The Importance of Taking Dietary Supplements & How They Can Help You Live a Healthier Life

What Are Dietary Supplements? 

Dietary supplements, as the name suggests itself are all those vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and proteins, etc., that our body is unable to absorb because of unhealthy and inorganic diets that we consume. These supplements come in all shapes in sizes; capsules, tablets, powders, drinks, and even energy bars, providing the body with the required nutrients.

Dietary supplements make up for the unnatural diet, but they perform very important functions in our body and improve and maintain our health. For example, Calcium and Vitamin D strengthen our bones and reduce any bone loss, and Folic acid decreases the risk of congenital disabilities.

To live a complete and healthy life, humans need to eat a variety of food that gives them all the dietary nutrients their body requires throughout the phases of life. Unfortunately, today we are deprived of organic food more than we ever were. Even if something comes off as organic, most often than not, it won't be organic. 

The only way to eat natural food in today's time is if we grow it ourselves. Otherwise, we have made everything monetary and are looking for ways to earn money from it, resulting in farmers adding chemicals and various other harmful substances in the crops to grow them bigger, better, and quicker while serving them at low prices.

If things are by chance natural and organic like they are meant to be, they are sold off so expensive that the general public stays away from it. Apart from this, we live in a time where people enjoy eating fast food more than healthy food, which is nothing but carbs and unhealthy fat being digested by our bodies. This results in us facing way more problems at a far earlier age than we ever did before.

Consuming a balanced diet is essential for us so our bodies can get the required nutrients. Since we don't have organic food available or eat a balanced diet, we all need to take dietary supplements to fulfill our bodies' needs. As we grow older, our body's ability to absorb nutrients from food decreases, and this is where it starts to utilize the stored nutrients. 

If our body is deprived of these essential vitamins and minerals, our bodies will become malnourished, and we'll end up with diseases like osteoporosis, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, etc. Consuming dietary supplements helps us keep excess of all these nutrients to enjoy a long healthy life with improved cognitive abilities, better immunity systems, and much more. 

Benefits Of Dietary Supplements

Dietary supplements are not only supposed to be taken when we are going through an illness or facing deficiencies. There are various other benefits of dietary supplements that cannot be ignored. Here are a few major benefits;

1. Aids Weight Loss

Yes, you've read that right. There are dietary supplements that can help you lose weight. If you've gained weight in the past few years and find it difficult to shed those extra pounds, supplementing your diet with authentic supplements can help you lose weight.  Even if it's 5% of your weight, you can achieve a healthy, perfect body and get started on your fitness journey.

2. Enhanced Athletic Performance

Exercising regularly in the gym and lifting heavy weights tends to cause sweating, resulting in essential minerals and nutrients draining out of the body.

Athletes and bodybuilders specifically who lift heavy weights and train vigorously for competitions have higher nutrient requirements than others. These needs have to be satisfied by adding dietary supplements to their regime to stay in shape and energize through their training sessions.

3. Reduced Risk of Heart Diseases 

Heart is one of the most important parts of our body, and to help it function properly throughout our lives, we need to look after it. 

Over time, we are getting more reliant on processed food, which brings a lot more harm to our bodies than we realize. About one-fourth of the people die due to heart diseases each year, but this fraction can be reduced if we take care of our diets.

Eating a balanced diet is essential for all since there is no replacement for our food nutrients.

Unfortunately, the processed food dependency has forced us to take dietary supplements. 

Dietary supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids have proven to help reduce the chances of heart diseases; therefore, it's better to get your hands on the right supplements so you can take care of your heart the way you're supposed to. 

4. Better Eyesight

Have you noticed how everyone is getting weaker eyesight day by day? It's not just older people anymore, but the younger generation and even toddlers face issues of weak eyesight.  Old age is not the only factor that causes poor vision. Muscle degeneration and deficiency of vitamin B12 are also two of the major reasons for having blurred and poor eyesight. 

Adding dietary supplements that contain vitamin B12, vitamin C, Vitamin E, zinc, copper, and many other essential nutrients can help fight off muscle degeneration and fulfill your body's nutrient requirement, so you don't end up getting glasses.

5. Improves Immunity

If you're amongst the many people who end up catching every virus in the air, it's most probably because of your poor immunity. If you want to ensure you don't end up getting sick every month or so, then adding dietary supplements to your regime can help you improve your immunity system by leaps and bounds.

Taking dietary supplements with astragalus root, ginger, etc., can help boost your immunity and ward off most viral and infections. 

How Do I Know if I Need Supplementation?

When people say that the nutrients are miracle workers, they aren't wrong. According to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, without them, we'll face all sorts of issues from weak eyesight, poor growth, fragile bones, low energy levels to chronic diseases, such as cancer, arthritis, etc.

Following are a few major scenarios where you should start taking supplements immediately;

1. Facing Deficiencies

During our life, many illnesses are discovered once we start developing symptoms and things get out of hand; hence it is extremely important to keep a regular check on what's happening inside our bodies. 

