Vitamins & Supplements

I held a nutrition class last night at the Cloer Family Vineyard http://cloerfamilyvineyards.com/. I received lots of great questions. It made me realize how much people need good information about many nutrition topics. Over my next few posts, I will answer some of the questions because I think it would be helpful to most.

In general, if you eat nutritious well rounded meals most of the time, you probably don't need a multivitamin. There are many exceptions to this rule,  including during pregnancy, if you have malabsorption issues, or if you have a known deficiency. Many people are also deficient in Vitamin D. It would be a good topic to discuss at your next doctor's appointment, a simple blood test provides great info to tell us if you need more vitamin D. 

If you want to learn more about vitamins & supplements, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has great unbiased info. (Note that some of their links are in black letters and it is not obvious that it is a link, so if the page looks like it is missing info, click on some of the words there and see if it sends you someplace else.) Here is their link for supplements: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-all/

Keep in mind that all vitamins & minerals are essential which means you must consume them. However, more is not always better. You can have too much of anything, even extremely large water intake can cause death. Also some herbs type supplements do actually provide effects in the body. Not all of them are studied well and some probably do absolutely nothing or could even be harmful. Always tell your doctor about any supplements that you are taking.

I have added this link to my blog site, also note that there are lots of great links along the edges of the blog.

Hope you find this helpful!!