The truth about dietary supplements

Dietary supplements are neither a "health miracle drug" that everyone must take, nor a worthless "IQ tax". They are tools to fill specific dietary gaps. Whether and what to eat depends on your actual daily dietary intake. It has nothing to do with Internet celebrity planting or relatives' recommendations.

I just came across two typical examples last week: One is a fitness enthusiast friend who often eats takeaways. He asked me whether it was worth buying a multivitamin worth more than 300 yuan from a certain Internet celebrity. I looked through his food records for the past week and found that his vegetable intake was not even one-third of the recommended amount in the dietary guidelines. He had recurring oral ulcers for almost two months. I said you should just follow the doctor's advice and eat basic ones. There is no need to buy products with "anti-aging" and "fat-burning" gimmicks.； The other is my distant aunt, who cooks her own meals every day, and never lacks fresh vegetables, meat, eggs, and milk. She has half a drawer of supplements at home, and she keeps eating liver-protecting tablets, grape seeds, and anti-sugar pills. She continued to eat her vitamin D when she was above the standard last time during her physical examination, and she couldn’t stop her.

In fact, the controversy over supplements in the nutrition community has never stopped. Scholars who stand in the natural diet group have always emphasized that as long as you can strictly implement the requirements of the dietary guidelines for Chinese residents: half a pound of grains and potatoes, one pound of vegetables and half a pound of fruits, one egg and one cup of milk, two ounces of livestock and poultry, two ounces of aquatic products, less cooking, frying, frying and more steaming, you really don’t need to take any supplements. A senior sister I know who works in public nutrition practices this way. Her family of four eats three meals a day according to the proportions. Even the children’s snacks are original nuts and fresh-cut fruits. The whole family has never taken supplements. The nutritional indicators in the annual physical examination are all within the optimal range. I admire her even if she says it.

But the problem lies in the words "if it can be done".

Migrant workers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou eat takeout five days a week. The vegetables in their lunch boxes are always two or three slices soaked in oil. They work overtime until late at night and when they want to eat fruit, the fruit shops are closed.； Vegetarians do not touch animal-source foods at all. No matter how much they eat, they cannot get enough vitamin B12. ； Girls preparing for pregnancy eat less dark green vegetables every day, and their folic acid intake does not meet the standard. ； The gastrointestinal absorption capacity of elderly people is weak. Even if they drink milk every day, they are prone to calcium and vitamin D deficiency... At this time, most practitioners in the field of clinical nutrition and sports nutrition will suggest: It is better to make up for what is missing than to cope with the problem. I used to help a client who works in new media adjust her diet. Her vegetable intake for half a month was only 20% of the recommended amount. She suffered from angular stomatitis for almost a month, and even applying ointments didn't work. Then she followed the doctor's advice and took a bottle of vitamin B complex for 10 yuan, and she was fine in a week. Do you think this is an IQ tax? Definitely not.

To put it bluntly, dietary supplements are actually like emergency power banks. If you stay next to an outlet every day, of course you won’t need them when eating regularly.； You run out every day and the battery can't keep up. Bringing a small power bank can really save you in an emergency. But you can’t expect a power bank to replace the socket for long-term power supply, and you can’t buy an off-brand power bank that might even explode.

It is not unreasonable for many people to be disgusted with supplements. There are too many gimmick products on the market, which often boast of "anti-cancer", "reverse aging" and "radical cure of constipation". In fact, most of them have not even done basic clinical verification. Not to mention many cases of people taking supplements blindly and causing problems: too much fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K will accumulate in the body and cause poisoning. Last year, I met a young man in the hospital who took vitamin D blindly and his blood calcium exceeded the standard, which almost caused kidney stones. ； There are also people who stay up late and drink alcohol every day, hoping to take liver-protecting tablets to offset the damage, but instead suffer drug-induced liver damage. ； Those anti-sugar pills and whitening pills that cost hundreds of dollars each have less effective ingredients than eating half a box of blueberries or spending less time in the sun for an hour, so you have to pay the IQ tax.

I usually eat regularly at home, with enough vegetables, meat, eggs, and milk. I never take supplements. Only when I am on a business trip and I am not sure about my diet, I will bring a small box with some basic multivitamins and probiotics. I don’t eat too much. If I can’t eat vegetables for two or three days in a row, I will take out one pill. To be honest, I have seen too many people stay up late and dance to the disco while eating fried chicken and Coke while taking grape seed liver-protecting tablets for psychological comfort. The effects of supplements are not enough for you.

How can there be any "truth" that is universally applicable? If you eat a balanced diet and still eat a lot of useless things, then it will be an IQ tax for you. ； If you do have dietary gaps, follow your doctor’s advice and choose regular basic supplements, then it will be a practical tool that can help you avoid suffering. Don't listen to the hype of the merchants, and don't believe in the extreme views that kill all supplements at once. Taking out your mobile phone and recording what you have eaten for three days is more useful than reading ten grass-growing articles.