Getting My Vitamins
How big should a vitamin pill be? Pea-sized would be nice. I won some nutritional supplements last weekend. One of the things I won was a jar of vitamins for women over 45. They are huge capsules. I mean HUGE. Each one is an inch (2 cm) long. I do not have a problem swallowing pills or capsules. I can even manage a whole handful (9) of meds and supplements at one time. But these made me think twice, and twice is more significant because the regular daily dose is two of these huge things.
They are so big I wondered if they actually had calories or not. But they do have everything I need for daily nutrition plus CoEnzyme Q10, Omega 3 and 6, and even silica for hair and nails. I’ve been taking them for a few days now and have been feeling pretty good but I do have the normal guilt feeling I get when I know I could get all my daily nutrition from the food I should (yes, I’m shoulding on myself) be eating.
Canada’s Food Guide and the Canadian Diabetes Association (which actually bases its recommendations on the Food Guide), tell us that a daily meal plan that covers each food group will meet our nutritional needs. Everyone, including food labellers now, use the Recommended Daily Intake guidelines for how much of something they have in their product and 100% is what you and I are supposed to have in our daily diet. So, we can get away without using vitamin supplements. But, few of us look at the vitamins when planning our daily intake and we know if we over do something it puts a new slant of giving it 110%. You definitely do not want 110% of your recommended sodium, fat, or sugar. Sigh! So many foods – so many things to do with it instead of just eating it.
Did you know you can even have overdoses of certain vitamins? It’s unlikely with a daily vitamin and your regular diet but we need to know three things: (1) how much of each vitamin we need; (2) how much of each are we getting (in each form); and (3) what the heck is your body telling you. Big sigh! So much to know and think about. I’ll stick to my low “white food” diet and take the new vitamins until they’re gone. After a couple of months I should be able to tell if they are doing me any better than just eating my food. At least these ones are 100% natural sources and I can tell because my urine is bright yellow. The extra riboflavin does that and if it’s synthetic – not so bright yellow. Now I’ll add the spinach to the salad for that little bit extra K.
Thanks for listening. ;D Diane
I think you brought up a good point…you CAN overdose on certain vitamins! I think it is kinda hard to do, but it is possible. I think that might might make a good blog for me. Thanks for the idea! Wish I could win vitamins! 🙂
Thanks, I’ll connect to you and read up!
Thank you very much. Great article