Nutritional dietary supplements

Nutritional dietary supplements are neither a "health miracle" that can cure all diseases, nor an "IQ tax" for the entire industry. Its core positioning is a nutritional supplement tool for daily meals. Whether it is necessary to consume it and what category to choose depends entirely on the individual's dietary gap, physical condition and life scene. There is no universal solution that suits everyone.

Last week, I helped two friends solve supplement-related questions. One is a girl who works in Internet operations. She has a drawer full of multivitamins, grape seeds, and nicotinamide tablets. After taking them for more than half a year, her physical examination still showed that she was deficient in vitamin D and had low hemoglobin. She sat across from me and complained, "It's all IQ tax."”； The other is a brother who has been practicing CrossFit for three years. His daily supplements are only protein powder and vitamin D. Last week, his body fat dropped to 11.8%, and all nutritional indicators met the standards. He said that the supplements saved him a lot of effort in chewing dried chicken breasts. We both take supplements, why is the difference so big? The essence is that the former did not know what they were lacking and followed the Internet celebrities to buy blindly, while the latter accurately made up for their dietary gaps.

There are actually two mainstream voices in the nutrition community. No one is right or wrong. It all depends on the group of people it is suitable for. The first one is a firm "diet-first" person. The core view is that as long as the daily diet can be balanced, there is no need for any supplements. I have actually seen examples of this. After my mother retired, she studied recipes at home every day and followed the dietary guidelines of the Chinese Nutrition Society. She ate at least 12 kinds of food every day and made up 25 kinds every week. She changed grains, dark green vegetables, deep-sea fish, eggs, milk, and nuts every day. She was not lacking any trace elements during her physical examination last year. The doctor at the community hospital told her directly, don’t listen to the nonsense of health product sales, and you don’t need to take any supplements. Now she dances square dance for two hours every day, and she can climb the fifth floor even more out of breath than me. But the question is, how many people can achieve this kind of eating state now?

The other is the "reasonable supplement school". To put it bluntly, it means admitting that most people's current dietary structure has gaps, and they must make up for it. Take today's office workers as an example. They work 996 every day and eat takeout every day, which is heavy in oil and salt. They can't eat green leafy vegetables twice a week. They drink three cups of coffee a day. Staying up late is the norm. In this case, it is normal to be deficient in B complex, vitamin C, and vitamin D. Not to mention special groups, such as strict vegetarians. If they don’t eat eggs and milk, there are almost no natural food sources of B12. If the deficiency reaches a certain level, their hands and feet will become numb and anemic. It cannot be supplemented without supplements. ； There are also pregnant women whose demand for folic acid, iron, and calcium soars in the second trimester. It is difficult to get enough through daily diet. Obstetricians in regular hospitals will directly prescribe corresponding supplements. ； Then there is the fitness party during the muscle-building period. A 70-kg person needs to eat at least 110g of protein every day. When converted into food, he needs to eat 7 eggs and two pounds of chicken breasts. Who can swallow it every day? One scoop of protein powder contains 25g of high-quality protein, and it is ready to drink, which is very convenient.

Nowadays, many people criticize supplements as an IQ tax. In fact, most of them have stepped on two pitfalls: either they eat wrong and have a balanced diet, and they also take a bunch of supplements. The excess water-soluble nutrients are excreted in the urine, which is equivalent to eating in vain. Excessive fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K can also accumulate in the body and cause poisoning. I have seen someone take 3 vitamin C tablets a day to look better during the day, and they had a nosebleed for half a month.； Either you bought it wrong and bought those Internet celebrity models that are not supported by clinical evidence, such as whitening pills, anti-aging sugar, and anti-cancer supplements. To put it bluntly, they are all marketing concepts. What you spent a lot of money to buy may be some starch and food flavoring. By the way, I also want to mention that nutritional dietary supplements in our country are regulated as health foods, and qualified products must have a blue hat logo. Anyone who tells you that it can cure diseases is a liar, so don’t believe it.

My own list of supplements is very simple. There are only two: one is ordinary medicinal vitamin C tablets, which cost a few yuan for 100 tablets. Because I often travel for business and events, I take one when I can’t eat takeout and green leafy vegetables.； The other is vitamin D. In winter when there is no sunshine in Beijing, take 1,000IU a day and don’t buy anything else. All the indicators in the physical examination last year were normal, and I didn’t want to follow the trend and buy those fancy gadgets. My grandma was tricked by a salesperson in the community into buying Sanwu's deep-sea fish oil, which was said to lower blood pressure and cure diabetes. When I took it over and saw that it didn't even have a blue hat, I gave it back to her - she usually eats salmon twice a week, and her blood lipids and blood pressure are normal. There is no need to take this product. If she really wants to take it, she has to go to a regular drugstore and buy a qualified one.

To be honest, I have seen too many people who either regard supplements as a life-saving straw, do not eat well, and rely on supplements every day to get nutrition, or they think that all supplements are a scam, and their hands and feet are numb even though they are clearly deficient in B12 and still refuse to take them. Both extremes are unnecessary. To put it bluntly, supplements are just patches for your diet. Your clothes are fine, but no matter how many patches you put on them, it will be useless. ； If there is a small hole, find the right patch to patch it up, and the clothes will still be comfortable and durable. Before eating, take the time to have a nutrition-related physical examination and ask your doctor or registered dietitian for advice. It is much more reliable than staring at the live broadcast anchor and shouting "Family members, please stock up".