Why Do I Need Nutritional Supplements?

[Guest guest]

Why do I need Nutritional Supplements?

 

Answer:

For over 50 years we've been led to believe that RDA levels are adequate.

Adequate for

what? Adequate to prevent clinically obvious nutritional deficiencies like

scurvy, beriberi,

rickets, and pellagra?

According to the Food and Nutrition Board (under the umbrella of the National

Institutes of

Health), " The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is the average daily dietary

intake

level that is sufficient to meet the requirement of nearly all apparently

healthy individuals

in a particular life stage and gender group. " The Food and Nutrition Board

further defines

" requirement " as " the lowest continuing intake level of a nutrient that, for a

specified

indicator of adequacy, will maintain a defined level of nutriture in an

individual. " Basically,

the RDA is (by their own definition) the lowest level of nutrient intakes that

will prevent

deficiencies in apparently healthy individuals. And while RDA levels may have

helped us to

avoid acute deficiency diseases, they do not address the issues of optimal

nutrition.

The RDAs have certainly played an important role in public health. Most

assuredly, they

provide amounts that will prevent you from getting scurvy, pellagra, rickets or

beriberi.

However, in the general population, these vitamin-related diseases are of little

concern.

Products based solely on RDA amounts are fine for their intended purpose (i.e.

providing

minimal amounts of important vitamins and minerals), but the RDA of vitamins and

minerals is not always enough to help prevent certain degenerative disease or to

provide

protection from oxidative damage. In other words, there is more to the benefits

of

nutritional supplementation than preventing rare deficiencies. Therefore, the

RDA should

be considered the " minimum wage " of nutrition.

USANA's products are formulated with more nutritional research in mind, and with

little

relevance to the RDA's. We are concerned with vast majority of people who are

" apparently " healthy. How long is a person " apparently " healthy before they have

a heart

attack? Or break a hip due to osteoporosis? These health concerns and other

degenerative

diseases develop over a lifetime, often to unsuspecting individuals. Minimal

nutrient

intakes and the RDAs are simply not always adequate or even designed to address

many of

these common health challenges.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) much of the illness,

disability, and

death associated with chronic disease is avoidable through known prevention

measures.

Furthermore, a recent study examining the potential economic benefits of vitamin

supplementation concluded that there are substantiated cost reductions

associated with

the use of vitamin supplements, based on preventative nutrition. Bottom line-

there can be

substantial cost reductions associated with vitamin supplements based on

preventative

nutrition.

If you are eating healthy, do you still need to take supplements? A healthy diet

is a

necessary foundation for any program of optimal nutrition, and there is no

substitute for

eating well. In this context, USANA's nutritional supplements are designed to

compliment

a healthy diet not replace it. Our supplements are designed to provide the

advanced levels

of the essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are difficult to

obtain from diet

alone; levels that we all need, everyday, to promote good health lifelong. More

importantly, we are not the only ones who are convinced of the health benefits

of

nutritional supplements. Last June, the Journal of the American Medical

Association

published two articles by health researchers at Harvard University. Their

articles were

entitled " Vitamins for Chronic Disease Prevention in Adults " . Through their

research, these

authors concluded that the " suboptimal intake of some vitamins, above levels

causing

classic vitamin deficiency, is a risk factor for chronic diseases and common in

the general

population, especially the elderly. Suboptimal folic acid levels, along with

suboptimal

levels of vitamins B6 and B12, are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease,

neural tube

defects, and colon and breast cancer; low levels of vitamin D contribute to

osteopenia and

fractures; and low levels of the antioxidant vitamins (vitamins A, E and C) may

increase

risk for several chronic diseases. The scientific evidence supporting the health

benefits of

nutritional supplements is solid and growing daily. And more health care

professionals

than ever before are now siding with the conclusions drawn from these two review

articles

published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The science of nutrition and nutritional supplementation is advancing at a rapid

pace. For

over a decade, USANA Health Sciences has been a leader in providing high quality

nutritional supplements containing advanced levels of vitamins, minerals and

other

important nutrients associated with long-term health. There has never been a

better time

put the science of nutrition to work in promoting your health. And there has

never been a

better time to be associated with USANA.

 

References of interest available.