Should I Take a Multivitamin?

In my opinion, there are two groups of people who should take multivitamins:

1. Pregnant women (specifically prenatal vitamins)
2. People with a medical condition for which a doctor has recommended they take a multivitamin - such as malabsorptive diseases, including but not limited to Crohns, ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis, liver disease, and cystic fibrosis
   
   

Where the line is drawn (in my opinion) is when your primary care provider at your annual "well" exam suggests you take a multivitamin to "fill in the gaps" in your not-so-perfect diet.

It is to the habitual multivitamin takers, who are otherwise healthy, that I am talking to.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice. Consult your doctor before making radical changes in your health lifestyle.

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Multivitamins Don't Fill the Gap

Most of the "good stuff" found in multivitamins that people are trying to work into their diet come from fruits and vegetables. This tends to be the downfall because some people just don't like fruits and vegetables.

Luckily there has been a surge in the cooking world to make healthy eating taste better. This is typically through:

1. Cooking differently (grilling vegetables or fruits, steaming)
2. Adding flavor (herbs, spices, marinades)
3. Trying new foods
   

But for those who are still clinging to their meat and potatoes diet, cringing at the idea of green on their plate, you should know that popping a multivitamin each day isn't the same as snacking on carrots or topping your cereal with fruit.

Check out this article at WebMD that summarizes three studies from December 2013 on multivitamin usage for Americans.

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As nutritional science continues to progress, we continue to discover more and more compounds found in whole foods that interact with not only the nutrients we ingest from that food (big names like Folic Acid and Vitamin C) but also interact with compounds in our body, such as damaging radicals and cholesterol metabolism. What we don't know yet is exactly how all of these compounds truly work together.

For example, when you eat an orange, you are not just eating vitamin C. You also get fiber and antioxidants. Now, how does that fiber affect the speed your body digests the fruit? Perhaps it slows it down just enough to ensure you are absorbing the maximum amount of vitamin C from that fruit.

These unknown and little understood compounds are absent from multivitamins. (And no, popping a pill "full of antioxidants" won't do the trick either). Multivitamins take synthetic forms of nutrients science says we need and then puts them into pill form with dyes and fillers.

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Multivitamin Marketing

While you may be tempted to try a weight loss supplement that you see on late night TV, part of you (hopefully) recognizes their ads as blatant marketing strategies aimed to convince consumers to purchase their product despite its lack of results.

For some reason, multivitamins and some health supplements seem to have been categorized differently by consumers because they are providing nutrients, right? that should be in your diet, right?

But just like all the other supplements you see at the store, they are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. So what? Well, the "so what" is that what you see on that black and white label stuck to the side of the bottle is no way guaranteed to reflect what is inside that pill.

Also, if you search for articles on the internet about whether or not you need a multivitamin (perhaps thats how you stumbled across my article) be aware of the website. Is it a news article quoting scientific studies or is it a marketing doctor's website who tells you that all multivitamins are bad...except his line! If it's the latter, you can lump his article in with other company's efforts at marketing.

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Fill the Gaps with Food

Like I mentioned before, there are a number of strategies to increase the nutrients in your diet without resorting to your grandmother's boiled green bean recipe.

For lean proteins like fish and chicken, try marinating and grilling - or grind nuts (almonds) with spices for a crunchy topping.  Recipes here: almond-crusted tilapia and marinated chicken breasts

For green vegetables, try roasting and steaming to retain flavor as well as nutrients. Boiling vegetables results in green water...and that green water has all the nutrients that you want in the food you eat! Links here: How to Steam Vegetables and a recipe for Roasted Vegetables

For fruit, think about the types you like. Do you like stone fruits such as peaches and tangerines? Or are you an apples and oranges kind of person? Think about fruits you've tried and liked, and then try similar fruits. And then...try different fruits! You'll likely surprise yourself. For some yummy ways to add fruit to your day check out these links from Harvard Health and Cooking Light.

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Questions and comments welcome!
-Bailey