Fortifying your diet with the right nutrition supplements can help fend off sugar cravings and add a much-needed boost to your health and vitality. Proper supplementation is an important component of long-term health and wellness because it’s difficult to obtain all the vitamins, minerals, essential fats, and phytonutrients that you need to defend against the onslaught of dangerous chemicals found in the food supply and the environment.

These days your body simply has more to deal with — more stress, more chemicals, more radiation, and more pollutants. To stay healthy, you need serious help, including stress management, smart choices in food, and extra nutrition support.

In addition to choosing nutritious, chemical-free foods, you may want to consider nutrition supplements.

Some nutrients can cause problems in people with certain medical conditions or can interact with particular medications. You should consult a qualified practitioner for advice concerning your individual situation.

Multivitamin/mineral supplement with B-complex

Chemical fertilizers have depleted the mineral content of the soil used in farming. Organic farming has begun a positive turnaround, but it will take decades for the soil to recover. To ensure that your body gets necessary amounts of the missing minerals — nutrients like chromium, selenium, magnesium, and copper — you can use a basic multivitamin/mineral supplement for nutritional insurance. Deficiencies in nutrients can trigger cravings!

B vitamins have been shown to lower the risk of diabetes and to decrease the incidence of migraines.

Vitamin C, an immune booster

Infections and stress eat up vitamin C. Supplemental vitamin C boosts your immunity by improving components of the immune system that have cool-sounding names like natural killer cells and lymphocytes. Vitamin C helps maintain the integrity of cells and helps protect them against oxidative damage. Vitamin C is also important for iron absorption, wound healing, and maintaining the strength of blood capillaries.

Recommended dosage of supplemental vitamin C is 500 to 2000 milligrams per day. Use vitamin C with rose hips or acerola cherry because the antioxidant benefits of vitamin C are magnified when you combine it with flavonoids and other compounds in these plants.

Use a small dose for a few days, and gradually build up your dose over the course of a few weeks. Large doses of vitamin C can cause diarrhea if you’re unaccustomed to them.

Fish oil for essential fats

Fish oil is one of the only concentrated forms of essential fats. Essential omega-3 fats are powerful, natural, anti-inflammatory agents, and they help repair nerve and brain cells, regulate the immune system, and even improve mood.

Typical dosage is 1 to 3 grams of distilled fish oil daily. Buy fish oil capsules that have been molecularly distilled to remove toxins like mercury, pesticides, and PCBs.

If you experience stomach upset or fishy burps, try an enteric-coated capsule. If you’re allergic to fish, you can use krill oil instead.

Fish oil has a mild blood-thinning effect. If you use prescription blood thinners like Warfarin or Plavix, consult a knowledgeable pharmaceutical professional before supplementing with fish oil.

Whey protein helps stabilize blood sugar

Powdered whey protein is the most efficient protein source available. Eating protein slows down the insulin response when you eat and helps maintain blood sugar levels after you eat. Eating enough protein is one of the primary ways to keep the carb cravings away!

Whey protein contains immunoglobulins, which boost the performance of your immune system. Whey protein also has a high concentration of glutamine, an amino acid that’s a vital component of the immune system.

Choose a whey protein concentrate supplement that has no added carbohydrates, artificial colors, or artificial sweeteners.

Probiotics: The good bacteria

Humans have lots of different types of bacteria in the digestive tract, and these bacteria are an integral part of both the digestive and immune systems. The intestinal flora also keeps other insidious things from colonizing in the gut.

These beneficial bacteria are often killed off from antibiotics, poor diet, or stress. This is a major problem because a lack of beneficial bacteria in the gut can cause a host of problems with both digestion and immunity.

Taking a probiotic supplement is an easy way to help maintain the proper levels of favorable bacteria in your body.

Typical probiotic capsules contain between 1 and 3 billion active organisms. For general health and immune system support, a daily dose of 1 to 5 billion organisms is generally sufficient.

Green drinks for extra vegetables

A powdered green drink is a great way to put some more phytonutrients (plant nutrients) into your daily diet.

Dozens of companies sell vegetable and fruit powder. Be sure to choose one without added sugars, fillers, or artificial sweeteners. A good green drink should include lots of different plants, such as alfalfa, aloe, barley grass, broccoli, dandelion leaf, ginger root, kale, nettle leaf, nopal cactus, oat grass, parsley, shave grass (horsetail), spinach, and wheat grass.

If you like to juice vegetables yourself, be sure to vary your concoctions from day to day so that you get a wide variety of nutrients in your diet.

Magnesium for relaxed muscles and strong bones

Low levels of magnesium can make muscles shorten and spasm, causing achiness or muscle cramps. Magnesium relaxes muscles, improves sleep, and relieves tension.

According to a study published in Diabetes Care, magnesium deficiency can contribute to obesity and insulin resistance. High magnesium intake gives you a 30 percent less chance of developing metabolic syndrome too.

Magnesium helps keep your blood pressure normal and your heart rhythm steady. It’s also a crucial mineral in the formation of bone tissue — anyone using a calcium supplement for osteoporosis should be sure that the supplement also contains magnesium.

Magnesium is also involved in the production of the three “happiness” neurotransmitters: serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.

The recommended dosage of supplemental magnesium is 200 to 400 milligrams per day. Look for magnesium gluconate, magnesium aspartate, or magnesium citrate.