Multi Vitamins?

[Horizons]

Is it worth taking these?

I know sometimes I am deficient (like most people) in my diet, so is it worth supplementing?

[stanmrak]

Originally Posted by Horizons

Is it worth taking these?

I know sometimes I am deficient (like most people) in my diet, so is it worth supplementing?

Certainly, but do some research first. Analyzing your diet can tell you where you're lacking and then you can compensate for it intelligently. And don't get the cheap, drug-store variety like Centrum... they're not only worthless, they contain toxic ingredients! Stick to a name-brand nutritional specialty company that cares about quality. Buying online gets you the best prices and selection.

As a rule of thumb, a decent multivitamin should cost at least $40 for a month's supply, but even those never cover all the bases, due to cost and the physical size of the tablets required. Most will not have enough vitamin D or omega-3's, for example.

Almost everyone would benefit from taking omega-3's, vitamin D and probiotics in addition to a multivitamin.

[ginkgo]

It is not a good idea putting all these chemcials in your body. It is better to drink a greens drink whole food supplement that contains whole food supplements. Then just learn about the certain nutrients that are harder to get. Like if you get lots of sun then you do not need vitamin D supplements.

The greens drinks contain algaes that contain omega-3 and vitamin B-12. You can drink kombuchu tea that is loaded with probiotices. Note that vitamins cannot be made or taken from foods without chemical reactions. Vitamin B-12 is grown by bacteria. Chia seeds have lots of omega-3.

[nietsdoen]

Originally Posted by stanmrak

And don't get the cheap, drug-store variety like Centrum... they're not only worthless, they contain toxic ingredients!

Besides the toxins, how are they worthless?

[KtotheB]

I'd recommend analyzing your diet first and then only adding the supplements you need. You can use nutridiary (google it) to analyze your diet for free.

I no longer take a multivitamin, just B12, Calcium, and Vit D.

good luck! xo

[scorpio1980]

I personally wouldn't take a multi vitamin pill, they on average have toxic ingredients, and because of the pill form actually our bodies absorb very little of the nutrients roughly 10% from my research. I don't take a multi I simply consume a high fruit and veggie diet through juicing, smoothies, and salads. Try to get your nutrients through food. The one exception is vitamin d, I could see taking a supplement for that, but I just take cod liver oil during the winter, and get a lot of sun the rest of the year, and my vitamin d levels are excellent.

[trevorturtle]

Can your body even successfully assimilate extracted isolated nutrients?

Who's looking out for your best interests? Nature or a profit based business?

Is it better to be focused on getting enough of x nutrient, or on avoiding foods that have low or no nutritional value?

Do you really believe a pill will make you healthier?

Instead of spending $40 a month a something made in a lab, you can use it to my more fresh (organic) produce.

[stanmrak]

Originally Posted by nietsdoen

Besides the toxins, how are they worthless?

Centrum multivitamins are known in hospital circles as "bedpan bullets" because they frequently pass thru the patient intact enough that you can still read the word "Centrum" on the side of the tablet. Obviously, very little, if anything, gets absorbed. Certain ingredients, I believe, are also known carcinogens... that's what you get when you buy "health" products from the pharmaceutical industry.

[stanmrak]

Here are the reasons I started taking supplements 33 years ago:

Number One Reason: Do you know where your food comes from? Not unless you know the grower, or grow your own!

Agricultural techniques used to increase crop yield have led to lower nutritional value in factory-farmed fruits and vegetables, anywhere from 5 to 40 percent lower in nutrients than those harvested 50 years ago.

Most crops are grown for maximum profit, not maximum nutritional content.

Currently, U.S. food processors are allowed to irradiate beef, eggs, poultry, oysters, fresh spinach, iceberg lettuce and spices, without having to reveal this information. The FDA maintains that irradiated foods are no different from non-irradiated foods, but the research doesn't back that up. Irradiation breaks up cell walls, destroys chromosomes, kills enzymes, and creates free radicals.

Bottom line…
for these and other reasons,
you can't be sure how many nutrients remain in the food you eat
by the time it gets to your table.

