Date : 2024-11-10
Dietary supplements - Is it necessary?
"If you eat versatile, you don't need supplements" - We've probably all heard that argument, but hand on heart, how versatile do we really eat?
You can of course speculate but never really know how it is, you need a blood test to get the facts in black and white.
For me, who is so active and trains at such a high level, it is important to ensure that I get what I need to feel good, stay healthy and to perform as well as possible.
If you feel unsure or perhaps even worried and believe that you have symptoms that indicate a lack of something, you can either turn to your health center or there are also several private actors that offer sampling so that you can specify what you might need extra of or t if takes too much of (I myself have gone privately and received a comprehensive specification of all the values and parameters I wanted to keep track of).
There are a whole host of supplements and products that promise both one and the other and many foods are also enriched with both vitamins and minerals so what exactly YOU choose to do is entirely up to you but here are my tips on what I think are important and which I myself take:
- Multivitamin, to ensure that you get all the important vitamins and minerals.
- Omega 3, with healthy fats that are important for, among other things, the heart, blood vessels and the brain.
- Vitamin D, important for, among other things, our teeth and bones.
- Magnesium, helps the body convert calcium, produce protein, is important for nerve and muscle function and helps with the absorption of other vitamins such as vitamin D.
Different brands have different contents and a tip is to read the back to see exactly what a product contains and how big a % of the DRI (so daily recommended intake). For example, I took both Magnesium as a separate supplement and another product (ZMA) that also contained Magnesium and could then see from my test results that it was an unnecessarily high dose, so I then adjusted my intake and stopped using the latter dietary supplement.
I personally also choose to only buy nutritional supplements from Swedish companies as we in Sweden have somewhat stricter rules regarding content and for me who both competes and is a blood donor, it is extra important to know what I am putting into myself.
Finally, I just want to add that it is your own choice and responsibility what you put into yourself, recommended doses should not be exceeded, getting vitamins and minerals through food is always preferable and supplements should not replace a varied diet or healthy lifestyle.
In the next post, I will go into a little more detail about protein powder and explain the difference between the different types that are available. Stay tuned!
"If you eat versatile, you don't need supplements" - We've probably all heard that argument, but hand on heart, how versatile do we really eat?
You can of course speculate but never really know how it is, you need a blood test to get the facts in black and white.
For me, who is so active and trains at such a high level, it is important to ensure that I get what I need to feel good, stay healthy and to perform as well as possible.
If you feel unsure or perhaps even worried and believe that you have symptoms that indicate a lack of something, you can either turn to your health center or there are also several private actors that offer sampling so that you can specify what you might need extra of or t if takes too much of (I myself have gone privately and received a comprehensive specification of all the values and parameters I wanted to keep track of).
There are a whole host of supplements and products that promise both one and the other and many foods are also enriched with both vitamins and minerals so what exactly YOU choose to do is entirely up to you but here are my tips on what I think are important and which I myself take:
- Multivitamin, to ensure that you get all the important vitamins and minerals.
- Omega 3, with healthy fats that are important for, among other things, the heart, blood vessels and the brain.
- Vitamin D, important for, among other things, our teeth and bones.
- Magnesium, helps the body convert calcium, produce protein, is important for nerve and muscle function and helps with the absorption of other vitamins such as vitamin D.
Different brands have different contents and a tip is to read the back to see exactly what a product contains and how big a % of the DRI (so daily recommended intake). For example, I took both Magnesium as a separate supplement and another product (ZMA) that also contained Magnesium and could then see from my test results that it was an unnecessarily high dose, so I then adjusted my intake and stopped using the latter dietary supplement.
I personally also choose to only buy nutritional supplements from Swedish companies as we in Sweden have somewhat stricter rules regarding content and for me who both competes and is a blood donor, it is extra important to know what I am putting into myself.
Finally, I just want to add that it is your own choice and responsibility what you put into yourself, recommended doses should not be exceeded, getting vitamins and minerals through food is always preferable and supplements should not replace a varied diet or healthy lifestyle.
In the next post, I will go into a little more detail about protein powder and explain the difference between the different types that are available. Stay tuned!
