Do daily multi-vitamins really do anything?

[bobmd13]

Generally the answer is NO.

Another piece of advertising that needs looking into.

If you have an illness like one of the contributors then yes, but that is because he or she has the inability to digest Gluten.

As long as your diet provides the correct nutrients there is no need for multivitamins in your life. An exception may be made to this in your later years were it does appear that multivitamins may actually help stave off some of the age related illnesses or at least alleviate the effects of them.

Eat loads of green vegetables,get a decent level of protein,and some fat and you should be ok.

With saying that eating a Burger King/McDonalds etc three times a day is not going to be good for you

I use to take Calcium but it was prescribed by my GP as I am lactose intolerant,but that was many years ago when many of you were but twinkles in your fathers eyes .

 

[Verbatim]

multi-vitamins - definitely not.
Most vitamins when taken orally are not properly metabolized by your body, many of those vitamins which are added to those pills can't even be metabolized directly by the digestive track.
Also if you look at most of those multi-viatamins they are in fact not really vitamin pills since they contain mostly minerals.
In addition to cheap minerals(like calcium AKA chock and sodium AKA salt), they mainly contain "cheap" vitamins like Vitamin C(ascorbic acid, which can be found in about any type of food), B1,B2(Which as well present in every food product since they are in all food groups) and Vitamin E(Which is a technically used in the entire food industry as a preservative).
Outside of extreme cases of malnutrition you will never ever have deficiency of any of those vitamins, and minerals they stick in those supplements, and believe me they choose the cheapest ones that they can get in order to fill up the volume of the pill.

But in cases when you have a specific vitamin deficiency, a doctor might prescribe you a food supplement, which is usually must be taken with the meal to ensure that it metabolizes properly.
But unless you're a vegan it's very hard to get a deficiency these days since your average BLT/Froyo will have all the vitamins you need, most people that suffer from deficiency either have a really skewed diet(vegan, extreme vegetarian, or people that eat nothing but mars bars), or have a metabolic condition which also means that it's not the diet, but rather the fact that you don't metabolize food properly in which case you will be prescribed an enzyme supplement rather than a vitamin pill.

 

[Heronblade]

Depends on a lot of factors, such as which brand of multivitamins you mean (they vary widely in content), your daily diet, your personal metabolism, etc.

Most people would benefit from vitamin supplements of some description, some more so than others. Verbatim above is correct in saying that many vitamins are commonly found in food, but others are not necessarily simple to acquire, such as B-12 or zinc. Multivitamins almost never give people exactly what is needed, but the more reliable multivitamin brands out there are easily better than nothing for those individuals that just want something simple to snag without having to do research into the matter.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Actually, a daily dose of vitamins raises the probability of issues - everything up to cancer, really.

It is nonsense and dangerous to consider vitamins, especially in pill supplement form, to be harmless. A good diet will cover not only nutrients, fat and everything you need to be/become/remain healthy, it will also give you all the vitamins you need. Sometimes, the form of preparation will destroy some of the vitamins you want. This can be - mostly - easily countered by educating yourself. Just popping pills is hardly ever a proper solutions, and vitamins are no exception to that rule. If you just pop a multi-vitamin bomb that includes 'everything', you're bound to - greatly - overdose on some vitamins you don't really need. This, inevitably, will lead to issues - health issues, that is. You can pretty easily damage internal organs, mess up basic bodily functions and enter a world of hurt by ingesting vitamin supplements every day. On the other hand, most over-the-counter preparations, when taken in suggested dosages, actually pretty much do nothing... nothing at all.

As iron has been mentioned in one of the first replies - please be aware of the fact that OD'ing on iron can damage your liver and can actually kill you.

Like other medicine, vitamins all have their proper use. Other substances also work like this. Take magnesium, for example. If you have a deficiency, you will encounter problems. People that suffer from cramping lots are said (and shown) to respond quickly and nicely to being given magnesium. Electrolytes are nothing but minerals, and if our body chemistry is out of whack for whatever reason, being treated accordingly is a good idea.



I find it mindboggling that the very same people that advocate most of the good fat/bad fat nonsense, totally misdirect you nutrition-wise and generally strive for a better self, a better society and a 'better future' - you know the types, the people striving for transformation of sorts - are usually the ones falling for harmful traps like the vitamin or the artificial sweetener one. They tell you that refined sugar is bad, yet their suggestions of whole-wheat stuff and cereals are actually higher on the glycemic index than pure, proper sugar - meaning they're basically super-sugar, quite capable of sending you to type-two-diabetes-land with a one-way ticket.

