What does your body need in terms of nutrition?
There are definite nutrients you need to be healthy. The essential micro and macro nutrients are those that we know our bodies need but don’t make on their own. We need to get them from food.
Can we get all the nutrition that we need from our food? In the past the answer was more favorable than it is now, and it’s not only because where the food is grown has less opportunity to provide enough nutrients although that is a consideration.
All the processed food, fast food, junk food and drinks have made it very hard to get the nutrition we need. Every time we eat those things we are not eating food with real nutrition. On top of that, some of the ingredients in the bad food can actually deplete the good nutrients in our body before our body can use them to keep us health. B vitamins are an example of nutrition that can be depleted by things like white sugar and white flour.
So nutrition is a big thing.
There have been RDA values associated with nutrition. You know those little numbers on the back of the cereal boxes.
Did you know that those numbers were actually created (way back) during World War I and World War II when so many recruits for the military were not being accepted because they were malnourished. So the government set these values that are more like barely adequate, and certainly not recommended for optimal nutrition.
We are not nutritionists or work in the medical field at all. What we do have is over 38 years of experience using nutritional supplements. We were fortunate to learn way back in 1982 that taking a daily multivitamin/multimineral was a very good thing for our bodies if we want to stay healthy.
We also learned the difference between synthetic vitamins that do not get absorbed in the body the same way food does, and natural, food-based vitamins and supplements. It can be all the difference in the results you get.
One of the main reasons we have stayed faithful to taking daily vitamins and other supplements is the fact that, in general, people are healthy – until they are not. And we have to take control of that part of our health. Doctors treat disease. We build our own health.
You see your doctor once per year. You see yourself every day. It is up to you to build your health!
Lifestyle Matters
Most of us start out healthy, or at least that’s the plan. Yes, babies are born sick; but if you are born healthy, lots of things can mess that up.
And we can take for granted that we will stay healthy even though a lot of the decisions we make, every day, in terms of diet, lifestyle, exercise (or lack of), stress, sleep, and a host of other factors can take us off our optimal health path.
BE MINDFUL OF YOUR HEALTH EVERY DAY.
Vitamins and supplements are not going to be the magic pill that gets you healthy, no matter what your lifestyle looks like.
We write about lifestyle throughout the blog, and they are essential the same as nutrition. So exercise, rest (get enough sleep!), stress management, and your lifestyle choices (do NOT smoke) are all part of the health that you build.
Can Vitamins Make a Difference?
We believe that most of us should start with a daily multivitamin/multimineral and here is why.
Your Body is Amazing
Your body has the ability to kick in when it is exposed to something that is trying to hurt it. It’s like an incredible machine that is capable of self maintenance and self repair, even when you abuse it. Did you ever wonder why some people can live a pretty unhealthy life for a long period of time and they are still going – still living.
Most of the time we are not consciously thinking about how our body has the mechanisms it needs for keeping us healthy, including repair DNA damage, heal from all kinds of different illnesses, rebuild tissues after an infection or injury.
It does need to have the right tools though. If you compare it to building a wall, if you have the bricks but not the mortar you aren’t going to build much of a wall.
Your body is the same. It needs all the elements, and they are in the form of nutrients called essential nutrients. Essential because your body can’t make them. You have to get them through your diet
Micro nutrients are vitamins and minerals. Macro nutrients are protein and essential fatty acids. They are contained in the food eat, and are critical for whether the repair and maintenance activities can work in your body.
One example of how your body cannot work without them is that one of the ways malnutrition can be diagnosed is the failure of your body to make antibodies.
If you think about that, how can your body begin to make antibodies when you are exposed to a virus (or even a vaccine) if it doesn’t have all the raw materials it needs to make a normal immune response?
Why We Believe Supplements Work
Even if you eat as best you can, it is hard to get enough nutrients for the best health – optimal health. That’s the kind of health we want.
For most of us, there are nutritional gaps in our diet.
Sometimes you struggle with a health problem. For me, it was digestive issues that would not be fun to deal with forever. And being that they were not life threatening – just annoying – why take a prescription medication that was going to deliver side effects. That would not be any fun either – for the short term or the long term. So I went looking for natural options.
Sometimes you have a family history of a certain disease or illness and you really want to work at staying healthy to fight against getting it. Most of us have some kind of illness in our family history so it makes sense to try to stay healthy. Today we are much more aware of all the supplements that promise better health.
Sometimes we turn to vitamins and supplements because we need higher energy or endurance for our busy lives or an a specific activity. Whatever the reason, vitamins and natural nutrition supplements have been proven to help us have better health. But where do you start when trying to decide what to take, what will benefit you?
The reason we have grown very loyal to taking daily vitamins is because the problems we had got better. We gained and have since maintained more energy and great overall health than we did pre-supplements. We don’t get colds every year, and when we do get minor illnesses we recover quickly. We sleep well and we manage stress better. Vitamins and supplements are a win for us in so many ways.
