dietary supplements rather than eating a variety of whole foods, you miss the benefits of these substances.

Who needs dietary supplements?

Many people don't receive all of the nutrients they need from their diet because they either can't or don't eat enough, or they can't or don't eat a variety of healthy foods. For some people, including those on restrictive diets, dietary supplements can provide vitamins and minerals that their diets often don't. Pregnant women and older adults have altered nutrient needs and may also benefit from a dietary supplement.

Choosing and using supplements

If you decide to take a vitamin or mineral supplement, consider these factors:

Check the supplement label. Read labels carefully. Product labels can tell you what the active ingredient or ingredients are, which nutrients are included, the serving size — for example, capsule, packet or teaspoonful — and the amount of nutrients in each serving.

Avoid supplements that provide 'megadoses.' In general, choose a multivitamin-mineral supplement — for example, Centrum, One-A-Day, others — that provides about 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV) of all the vitamins and minerals, rather than one which has, for example, 500 percent of the DV for one vitamin and only 20 percent of the DV for another. The exception to this is calcium. You may notice that calcium-containing supplements don't provide 100 percent of the DV. If they did, the tablets would be too large to swallow.

Look for 'USP' on the label. This ensures that the supplement meets the standards for strength, purity, disintegration and dissolution established by the testing organization U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP)

Beware of gimmicks. Synthetic vitamins are usually the same as so-called "natural" vitamins, but "natural" vitamins usually cost more. And don't give in to the temptation of added herbs, enzymes or amino acids — they add mostly cost. Note that some herbs can interact negatively with certain medications.

Look for expiration dates. Dietary supplements can lose potency over time, especially in hot and humid climates. If a supplement doesn't have an expiration date, don't buy it. If your supplements have expired, discard them.

Store all vitamin and mineral supplements safely. Store dietary supplements in a dry, cool place. Avoid hot, humid storage locations, such as the bathroom. Also, store supplements out of sight and away from children. Put supplements in a locked cabinet or other secure location. Don't leave them on the counter or rely on child-resistant packaging.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/supplements/NU00198

Buy the "Generic" Alternatives

As I read through this product review by this poster a smile came to my face. In many ways I think this person might be right. I think in many ways you could save a lot of $s by buying a generic form of the Reliv Vitamins or simply popping a few pills. My dad buys some pills that are powder but have been capitulated to go down easy. They are made by Purity Products and when compared to the Reliv Nutrition charts, many of these products are better than Reliv.

But I think the part of this review that caught my attention was the fact that talked about the Reliv Distributors giving the same stories. The experiences they share, the healing stories, the amount of money you can make is passed from one meeting to the next, each person takes these stories home and has no personal experience or knowledge of them being true but they pass them on as the Gospel.

Buy the "generic" alternatives
by thetruthplease ,Oct 21 '06

Pros: High absorption
Cons: Over the top, far fetched testimonials and claims. Pyramid sales commissions make it way overpriced.

Not bad for you, but Reliv is basically a vitamin supplement that you can get much cheaper. True, vitamins don't absorb as quickly, but why is speed so important? It's the nutrients that are important, and a few minutes don't make a difference. I tried Reliv Classic, Now, Innergize and FibeRestore, and it might as well have been a placebo. The sales persons are almost TOO WELL trained to push this product and I believe the testimonials and claims are WAY over the top! They go to conventions to be groomed what to say, and if you talk to more than one sales rep, they give you the same "personally experienced" testimonial! Yes, it is a result of their motivation to make, for example, $10,000 or more per month pushing this product. It is almost cult-like the way these sales people push this product. By the way -- the sales reps are advised to go to websites such as this and give good reviews, so be careful of the source of the positive reviews you read. Chances are, they are dealers! Save your money and buy a very good multivitamin.