I know you know the trick you just take some vitamin pills and you set for a long happy and healthy life but is this really true this is what im going to talk about with dr norman. Christina norman is a professor at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in pottstown she knows all about the nutrients people need to stay healthy. The good news is if you follow a healthy diet you dont need to take any food supplements. Vitamins are real miracles there are a lot of things that are said to do. Boost our Energy Levels protect us from diseases and prolong our life. What is true heres the job profile of many vitamins. Do lots of us have a vitamin deficiency and if so can we just need more fresh fruit and vegetables to make up for it the stallholders at this weekly market and decide off certainly think so. According to the 5 we can just grab whatever we feel like its like living in paradise. Didnt start. But does it cover everything what about vitamin d. Your body can produce vitamin d. Itself provided you get enough sunlight but in many regions theres just not enough in winter thats why lots of people start to run low on vitamin d. During the cold dark months. Its essential for healthy teeth and bones getting vitamin d. From food alone is tricky its found in oily fish like macro ill and salmon but it has to eat about half a kilo every day and who does that. There are now socalled vitamin d. Mushroom scientists discovered that shining u. V. Light and mushrooms causes them to make and store a form of vitamin d. So what about vitamin c. Vitamin c. Is important for the immune system and it also strengthens connective tissue and bones. Its abundant in leafy greens and vegetables like bell peppers brussels sprouts kale and chard. And wheat grass juice a healthy trend at the juice bar its made by pressing young grass this is healthy grass not like you know im still down the taste of wheat grass just takes some getting used to but it is healthy. That a single shot has the vitamins of 5 kilos of raw vegetables which. Continue back up the alphabet to a vitamin a is good for the eyes it also keeps the skin young looking and like a vitamin c. Boost the immune system and. Theres lots of it in lambs lettuce. The body also converts beta carotene into vitamin a thats a pigment produced by many plants and you can recognize it by its bright colors red yellow and orange theres something brand new on the market to top it here this is a flower sproat its a cross between kale brussels sprouts and red cabbage. It has 7 times more vitamins than a lemon. So you can either blanch it quickly and eat it in a salad. Or you can fry it in all of oil with salt and pepper and a touch of garlic. Sounds good but were still missing bitumen b. Or more specifically vitamin b 12 its very important for your nerves blood for mation and your ability to concentrate but the vitamin is only found in meat eggs and Dairy Products it can be a problem for deacons to get enough. B. Vitamins are also found in sauerkraut and beer but we wouldnt recommend the latter as a regular supplement. Better to head down to your local fruit and vege market for your dose of vitamins. Im here with professor. At the German Institute for Human Nutrition thanks for inviting me today they recommended daily imbalance for most vitamins they are and how they determined 1st to determine the average requirements of a person and then you add a margin of safety in order to ascertain that last Healthy People within the defined Population Group meet their requirements so the recommended daily intake allowance is actually higher than the average requirements i think those are varies if we take a look at the World Health Organization and they say for vitamin c. Its only 45. 00 milligrams and if you take a look to the u. S. The American Institute of medicine or comments 90 milligrams of fighting in the German Society from christian says 110. 00 milligrams is sufficient so whats the correct dosage they can vary from country to country it depends a bit on which evidence you look out which function of the new trend to look out which method used to derive the average requirements. How much safety margin you but in germany for example they do coincide with the European Unions requirements and what exactly happens if i fail to reach the recommended lands depending on the time and did you ration your intake is insufficient and of course you increase the risk for deficiency and therefore your increased risk for disease many people around the world are very worried that they dont reach that accommodation so they take some supplements so what you think about this well if a person is healthy and has access to healthy food then taking Dietary Supplements is not necessary and may even be harmful but even if you try to do everything right with tradition there is something which is called it in the hunger meaning that certain people still are deficient in vitamins and minerals yet but hunger is very specific thing its actually refers to the chronic lack of Vitamins Minerals and trace elements this by it having sufficient caloric intake so if this derives from a poor attrition for example their High Consumption of fast foods it doesnt concern the average person trying to eat right its ok but could those supplements be the solution for fast food lovers know the right solution would be changing your diet which is of course easier said than done especially for low income families fast food is cheap its filling but it devoid in micronutrients and we also know that most nutrients in our food actually act together its called food synergy so you get more and better effect more benefits from the same nutrients from food than you would get from your supplements ok and if i would try to do everything right eat a lot of salad even lot of fresh fruits not so much meat. Couldnt still take some supplements just to be on the safe side to understandable that you want want to be under safe side but it could actually be harmful so its not advice so they could be harmful could even kill me. You can inadvertently overdose because you combine products therefore get higher levels of lets say. And was an awful recent