All About YOU: Are You a Pill Popper?
Posted Thursday, October 5, 2006
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If a balanced diet just isn't in the cards on a particular day, a multivitamin is a great way to fill in nutrition gaps. Likewise, a single supplement -- say, a vitamin C pill -- may be better absorbed than the same nutrient in foods. But that doesn't mean it's better to down pills than to eat vegetables. Why? Because it's quite possible that it's not just one nutrient that helps fight cancer or heart disease; rather, it's a combination of several ingredients. In other words, orange juice contains much more than vitamin C.
If you're weighing whether to swallow a supplement or start adding a salad to your dinner every night, the pill sounds infinitely easier. But foods don't just have nutritional importance; they create a kind of energy force in your body. In fact, food is the next frontier in medicine -- researchers are actively studying how different foods can be used for healing. And that's the kind of biochemical power you find only in nature.
So reach for fresh fruits, veggies, and whole grains whenever you can, but have a multivitamin on hand when your reach falls short.
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