Which vitamins?

Maccattack

How do we know which vitamin pills we should be taking?

olaola

Well - I am under the impression you don't need to take any vitamins if you have a balanced diet. Unless directed by your doctor.
What do others think?

sudzs

Unfortunately food no longer contains all the nutrients we need be it from processing, cooking or from being over-bred sothat they no longer provide optimum nutrition.

So I'd advise you buy Patrick Halfords, Optimum Nutrition book!
There's a questionaire in it that will tell you what vits you're likely to be lacking in and then how much to take.

Schlemm

sudzs wrote:

Unfortunately food no longer contains all the nutrients we need be it from processing, cooking or from being over-bred sothat they no longer provide optimum nutrition.

So I'd advise you buy Patrick Halfords, Optimum Nutrition book!
There's a questionaire in it that will tell you what vits you're likely to be lacking in and then how much to take.

Defo agree, there is a really good explanation in this book.

Still can't beat a balanced diet tho! If you find that you need a vitamin, try to eat a food source of it because very often vitamins can be more 'usable' by the body when they're in their natural form. However, some supplements will have the vitamins/minerals in a form that the body can use properly, ask a pharmacist about which brand of vitamin they'd reccomend.

Certain vitamins complement other vitamins, for example, folic acid and B12 are usually taken together.

flossie

omega fish oils are great, especially if you don't eat much oily fish. Great for skin, joints, heart, weight loss/obesity (suprisingly!), memory retention, and mild depression.

I take mine in capsule form, but also take flaxseed or linseed, mainly for fibre, but also contain omegas.

r3nu4l

I'd go with the balanced diet approach first and foremost. Up until the end of last year I was eating a lot of processed foods, sauces from jars, ready-made meals, pizzas and so on. This year myself and mrs. r3nu4l decided that we would make an effort to eat 90% or more unprocessed food and so far we've managed it.

The biggest barrier to eating unprocessed food is not knowing how to cook quick and easy meals with it. There are loads of cookbooks out there now that offer, tasty healthy, quick-to-prepare-and-cook meals, and plenty of websites too.

If you feel you really must go down the vitamin route then by all means go with the book that has been recommended.