Vitamins--Yes? No? Maybe? Part 1

Hello! It has been a crazy couple of days for me. I am an Aunt! My nephew, Isaiah Tyler was born yesterday. Needless to say I am extremely excited and so thankful that he and his mamma are healthy! Hopefully life with slow down a bit and I can get back to my daily blogging. :) With that being said here is a post on vitamins.

I get a lot of questions about vitamins. In the next two days I will be addressing the four most common questions I get. Do I really need to take them? Can't I just eat good food and get my vitamins? How do I know what to take? How do I know if they are quality vitamins? Lastly, is it worth the cost?

And my favorite

"I do take my vitamins! Flinstone vitamins!"

• Do I really need to take vitamins?

The answer is YES! The reason being, food is too weak to re-pleat your depleted cells. Only 7% of crops of in the U.S. are grown in soil that is considered prime. For soil to be considered prime it has to have a specified level of 30 different nutrients in the soil. When soil is used farmers are only required to put 3 of these ingredients back into the soil, leaving it nutrient deficient, as well as the plants grown in it. (Ref 1)

With that being said, it is essential to take your vitamins for your body to reproduce and fix damaged cells within your body, among other things. 

• How do I know what to take?

This question is a little more difficult to answer because everyone's body and needs are different. For instance, an athlete is going to need different support than a pregnant mother or your grandmother.  However, there are 3 basic supplements that EVERYONE should be taking to maintain their health.

1. Multivitamin
2. Vitamin D
3. Plant Nutrients

It is safe to assume most people are deficient/need these vitamins added to their regular diet--along with healthy eating habits. I would also like to add that most people in the U.S. would greatly benefit from taking Omega-3's, also known as fish oils. The proper ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3's in the body should be 3:2, unfortunately most American's are at a 15:1 or even 20:1 ratio, leaving their bodies prone to inflammation  among other things. (Ref 2)

Tomorrow I will answer the last two questions, so stay tuned! :)

Hope

xoxo

P.S. I just had to add this...

References:
(1) http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer823/aer823c.pdf
(2) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-fishoil.html