Having been a three sport athlete since middle school and putting my body though different types of training, food and healthy eating is always something I have paid attention to. However, after going through different health issues and having many different sports related injuries in high school we found out that my body was not keeping different vitamins and proteins as it should. This lead to having to take many different supplements to maintain a regular diet and get what my food couldn't keep from foods. After watching A Place At The Table and seeing how food insecure families are sometimes forced to eat I am taken back by how awful their bodies must feel.
Not only does it bring to mind how their bodies must feel, but the number of health implications they may deal with due to lack of vitamins and protein. In the film Rosie talked about how tired she felt at times even though she would eat and the mother of the two young children had many different problems with her sons health and development. Although this concept is not something new and we're all aware of the food insecure problems, it still baffles me every time it's discussed. Thinking about the lack of neutrition these people receive makes me think in some ways that our society may take advantage of different supplements and vitamins.
With having to take many different vitamins and protein supplements myself years ago I understand how important they may be for people who need them. But I definitely think our society can misuse them in various ways. Now that I do not have to sustain a regular diet with help of many vitamins I try to keep myself just as healthy by diet only. When knowing there are people and families out there who could really use the help of vitamins to sustain a healthy lifestyle I find myself easily upset by people who misuse vitamins exchanging them in place of food (when not used for health reasons). Don't get me wrong, I enjoy protein shakes as much as the next person after a good workout. But I do feel on some ways our society could better manage vitamin use when there are people who could greatly benefit from but may not have access to them.
My question now to all of you, Do you feel our society may misuse vitamin intakes when we could better use the food available to use (and plan food intake a little better) to keep our bodies healthy? How might we better use vitamins and supplements? Is there a way to help those who do not have access to vitamins and necessary supplements to get such resources?
I don't actually know if people misuse vitamins, but, then again, I'm sometimes not aware of many things that occur in society. I wouldn't say that I'm oblivious because I can pick up on things very easily, but I don't think I'm hanging around those kind of people or people who misuse vitamins don't open their daily diet to me. So I could possibly know someone who does, and I won't even know it. I have seen extreme cases like a woman only ingested vitamin supplements. That's all. And she over-exceeded the amount of each vitamin or supplement that a human is supposed to ingest on a day-to-day basis. It was crazy. She thought she was healthy. The doctors said very much of the same thing you are saying. Doctors said that she was killing herself because, even though our bodies need these vitamins, the best way to get them is through the nutritious food that we consume. Our bodies can handle a few vitamins that aren't in our diet and are otherwise taken as a pill or something to balance out the loss, but our bodies cannot handle every single vitamin and supplement as these processed pills. The doctor then goes on to talk about how these vitamins differ from natural vitamins found in food.
ReplyDeleteI have no clue how to better use vitamins and supplements. I feel like if any become recalled for only there being a ding on a container, they should take those to shelters, which I believe they already do that. There should be help and some sort of education program for those abusing vitamins. Maybe they don't see the error in their ways. We eat to get vitamins and we can get vitamins from pills, so why eat? It seems so simple and clear-cut. But not everyone knows that this is not the perfect equation and that the vitamins from pills don't equal the vitamins from food.
Maybe Food Stamps should include vitamins in their help. Or even the National school lunch program. With each school lunch, a child gets one vitamin to help with the loss of nutrients they may not get during the day. I have no clue. This would be very helpful if it was easier and I'm surprised that no one tried to incorporate vitamins and supplements into the diets of those living on Food Stamps, the National School Lunch Program, or other national food insecurity programs, since the individuals obviously do not get all the proper nutrients and vitamins in their daily food.
Ashley, I read an interesting article about how studies have been showing that we don't really need vitamins and supplements like the food and pharmaceutical industry tell us we do. If people have the privileged to eat fruits and vegetables and maintain a well-balanced diet, vitamins are actually unnecessary!!! I find this so interesting because so many people take daily multivitamins and supplements alongside of good diets... this is counterproductive and a big waste of money! check out this article posted in TIME Magazine:
ReplyDeletehttp://business.time.com/2011/10/11/weve-been-wasting-a-ton-of-money-on-vitamins-and-dietary-supplements/