I have written a number of variations on vitamin supplementation and getting your vitamins from natural sources, whole nutritious foods. This week, I want to revisit a few key points on vitamins and the pros and cons of taking them as a supplement or getting them through a well-balanced nutrient dense diet.

First and foremost, let's ask the question should vitamins be taken at all by anyone? The answer is of course, yes, for many reasons. Some people have health concerns that require their doctors to place them on a vitamin supplement. The other key aspect to this is our fast food diet choices. Many of us just do not eat correctly, choosing foods that do not deliver essential nutrients.

So should you take vitamins to stay healthy and if so, are all vitamins created equally? To answer this question, it can become very confusing, so let's break it down into simpler terms.

It is true if you are eating a well-balanced nutrient dense diet consisting of whole foods like fresh vegetables and fruits with a calorie intake that is north of 1,500 calories a day, it is likely you do not need to take vitamins.

Many completed studies have proven that people who take vitamins are no healthier than people who eat a very healthy diet. In one study, 180,000 men and women were followed over a period of time to see if the folks who took the vitamins lived longer and developed less incidents of heart disease and cancers than those who did not. The findings came back showing that the people taking vitamins did not live longer or have less cases of cancer or heart disease.

The question now comes back to one of a personal nature: Will vitamins really benefit me? Here is where you have to look to your lifestyle and include good habits like eating lots of fresh vegetables; and bad habits, like low calorie intake, eating highly processed empty carbohydrates or smoking and consuming high levels alcohol.

The problem with multivitamins is they cover the whole spectrum from A to Z which may be good for some and it ensures you get what you need. But multivitamins are not created equally. In fact, the very best manufactured vitamins make up a short list. Next week, I will cover the handful of excellent vitamin products and what to look for if you feel the need to supplement with vitamins.

However, this week I want to revisit some basics on vitamins. There are a few key vitamins you must have to retain optimal health. First and foremost are the fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K, which tend to be lacking in low fat or no fat diets. These fat soluble vitamins are very important for good health. With so many people dieting these days, we are told don't eat fat, use low fat and so on. This practice tends to leave us deficient in A, D and K vitamins.

Vitamin A is important for your immune system and supports good eye and skin health. Vitamin D is a critical vitamin and one that we here in North Idaho get little of in the wintertime from sun exposure. D is very important to our endocrine health, which is the system in our bodies that controls hormone production and distribution. D is also very important for bone health and our immune system as well. Vitamin K is another essential vitamin that most people do not know too much about. K is found in leafy greens like kale for example. But for K to effectively support bone health and your immune system, it should be consumed with a little good fat like olive oil. Italian balsamic dressing with your kale anyone? K also helps with proper blood clotting and helps fight against some degenerative diseases.

Then there are the water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and the B complex group that if taken in excess, will cause a number of unhealthy and uncomfortable conditions. For that reason, many health care providers recommend getting these vitamins from natural sources like fruit, eggs, meats and poultry.

As you can see, we have a very mixed bag regarding which vitamins are best taken in a supplement, which are better from natural sources and so on.

Then there is the question around synthetic vitamins versus natural vitamin supplements.

Let's establish one fact right out of the gate: a synthetic vitamin can be called all natural, so you can see where this is going. Are you taking natural or synthetic? Chances are you may not ever know. Synthetic vitamins are very effective and if they have one fault, it is that they can be very concentrated, so overdosing, or maybe better stated overdoing it, with synthetic vitamin supplements is a real possibility.

Are natural vitamins more effective than synthetic? Studies have shown in some cases depending on the vitamin yes, but findings in these studies have had a lot of variance. The one aspect of which type to use is this. Your body will get some benefit from either synthetic and natural. If you're going to take vitamins, you may not want to get too hung up on this issue. I will also get deeper into this aspect in my next column.

One last point to cover needs to be mineral supplements to stay healthy. Minerals are very important to our overall health, and like vitamins, we need to ensure we get enough in our diet to keep us in peak health. Whole foods like organic fresh fruits and vegetables are the most optimum sources of minerals.

These are great points to consider and keep in mind when you apply a solid nutrition plan to your lifestyle. Next week, I hope to demystify selecting a great vitamin program if you are one of those people who feel you need to take a supplement.

Judd Jones is a director for the Hagadone Corporation.