Who doesn't want to live a longer, healthier life? Eating healthy and exercising is one of the consistent messages but sometimes, say doctors, we need a little extra help in the form of supplements.

As America battles obesity, eating healthy and being active take on more significance. "Prevention is the name of the game if we want to get out of this health care crisis," says Dr. Balz Frei, Director of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. He was guest speaker Friday at the annual UNMC Denham Harman Lectureship.

"No one has ever died from taking too many vitamins," says Frei. "But every year, 100,000 people die of drug overdoses."

The Linus Pauling Institute uses a pyramid where red meat, butter, white rice and bread, potatoes, pasta and sweets are at the top. We're to use those sparingly.

Whole grains and plant oils at the bottom. We should eat those at most meals. Of course, vegetables should be consumed in abundance with a lot of fruit too. "Ideally, you would get that from your diet in 9-servings of fruits and veggies everyday," says Frei, "but nobody really does that. Let's be honest." That's why he recommends multi-vitamins as sort of health insurance and extra vitamin c and d for preventing cancer and heart disease.

As for herbal supplements, his advice is stay away from them. "The problem with herbal supplements is we don't know the long-term effects."

We asked what Dr. Frei takes as daily supplements: multi-vitamin, multi-mineral; Vitamin C 500 milligrams, Vitamin D 2000 international units, Lipoic acid 400 mg, Carnitine 1000mg. The last two are supposed to help with energy according to the doctor and have been shown to reverse the aging process for some older people.