>I just can't buy that "you can't get the proper
>nutrients with food today" stuff. Just chose the right
>foods.
>
>I think depending on supplements and vitamins to lose weight
>or "be healthy" can defeat the purpose. I have a friend who
>eats horribly...fast food (I'm sorry, this stuff shouldn't
>even be called food), those frozen throw some meat in
>casserole starters, hamburger helper...but she thinks she's
>fine because she takes 3 or 4 different vitamins a day. I
>know that's an extreme case, but it kinda goes with that whole
>"a pill can cure anything" mentality.
>
>Examining your diet, not just for calories and fat, but for
>real, honest-to-god FOOD, is a big step, and one that can be
>really hard for a lot of us. We're so used to being marketed
>and fed packaged, high-sodium, high-fat, low-nutrient STUFF.
>I think that if you can't pronounce most of the ingredients in
>the food that you're buying (or it just doesn't seem to
>belong---see my bread comment below), put it back on the shelf
>and find something that has fewer ingredients--ones that you
>recognize as simple food and that you can pronounce.
I agree 245%!!
Sometimes, when I go to the grocery store, I have a feeling like I'm on some kind of Bizarro planet, because the most prominent "foods" I first see are complete 'non-foods,' like cookies, candy, overly-processed baked foods, 'stuff' in boxes that you can't even recognize.
As for supplements: studies have shown that isolated and/or synthetic vitamins can actually be harmful. For example, many authorities are now recommending that one never take Vitamin A in supplement form. And while the beta carotene, and other carotenoids found in whole foods, has been linked with a reduced risk of certain types of cancers, a study on the effectiveness of beta carotene supplements was cut short because it was found that the isolated supplements actually were increasing risk of disease in the participant.
Bottom line: get your nutrients from food (and some well-chosen whole-food supplements, like, for example, vitamin C that is from powdered acerola cherry and not an isolated and/or synthetic version).