Number Two Reason: many very beneficial nutrients aren't always easily obtained from ordinary foods.
Lycopene, for example. While not considered "essential," lycopene has very potent cancer-fighting properties. But if you don't eat cooked tomatoes or watermelon every day, you aren't getting optimal amounts. Cooked tomatoes don't agree with me, so I would miss out if I didn't take a supplement instead.

Some powerful antioxidants, like coenzyme q-10 and lipoic acid, are manufactured in your body. However, as you age, production decreases, just when you need them the most. They aren't available in any food to any significant degree.

Some very valuable antioxidants, like resveratrol, pycnogenol, ginkgo, astaxanthin, silymarin, bilberry and others aren't available in most typical diets in sufficient quantities. It might require chewing a tablespoon of grape seeds, or drinking a gallon of red wine, a handful of nasty wild greens, or 8oz of salmon every day to get the benefits you could get from a few capsules.

Tumeric is incredibly beneficial, but are you going to eat curry every single day? Are you going to eat a couple of bulbs of garlic every day for its benefits, only to risk being a social outcast? I hate green tea, but I can get the essence of 3 cups in just one capsule of extract a day.

Try getting 400IU of vitamin E every day from your diet. 40 years of research have proven the benefits of such a dose, but you'd have to eat a pound of sunflower seeds or something else like that every day.

I could give more examples. There are many benefits to taking supplements in conjunction with a healthy diet, benefits that you won't, or can't, get any other way sometimes.

Skeptics who tell you otherwise haven't tried using supplements for 30 years like I have. The benefits may not be obvious right away, but I suggest you reserve your judgment for 30 years or so.

Two-thirds of Americans my age (60) are on regular medication for a chronic health condition; they fill an average of 12 prescriptions a year combined; seniors fill an average of 30 per year! I've never taken a single prescription drug yet.

I rest my case... and knock on wood.

[Seibiant]

I agree with those above who doubt the benefits of manufactured vitamins and mineral supplements, I've tried a few and got mixed results. I also suspect that today's food production leaves a lot to be desired. The best way I've found to supplement a healthy diet is to buy organic superfoods such as barley grass juice powder, spirulina and chlorella. These are basically just foods but they provide high levels of various nutrients each of which work synergistically to improve health and to detox the body. From my own experience I'd say this was the way to go.

(I know there is more than one thread on spirulina already on here somewhere)

[stevee]

A multivitamin is a preparation intended to supplement a human diet with vitamins, dietary minerals and other nutritional elements. Such preparations are available in the form of tablets, capsules, pastilles, powders, liquids and injectable formulations. Other than injectable formulations, which are only available and administered under medical supervision, multivitamins are recognized by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (the United Nations' authority on food standards) as a category of food.

[firenexx]

Too bad Codex Alimentarius commission is EVILLLLL.
(I know, do I have a source for that statement?)

Also, I personally would rather dose up on superfoods than a bunch of capsules.

A few words on vitamins -
Be sure that what you're getting is what you think you're getting. For instance, just because it says Vitamin X doesn't mean it's vitamin X. It could be a synthetic form that actually has an antagonistic relationship to Vitamin X in your body, that the FDA allows to be listed as vitamin X anyways, because "LOL SYNTHETIC VITAMINS ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN THEIR NATURAL FORMS."

For instance, if you are trying to supplement B12, and you are taking nutritional yeast or a cyanocobalamin capsule, you are ****ed. Had you done your homework, you'd be taking methylcobalamin, or just pulling carrots out of the ground and downing them. Whatever the vitamin, there is probably a huge controversy of synthetics, poor QC, weird regulations, and even inaccurate testing methods (What if it says 400% vitamin X but the company only puts in 0.2% vitamin X? You don't know unless it happens to be one of the brands that Consumer Reports did tests on. If you try to call the company out on it, they will say "Lol but we used the extremely accurate MacGillicuddy Radioassay and it showed 400%" and it may turn out that the MacGillicuddy Radioassay is the most innaccurate, inexpensive method out there for Vitamin X testing.)
In addition to the concern over whether the vitamins in there are (a) actually there, and (b) actually the form that your body uses, you also have to worry about the additives and what the capsule is actually made of. As we see with Centrum and other cheap multis, it seems that we'll put just about anything in it, because people like a cool-looking, pretty capsule that is also very cheap to manufacture.