evidence that. Trends such as color. Can even be detrimental for survival you live less long if you take them so we dont have the same effect from the set for the same nutrients from food so in broccoli and drinking milk is safe but taking pills is not you can summarize it like that lets take a look 1st at vitamin d. Its a supplement which doctors usually prescribe over here in germany its good against osteoporosis its good for them but some skepticism is appropriate. Weve come to dr practice in recent years more and more of the g. P. s patients have been asking her about vitamin d. And if you can push the pattern this is evidence that make patients suspect that they have a vitamin d. Deficiency or tiredness and fatigue or feeling a bit low that makes things a little difficult because these nonspecific complaints could be symptoms of many illnesses. Including. The body makes vitamin d. Itself with the help of sunlight which triggers the formation of the vitamin in the skin liver and kidneys the vitamin promotes the uptake of calcium which helps the growth and maintenance of strong bones and muscle growth back in 1919 doctors discovered that poor nutrition but above all a lack of sunlight and the resulting shortage of vitamin d. Could cause records from then on this childhood disease was treated in part using ultraviolet lamps. U. V. B. Rays in sunlight are critical for the production of it in indeed they account for 80 to 90 percent of our victim in the means. If you spend 15 minutes a day out in the sun thats enough and if you also eat fatty fish mushrooms and Dairy Products in moderation that provides you with sufficient vitamin d. Most people dont need to take vitamin d. Supplements despite what the drug industry says theres no sign of the hype surrounding vitamin d. Going away with more and more different products on the market. Supplements can make sense for infants or people over 70 they can also be necessary if you are at risk of osteoporosis thats when the body doesnt store enough calcium increasing the risk of bone fractures. To phylicia in humans much if you work in a dark office in the winter months and dont see much daylight you dont eat any fish and if you mushrooms and cant offset the lack of light you need tristian then you should take one or 2000 International Units of vitamin d. A day so if you take more than 4000 i. E. Is it can damage your kidneys. And from trying. Too many Vitamin Supplements can harm us. Easiest way to ensure that we. Are in the is to get out and about. The American Heart Association says that vitamin d. Doesnt protect us from Heart Disease or cancer and the university of auckland new zealand says that vitamin d. Doesnt increase our bone density or protects us from osteoporosis so what do you think about vitamin d. Well vitamin d. Is an essential nutrient and we can we can build it ourselves and skin you know when we expose ourselves to sun so the part nutrition places in mind the world except if you hold your house down for example and you dont get enough sun then you should think about low level supplements so what about pregnant women we got a question from mary sue mcdonalds she wants to know if she needs special vitamins during her pregnancy when nugent requirements are higher in pregnancy and most of those needs you can actually meet with your normal nutrition you need to optimize it maybe but some a new trend such as folic acid or i dont mean you need to supplement i mean case of an iron deficiency you should also supplement iron and what about children do they have a special meat where they need a Good Nutrition because theyre growing and theyre developing but they dont need supplements actually ok delfina boosters reverse writes that her daughter is a vegan and need any food supplement there are some nutrients that are critical for vagrancy so you really need to select nutrients and plan your own nutritionally diet very carefully theres one nutrients and as vitamin b 12 which you need to supplement because the amounts in the bioavailability invading food such as alvey is just not high enough to meet your requirements so that is something you need to supplement. Does a lot of spots he says and he wants to build up his muscles and wants to know if he needs some vitamin requirements if you want to build up muscle then he needs more protein you can meet those needs with the normal nutrition you dont have to supplement protein whether there were quiet ones from vitamin c. Is actually higher its not. Really know it probably depends on the type of sports and of the training face and it shouldnt be supplemented without consulting so its something you have to look at individually and should definitely not take antioxidants without recourse a reason because they could decrease physical performance it could decrease the performance exactly and what about older people do they have special nutritional needs older people if they if theyre Nutrient Intake isnt high enough to meet all their requirements then you should think prognostically and you should consider supplements. For many people food is not just to still hunger for enjoyment its like medicine and there are new trends in the ropes like from taishan. Lottery fredricka and you will not drink kombucha fermented tea. Its sweet. And fizzy. It tastes good. There are moments your parent is a pharmacist who says her children have been healthier since she started making computer tea for them she thinks theres a connection my moms dont know my son has pretty severe allergies mostly hay fever and its improved a lot so he only had really mild symptoms this spring which is great yeah. Sure and i think the t. Had something to do with that. There are a lot of studies to back that up. Start up fair meant has been brewing computer commercially for 3 years to ferment the tea they use whats known as a scoby. Scoby is an acronym that stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and he sed its not a fungus although it looks like one its actually a symbiosis of yeast and bacteria protein. The bacteria and yeast feed on the t. V. In sugar and they conferred or ferment the ingredients. Or was 1st mentioned in chinese medicine 2500 