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Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:50 am
by TopHatFox
Is this a healthful habit, a waste of money, harmful? Lots of conflicting info on the web.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:06 am
by Spartan_Warrior
Depends on your diet. I think it's a nice-to-have if you're cutting any corners there. I don't know if I'd ever consider it either essential or harmful, but I could be wrong.

ETA: Actually, after reading more deeply, discount this flippant answer. I shouldn't have even responded as I don't know enough about the subject.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:13 am
by vexed87
Better to concentrate fixing deficiencies by adjusting an unhealthy diet, although it might make sense to take some specific individual supplements if you have specific dietary requirements or some very specific health condition.

There's enough studies to suggest overdosing on certain vitamins can cause more harm than good, so unless you have the means and commitment to avoid overdosing, why risk daily multi supplements, just eat your damn veggies!

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:58 am
by Dragline
Not at your age, unless you have some known deficiency.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 12:37 pm
by BRUTE
better to fix diet. just eating a bunch of meats and vegetables should provide all vitamins in abundance. important: many vitamins are fat-soluble, therefore, sufficient fat should be consumed with the vitamin-containing meals.

there are some ideas out there that say vitamin supplementation can lead to some vitamins out-competing others for receptor use, which can lead to weird imbalances, so it might even be harmful. but probably no humans ever died from it.

for reference, brute has gone an entire month without green vegetables before he started getting weird, dull headaches. eating a few green vegetables fixed them. eating fatty meat also seems to help, maybe the same vitamins or minerals are in both green vegetables and red meat. in any case, it's probably totally sufficient to eat vegetables once a week to prevent deficiencies.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:23 pm
by Scott 2
For some reason I think you're a vegan. If so, yes, you absolutely need to supplement your diet. A daily multi isn't cutting it, either.

I take a chewable when I remember. The pills don't always digest. I do question the bioavailability and I don't mega dose.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 10:47 pm
by TopHatFox
Just b-12 is required usually

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 11:40 am
by jennypenny
I've switched to a liquid multi as well as liquid fish oil because of the absorption problem scott mentioned. My doctor recommended splitting the dose and taking it AM and PM, but I'm doing IF so I can't.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 12:07 pm
by ThisDinosaur
Generally speaking, its better to rely on a diet with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. There are a number of problems with multi-vitamins in pill form:
Many nutrients are more easily absorbed in the chemical environment of specific foods.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12964802
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/12/3/162.abstract

Considering we evolved (or were designed, if you prefer) to consume these chemicals in the form of food, it stands to reason that that's the most reliable way to get them where they need to go.

Another issue is caveat emptor. The FDA does not regulate supplements the way it regulates drugs.
http://acsh.org/news/2014/06/26/problem ... s-industry
https://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Transparen ... 194344.htm

When you get a prescription or OTC medication, it says the dose per pill on the bottle. The FDA regulates quality control standards ensuring that each pill in each bottle is within +/- x% of that dose. There is no such regulation for vitamins and supplements. A bottle containing pills of so many mg of vitamin D may have anywhere from zero to several times the stated dose. With herbal supplements the situation is even worse. You can buy a bottle of ginseng at the drug store and be fairly certain that its grass clippings and paper.
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/ ... lers/?_r=0

On the other hand, every single human is a mutant and we each have different relative deficiencies of specific pathways. Since its impossible to know, short of clinical scurvy and beriberi, which deficiency you are susceptible to, it isn't unreasonable to supplement. But the key word is "supplement." They shouldn't replace food.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:12 pm
by Scott 2
On a vegetarian diet, I've opted to supplement with a multi vitamin, D3, flax oil, creatine and protein. When I'm especially motivated, I'll add vegan DHA rather than hoping for ALA conversion from the flax oil, but the expense is annoying. I also limit soy to 1-2 servings a day, due to concern over the phytoestrogens. Were I vegan, I'd also pay careful attention to B12 and calcium.

Certainly a vegan can survive without everything but B12 supplementation, but there is room to do better, IMO.

Re: Daily multi-vitamin - Y or N?

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 5:10 pm
by herp
A diversified diet is the better option, so I do not take multi-vitamins.

However, by recommendation from my doctor, I take vitamin D3 during winter as my levels were in the lower end of normal. YMMV.