What Do Vitamins and Supplements Do for Me?
Where Do Vitamins/Minerals Come From?
VITAMINS are natural substances found in living things such as plants. Vitamins must be obtained in the body from foods or supplements as they cannot usually be produced by the body.
MINERALS are found in plants. Plants get their minerals from the soil -- soil gets minerals from water washing over rocks. For vitamins to do their job, they require minerals. Minerals must also be obtained from food or supplements.
ANTIOXIDANTS are specific vitaminsor minerals that protect body cells from the damaging effects of Free Radicals. Free Radicals come from or are caused by smoking, sunlight, stress, excercise, etc., and are one of the primary causes of premature aging, sickness and disease. For more information see "Why do I Age, Get Sick, Get Diseases?"
How Do Vitamins/ Minerals Get in The Body?
Vitamins and minerals get into your body when you eat plants such as fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and spices or when you take vitamin/mineral supplement. You can also get some vitamins and minerals into your body by eating meats as most animals eat plant food.
SUPPLEMENTS are vitamins and minerals that have been extracted from a plant or created in a laboratory and put into a form that can be ingested and used by the body.
There are effective supplements, ineffective supplements and hazardous supplements.
Uneducated consumers are at risk from two sides.
- Consumer knows they should supplement but doesn't know how to select an effective supplement, therefore wastes their money, time and health.
- Consumer is uninformed (or given bad advice) on the need to supplement and sacrifices their health.
Where Do Vitamins/Minerals Go in The Body?
Vitamins and minerals go from your stomach to your intestines. They then go through a very complex allocation system whereby the body distributes certain vitamins and minerals to parts of your body based on its own priority system.
If a nutritent is needed in a certain organ that it (the body) deems more important, it will take the nutrient from a less important organ, and allocate it to a more important organ. Sort of a "rob Peter to pay Paul" action. That's why it is critical to maintain proper vitamin and mineral levels.