It's the same folks that made McD replace the perfectly natural and healthy beef tallow for frying fries with unsaturated 'vegetarian-friendly' fats that not only do not perform anywhere near where cheap and superiour beef tallow does, they're also absolutely bad for you.

There's plenty of evidence that vegetarian 'societies' that claim to serve mankind are actually far more deadly than your average flu.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

The problem is that even though some people eat healthy, they use vitamin supplements, which can actually cause problems. Too much isn't good either. I say, if you eat healthy enough, don't worry too much about it.

(also, Iron isn't a vitamin as someone else has posted).

You are right, but the thing is that a lot of 'multivitamin' preparations contain other supposedly healthy supplements, so I think it's only natural and quite legit to cover the whole ground, as good as possible. Also, don't forget that some supplements may have a 'vitamin x' label as well as another 'common name', which might not be too common. 'Vitamin K', for one, is actually phylloquinone or something in that molecular range. 'Vitamin B' without a funny little number could be anything from thiamine to panthothenic or folic acid. 'Vitamin C' is ascorbate, something some people continue to freak out over when they find it in the small print of the food preparation of their choice.

Bottom line is this: I otherwise agree with you - if people were to feed on 'healthy', well-balanced diets and generally would make decisions with their functional brains turned on, there would be absolutely no market for vitamin pills. Some diet choices, however, be they for health reasons (such as allergies) or be they for personal, political or religious reasons (vegetarianism/veganism) do have a a higher probability for requiring supplements, as the variation of food that is deemed acceptable is artificially limited.

I totally agree with the 'too much isn't good for you' - as overdosing on vitamins can, actually, mess you up bad - as in irreparable organ damage - or plain kill you. Not enough vitamins usually just causes noticeable discomfort and the system running at sub-par performance. Too much vitamins or other supplements is generally far more harmful.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I actually registered to respond to this...

multivitamins in healthy young people are actually harmful. This one of the best researched topics in the whole of medicine (I'm a final year medical student). Daily multivitamins in a healthy male population (a study size of over 100 000, double blind, placebo controlled) INCREASED mortality (edit:this means death rate) by over 20%.

(MOAR GOOD STUFF SNIPPEDY-SNIPPED)

Thank you for registering and adding your knowledge to the pool.

I really hope it would actually register with people, both 'ye industry', food coaches, nutritionists and medical professionals as well as all humble consumers. Thing is, ever since the latest and greatest scientific truth has started to become a somewhat fickle thing, especially thanks to the rather superficial coverage in the media and the way sponsorship or the average lazy student works, it's hard to identify the one truth that makes the most sense, especially since there's always some very vocal folks around that claim to know better.

Vitamin abuse could easily turn out to be one of the nastiest and deadliest errors in the last, well, fifty years or so.

some vitamins may not stack as they're bound to exit our bodies by the quickest route possible, others can very well flood our systems and cause havoc.

 

[bobmd13]

For those us in the UK, Beef Tallow is known as Dripping and it has been banned for many years as an oil due to the fact it really is not good.

I have no problems with McD's etc cooking with vegetable oil, its just that fast food is generally bad.

I have a treat once a week were I have an Indian,Chinese ,chip shop or Burger franchise.

Once every six months I really go mad and actually order Doner Kebabs (Gryros in the US I believe), so tasty but literally a heart attack in a Nan bread (yes ours are severed in Nans and are huge.)

This is from a man lives in one of the heart attack countries of the world, Northern Ireland, but we have learn't that the Ulster/Irish fry should not be eaten every day

My diet has always a portion of meat but always potatoes, and 2 other veg with my main meal of the day.

Normally it will be the dreaded brussel sprouts,cabbage,carrots,turnip (swede for the English)or green beans. Sometimes corn makes an appearance.

She who must be obeyed does not like green beans ,peas or spinach so generally I cant cook them.

These are not frozen veg but freshly bought and always steamed.

 

[SeaCalMaster]

In your personnel experience does taking a daily multi-vitamin really do anything? Do you know about or have you heard anything about them over the years that proves they actually work? I try to take them everyday but I've heard some people say they don't actually do anything. What are your thoughts?

Why yes, it does! Since I started taking multi-vitamins, I've found myself much better at managing my employees, and I make much better hiring decisions! My personnel management skills have really improved.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Generally not, unless you know you are deficient in some vitamins.

Now, nobody talks about chlorophyll, you can buy that from your health food store as well. Of course, this would only be of benefit to plants, so either there are lots of plant people amongst us, or there's lots of bullshit in the health food industry.

 

[RustlessPotato]

For those us in the UK, Beef Tallow is known as Dripping and it has been banned for many years as an oil due to the fact it really is not good.

