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When it comes to your health, you know that there are certain vitamins and minerals that are required to keep you healthy. Calcium is good for your bones while vitamin A is good for your eyesight, and consuming the right amount of vitamins and minerals can be very beneficial to your health. But while supplements can be good for you, they also pose some risks. The following are the pros and cons of taking supplements.
Pro: You’ll meet your daily requirements.
Every vitamin and mineral has a recommended daily intake, and if you meet this recommendation, you’ll easily keep yourself healthy. Depending on the supplements you take, you can improve the strength of your bones, boost your immune system, fight off heart disease and even increase your eyesight. All of these things are very beneficial to your overall health.
Con: They’re not regulated by the FDA.
Supplements are not considered a medication, so the FDA does not need to regulate them before a store or company can sell them. This means that anyone can put supplements in a container and sell them, and since the FDA doesn’t regulate it, there’s no way to know if the supplements you’re taking are truly safe.
Pro: It can regulate your poor diet.
While you should always try to gain your vitamins and minerals through a healthy diet, it’s 
possible that you’ll eat something unhealthy every now and then. Thanks to supplements, you can still ensure that your body is getting the vitamins and minerals that it needs even if you downed an entire plate of brownies. Keep in mind that you should never eat garbage and figure that you’ll just supplement everything, as this is not a healthy way to live.
Con: They’re not cheap.
Supplements are not cheap, and if you take more than one supplement, you could end up spending a fortune. This is not good for anyone who has a very tight budget, and depending on how often you take the supplement, you could be spending a decent amount of money on a very consistent basis.
Pro: They can help you stay healthy.
Vitamins and minerals have health benefits, and if you have any health issues, supplements can help you stay healthy. For example, anyone with bone diseases would benefit from vitamin A, and if you don’t get any vitamin A through your diet, a supplement would be extremely beneficial. If you suffer from anemia, taking an iron supplement will also be beneficial to your health.
Con: They’re not entirely safe.
Some people think that since supplements are just vitamins and minerals, they can take as many as they want whenever they want, but this is not true. Some vitamins and minerals can have an adverse effect on your health if you take too many, and if you use supplements, it’s possible that you will end up going over the recommended daily allowance and do more harm to your health than good. For example, taking too much vitamin A has been known to cause problems in the central nervous system. This is why it’s extremely important to read labels and be careful when taking supplements.
Joshua Reynolds is a health specialist. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family and blogging about supplements for health.
Interesting article. I agree that Vitamins can be expensive, but in comparison to what? It is impossible to get the optimal levels of nutrients your body needs on a daily basis. RDA’s are a prehistoric guideline that were accurate 60+ years ago. Due to the depletion on the micro-nutirents we need to supplement our daily intake. People have the misconception that they can eat bad and take vitamins and everything will be fine. Vitamins work together with a healthy diet. I 100% agree that they can be dangerous! That is why people need to do their homework with what they take. People do more homework on the type of T.V the will purchase then for their own health. You need a high quality supplement something that is made at a pharmaceutical level because they are not FDA regulated. A couple of years ago I found a book that shows an unbiased look at hundreds of companies. Several scientist involved with testing (over 18 criteria’s) of each product. People need to know that there is information out there, just need to look.