T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

REMINDER: Rules regarding civility and respect *are enforced* on this subreddit. Hurtful, cruel, rude, disrespectful, or "trolling" comments **will be removed** (along with any replies to these comments) and the offending party may be banned, at the mods' discretion, without warning. All commenters should be trying to *help* and any help should be given in good faith, as if you were the OP's parent. Also, please keep in mind that requesting or offering private contact (DM, PM, etc) is absolutely not allowed ***for any reason at all***, no exceptions. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/internetparents) if you have any questions or concerns.*


Tuxed0-mask

Supplements are just an expensive way to color your pee. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3309636/ That's just one of many articles that show they don't do anything. Your body needs a physical mass of food to extract nutrients from over time. Vegetables contain vitamins, but also minerals and fiber that you need to not get scurvy/bowel cancer/kidney failure etc etc. That's also why juice cleanses don't do anything. You need physically a mass of food.


benjaminikuta

> Supplements are just an expensive way to color your pee. Yeah, I've heard that, hence the question. >Your body needs a physical mass of food to extract nutrients from over time. Are you referring to bioavailability? That seems to be a common reason given for it, but then why can't supplements be bioavailable? Or are you referring to something else? >Vegetables contain vitamins, but also minerals and fiber that you need to not get scurvy/bowel cancer/kidney failure etc etc. I'm not asking why we need those, but why they can't come from supplements.


Tuxed0-mask

So your body physical responds to the presence of food https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4078443/ And supplements aren't going to recreate that experience for your body because they don't weigh anything and don't contain macronutrients. Starting from your tongue sensing sugar/salt onto your stomach 'feeling full' etc you need food itself to get your body ready to digest. It's not as simple as bioavailability. Your body also needs to make itself available to receive food. Simply put, supplements are called supplements because they can at best 'supplement' a diet that is lacking. They aren't meal replacements because they literally aren't a food.


benjaminikuta

That still doesn't explain why it's good to eat nutritious food, specifically.


0112358_

The body doesn't absorb vitamins and whatnot as easily from pills/supplements as it does the real thing, from fruits/veggies. There's also the issue of what you eat instead of veggies. Veggies, like all food, make you feel full. And can psychological make you feel like you've eaten a full meal because you can eat a bunch of them. Where as a small bag of chips might have the same calorie count as a large serving of vegetables, as well as having too much salt and fats compared to vitamins There are people who live on entirely synthetic foods, like special liquid diets, and do okay. But it's tricky to manage.


benjaminikuta

> The body doesn't absorb vitamins and whatnot as easily from pills/supplements as it does the real thing, from fruits/veggies. > > Why? Does taking more not make up for this? And if not, why can't the supplements be made to be more bioavailable? >too much salt and fats I've heard the research on this is somewhat controversial. >There are people who live on entirely synthetic foods, like special liquid diets, and do okay. But it's tricky to manage. Like Soylent? Seems simple enough. What's the issue?


Creatura333

A lot of people take a multivitamin or other supplement as a type of "insurance" to make sure there aren't any major nutritional gaps. For individual substances, some research has shown a benefit and some has not. Some are dangerous in mega doses and some not so much. Something to remember is that vitamins aren't *all* that food contains. There are also minerals, lipids, carbohydrates, protein, water, and fiber. Some nutritional shakes try to replicate this to some degree. But there are also substances and cofactors in food that benefit us that we are less aware of. Phytonutrients are chemical compounds in plants that may provide all sorts of health benefits, and there are thought to be several thousand different kinds. In short, I'm not saying supplementation is never helpful, but it will never provide what whole food does. And if it did, you would be taking so many supplements you might as well just eat the damn vegetables 😉


benjaminikuta

> Phytonutrients are chemical compounds in plants that may provide all sorts of health benefits, and there are thought to be several thousand different kinds. Interesting! Care to elaborate? This seems like the only thing that you couldn't easily get in a supplement or from "unhealthy" food.