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Healthy Eating

Demystifying Supplements: The 4 Essential Daily Supplements You Need

The world of supplements is confusing. But, what if supplementation helped you – a normal person – feel better, perform better, and live longer? Here are the four essential supplements you need.

Becca Borawski

Written by Becca Borawski Last updated on November 10, 2011

The world of supplements can be confusing. There are so many! The names can be complicated and the applications even more so. Which supplements do you really need and which are just wasted money? You don’t want to be a body-builder and you don’t want to deal with this stuff!

The world of supplements can be confusing. There are so many! The names can be complicated and the applications even more so. Which supplements do you really need and which are just wasted money? You don’t want to be a body-builder and you don’t want to deal with this stuff!

But, what if supplementation helped you – a normal person – feel better, perform better, and live longer? The truth is, due to our modern methods of farming and food processing, even those of us eating healthy, well-rounded diets are at risk of not consuming enough of the essential ingredients our body needs.

This article is the first in a two part series breaking down the mystery of supplements. This week we talk about the essential daily supplements everyone needs; next week we discuss eight additional options that could be right for you.

Four Essential Supplements

Despite the massive amount of pills, liquids, and powders available to us, there are four supplements just about everyone I follow in the world of nutrition agrees upon:

1. Fish Oil

It is hard to avoid the news about fish oil these days. Omega-3’s seem to be responsible for everything from maintaining muscle and decreasing body fat, to healing strokes, to helping women have healthy babies. Put simply, fish oil helps reduce inflammation and promotes healthy cell growth. In practical terms this means less joint pain, faster healing, and shiny hair and nails. In the long term it could mean avoiding autoimmune diseases, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and more. There may be some people eating enough high quality fish and grass-fed meats who do not need to supplement omega-3’s, but the majority of us could use it.

Recommended brands: Barleans, Stronger Faster Healthier, and Carlson

Recommended dosage: See the Robb Wolf Fish Oil Calculator

supplements, nutrition, Food, Fish Oil, Paleo, vitamin D, magnesium, Alpha lipoi

2. Vitamin D

A rising incidence of Vitamin D deficiency is being reported in the news frequently these days. We are supposed to get our Vitamin D from the sun, but depending on your geographic location, your use of sunblock, and the tribulations of modern life, that may be easier said than done. And, as it turns out, Vitamin D is important for more than just bone health and mood disorders – it has been shown to reduce the risk of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune diseases.1

Recommended brand: Carlson Super Daily D3 drops

Recommended dosage: At least 5,000 IU2

supplements, nutrition, Food, Fish Oil, Paleo, vitamin D, magnesium, Alpha lipoi

3. Magnesium

Most of us know magnesium has something to do with calcium and something to do with getting a good night’s sleep. What does magnesium actually do in our bodies? A whole lot. According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, “Every single cell in the human body demands adequate magnesium to function, or it will perish. Strong bones and teeth, balanced hormones, a healthy nervous and cardiovascular system, well functioning detoxification pathways and much more depend upon cellular magnesium sufficiency.”3 It should also be noted, your Vitamin D doesn’t work without the proper levels of magnesium. Without magnesium supplementation, we risk everything from muscle cramping, to osteoporosis, to depression, to hypertension.

Recommended brand: Natural Calm

Recommended dosage: 300-2,000mg

supplements, nutrition, Food, Fish Oil, Paleo, vitamin D, magnesium, Alpha lipoi

4. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA)

You probably haven’t heard of this one if you aren’t already a bit of a nutrition geek. ALA is a powerful antioxidant. That means it eats up free radicals (waste products) in the body that can cause damage to our cells. It also restores our levels of vitamins C and E. Unlike other antioxidants, ALA is both water and fat soluble, which means it can travel anywhere in the body to do its work. ALA has been proven to help with diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels and alleviating neuropathy.4 Other benefits of ALA include benefits to eye, brain, and cardiovascular health in general.

Recommended brand: Now Foods

Recommended dosage: 100-1,000mg/day

Now read Part 2 of Demystifying Supplements – learn about eight additional optional supplements and why some of them might be right for you.

Be aware the FDA has not established recommended dosages for all these supplements and nutrition experts may disagree with existing FDA recommendations, anyway. So in some cases the recommended dosages given are large ranges. In addition, if you have any medical conditions, please consult with your doctor before prescribing yourself any supplements.

Becca Borawski

About Becca Borawski

Becca found her way to a career in health and fitness through Martial Arts and CrossFit. Originally a music editor for film and television, Becca started studying Martial Arts in 2000. Though she started with traditional Martial Arts it was not long before she discovered Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and her path was forever altered. She began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Muay Thai and started working with professional MMA fighters, building websites, working on fight promotions, and producing videos.

As a competitor in BJJ herself, Becca wanted to get stronger and fitter. In 2006 she discovered CrossFit and became a student at CrossFit Los Angeles. In only a couple of years she became CrossFit Level III Certified, left her career in the film industry, and dedicated herself full time to coaching. She has since been certified through CrossFit in Olympic Lifting, Powerlifting, Nutrition, Endurance and Kids coaching. She also held an NSCA-CSCS from 2006-2008 and is a certified IndoRow instructor. In addition to coaching adults, she founded the CrossFit LA Kids program in 2010 and taught children aged 5-17.

Becca regularly takes on new sports, which have included indoor rowing, fencing, and most recently, cycling, as she believes it makes her both a better athlete and a better coach. In order to reach more people with her coaching, Becca also created ModernAthena.com – a website dedicated to women in pursuit of physical fitness and self-improvement.

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