Nutrition Supplements, Vitamin, and Health

Welcome to Nutritionary.com! Our site is dedicated to providing you with information on nutritional supplements, weight loss supplements, muscle building supplements, and more. We do not advocate any specific brand or product; and this site is for informational purposes only.

Human nutrition was a matter of survival for as long as there have been human beings. But it was not until the 18th century that we really began paying attention to how what we eat affected us. Diseases like scurvy claimed lives routinely, but few questioned why.

The discovery of vitamins changed all that. When we discovered that there were specific things within our food that our bodies needed to be healthy, we opened an entire new field of exploration to scientists and doctors. Now we could discover that we didn’t just need fruits and vegetables because they filled us up and were inexpensive to produce. We could see that they provided essential nutrients to run our body.

A host of diseases were discovered to be cases of malnutrition. Scurvy was a disease that claimed the lives of sailors. This is because a sailor’s diet did not include fruits and vegetables. They got no ascorbic acid, or Vitamin C. This anti-oxidant is an important nutrient that our bodies cannot store large quantities of. So if humans do not get it on a daily basis we can become ill.

Vitamins were the first supplements created, and some minerals were also among the early pioneers in the field. But in the last two decades the supplement world has exploded into a mind numbing array of different products. Now you can take weight loss supplements to slim down, or protein supplements to pack on the pounds. There are supplements to enhance your mood, to up your energy levels, or to calm you down and help you sleep.

The regulation of the supplement industry is not ideal however. Health supplements are regulated as a food and not a drug. This makes their standards of reporting lower. It makes their background testing requirements almost non-existent. It means that they don’t have to produce tests to back their fantastic claims.

So when you are browsing the world of health supplements, use common sense and a good helping of caution. If the claims made by a product sound too good to be true, they usually are. If you’re not sure what the ingredients in a supplement do to the human body, find out. Good knowledge of what the physiological effects of different supplements will go a long way towards keeping you safe. Check the labeling of anything you intend to buy, the nutrition information will tell you much of what you need to know. If there are ingredients you don’t know about in the supplement, you should investigate them.

But don’t let that scare you away from the world of nutritional supplements. Vitamin supplements for instance are safe and relatively side-effect free. Any side effects from vitamins are due to exceeding the recommended daily value for the vitamin. Flaxseed oil is rich in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an essential fatty acid that appears to be beneficial for heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and a variety of other health conditions. The wisdom required from the supplement world is no different than the common sense you use when buying anything else today. Use your head and if you’re not sure, ask someone who knows!

 

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