Multivitamins: Good for You or Waste of Money?
ASKED by alison b on March 22, 2008 - 2:33pm
Do you take multivitamins? If so, why? Are they beneficial, or a waste of money?
I thought this would be a good discussion, as it is something taken for granted, and is not seen as "something else we're putting in our body, whether we need them or not", as other substances are (healthy or not).
Please note: I am not referring to anyone who has been given a recommendation by a health care provider to take a vitamin supplement, such as pregnant women who are recommended to take folic acid.
Comments
I do take a multi vitamin (and I even call it a vitt-a-min and you call it a vite-a-min!) because I think vegetarians need a little boost in terms of iron and a couple of other nutrients too. My children take one also. I don't think they are a waste of time if your diet suggests that one a day may be beneficial. In a perfect world, we'd all have such a well balanced diet that we wouldn't need one but this ain't no perfect world!
I also take calcium supplements and I have absolutely seen my nails improve. It took several weeks for my nails to reap the rewards of calcium supplements but they are a lot stronger now.
Our primary care physician always asks my husband and I during our office visits whether we're taking a multi-vitamin. He tends to be very conservative (lowest doses only when REALLy needed) when prescribing medication, so for some reason that reinforced the importance of taking a good vitamin.
It just seems like a good back up if we're not getting all the nutrients we need from the foods we eat.
Well, that's the rub, isn't it: not being able to get all your nutritional requirements from the foods you eat, when you try to eat so healthfully!
I'm not big on vitamins, although I've had to start taking a supplement per my doctor. My brother-in-law is a pharmacist and was able to convince my (chain smoker) husband to take a vitamin supplement, which he does every day. As for me, I have to be in extraordinary pain to take a Tylenol!
But, a good vitamin supplement is, as you said, a "good back up," and there are some formulated specifically for different stages of a woman's life. I do take a once-daily vitamin plus Vit C.
I absolutely take them. I've read a lot and believe in staying healthy -- we need to supplement the food we eat these days. I always take a mult,antioxidants and calcium/magnesium/vitamin D. When I'm having a problem I get advice from this article. I use the web site www.supplementinfo.org all the time because they have objective information with no hype.
I saw an article about the 'anti-aging' properties of resveratrol, so I'm going to start on that now...I'd like to know if anyone else is taking it?
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