Vitamin Supplements

The diet is always with us. We tend to associate it with slimming regimes, but the word ‘diet‘ means a way of feeding and can be applied to many conditions besides weight problems. Medical diets for diabetics, heart patients and others are designed and supervised by dieticians and doctors, but slimming diets are available to all who want to try them and if we decide to follow one then we need to know how to get the best out of it. Most of the diets in the popular press and magazines today are compiled by nutritionists and dieticians and they are well balanced to include all the vitamins and minerals we need each day but, without exception, they will contain less food than we are used to eating. An ‘average’ woman requires 2,200 calories a day for energy and an overweight person is likely to be exceeding this amount by at least another 1,000 calories. Most slimming diets are designed to supply approximately 1,000 calories per day and this is less than half the ‘normal’ amount. If the diet is adhered to strictly then it should contain all the vitamins that are essential, but dieters are notorious for falling from grace and substituting or changing the foods on their diet sheet.

This situation could mean that they will be going short of some of the vitamins, but this deficiency can be offset by taking a multivitamin tablet. These preparations contain most of the vitamins and minerals we would need if we were eating no food at all, so one per day is usually quite enough. Always check the prescribed dose against the list of ingredients on the label to see how much you are getting in a single tablet and when you should be taking them. Don’t be tempted to take more than are required as this could provide too high an intake of vitamin A and D. However well balanced a diet may be any form of weight loss puts a slight stress on the body and any further extremes, like too many vitamins taken indiscriminately, should be avoided. Most vitamins are prescribed to be taken with a meal. If you are following a diet in the summer then fruit and salads will provide all the vitamin C you need, but winter diets are often geared to the high protein of fish and steak meals with cooked vegetables. This should supply adequate vitamin C, but the loss in cooked vegetables, and a shortage of salads could mean a lower intake. An extra 50 milligrams (50 mg) of the vitamin per day will act as a safety margin and provide all that is necessary.

The Contraceptive Pill

Oral contraceptives contain hormones which affect the metabolic rate of chemical reactions in the body. They tend to speed up some of the various processes particularly those which are occurring in the liver. You will remember that one of the busiest coenzymes is the vitamin pyridoxine and it is involved in nearly sixty different reactions. The increased rate of metabolism requires an increased supply of pyridoxine and women on the pill may find that their daily supply of the vitamin does not always meet the daily demand. Pyridoxine plays an important role in the chemistry of the brain and helps to produce various neurotransmitters (nerve messengers) and other vital substances which affect mood and efficiency. Many women who went on the pill in the ‘fifties and ’sixties experienced a certain degree of depression as a side effect. Later trials showed that extra pyridoxine could help to alleviate these symptoms. The evidence was so conclusive that additional pyridoxine is prescribed together with the pill in some countries. The vitamin is not always available on its own in health stores and chemists, but a useful dose is supplied in many of the B complex preparations. Take a careful look at the ingredients before you buy because pyridoxine is not automatically included in all of the B vitamin compounds and you may have to search the shelves before you find the right one. The vitamin should be listed by its full name but may also be written as Be.

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