Mineral Supplements: To Overdose or Not To Overdose…
To use mineral supplements wisely, assess your needs, evaluate the merits of taking supplements, and understand how to choose and use them. Can you skip your daily servings of fruits and vegetables and take a vitamin and mineral supplement instead? Unfortunately, no. Mineral supplements aren't meant to be food substitutes, as they can't replicate all of the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. But mineral supplements can still play a role in your health by complementing your regular diet if you have trouble getting enough nutrients. Mineral supplements, being our assistants in acquiring these specific elements contain both major and trace minerals in combination or single form. Often, some of these products include a complete array of the said minerals.
As we have earlier noted, mineral supplements as well as other nutritional supplements should only be used with a comprehensive diet program but must never stand alone. Major minerals include phosphorus, calcium, sodium, magnesium, chlorine and sulfur. This is duly categorized because adult people require considerably large amounts of these minerals. Trace minerals, on the other hand, are minimally required by our system. On normal circumstances, only 20 mg is required in a day. Trace minerals include copper, chromium, iodine, fluoride, molybdenum, iron, manganese, zinc and selenium. There are still no sufficient data that will support the belief that people can benefit from excessive intake of mineral supplements other than what the Recommended Dietary Allowance suggests.
In general, choose a multivitamin-mineral supplement — for example, Centrum, One-A-Day, others — that provides about 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV) of all the vitamins and minerals, rather than one which has, for example, 500 percent of the DV for one vitamin and only 20 percent of the DV for another. The exception to this is calcium. You may notice that calcium-containing supplements don't provide 100 percent of the DV. If they did, the tablets would be too large to swallow. Almost any substance in our bodies, when taken in excess can be potentially toxic, especially when taken over a long duration of time. Not to mention the fact that they can produce adverse interactions with other medications and nutritional supplements. The bottom line: should you take mineral supplements you must only follow what RDA guidelines indicate. Or for safer guidelines, it is best that you seek the intervention of a medical professional.