What You Really Get with Vitamin Supplements

RDAs are “Grossly Oversimplified” For Vitamins and Supplements. RDA’s (Recommended Daily Allowance) are also used to set standards in many programs, but many nutritional scientists consider them to be out of sync with the needs of many Americans. It takes the stand of the mythical “average” that was created from a lot of scientific and mathematical “averages” computed from a group of people somewhere on the planet. Averages have become grossly oversimplified. Fixed but arbitrary set points have been established for a variety of factors. Many consumers today take vitamins and minerals in amounts far exceeding the recommended doses preventing chronic illnesses, like heart disease, and.

The fact is food alone cannot supply some nutrients in amounts sufficient to prevent disease, vitamin E at levels considerably higher than the current RDA has been linked by a number of researchers with the prevention of heart disease and improved immune function. Calcium-fortified orange juice, Vitamin-enhanced waters, Fortified cereals and energy bars, everywhere you turn, new products are showing up on supermarket shelves touting added vitamins and minerals. If you already take a multi-vitamin and mineral tablet, add a calcium or vitamin E supplement on top of that, and eat a few fortified food products along with a fairly healthy diet, you are now out of balance with too many vitamins and minerals.

We tend to think that more is better, or that if it’s natural, it can’t harm you, and that is particularly true when it comes to vitamins and minerals, but that’s not always the case, people habitually overdo it with vitamins and minerals and suffer the consequences.