So do your homework, and it's going to take you a long, long time. I've been reading peer-reviewed journals and [sourced] articles for a couple years and I've still only scratched the surface.

[Brutha]

Too bad Codex Alimentarius commission is EVILLLLL. [...]
Whatever the vitamin, there is probably a huge controversy of synthetics, poor QC, weird regulations, and even inaccurate testing methods (What if it says 400% vitamin X but the company only puts in 0.2% vitamin X? You don't know unless it happens to be one of the brands that Consumer Reports did tests on.

It's really interested how someone can argue in the same post that quality control of multi vitamins is evil and complain about low quality of the same vitamins.

In the EU we have a stronger regulation than the UN regulation and as a result companies have to put in 400% of vitamin X when they write it on the bottle.

It's interesting how the producers of low quality supplements manage to convince a lot of people in the alternative medicine sector that it's evil to regulate their supplements.

[firenexx]

It's really interested how someone can argue in the same post that quality control of multi vitamins is evil and complain about low quality of the same vitamins.

In the EU we have a stronger regulation than the UN regulation and as a result companies have to put in 400% of vitamin X when they write it on the bottle.

It's interesting how the producers of low quality supplements manage to convince a lot of people in the alternative medicine sector that it's evil to regulate their supplements.

Sorry, I was misleading. There are other things that Codex does that are not quite as valiant. I certainly have no problem with quality control of supplements, though.
(The other concerns about Codex seem to be related to their desire to "harmonize" food and nutrition legislation throughout the developed world for trade reasons. This in itself has its inherent dangers, but their idea of what this legislation should be is also not something that necessarily makes me happy.)

[BobbySox]

If I hadn't taken a MV pill daily for the last 20 years I would be a very sick person by now. Unbeknown to me I had small intestinal damage caused by undiagnosed gluten intolerance which meant I wasn't absorbing enough nutrients from the very healthy diet I was on. I continue to take a MV as it will take some years for my SI to heal on a gluten free diet.

Don't think you are not gluten intolerant. There are often no signs at all, yet your body is slowly being harmed by gluten. It is toxic to all of us.

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by BobbySox

Don't think you are not gluten intolerant. There are often no signs at all,
yet your body is slowly being harmed by gluten. It is toxic to all of us.

That negative suggestion can be harmful to other people, many of whom are not gluten intolerant.
Therefore, it is NOT "toxic to all of us."
iow, tho it is true for some, or even many, Be careful NOT to "generalize" it to most, or all.

That would not serve people well, & downright misleads.

Originally Posted by BobbySox

If I hadn't taken a MV pill daily for the last 20 years
I would be a very sick person by now.

I wasn't absorbing enough nutrients from the very healthy diet I was on.

If
you were not even absorbing enough nutrients from a healthy diet,
what made you think you could absorb enough nutrients from a MV-pill?

Not found in MV-pills, additional Supportive substances are in food...

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by trevorturtle

Instead of spending $40 a month a something made in a lab,
you can use it to buy more fresh (organic) produce.

And when fresh (organic) produce is not available, then what?

Originally Posted by trevorturtle

Who's looking out for your best interests? Nature or a profit based business?

Nature can only provide "nutrients", so long as they are
via Mountain-fed river-flooding replenished regularly. Otherwise,
the soil becomes increasingly mineral-depleted, until it is mineral-sterile,
which during the past 100 yrs. has been the case.
That is why we are wise to supplement our body with minerals & their supportive substances.

Originally Posted by trevorturtle

Can your body even successfully assimilate extracted isolated nutrients?

Yes, this has been proven, plus you can easily prove this to yourself via getting your own hematology tested: Highly recommended, so you know your own Health-status, for making adjustments.

Originally Posted by trevorturtle

Is it better to be focused on getting enough of x nutrient, or on avoiding foods that have low or no nutritional value?

