Hey, it's Wendy and it's Jess and you're listening to the Food Heaven Podcast, your online resource for delicious and nutritious living.

Hey there, Wendy here and you're listening to another episode or mini episode, I should say, of the Food Heaven Podcast where we answer one of your questions.

Let's listen in to this listener's question.

Hi, Wendy and Jess, my name is Cassandra and my question for you ladies is, do you take multivitamins and do you have any recommendations for effective ones out there?

Hey Cassandra, alright, so to supplement or to not supplement, that is a question here and it's a really, really good one.

Supplements are on the rise and it can be very confusing to figure out whether supplementing is right for you.

It can be even more confusing trying to figure out what supplements you should take.

So generally speaking, we always recommend getting nutrients from whole foods versus supplements and how can you do this while you should definitely have a variety of different foods.

So think things like vegetables, greens, proteins, fats, nuts and seeds, things like that.

And variety is super important here because let's say you stick to kale every day, it's a super healthy vegetable, it tastes great.

But you can miss out on a lot of the other wonderful nutrients that other vegetables have to offer.

So with that being said, there might be times when supplementing is definitely appropriate.

However, there's something that should be assessed well because nowadays we see a lot of unnecessary and I would say even unsafe supplementation.

There are people that are to high risk for nutritional deficiencies and should be considered for supplementation.

So some examples are women who are pregnant, elders, perhaps someone that has a food allergy or intolerance or a gastrointestinal condition,

also vegans or vegetarians.

You don't necessarily have to be at a high risk for a deficiency to consider taking a supplement though.

There are certain conditions that might be improved upon by taking a particular supplement.

So for example, let's say you have someone that suffers from inflammation, perhaps you'll consider a tumor supplement,

or you have someone that has elevated triglycerides, which is the fat in the blood,

perhaps an omega-3 supplement might help.

Alternatively, I have tons of patients who take vitamin B complex supplements, let's say for like nail, skin, and hair.

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