Multivitamins. Explicame por favor.

[bisonbison]

Depending on who you ask multivitamins are:

A) Fundamentally indigestible placebos
B) Way too expensive.
and/or
C) an efficient delivery system for, uh, vitamins.

Opinions? I would like to make sure I have enough vitamin A so that next time I go to the optometrist he doesn't question whether I have ever eaten a fruit and or vegetable. (a couple of years ago)

[SomethingClever]

I think they're legit. My hippie wife thinks otherwise.

I am of absolutely no help!

[TimM]

I take a multivitamin. I found that if I stopped, in about 2 weeks I start getting cracks in skin at corner of mouth (http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/DietandNutrition/VitaminB2.htm#Signs%20of%20deficiency). If I start taking them again it goes away, so at least they do something for me.

[loudog]

if you eat a great diet you probably dont need them. if you dont, then you do.

end of thread

[Skipbidder]

[ QUOTE ]
Depending on who you ask multivitamins are:

A) Fundamentally indigestible placebos
B) Way too expensive.
and/or
C) an efficient delivery system for, uh, vitamins.

Opinions? I would like to make sure I have enough vitamin A so that next time I go to the optometrist he doesn't question whether I have ever eaten a fruit and or vegetable. (a couple of years ago)

[/ QUOTE ]

First suggestion would be...eat some fruit and vegetables. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Yes, you can obtain usable vitamins via pills. Some vitamins have more easily digested by humans in one form rather than another.

A reasonable, but boring way to figure out whether or not you have any dietary deficiencies is to record your intake and then make some calculations. A dietician can certainly help with this. One thing to remember is that vitamin deficiencies frequently don't happen in isolation. A diet with a vitamin deficiency may well be low in fiber as well...which you aren't going to get in the pill. If you want to do this, I can help. I suspect that you don't want to do this. I tried it myself less than a year ago, and it's a pain in the ass.

Provided that you do not have a malabsorptive disease (or a bowel resection), you should be able to obtain recommended nutrients fairly easily. (Unless you are strict vegetarian/vegan, in which case you will have to take special care to make sure you get B12.) You are not female, so there isn't special need to talk about iron, folate, and calcium.

There is probably no reason for you to be taking a multivitamin which contains more than 100% RDA for anything. Evidence is lacking for benefits from large doses of vitamins except to correct deficiency states. Large doses of vitamins are potentially harmful as well. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat soluble.

If you are worried about vitamin A in particular, and aren't going to be adding fruits and vegetables to your diet, then eat some turkey (which also has a reasonably high amount of vitamin A).

In the US, unfortunately, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (1994) is the law of the land. There is no significant regulation of vitamins. You have no good way of knowing whether or not what you read on the label is what you are getting in the package.

A multivitamin should be relatively cheap, however. Buy one that has no more than 100% of any nutrient. Take it every other day. It should cost you less than a buck a month.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
Depending on who you ask multivitamins are:

A) Fundamentally indigestible placebos
B) Way too expensive.
and/or
C) an efficient delivery system for, uh, vitamins.

[/ QUOTE ]

All of the above, plus you forgot:

D) can actually harm you.

http://my.webmd.com/search/search_results/?pagenumber=1&query=vitamins&filter=mywebmd_all_fi lter

It varies from person to person and vitamin to vitamin and study to study (bad statistics). Good luck sifting through all that [censored]!

[LALDAAS]

I have wondered this my self! My GF is a RN and is always pushing the vitamins.

I would like to know my self. Im 26 not that i am old but I do not feel like i did ast 19 or 20

[Blarg]

Very few people eat a perfect diet, if such a thing there is, so most people have at least one vitamin or mineral deficiency. Taking a multi-vitamin almost certainly couldn't hurt, and is a reasonable and cheap health measure.

Only a few vitamins aren't water soluble, so excessive amounts of most of them are simply eliminated in the urine anyway, rather than stored and accumulated to toxic levels. Anything approaching toxicity in water soluble vitamins would need a far larger dose than you could possibly get in a multi-vitamin.

If you want to be sure about vitamin A for whatever reason, try carrots, which can actually kill you with too much vitamin A if you go nuts with them. A few health nuts have died from drinking too much carrot juice. A safe solution in pill form is beta carotene, which is water soluble, so unlike regular A, you won't be in danger of getting too much and harming yourself.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
I take a multivitamin. I found that if I stopped, in about 2 weeks I start getting cracks in skin at corner of mouth (http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/DietandNutrition/VitaminB2.htm#Signs%20of%20deficiency). If I start taking them again it goes away, so at least they do something for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Try taking vitamin E instead of the multivitamin to see if that is where your deficiency is.

In general, I think taking multivitamins is great, but they do not have sufficient amounts of what you should be taking. I take a multivitamin, cause I hate veggies (and refuse to eat them) and I also take some extra folate & calcium.

Freakin

[jakethebake]

I think the multis are good. They're really not expensive. I know some people have trouble digesting them but i never have. I do think a lot of the weird new herbal supplement crap is well....crap though.

EDIT: This really should be posted to "ask bison".

[LostMyMoney]

Does anyone know if Centrum or the GNC brand multivitamins are worth taking for someone who is deficient or are there better multivitamins out on the market?

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
Try taking vitamin E instead of the multivitamin to see if that is where your deficiency is.

In general, I think taking multivitamins is great, but they do not have sufficient amounts of what you should be taking. I take a multivitamin, cause I hate veggies (and refuse to eat them) and I also take some extra folate & calcium.

[/ QUOTE ]

No point in tracking it down. I am on a low carb diet, so I know there will be a few deficiencies.

I take one of the GNC multis with a lot of everything.

[cold_cash]

You can get liquid multi-vitamins, which are more easily digested and absorbed, but also more expensive.

I'm no doctor but I'm sure it would probably be cheaper and more enjoyable to just mix in some fruits and veggies every now and then.

[Blarg]

Yeah but it's really hard to get a balance that way. Still should be done, though, because it's a low calorie way to stave off hunger and get nutrition, and the roughage is very good for your system.