What Vitamins to Take When Starting New Health Goals?

When it comes to being healthy, there seems to be so much information out there it can be overwhelming. Where do I start? What vitamins to take? Why does health have to be so complicated? Can we just take a magic pill and be healthy? Unfortunately, we were all uniquely designed and what may be right for one person is not necessarily right for you. There are some basic pillars of health, though, that we should all be taking into consideration. In this article, I will walk you through the basic fundamentals for supplementing our diets that everyone should consider.

Disclaimer: I am a Certified Natural Health Professional, but I am not your health professional. I am educating and raising awareness. Please discuss anything I mention in this article with the health professional working with you before you implement anything in this article. I am not intending to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I am not liable or responsible for any damages you incur by use of this information.

My Background

I was on a bunch of medications in high school and my early 20’s. After an asthma attack that lasted over a month and nearly put me in the hospital, along with a few other health complications, I decided to try going to a Certified Natural Health Professional. After a year of various detoxes and learning about what foods and supplements worked best with my body, I felt better than I had ever remembered feeling. I decided to get certified to help others who may be in similar situations.

Basic Pillars of Health

Nutrition is one of the basic pillars of health where I have placed the most emphasis over the years. However, the other pillars are just as important. These pillars include exercise, sleep, and reducing stress. I have to admit, I have not been the best in some of these areas. They are very important, though, so I have been focused on improving them recently.

What Vitamins to Take

When looking at nutrition and basic supplementation, it is important to remember that our foods do not have the same nutrients in them that they had 50 years ago. We are also introducing more chemicals and other modified ingredients into our systems than we did many years ago. Our bodies are made to detox many things. They are incredible at healing themselves, but sometimes they can still get a little “clogged up” or “sluggish”.

John Bevere, a well-known author and preacher, uses the following analogy. Imagine you have a really nice car. You could put recycled oil and low grade gas in it. However, if you did, it wouldn’t run as long or as well as if you took care of it and put the best fuel in it. If we put a lot of processed, junk food in our bodies, they are not going to run as well or as long as they were created to. I think it’s a terrific analogy to show that our nutrition is important. In addition to that, nutritional supplements help to provide the additional nutrients that your body needs and may not be getting in foods alone.

Multivitamins

A good multivitamin is vital in a healthy lifestyle. We may be eating healthy. However, we are often not eating the variety of foods necessary to provide the proper amounts of all the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that our bodies need to operate at peak performance. 

I often like to tell the story about someone close to me. She ate healthy, mostly salads and not a lot of junk food, but was having some severe symptoms that the doctors couldn’t figure out. She went to a natural health professional for testing and found that she was malnourished. All she needed to do was add a multivitamin to her routine. Within 7 days, all her painful symptoms disappeared. This has amazed her. She has taken her vitamins ever since.

Omega 3’s

Omega 3 fatty acids do so many things to help the body. Adding them to your diet is almost always a good thing, even if you eat a lot of fish. Many nutrients need healthy fat molecules to transport them through the body. So, these fats are key in absorption of the nutrients. Without the fats to get the nutrients into the cells throughout the body, they just get eliminated. It’s always frustrating to be eating well, but still have nutritional challenges because you don’t have the right transporters for those nutrients to actually do anything. 

Another huge benefit of omega 3’s is that they reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, many of us get plenty of Omega 6 fatty acids (which are the bad kind that create inflammation) and think we don’t need anymore fats. Unfortunately, not enough good fats might be causing the challenges we are trying to avoid by “staying away from fats”.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is such a vital contributor to our overall health. It was originally credited for helping with the absorption of calcium so we could have healthy bones. Vitamin D is now credited for improving cardiovascular, colon, and joint health, and to help reduce the chances of colds, flu, coronaviruses, type 1 diabetes, and some cancers, among many other benefits.

Many of us do not get enough Vitamin D. Our bodies cannot make it on it’s own. We need the UV from the sun to help our bodies create it. Unfortunately, all the sunscreen and UV protection in our sunglasses prevents a lot of the UV rays from helping our bodies make vitamin D. (I am in no way saying to spend the day in the sun without sunscreen and get burned. That will not help your health.) Obtaining vitamin D through our foods and taking a supplement, in addition to some time outside, is the best way to ensure you are getting enough vitamin D. 

What Supplements to Take for Digestive Health

I previously wrote an article on the importance of digestive health and how that system works. See “Our New Discovery in Conquering Tummy Aches” for more information.

Digestive Enzymes

The breakdown of our foods actually start in our mouths. When we chew our foods, our teeth and saliva mix with the enzymes in our food to begin breaking it down. Many of our foods don’t have as many enzymes in them as they used to. This is due to preserving them as they are transported in order to reducing waste. As we age, our bodies also make fewer digestive enzymes. Supplementing with digestive enzymes helps to set up our digestion process on a good note from the start.

Probiotics

As I mentioned in my Conquering Tummy Aches article, the micro biome is amazingly important, yet we know so little about it. It has so much power in our health and immunity. Almost everyone benefits from supplementing good bacteria to help improve our health. Please read that article for detailed information on the importance of Probiotics.

Collagen

The Discovery in Conquering Tummy Aches was all about Collagen. Collagen is very important in keeping our intestinal lining tight so only the right things permeate through it into our bloodstream. When it loosens up, all sorts of health challenges can happen, especially ones that cause discomfort after eating and illnesses from poor digestion.

Things to Consider When Deciding What Vitamins to Take

If you are new to supplementation, be sure to look into the company of the vitamins and the ingredients closely. There are a lot of vitamin lines out there, and not all are equal. Be sure to look into the company and their manufacturing processes. I prefer a company who has control over their entire process, instead of a company who just buys the ingredients from others. This way they are responsible for everything they’ve put in that tablet and you get the best quality ingredients.

I also prefer organic, natural ingredients to synthetic ones. This is because natural tends to absorb and process better. However, sometimes, synthetic is necessary to get the pills into manageable sizes. If you’ve done your research on the company, and trust their practices, you can usually trust them to make the best decisions on the right combination to use.

Read Labels Thoroughly

Make sure you check labels and compare what’s actually in the product. With so many vitamins to choose from, they all have different vitamin contents. Cheaper is not always as good. I am constantly appalled at the number of children’s vitamins at the grocery store whose only vitamin content that is significant enough to list on the label is vitamin A and C, or that claims it’s a natural remedy but only contains sugar. Don’t waste your money on something that is not beneficial.

Lastly, be sure to check the additional ingredients at the bottom of the nutrition label. This is where a lot of companies add random filler. Our family has lots of sensitivities, so I’ve come to realize how many vitamins contain soy, dairy, and wheat. It’s unbelievable. I, personally, now only buy supplements without these foods. These foods tend to cause inflammation for a lot of people. If I’m eating them in my diet, I don’t need to also supplement them. If I’m avoiding them in my diet, there’s no reason I’m going to work that hard at watching what I’m eating only to end up with them in my system because of my nutritional supplements.

I compare specific amounts of every vitamin and mineral in any supplements I’m considering. I then factor in cost and the additional ingredients. Most often, I will choose the ones with the most vitamins and minerals, with the most natural ingredients, and the fewest filler items that fits within our budget.

Summary

As you can see, there are many things we can do to improve our health and many supplements on the market to choose from. This list is a good starting point. What works for your friend may not necessarily be best for you, but these are areas where most everyone will benefit from supplementation. I know there is a lot of information here, so please feel free to ask questions.