I have no problems with McD's etc cooking with vegetable oil, its just that fast food is generally bad.

I have a treat once a week were I have an Indian,Chinese ,chip shop or Burger franchise.

Once every six months I really go mad and actually order Doner Kebabs (Gryros in the US I believe), so tasty but literally a heart attack in a Nan bread (yes ours are severed in Nans and are huge.)

This is from a man lives in one of the heart attack countries of the world, Northern Ireland, but we have learn't that the Ulster/Irish fry should not be eaten every day

My diet has always a portion of meat but always potatoes, and 2 other veg with my main meal of the day.

Normally it will be the dreaded brussel sprouts,cabbage,carrots,turnip (swede for the English)or green beans. Sometimes corn makes an appearance.

She who must be obeyed does not like green beans ,peas or spinach so generally I cant cook them.

These are not frozen veg but freshly bought and always steamed.

"She who must be obeyed " Haha, that made me chuckle ^^. I never really understood the recent obsession with all the "you HAVE to eat healthy !". I eat healthy and try to maintain a balanced diet, but some people seriously exaggerate. Also, Heart attacks in Nan are awesome ! Scotland apparently has a Deep Fried Pork Sausage Kebab... But I don't know if it is a myth or not .

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

For those us in the UK, Beef Tallow is known as Dripping and it has been banned for many years as an oil due to the fact it really is not good.

I have no problems with McD's etc cooking with vegetable oil, its just that fast food is generally bad.

I have a treat once a week were I have an Indian,Chinese ,chip shop or Burger franchise.

Why would you say such a thing? It is absolutely not correct that beef tallow/dripping is "not good" for you. It is rich in both saturated (~50%) and unsaturated (mono- and poly- at an average 42% and 4%, respectively) fats. It is actually the perfect grease for the cells of the organism that house your brain, and also your brain is quite happy with beef tallow. The only criticism that was valid back in the days was that McD (and probably others) added a (low percentage) amount of cottonseed oil, which is frankly as edible and healthy as ingesting diesel wrapped in beeswax pearls.

From a nutritional standpoint, the new "vegetarian" compatible french fries are less healthy no matter what, as no vegetable oil features the same nutritional value or 'compatibility' with our bodies as animal matter such as beef tallow. It was not banned because it 'is not good', it was banned in response to a media warfare and what I would like to call political pressure from certain groups. If you refer to beef tallow as being 'not good' then the alternatives we're currently stuck with would have to be called 'outright crap'.

When you skip your own preferences and tastebud range, you'll find that the average chip shop, indian or chinese take-away outlet fare is just as 'unhealthy', i. e. fatty, sugary and oversalted as the outstandingly worst burger joint you've experienced so far. To be honest, I don't fancy burger meat much when it's not home-made, but sometimes a quick burger fix just gets you over a business trip or an otherwise really, really stressful day.

For a little something different, I recommend watching Fat Head (2009). Even if you vigorously refuse to agree, it's definitely worth watching, especially if you watched Super-Size Me and liked it. It's not perfect, not quite complete, not quite as well-funded as Super-Size Me, but I think it sums it up pretty nicely. Besides, it's fun to watch, even if you might not agree at all.

The bit about the green vegetables... dude, that's a bit of a serious problem there. The moment you start caring about proper cooking, especially if you fancy having a somewhat broad horizon food culture wise, you'll see that there are many, many uses and combinations of food that are not just delicious, but really healthy and easily prepared if you know what you're doing. Just spinach alone - dude, if you have never cleaned whole spinach leaves, you just don't know what it's about. Frozen veggies aren't bad at all, as they even tend to be more fresh and more loaded with vitamins and stuff than the produce down at your local grocery store, as it was probably frozen at the peak of its short little life. Spinach goes well with, say, feta or other goat's cheese, and it's quite something with, say, garlic and shrimps. If you dare handle it in an Indian-inspired manner, cinnamon and fresh chilies and a little butter go a long way to make you happy and feel good, while being nutritionally perfect if you don't go with current crap food guidelines. You can also use it as a base for a sauce of sorts for your paneer or potato or tofu slices and dices. I'm no vegetarian, hell no, but a good/well prepared bit of meat is generally a rather sad thing when there are no slaughtered veggies involved in its preparation. While I do enjoy just meat and salt and pepper, spices and herbs add so much depth and enjoyment to an already pretty perfect thing. Add some homemade mashed potatoes or turnips to the deal, maybe some carrots and peas and you've yourself a treat. Don't forget that butter really is quite magic when it comes to, say, carrots. Just a little dab can make all the difference, be it just salt and butter, butter and ginger, balsamic vinegar and butter or butter and cardamom, it not only adds spicy magic, it also boosts your vitamin A and E intake and protects you from damage from free radicals, while margarine and other war-time ersatz spreads are nothing but trans fat-laden troublemakers that actually cause free-radical damage. Respect to anyone finding something to believe in to live a vegetarian lifestyle, but it's absolute humbug that it's automagically the healthier choice.

