Vitamins & Minerals for Active Lifestyles: What’s the Point?
Vitamins and minerals are never a quick fix. They help things go as they should when the rest of the overall nutrient and food puzzle is put into play.
An active lifestyle—whether physical movement comes in the form of regular workouts, enjoyable walks, play (like sports or movement classes), or work (like construction, personal training, or any other labour-intensive jobs)—places stress on the body. Movement, rest, and daily get-up-and-go feelings are influenced by so many factors. Sleep, water intake, meals per day, meal variety, overall routines — vitamins and minerals are one tiny part of a greater nutrient conversation. These little micro bits are often placed in context with the bigger picture of adults being responsible for putting forth a tiny bit of effort into their overall nutrient plan to stay healthy, awake, and functioning in this wild life we live
Vitamins & Minerals: What Do They Do for the Human Body as Humans Move?
There are many, many vitamins and minerals our body uses to create homeostasis after we wander through our frazzled (aka always busy) lives. Here are a few that come to mind for people thinking about being healthy, active adults.
Nutrients in food help support normal function (even in healthy, active adults)… Real food: fruits and vegetables, whole grains, dairy (or replacements like soy), nuts and seeds, and proteins (beans and lentils, meat, eggs, poultry, fish). If your food intake falls more on one side or the other due to travel, schedule, interest, or personal preference, optional supplements can help cover those food gaps created by travel, demanding schedules, limited access to fresh foods, or dietary restrictions.
Why Adults Who Are Active Might Look Closer at Nutrients
Healthy adults who are making efforts to move their bodies might be more likely to know how their body feels from day to day. When you move regularly, you tend to feel tired. You need water. You want more fruits and veggies, beans and lentils, and whole grains, etc. You start to experience life a little more. Movement and regular routines often help adults to become a little more aware, and so (of course) when one is trying to improve, one might have this neat idea to also make sure the nutrients that support greater body function are in check as well. How smart.
Vitamins like vitamin C help support the maintenance of normal collagen formation in the body, supporting all of our normal tissues (skin, arteries, tendons, bones, cartilage). Minerals (like iodine) help support the production of thyroid hormones (that help support the body’s growth and brain development), which help the body burn energy to produce and release hormones. Some foods support the renewal of our worn-out red blood cells with vitamin A and copper, but zinc is also needed to make red blood cells. Making energy to make more muscles is a process helped out by manganese, iron, vitamin D, B-vitamins, choline, copper, selenium, and zinc. To do an activity, we need adipose tissue, which helps insulate us from sweating out into a pile of bones and muscles, which obviously involves muscles: the more muscle, the better
Optional Nutrients for Adults Who Are Active
For adults seeking to learn more about supplement options, remember that a strategy of “more isn’t better” remains best for calorie intake, macro- and micronutrient consumption, and other lifestyle choices. To benefit optimally from a daily supplement or food supplements available through retailers like NutrafitUK, use it as recommedation and expect it to be beneficial when used as intended and in combination with food. Refer to product labelling and approved health claims, then incorporate what resonates most into your lifestyle without thinking it will change your life without you also making other life-affirming changes.
The Importance of Balance: Too Little and Too Much
There's something that's worth knowing. Your body can struggle with both too little AND too much of a good thing. This is true even for minerals and vitamins. People tend to worry about not getting enough, but sometimes they overdo it. That can be either by taking too many supplements, or leaning too heavily on fortified foods. And it can actually backfire and cause problems if its own. It's one of those situations where 'more is better' doesn't really apply.
If you're thinking about taking supplements, chat with your doctor first. Ask about getting blood tests done to see where your nutrient levels actually stand. It takes the guesswork out of things. Those tests show you what your body genuinely needs (and what it doesn't), so you're not just throwing supplements at the wall and hoping something sticks.
Your doctor can walk you through what the results mean and help you figure out an approach that makes sense for your body and how active you are.
Building a Sustainable Approach
Over the long term, supplementing an active life isn’t about perfection or a magic bullet. Eating well, staying hydrated, resting, and moving your body are the basics worth nailing, and vitamins and minerals are among the many factors that fit into a broader perspective on food. After all that, it’s so much simpler to think about what vitamins and minerals add to the food that we eat, day after day.
A Sidenote for Readers
This article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical or nutritional advice. Always speak to your doctor before making changes to your diet, exercise, or supplement routine, or if you have any questions related to your health, supplementation, or supplement resources.
Finn H
Finn is the editor of You Well and has been writing about travel, health, and more for over 10 years.