A copper bracelet is no substitute for the good daily intake of dietary fiber

What is the difference? It’s all in the name. A medication is designed t treat, cure or control a disease, a dietary supplement is a supplement to our diet. A dietary supplement provides vitamins, minerals and other food ingredients that we do not get naturally in our diet due to our choice of what we eat or what we want to eat.

It therefore seems a good idea, not to ingest dietary supplements that we would not find in a “normal” diet. No easy task. Who decides what a normal diet is? A good starting point is, believe it or not, a Government web site. The sites all end in “.gov”. Most also have toll free numbers, if you can get through the automatic phone menu. They are very helpful and give excellent input on dietary supplements. Try the following: The Administration on Aging, the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the Office on Women’s Health, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Information Center.

Adjusting your diet is an option, but some of us just do not want to eat the foods that provide the benefit. We cut down on red meat, it must have some benefit, we exclude certain types of fish from the menu, we hope, for their benefit, we do not want the calories that come with the benefit or we don’t like vegetables and see no need to suffer when we have an alternative.

Unfortunately advice on how much or a supplement to take is another matter. One study suggests more another less, for some supplements ingesting more just means that more is excreted. Reading the label may be the best advice, but make sure the supplement is made by a reputable supplier. Visiting the websites of more than one reputable manufacturer may also be helpful and you can always ask your doctor.

That Omega 3 fatty acids are an important ingredient in the food we eat seems to be well confirmed. Studies supporting the benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids appear at the rate of several each month. Two of the latest studies seem to indicate that Omega 3 fatty acids may prevent age related sight loss and may protect diabetics from heart failure. If we do not want to eat the foods that contain Omega 3fatty acids, for whatever reason, a supplement may be a good idea.

A summary: Fiber, make sure you get enough. A multivitamin may make up for a modern diet. Omega 3 fish oil seems like a good idea for those of us that do not eat fish in a great enough quantity. To those basics we can add calcium, for women, and vitamin D in the winter for those of us in the sun-starved regions. If constipated or lactose intolerant, return your system to balance, increase fiber intake or repopulate the gut with the necessary bacteria to break down lactose before it reaches the colon.

John Oram
www.OurFavoriteHealthProducts.com