Supplements!

If there is one thing I have noticed over my years in the fitness industry and Iron game, supplements seem to be a rage. It seems that nearly everyone wants the latest pills or powders or drinks to make them lose weight, build muscle or gain strength quickly. In a majority of situations it looks like drug pushers made legal!

So let's start clarifying certain things.

Firstly, Supplements are exactly that- supplements. It is not meant to replace your daily foods.  It is meant to act as an insurance to it. Which means, if something is missing in your diet, then the supplements come to your aid. Also, everyone requires different levels of supplements. A protein requirement for an athlete is going to be very different to a everyday health conscious individual. Even in athletes that ratio will vary depending on their sport, meal plans and diet. 

You do not need all of the supplements all of the time! There are some supplements you do need daily and we will take a look at those reasons later, but there is simply no need to keep slugging down powders and pills. 

Did you know that the basic forms of supplements are most commonly found in nature? Most - if not all supplements come from herbs, seeds or dairy byproducts. Lets take for example - Caffeine. Most people enjoy a nice cup of tea or coffee. So you sip it down and you just supplemented at a very basic level. 

Supplements are meant to be natural concentrates. Not chemically synthesized and poisoned waste products.Your body is an ingenious piece of creation not a trash can or dumping ground. With most supplements you might as well get on to full blown drugs or jump into a toxic pool! At least that way its not a slow death. My point is do a lot of research and know what you are taking before picking up a supplement.  Read your labels and ingredients carefully. If you don't know ask a professional trainer or a nutritionist to help you.

Real supplements are not medicines. However they can assist medicines and in some cases also do better than the medicines prescribed. Sometimes all that is needed by the body is a boost of a natural ingredient in its natural form for it to start the immune system back on. The body will respond quickly to what is natural the way it was meant to be taken.

Why do you need supplements?

Supplements are basically concentrated substances of what is required. These are my reasons for need of supplementation:

1) Lack of nutrients in soil and food sources- Today's food quality is not what it was a few decades ago. Pollution in various forms, soil erosions, pesticides, GMO's (Genetically modified organisms), food processing etc have contributed to large damages in the food we eat today and draining it of precious vital nutrients.

2) Daily Requirements: The RDA or Recommended Dietary Allowance is the minimum amount of nutrients a person needs to live healthy. In most cases just to get that much of food to meet the RDA would be ridiculous. For eg. We need 30 mg of Iron in the body. That is equivalent to 15 cups of oatmeal! 

2) Jump start the body's recovery from deficiency levels: Sometimes the damage of all the years in our diet and exposure to pollution whether knowingly or unknowingly has left our bodies severely lagging behind with a specific nutrient or ability to recover quickly from an ailment. At this point supplements are needed to jump start the body's recovery process. 

3) Insurance policy - Just in case there is a lack of some vitamin, mineral or fiber from a naturally healthy diet, supplements will give you an insurance. Example- If you don't get vegetables in your diet on a particular day, you can definitely substitute with a multivitamin-multimineral and fiber.

4) Lifestyle - There are plenty of topics under this. Smoking, drinking, unhealthy eating habits, fast food, junk food,  8 hour desk jobs. Antioxidants, vitamins, energy boosters etc are needed. 

My personal belief is that the needs of increased supplementation has come about as a result of the gap in our foods. This is caused because of food adulteration by excessive, processing, contamination, GMO's etc. We do need supplements but we also have to know WHAT and WHY we are taking in to our bodies. Real supplements are definitely friends in our environments of today. However, if not taken correctly it can definitely be a terrible enemy or a killer.

Courtesy: http://temple-of-fitness.blogspot.in/