If the blood tests indicate that you're suffering from some mineral or vitamin deficiency, you must consult your doctor and start taking your supplements.

2. Restricted Diet

Often, if we're suffering from an illness such as diabetes etc., have an allergy to some food groups, are vegan by choice, we are forced to consume a restricted diet. This restriction denies us of minerals and vitamins necessary for our body.

In such cases, we must substitute the loss of vital nutrients through dietary supplements to enjoy a healthy and happy life.

3. Pregnancy

During pregnancy, our body is a home for another human being, consuming everything from that body. Since our bodies are working twice as hard, it is essential to check all the nutrients.

At times, the food is not providing enough nutrients needed to cater to our body and the little life growing inside; therefore, taking supplements such as folic acids is extremely vital to ensure a safe pregnancy and a healthy baby.

4. Growing Age

Aging is an undeniable reality of our lives, and as soon as we can accept it, we can handle it more wisely. With the growing age, we naturally reduce the amount of food we consume. Not only this, but our body also starts to stop absorbing the nutrients from food itself, causing malnourishment. 

Usually, at these times, our body starts to use the reserved nutrients that we had taken throughout our lives, but if there has been negligence in this, our aging can get way more difficult than it's supposed to be. Therefore, it is very important to add dietary supplements to our everyday diets to continue being active and medicine-free when we're older.

5. Inability to Absorb Nutrients

It's not just old age that causes a reduction in our ability to absorb nutrients. In some cases, such as GI tract diseases and surgeries, bariatric surgery also reduces our body's ability to absorb nutrients from everyday food. Hence, in such cases, it becomes necessary for individuals to maintain their nutrients level through dietary supplements and avoid any health issues in the future.

Finding the Best Dietary Supplements 

Now that you're comfortable and on board with taking your dietary supplements and taking care of your health. With a variety of supplements in the market, you'd want to get your hands on the ones that can give you maximum benefits, so here is me helping you out in finding the best dietary supplements.

Look out for these key ingredients, and you're good to go.

1. Fat Burner Pills

Ideal fat burner pills will contain ashwagandha, green coffee bean extract, caffeine, raspberry ketones, cayenne pepper, and Cissus quadrangularis as their major ingredients. 

All these ingredients are natural herbs and spices that control hunger pangs, burn more calories, boost metabolism, elevate energy levels, and much more without risking health.

2. Whey Protein Powder

When athletes and bodybuilders work out in the gym regularly and go through intense training sessions, they sweat many essential nutrients. Since they need to build muscles, stay active, and be in shape, adding the supplement of whey protein powder can prove beneficial. 

24gm of protein, 5.1g BCCAs, and 2.8g leucine are the key ingredients in the great whey protein powder by DMoose. These ingredients help boost energy, maintain muscle mass, lose weight, improve bone health and decrease recovery time.

3. Omega 3 Fish Oil

Omega 3 fatty acids are one of the healthiest components found in fish. They are amongst the common supplements consumed by the public and help lower triglycerides. 

Ideal Omega 3 fish oil supplement will contain 3000mg of fish oil and 2000mg omega 3 fatty acids per serving. This supplement helps strengthen the immune system, prevent diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, reduce mood swings in bipolar patients, prevent blood clots, etc.

4. Essential Amino Acids (EAAs) + Hydration

Amino acids are molecules that form proteins, both of which are essential for the human body. Our bodies don't produce amino acids on their own and are sourced through food, and since our food is not sufficing our amino acid needs, they need to be supplemented. 

When finding the best amino acid supplement, you need to ensure that it contains 8g of amino acids and 500mg of electrolyte blend. This electrolyte blend will help you stay hydrated and regain the lost electrolytes during your training sessions. 

While the 8g of essential amino acids derived from plants will help you develop leaner muscle mass, reduce fatigue and improve your overall strength so you can energize through your long training sessions.

5. Probiotic Supplement 

According to Harvard Medical School, probiotics are important for intestinal troubles and some infections as well. These are usually found in foods that are fermented, such as yogurts, etc.

Since we are more into processed foods and have little to no access to organic food, it is essential to support our dietary needs from supplements. The probiotic supplement that will help you meet your body's probiotic needs should have 50billion CFU probiotics with a prebiotic fiber blend and 13 strains. 

The supplements must have the ability to survive the stomach acids so that the probiotics can reach your small intestines and support a healthy gut.

6. Multivitamins

Lastly, everyone must take multivitamins above every other supplement. We put our bodies through so much by eating at irregular hours, putting in processed foods that we owe to our bodies to take care of them at the end of the day. 

Amongst several other benefits multivitamins, help boost your energy and mood, ensure efficient cellular oxygen consumption, promote healthy joints and bones, and enhance our immunity to fight all the oxidative stress, etc.

Conclusion

Generally, we realize the worth of something once we've lost it. Our health and our bodies are far too precious to be risked. Therefore, we must get ourselves checked and look out for symptoms of nutrient deficiency in our bodies. Tracking symptoms and taking dietary supplements to fulfill our bodily needs can help us enjoy all the phases of our lives.