years ago. The basic recipe is very simple a mixture of green and black tea gives the best results but you can use other teas like hibiscus or herbal tea there are plenty of options. Leave the tea to brew for 8 minutes and add a suitable sugar. And listen. You just need to use a sugar that contains glucose because thats what the bacteria need. Sugar replacements like stevia. The glass container needs to be food safe or the organic acids could attack the material. At the culture leave it for 14 days or longer out of sunlight at between 20 and 30 degrees celsius the longer you leave it the more sour and fizzy your computer will be. Another fermented drink is water. The family drinks it every day its even quicker to brew and offers a fizzy healthy alternative to lemonade. You can really play around with water its fun. These are the precious water. They produce a flavor like lemon. Contains other substances and microbes that. Variety that makes it so great. Sugar and water you can use most types of sugar and you can also add fresh or dried fruit or even her. Crystals also contain bacteria that feed on the sugar to produce probiotics fizzing nicely after just 2 days and producing lots of vitamins and enzymes. I find really exciting and practical about water is that you can use it to ferment juice it makes it less sweet a little more sour and with a pleasant fizz and its a great drink for parties instead of sparkling wine. You can offer guests a water. Scope for experimentation. To give you more energy. And mood. Lets talk about. Free. The very were not morphing into a political show free radicals are substances that attack our cells have to their anti oxidants that can protect themselves and does the free radicals have a really helpful. Why do. Its a question that occupies researchers around the world back in the 1950 s. They developed the theory that rogue molecules inside our body are responsible socalled free radicals these highly reactive substances can attack d. N. A. In our cells and damage it this causes disease and cell aging. It was also discovered that certain vitamins can capture a neutralize free radicals. But does that mean that vitamins can stop the aging process and protect us from innocence. Researchers wanted to find out with the aid of tiny round worms. These animals only live for about a month and that makes them ideal model organisms theyre just a millimeter in length but they also develop free radicals and they also age and die. In a series of experiments researchers fed the worms a substance intended to accelerate the production of free radicals in their bodies. So did that shorten their lifespan. Normally the worms live on average 18 and the top 28. 00 days but the ones with the additional free radicals didnt die young on the contrary they lived on average 21. 00 days even up to 35. 00 days and thats not at all what the researchers expected. d in the 2nd round of experiments the worms also receive the chemical promoting the production of free radicals but this time they were given vitamin c. And c. As well socalled antioxidants which scavenge free radicals again the lifespan of the test subjects was key. Carefully recorded. The result was that those worms only lived an average of 18 days the last ones were dead by 26 days. But you can see you know we are observed that these free radicals were responsible for the worms living longer and when we removed the free radicals the life extending effect was switched off completely comfortable. For the worms adding the vitamins didnt extend their lifespan at all in fact they seem to shorten it. But how do vitamins act in humans we can also raise free radical levels in our own bodies through exercise. Up to now athletes have been encouraged to ingest Vitamin Supplements to counteract that increase but is that really advisable. In one study 40 young men took part in a 4 week controlled exercise program. Every day they had to take either vitamin c. Or eat or a placebo. Before and after the 4 week study doctors took tissue and blood samples. And defect in the end the result was that the group that took the anti oxidants did not benefit from the exercise while the other group experienced lots of benefits as our final conclusion is that the free radicals that develop through exercise are the real reason that exercise is so healthy. This is how the researchers explained their results the free radical seems to strengthen the body against destructive outside influences by activating the immune system if the antioxidant vitamins destroy the radicals than the protection that when the body is gone. The role free radicals play in the body is clearly far more complicated than we thought. So whats your take on antioxidants. Definitely beneficial for health and the best source of food so much balls thats why their consumption of fruits and vegetables is so poor but taking antioxidants as a supplement has not proven to be beneficial even been shown to be detrimental sometime and increase your risk for. So if you talk about. Supplements they are not only vitamins and minerals and pills there are other things too many of my patients like fish oil. Capsules and this is but does this make any sense well if you do dont eat anything at all then it makes sense to take 3 fatty acids in order to you know maintain the function in a normal way so normal intake high intake or isolate a high intake of such a sense is not recommended and what you think about planned extracts and capsules like ginger garlic can sing for instance we are ready usually taken because people hope for some beneficial effect but most of those claims have no evidence frequently you know traditional chinese medicine is referenced when it comes to those products but that doesnt mean that those products or the extracts in those products are actually effective and if there are so the starch resettlements there you dont even have to prove the figures but isnt good if you feel and also united for instance. Well you can always see ginger if you like ok but that you dont have to take it in capsule form no you dont have to take them as a capsule of what about osteoarthritis if you like to take to america for instance a