Many millions of people take a multivitamin supplement in an effort to improve their health and well being or to 'top up' the nutrients in their diet. The multivitamin is especially attractive to those who exist on pizza and hamburger diets, low in fresh fruit and vege..
Supplements can't be doing you any harm having those extra vitamins and minerals.. right?
Well! A recent study has concluded that multivitamins offer little in the way of protection against cancer, heart disease or improving mental health and well being. In other words, multivitamin supplements more often than not are a waste of money.
Supplementation should not be entered into lightly, certain vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are known as the 'fat soluble' vitamins. These vitamins are not readily excreted from the body and are stored in fatty tissue, high levels of these vitamins can cause toxicity - in the case of beta carotene supplementation you may even turn a shade of orange! Some minerals can interact with one and other, or prevent the uptake of other elements in the diet, for example; over supplementing with zinc can affect the absorption of iron from foods as they both compete for absorption through the same 'channel'.
High levels of the water soluble vitamins (B vitamins and vitamin C) are readily excreted from the body and when taken as a supplement the excess is simply 'peed out' - the levels found in supplements are often doing nothing more than producing pricey pee as these vitamins can't be stored for later use.
There certainly are those who do need to supplement, if you are a vegan/vegetarian and diet is lacking in areas, you are looking to conceive or have certain medical conditions. My advice to those of you taking a multitude of multivitamins; look at your diet, are you meeting the 5+ a day recommendations? Do you eat a wide variety of foods from all of the food groups? If so, you are more than likely meeting the daily requirements for your vitamins and minerals.
If you would like to sit down and assess your current diet don't hesitate to make an appointment today!
