What are dietary supplements?

To put it simply, it is a supplementary product for daily diet. It is not a medicine and cannot replace normal meals. Its ingredients cover various categories such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, probiotics, animal and plant extracts, etc. Common forms include tablets, capsules, oral liquids, and powders. For example, many of my friends who work in offices stay in the office building for less than 10 minutes in the sun every day, and rarely eat foods such as deep-sea fish and animal liver. Physical examinations reveal that vitamin D is low, and doctors usually recommend taking vitamin D supplements. This is the most typical use scenario of dietary supplements.

However, there are actually quite large differences between different groups regarding the actual effects of such products. Many scholars in the field of nutrition believe that as long as ordinary people can eat a balanced diet and meet the daily intake of meat, eggs, milk, whole grains, vegetables and fruits, there is no need to take additional supplements. However, supplementing without supplements may cause problems - for example, excessive supplementation of fat-soluble vitamins A and D will accumulate in the body, and in severe cases may cause poisoning. However, there are also many clinical nutritionists and fitness practitioners who hold different opinions. After all, most office workers now rely on takeout to satisfy their hunger every day. Either they do not consume enough vegetables, or they eat too much processed food. It is difficult to meet the nutritional recommendations of the dietary guidelines. It is more practical to supplement the nutritional deficiencies in a targeted manner. I met a little girl who just started working out a while ago. She followed the trend and stocked up on thousands of dollars of branched-chain amino acids, creatine, and liver-protecting tablets. However, she found a personal trainer for a dietary assessment and discovered that the eggs, milk, and chicken breasts she ate every day were already enough protein. She didn’t need additional branch-chain supplements for normal muscle-building needs. The money was completely wasted.

To put it bluntly, dietary supplements are actually like a power bank that you carry with you. If you can plug in a cord to fully charge your phone at any time (your daily diet is nutritious), the power bank is completely cumbersome.； It can only come in handy when you are traveling far away and cannot find a charging socket (there are clear nutritional gaps in the diet, or there are special periods such as pregnant women, the elderly, vegetarians and other groups that have higher needs for specific nutrients or have difficulty in absorption). Oh, by the way, I would also like to remind you that the regular dietary supplements in our country are all health foods with the blue hat label. They can never replace drugs to treat diseases. Those "supplements" that boast that they can cure diabetes and quickly whiten are mostly IQ taxes. There is a real problem of nutritional deficiencies. It is best to get tested first and follow the doctor's advice to supplement. Don't eat blindly.