 

[tendaji]

The point of Vitamins and Mineral supplements is just to make sure you are getting your daily value of the things you need. As others have said, if you eat a balanced diet, that is healthy, then you have no need to use supplements, because chances are you are doing well enough in obtaining those nutrients from your food.

Now if you eat only 1 meal a day, eat junk food for most of your meals, have poor health, etc. Then using supplements would probably be a good idea, just to ensure that you are getting all of those nutrients that your body needs to maintain/grow your health.

 

[VladG]

In your personnel experience does taking a daily multi-vitamin really do anything? Do you know about or have you heard anything about them over the years that proves they actually work? I try to take them everyday but I've heard some people say they don't actually do anything. What are your thoughts?

If you eat healthy then they won't do as much since you'll be getting some of what you need from your food. If you don't then you certainly need them

Chances are, however, that you aren't getting enough from your diet

The quality of the food you eat, Most people nowadays know how to eat healthy (lots of fresh fruit and veg, not too much red meat, no fast food/junk, etc). What a lot of people don't know is that fresh fruit/veg nowadays can be pretty much void of any vitamins because of the way it's grown and shipped in the global economy. Most of your produce won't be locally grown (or if it is, you're very lucky) and more often than not fruit is picked long before it's ripe, stored in freezers and taken out into the sun for a few days before shipping where it ripens (or sometimes even during shipping). Unfortunately this means it will be far less nutritious then properly grown fruit. Also if it's stored for more than 2-3 days most of the vitamins decay, even if the fruit still looks fresh.

Basically even if you have a healthy diet, it doesn't mean you get all the vitamins/minerals/etc you need.

2)The quality of the multivitamins you take matters a lot. Cheaper ones tend to be metabolised poorly by the body so you get little benefit from them. Also higher quality multivitamins tend to have better ratios to prevent overdosing on a specific element and to help the body make the most of the supplement.

Also frozen produce is generally better than "fresh" produce because most often it was frozen immediately after harvesting and while some vitamins are lost in the freezing and thawing process, it still retains more than pretty much anything that's been sitting in a truck/ shelf for more than 2-3 days

 

[Best of the 3]

Probably not if you're eating healthily. But just ask a student, who has a diet consisting mainly of noodles/beans. They probably see it as the life saving pill for them

 

[VladG]

Probably not if you're eating healthily. But just ask a student, who has a diet consisting mainly of noodles/beans. They probably see it as the life saving pill for them

It kinda is really... I've gone through a period of very unhealthy eating (not fast food or junk food, simply next to no fresh fruit/veg) and when I started taking some supplements and eating better... the change was fantastic.

 

[barbzilla]

In your personnel experience does taking a daily multi-vitamin really do anything? Do you know about or have you heard anything about them over the years that proves they actually work? I try to take them everyday but I've heard some people say they don't actually do anything. What are your thoughts?

It really depends on what you normally eat and what you do. When I am working out hard, or if I am not eating properly (like on vacation), I take multivitamins to keep my energy levels up. I have been told it also helps if you aren't getting enough sleep, but I can't speak for that. If you eat healthily and you aren't doing any strenuous workouts, you probably aren't going to get much out of them.

As a secondary point, if you have any health issues a multivitamin might help you there too. Most non trauma based illnesses are caused by a deficiency somewhere in you, and a multivitamin could help fill the gap.

 

[Angie7F]

I feel that eating properly has a long term effect of giving me better stamina than taking vitamins.
I was taking them religiously but being off them has not changed me in any way, so I kinda forgot all about them until i read this thread.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

From all I've heard and read on the subject the general consensus between doctors is that unless you are very deficient in a particular vitamin (as in dangerously deficient) then a daily multi vitamin will make no noticeable difference to your health.

Unless you eat an amazingly restrictive diet then you get more than enough of the little vitamins you need from your food.

Even if you eat nothing but McDonalds you'll be fine. In fact fast food is generally very rich in vitamins.

Basically they're not worth the money.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I don't know about multivitamins but I've been taking B12 alongside ferrous fumarate on prescription because the ferratin levels in my blood were really low. There have increased at the last blood test so I guess it worked :/

(B12 lets your body absorb iron)