Do you ever talk to anyone that doesn’t believe in vitamins because they never felt any difference or result when taking them, or maybe that’s you?
We believe this is true because of the difference in products for sale. Vitamin and supplement brands are not created equal. There is some real junk in the market and the market itself is not regulated very well – hence the junk!
I heard today that there is something like 1400 supplement companies, and many of the products are unbalanced and incomplete. Your body doesn’t absorb the ingredients and so they can’t really work to help keep you healthy.
Core Nutrition
What we learned so many years ago is still what we are learning from the brand we have used for all of these years.
A good multivitamin/multimineral supplement is the place to start.
A good quality, natural multivitamin/multimineral has the essential nutrition that your body needs – in the right amounts and formulated in the right way to get absorbed and used in your cells.
If there is some nutrient that your body has enough of, it will get rid of any excess very naturally.
Taking a multivitamin that is made as close to the way you would find it in nature, in food, as possible is safer than randomly picking one nutrient because you read something about it because you won’t be getting too much of any one nutrient without knowing for sure that you need it.
The other important thing to consider when choosing a multivitamin is whether you need iron or not. You will see how multivitamins are sold with and without iron.
Most girls and women before menopause need iron. Most men don’t need extra iron. People over 50 unless anemic usually don’t need extra iron. The brand we use makes 3 kinds for adults: with iron, without iron, and an over-50 formula with some extra nutrients beneficial to your heart.
Vitamins are not for taste!
Marketing vitamins has gone a little crazy. Part of that is due to the fact that somewhere along the line people started living to eat instead of eating to live.
Food has to taste good. Vitamins have to taste good. WHAT??
If you are going to put a supplement in your body, it is NOT FOR TASTE – it is for HEALTH. Look at what is inside that vitamin that the company is trying to make it taste good. It’s probably something you don’t want to be taking.
The most important component of a multivitamin: it needs to be balanced and complete. And there should be proof of that.
Even though we learned about the differences in types of vitamins, and understand how many are not good for your body at all, it is nice to have the proof.
A 20-year (first of its kind anywhere in the world) landmark study that measured people’s blood after taking supplements found that it is actually better to take no vitamin than to take a synthetic one (unbalanced and not complete).
That is pretty powerful to us. If we are going to pay for and consume a supplement, we want results – not problems.
One of the very first stories shared with us was the difference between natural vitamins and synthetic vitamins. And there is a third category as well that we talk about in the Shaklee family. Shaklee products are in a category of their own for good reason (see below).
TYPES OF VITAMINS
1- Synthetic
Synthetic vitamins are man made (test tubes), have inorganic substances, have no enzymes, and you can have side effects from them.
2- Natural Isolate/Organic Extract
These vitamins are usually found at health food stores and through other nutrition companies. They may have low quality raw ingredients, may be unbalanced, are heat extracted with weak enzymes. They contain filler ingredients and harsh ingredient binders, and chemicals are used in processing them. Supplements need only be 10% natural to put ‘natural’ on their label.
3- All Natural Shaklee Supplements
Containing the highest quality raw materials (this is documented and well known in the industry), are balanced, are processed with low heat and low pressure to retain strong enzymatic action. They have exceptional bio-availability at your cell level and are backed by independently proven scientific research.
This post contains affiliate links to products we use every day from the brand we have used for 37+ years. You can see more about our disclosures in the links provided.
Shaklee Supplements
The company we chose to trust is The Shaklee Corporation. Shaklee was started by Dr. Shaklee who wanted his products to help families create better health nutritionally.
Shaklee vitamins are backed by more science and research than any other company producing supplements that I know. All that science and all that research ensures us that we have the best quality ingredients that get to the right part of the body at just the right time to get absorbed most optimally.
Unless you understand that your vitamins and supplements must be available to your body at the right time, and your brand can verify that, you may not be getting the results you want. Shaklee has 30+ years of Landmark Studies behind their nutritional products – the only brand to have long term supplement studies.
The way we began 38 years ago was by trying Shaklee’s daily vitamins, and I was interested in the digestive supplement because I was really wanting some results in that area. We have used this brand ever since because we get those results.
We have great health. We have great energy. We feel strong and confident that our immune system is able to fight off the germs that threaten our health.
Prove it Challenge
Take Vitamins and Supplements Daily
The reason why you take vitamins daily are the same that you eat. Your body needs the nutrition every day to do its amazing job of keeping you healthy.
Nutrients can’t work if they are not in your body and available for use. If you wouldn’t miss your medication because it can’t do it’s job if you don’t take it, why wouldn’t you do the same with nutrition supplements?
The goal of AntiAgingByDesign.com is to help you be healthier by learning about ways to be healthy and live (feel) younger longer.
We begin to age the moment we are born, and we have a lifetime to build great health.
It’s a lot more fun to feel energized and healthy as we go about our lives than it is for the opposite feelings of sick, tired, moody, or hurting.
If you want to learn more about Shaklee multivitamins, check them out here: Vitamins and Supplements.