The Truth behind the top 5 dietary supplements

The health and fitness industry has evolved in recent times. With the changing lifestyle, our dependencies on external nutrition apart from food has become essential. In today’s fast-moving pace our diet only provides partial nutritional requirements. In such cases, it becomes imperative that we depend on the health store supplements for the rest. The days when supplements were meant only for professional athletes or gym goers have long gone. Today anybody can easily walk into a health food store and pick the right supplements according to their individual needs.

From vitamins to protein powder, weight loss, weight gain, muscle mass, everything can be monitored and controlled with these amazing supplements. Here we walk deeper into understanding the top 5 dietary supplements in detail.

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1.  The Multivitamins: Forget grabbing a stack of vitamin pills, multivitamins are the perfect composition of the daily dosage of minerals and vitamins required by the body all contained in one pill. This helps fill the gaps your meals left for the body to function in a healthy manner. But as mentioned these pills can only plaster the gaps in your nutritional requirement and cannot take over for your regular diet. Their efficiency is restricted to the right dosages which vary based on your blood work. Excess of certain nutrients can, in fact, become harmful. This is because while some of these vitamins are water soluble and gets excreted when in excess, the fat-soluble vitamins start getting stored in the body which could be harmful. Popping one pill a day can help cope up with the deficiencies after your meal.

2. Power up with protein: Protein is the basic building block of life and plays a crucial role in aiding muscle building. While normal consumers require about 15 % intake on an average, people involved in intense physical activities such as sports or bodybuilding will need to increase the intake up to 30%. A large portion of this requirement can be derived through a protein-rich non-vegetarian diet whereas protein powders help deliver the rest to the body. Consuming protein powders immediately post-workout can help enhance the protein synthesis mechanism in the body and increase the rate of muscle building. Whey protein based protein powders has been found particularly beneficial for increasing the rate of muscle building. But the most important point to remember while consuming protein powders is to keep the quantity as per the requirement, as well as go through the label thoroughly.

Commercialization of health supplements has led to lousy regulations on the market. This creates problems of unregulated ingredients entering certain supplements. Look for natural sources and be careful about traces of heavy metals while going through the label. Protein powders are available in exciting flavors making it easy to introduce into a regular diet. With such large chocolate sale worldwide, chocolate flavored protein powders for milkshakes and smoothies are easily available and an amazing form of consuming protein.

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3. Creatine: Creatine supplements have been the market rage in recent times. This is certainly the result of various studies that proved the efficiency of these supplements for improving muscle recovery rate. The supplements proved effective for faster muscle recovery which is important for individuals requiring short bursts of energy such as sprinting or during weight lifting. They help improve strength and muscle mass by enduring the protein synthesis cycle. These supplements also provide energy for increasing muscle contractions during physical workouts. It can increase your overall stamina and strength and help push boundaries and achieve higher targets. Here again, the dosage plays a crucial role in determining the efficiency of its interaction with the body. These supplements if consumed in higher doses over a long period of time can cause permanent damage to the liver, kidney or in some cases even the heart. If you are in a state where cannabis is legal, you can find certain forms of Sativa blends such as Alice in Wonderland that is particularly useful for improving energy levels and helping with muscle soreness after a rigorous workout in individuals.

 

4. BCCA or Branched Chain Amino Acids: Amino acids play a vital role in regulating various body functions. But only certain types of amino acids are naturally produced by the body.  Leucine, Valine and Isoleucine are three essential amino acids that need to be consumed through diet in order to help the body function better. Leucine is an important amino acid that controls the rate of muscle growth. It increases the insulin level thus enabling the other nutrients to reach the muscle. It is also responsible for increasing protein synthesis in the muscle and prevents breakdown. BCAAs are a mixture of these three amazing amino acids in the right composition as required by the body to accelerate the growth.  BCAAs could also have possible side effects especially among people suffering from diabetes as it causes fluctuation of insulin levels in the body.

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5. Calcium: Calcium is yet another common nutrient that is important for bone health and is lacking our diets. Common foods such as dark leafy greens, soya beans, dairy products, fish, etc are rich sources of this nutrient. But with age, calcium absorption from these food decreases which increase the need to introduce it to the body through supplements. There are different varieties of calcium supplements including calcium citrate or lactate which are the best form to consume. They get absorbed faster and more efficiently into the body.

Apart from the above, there are various other supplements such as casein protein used commonly by athletes and gym enthusiasts, Glucosamine, Fish or animal oil supplements for omega -3 and omega -6, Fast carbs, etc. If you are into bodybuilding, you can also order steroids online for improving performance. These supplements help render the gaps in our diets and give the body all the necessary nutrients for healthy functioning. It is also important to remember that supplements cannot compensate for bad food and lifestyle choices and can only act as a catalyst to a healthy diet.

Source: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/features/protein-powder#1

https://ods.od.nih.gov/HealthInformation/DS_WhatYouNeedToKnow.aspx

http://www.121dietitian.com/truth-nutritional-supplements-revealed/

https://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/the-truth-about-dietary-supplements

https://wa-health.kaiserpermanente.org/vitamins-supplements/

https://doctor.ndtv.com/living-healthy/top-5-dietary-supplements-to-begin-with-1752203