A Healthy Diet Beats Supplements

- Marianne Wait

Good-for-you foods provide a vast spectrum of nutrients important to battling inflammation, strengthening bones, fighting disease and generally helping you feel your best. So why not load up on vitamin and mineral supplements to make sure you’re getting enough of these nutrients? Food trumps supplements for several important reasons:

If you don’t eat a well-balanced diet, you’re missing out on countless nutrients you’d never get in a pill, or even a handful of different pills. For example, “Fatty fish also gives you other types of fat, protein, iron, zinc – you’re getting all these other lovely nutrients that are also important from an inflammation perspective and from a whole-health perspective,” explains registered dietitian Heidi Turner, medical nutrition therapist at Seattle Arthritis Clinic. 

Nutrients are most beneficial when they work in concert with other nutrients. For instance, vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, and vitamin C enhances the absorption of iron.

The body absorbs nutrients from food much better than from supplements.