Supplements: Do they work?

Living on rushed meals thrown together on your low budget might get you through the month alive and fairly well, but you won’t be getting enough of what your body needs to function smoothly - dry toast is filling and cheap, but it’s a
wasteland from a dietary perspective. We know fruit and vegetables are the best things, but they’re quite expensive, so if you’re trying to look after your health, you might go for the easy solution - fortifying your take-aways and frozen
meals.

You’ve got a box of vitamin C tablets, to ease winter coldsand cough, or to prevent them. Maybe you have another of iron because you’re constantly tired and short of breath, told you’re borderline anaemic. Then you’ve got some
calcium and magnesium to help with muscle cramps - it all adds up. The problem is that, like mixing drinks, mixing vitamins can have unexpected effects.

It’s not the mash up itself that’s the problem, but the amount of what you’re taking. It’s easy to overdose - taking more than your recommended daily allowance of vitamin A might not seem major, but it’ll reduce the functioning capacity of vitamin D in your body. At the same time, taking vitamin D helps your body work with calcium. High doses of calcium can prevent your body from absorbing iron, meaning the anaemia you’re trying to avoid is simply encouraged. It’s a double-edged sword.

Here are some basic tips that’ll help you out. Buy a calcium supplement that includes vitamin D - as a plus, the price difference is minimal. Just check the daily recommendation on the side of the bottle - it’ll tell you all you need to know. Better still would be an all-purpose multi-vitamin, which contains everything you need in the right amounts, and which you can buy at any chemist or pharmacy. If you’re vegetarian, you’ll find that you’re getting very little iron; the iron you are getting, from nuts, pulses and leafy greens, isn’t easily absorbed by the body. Vitamin C helps make your body’s iron absorption more efficient, so eat an orange or drink orange juice with your meals. Other foods rich in vitamin C include sweet potato, peppers and kiwi fruit. Tea and coffee, on the other hand, make it harder for your body to assimilate iron, so reducing the number of cups you drink can help out.

Nutrition is a lot like gardening; when you’re planting, you don’t want to just throw everything together in one place. Some plants grow well together, prevent pests and disease, improve each other’s flavour; others compete for the same
resources, or simply aren’t friendly with each other. The best course, though, is a balanced diet and a good amount of sleep - cook your own simple meals as often as your schedule allows, make time for more rest, and your health is guaranteed to improve.