Vitamins and minerals
What do vitamins and minerals do?
Vitamins help regulate body processes and help you to
grow and develop healthily. Minerals are also essential
for the body to grow and function properly.
A balanced diet that has a variety of different foods across
the food groups is likely to contain enough of the vitamins
and minerals that your body needs. However, it’s still possible
for deficiencies of some vitamins to occur. If you’re a strict
vegetarian, on a special diet or pregnant, you may not get
enough of all the vitamins and minerals that you need. Iron
deficiency, for example, is quite common, especially in teenage
girls.
What if you have a deficiency?
Most people, including young people and children get all the
vitamins and minerals they need from their diet. If you are
deficient in a nutrient the best way to get enough is to eat more
of the foods that contain that nutrient. It can be useful to take
a supplement if you can’t, don’t want or don’t
like to eat particular foods. This should only be done with professional
advice, though. This is because too much of anything good can be
a bad thing, and vitamins and minerals are no exception. Also,
vitamins and minerals from supplements may not be as well absorbed
by your body as those found naturally in food.
There are stacks of vitamins and mineral supplements out there.
The problem is that there are huge variations in the quality of
them, and not all of them have the same ingredients. Some are brimming
with additives and colourings or sugar-coated cheap formulations.
These could just burn a hole in your pocket without bringing any
benefits, especially if the nutrients are not absorbed properly.
You also need to make sure you take the right combination of
supplements. Some vitamins need to be taken with others for them
to be effective or to make sure you don’t become deficient
in something else. Taking too much of one type of mineral may reduce
your body’s ability to absorb other important minerals.
If you think you need to supplement your diet with an additional
vitamin or mineral, it’s best to get advice from your pharmacist,
GP or dietitian. It’s also important not to take more than
the recommended daily amount (RDA) that is written on the label,
and to make sure you choose the right dose according to your age – overdosing
with some supplements this can be hazardous.
Remember the most important thing is to look to your diet. If
you think you might be lacking in certain vitamins or minerals – could
you change your diet so that you start eating some of the
foods that contain these nutrients?
