Traditions with Nutrition

How family meals support health

Planning and sharing meals is a cherished family tradition in many homes.  This wonderful way of spending time together also helps children learn cooking skills, maintain better health, even learn how to budget during meal planning!  And now a study published in the Annuls of Internal Medicine, suggests that those meals deliver nutrients with even more value than those that come from a bottle. 

All too often vitamins and supplements are thought of as “insurance”, a crutch even for those days our food choices fall short of our aspirational diet – think fast food, pizza and meals without vegetables, OH MY!  Let’s review some of the supplement research we’ve brought you over the years: 

• Vitamin takers pay a hidden price, adopting lazy or risky behaviors as a result of a false sense of protection 
• Multivitamins showed no cognitive benefits when reviewed in males over a 12 year period
• Multivitamin use did next to nothing to prevent recurring heart attacks in on trial involving over 1,700 participants
• Little or no increase in bone density was found with vitamin D supplementation
• It’s estimated that 20% of all drug-induced liver damage can be traced back to herbal and dietary supplements

There are plenty of conditions and instances where supplement-use is warranted, but for most generally healthy people, healthy food is all you need – like those family meals served around the dinner table!  Nutrients found in fruits, vegetables, unprocessed grains, nuts and other whole foods are perfectly packaged by nature and can provide all the nutrition your body requires.  Visit our recipe center to keep your family meal inspiration flowing.

Published July 1, 2019