What about vitamin and minerals. Do we get enough from our food
or do we actually need to supplement?
A- It depends on where you are coming from and what culture. Again
if you get variety in your diet there is probably no need for vitamin
and mineral supplement.

Most people get enough variety in their diet so they don’t need a
supplement but there are exceptions to that rule. If you are
pregnant or lactating or if there is some other need for vitamins and
minerals then it is probably a good idea. You kind of need to go off
your doctors recommendations.

Would age be a factor?
A- Yes, there are quite a few areas where you may need a
supplement. You know supplements can be expensive. Some may
be dangerous. It depends on the kind of vitamins and minerals you
are talking about.

You know they break down into water soluble and fat-soluble and
there are the vitamins they call oil soluble. There are four of them,
vitamins A, D, E, and K. Typically there is more concern with the oil
soluble vitamins because they are not excreted from your body,
unlike the water soluble vitamins like B and C, the excess will get
flushed but with the oil soluble vitamins the excess is retained in
your body.

That can get to be a problem if you are for some strange reason
taking excessive amounts of let’s say vitamin D for example. I
think the recommendation is 400 international units. Well there
have been people that have taken many multiples of that like
25,000 international units of that and there are health
consequences for doing that.

It comes down to someone not having a balanced background and
information to fall back on and they just do it because they are
naïve. You know it may start out as a doubling of the recommended
daily allowance and they think, “well I’m not seeing any results so I
will triple it.� Some of the vitamin companies that manufacture
these are no help because they will introduce products in the
marketplace and where one capsule will deliver a mega dose of the
product it can be confusing to people. You know if one is safe to
take then why are they marketing those products in that amount in
the first place?

It just gets to be like a power struggle even with the manufacturers
of those products. People will think that if a little bit in a tablet is
good then more will be better and we go back to that philosophy
well how much can we get for our dollar then we start to think in
terms of mega dose amounts.

I don’t understand that whole thought process. There are very well
documented cases of overdoses and the consequences of taking too
much of one vitamin and minerals in the medical journals. It isn’t a
mystery it is out there and you just have to be careful. Most
supplements if you will look on the labels will tell you how much to
take.

You know, we take them occasionally. I take a supplement daily
and I think my wife takes one now. If you stick with a name brand
like One a Day or something like that and look at the labels it will
always tell you what percent is applied for each one of the vitamins
and minerals. If you see 100% beside one of those vitamins or
minerals then you know that taking that supplement will provide
100% for that particular vitamin or mineral Or, if it says 150% or
500% then it is supplying 5 times more of the level than you really
need. And all those levels are based on typical values in our society.
On an individual basis there may be a person who needs more than
that or someone who might need even less than that. That’s when
it becomes difficult to know if you are getting the right amount of
nutrients. I keep going to just getting variety in your diet.

Should children take some kind of supplement?
A- I would tend to think that if it is a school age child, you know school
lunch programs are absolutely terrible, they have the vending
machines with the pop and the food and non-nutritional snacks. You
know like you were saying earlier if the parents are good role
models then the kids are going to pick up on that.

You know every kid likes to run over to the McDonalds if they can.
When I was working for Novartis it was between a McDonalds on
one side and a Burger King on the other and both of those were
close to high schools. Occasionally I would go over there and at
lunch time the kids would just pour over there and the lines would
be long.

What about little children, toddlers with the Flintstone crave?
A- You know do they really need it? The same things apply from kids
to toddlers to grownups. Just make sure they get the variety. You
know often times with the baby foods like Gerber, the
recommendations of what they eat are so closely monitored by the
pediatricians and the company that manufacture the baby foods.
They are really under very strict guidelines and what nutrients are
necessary for the toddlers to consume. Just be practical about it
don’t go to any extremes. Just follow the guidelines of your
pediatrician. I think it is just like adults if you get enough variety
and use a little common sense in what you are feeding the kid or
toddlers then I really don’t think there is a need for supplements.

What about water, how much water should we consume?
A- You know that whole question has been kicked around a lot too.
The people who were studying that were saying for a long time that
we don’t get enough and we need to be consuming more than we
do. Then there were some publications that were saying that too
much water isn’t good for you either.

I would tend to believe that we don’t get as much water as we
need. If you drink too much you are just going to eliminate it, so if
you drink a lot of pop or whatever then you probably get ample
water. I personally don’t consume any pop at all and I don’t drink
that much milk so I have to make it a point to drink water. I bike or
workout and I have to replenish it.

As a general rule of thumb, your body will let you know when it is
thirsty. If you ignore the urge to drink then you can get into
trouble. Water level is the maker or breaker of whether or not you
are going to have a healthy lifestyle because it is self-regulating,
you know if you get thirsty then you drink and if you are not thirsty
then you don’t drink. So it is sort of self-regulating. So usually the
amount of water you intake is in the acceptable range.

__________________
Christopher Berry
Diabetic Discussion