What’s the Difference Between Supplements and Vitamins? A question most of us may ask but do not actually know the answer to. Taking care of our bodies can sometimes be difficult. We may either not have the adequate knowledge to know what or how much of a certain vitamin or mineral we need or how to obtain them.
Another aspect and perhaps the biggest culprit of all is that we simply do not take the time out to give our bodies everything they need. We overlook a lot of signs that our body gives us, such as fatigue, acne breakouts, fragile nails, and hair, because it doesn’t seem threatening or we have just become so acquainted with these indicators.
Thankfully there are plenty of easy ways that we can ensure that we nourish ourselves with these important elements. Due to our diet or genetic makeup, supplements can take the place of many vital minerals and vitamins that we may not be getting enough of. However, this shouldn’t be a cop-out to neglect the fact that we should still try and adjust our diets and way of living to help consume naturally occurring vitamins and minerals.
What’s the Difference Between Supplements and Vitamins?
What Are Supplements Used for?
Supplements often contain vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, and herbs. These help keep your body healthy and functioning correctly. They can be absorbed through different kinds of food. They are often found in healthier foods such as vegetables and fruits. These food groups have high levels of iron, calcium, vitamins, and much more.
Oftentimes people aren’t able to get the right amount of minerals and vitamins in their daily life due to their diet not supplying it efficiently. This is why they substitute for this lack by ingesting supplements that can also be taken to boost immunity and complement one’s diet.
Supplements can be bought without a prescription and are sold at many pharmacies and health shops. Still, many doctors will recommend supplements if they see that they are needed or if there is a deficiency that is causing health problems.
Although supplements can be purchased without a prescription, there are still factors to consider before adding them to your diet. There can be some adverse side effects of these supplements if they aren’t needed or are of a too high dosage.
What Are the Benefits of Vitamins?
Vitamins and minerals are essential to our bodies. They help us build bone, create healthy blood flow, keep our immune system healthy and help heal wounds. Vitamins play a big role in keeping us in a healthy and functioning state, and when we have a severe deficiency of them or a certain kind, it can negatively affect our body in many ways. Some of the great ways that vitamins do help us are;
- They help our brains communicate with our nerves
- Support energy production
- Lessens the build of plaque and fat around and in the heart
- Helps fight off heart diseases
- Encourages brain health
- Boosts mood levels
- Supports our immune systems
- Reduce inflammation
- Regulates blood pressure
- Helps create collagen
- Combats cholesterol
- Helps keep our eyes and skin healthy
- Can help treat heart failure
Vitamins help support many parts of our body and can so prevent the occurrence of illnesses and other serious health conditions. It is important to learn about which vitamins and minerals are beneficial for what parts of the body and prevent sickness. Once this is known, it can ensure a long and healthy life.
What’s the Difference Between Supplements and Vitamins?
There are some definite differences between supplements and vitamins despite them having the same properties and intentions.
Vitamins naturally occur in many foods we consume, primarily meat and plants. Different foods contain certain vitamins, and some are much richer in these than others. When needing to boost a certain vitamin or mineral, we will up our intake of a certain kind of food.
Supplements are synthetic and contain a variety of vitamins which can also be called multivitamins. They don’t occur naturally in our diet or body and are consumed orally in capsule, pill, or powder form. They are taken when there is a lack of vitamins or minerals in a person’s diet and are made to complement dietary preferences.
Although supplements are meant to function and increase vitamins in the body, they don’t act the same way that naturally found vitamins do. Natural vitamins act as coenzymes in the body, whereas supplements have more of an energy-producing property as well as being a precursor to biomolecules.
Which is Better?
Both vitamins and supplements have beneficial properties and functions. Having a healthy intake of vitamins and minerals from foods element the need for supplements but having too many of a certain kind of natural vitamin or mineral can make you sick or even severely ill. Such as having too much vitamin A can prove to be toxic even in its most natural forms. Too much of anything is indeed bad, but it is much easier to take a higher dosage when consuming supplements incorrectly. It is much more unlikely to consume an unhealthy amount of vitamins through foods than it is to synthetic supplements. However, if the correct supplement is added to your diet and it is taken as prescribed on the bottle or by your healthcare provider, then there should be no problems.
The Risks of Supplements
Supplements are intended to help add nutrients and fill gaps in dietary needs. Although not completely the same as natural vitamins and minerals, supplements can do a good job of making up for the lack of vitamins in one’s diet.
There are, however, risk factors that come along with dietary supplements, and they should be taken as recommended. Some of these risks can be as follows;
- Some people take supplements in place of proper nutrients.
- It is possible to overdose on supplements that will cause the body toxicity.
- Supplements are often taken instead of food.
- Sometimes the body is unable to absorb the supplements resulting in negative effects and a lack of nutrients intake.
- Certain supplements can cancel out or affect medications.
Consuming supplements can be beneficial in adding missing nutrients to your diet. However, it is much healthier to obtain these vitamins and minerals through natural sources.