Yes, do focus on getting enough... of the nutrients for Optimum health

[BobbySox]

sk8joyful....................Yes, somebody did feed me that line....................a dedicated gastroenterologist who has devoted his career to curing sick people that other doctors had failed completely. His motto is: Diet, not drugs. Amazingly it actually works if the condition is not irreversible. And sadly, most people are totally ignorant about the dangers of gluten. I also think that for anybody whose digestive system is not functioning properly, they would have to be rather stupid not to do their utmost to increase vitamin absorption and I don't think a qualified dietician would recommend I take them if they were of no use. Vitamin B12 for example, although malabsorbed from a damaged intestine, can be absorbed into the blood stream with sublingual drops or tablets.

Enlightened practitioners would actually like to see gluten banned completely. If you don't suffer from chronic conditions, please don't criticize when I am only trying to help others avoid the conditions that I now must live with, as well as those I've had to endure all my life due to gluten damage. I have so many intolerances caused by gluten damage, that my diet now consists only of meat, potatoes, rice and lima beans. I am virtually housebound as I cannot even tolerate airborne gluten which is everywhere.

It is tedious when somebody shoots me down in flames when I am speaking from experience. Since learning of my gluten intolerance, I have researched this condition thoroughly. I am not exaggerating when I say that gluten is toxic.

Statistics that say only 1 in 133 people are gluten intolerant are now believed to be well outdated and latest opinion states that it is more likely to be 1 in 7. Not everybody, but many more than originally assumed. Many people whose blood tests for GI have been negative, decide to go gluten free anyway, and find that their symptoms resolve.

Gluten: Hidden, toxic wheat protein allergen found in many products

jccglutenfree

Celiac Disease Symptoms | Gluten Free Works

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by BobbySox

sk8joyful
a dedicated gastroenterologist devoted his career to curing sick people: Diet, not drugs.
Amazingly it actually works if the condition is not irreversible.

A condition is generally irreversible,
when someone does not know what to do. Most of the time, it's a matter of knowing the efficacious process to take.

Diet, not drugs: along with Hypnosis & Endocrinology, in most instances can help people heal, so long as the person wants, & God doesn't call them home. - So that's 5 more factors whose INTER-play you might consider in the Healing context.

Originally Posted by BobbySox

It is tedious when somebody shoots me down in flames
when I am speaking from experience.

Sorry, not aware of anyone here who shot you, let alone down, & as a flame-thrower.
Those 3 emotional misperceptions are counterproductive to you healing, so change them posthaste

Like I already said in another of your comments,
I'm truly sorry that was your experience. But
what many people continue confusing...
is that association, & linkage is often NOT, the same as causation.

And marrying those 2 concepts erroneously together,
actually causes more problems, as people are finding out.

Originally Posted by BobbySox

I also think
I have so many intolerances caused by gluten damage,
that my diet now consists only of meat, potatoes, rice and lima beans.

MEAT? - depending on what kind, & how much daily -
you know MEAT is highly inflammatory! - iow, able to produce
1. Leaky-guts: preventing you Absorbing your nutrients.
&
2. dozens more sickly conditions, & their healing. Always more to learn right?

[janicelou]

of course!

i suggest you do some research. really make vitamin and mineral supplement a study for a week or two. There is so much information pointing to the benefits and power of supplementing your diet you will be overwhelmed.

[Clint Cora]

Even though I already have a very healthy, balanced diet, I take a multi, an extra C and an E daily. Cheap insurance in my mind and especially useful during travels.

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by janicelou

of course!

really make vitamin and mineral supplement a study for a week or two.
There is so much information pointing to the benefits and power
of supplementing your diet you will be overwhelmed.

Telling people to only make a 1-2 week Study of anything, especially supplements,
of course they would be left "overwhelmed", and
re how to beneficially Supplement, would still have barely a clue.

Better to suggest people also study Optimal body function for a year, or preferably more.

[thomaspetrick]

Multivitamin supplements can be a good way to get the vitamins you need, especially if your own diet doesn't give you all the nutrients. Most multivitamin supplements also include minerals.

[thirdwar]

Most vitamins in multi-vitamins, or even standalone vitamins, aren't absorbed by your body.

For example, most calcium tablets might be made out of ground up shell fish shells. Now, technically speaking, shell fish shells ARE calcium, so when you take these tablets, you ARE ingesting calcium. BUT, were our bodies designed to naturally eat shell fish shells? No. So when we take in these calcium tablets, our body doesn't know what to do with them, so it can't absorb the calcium. On the contrary, studies are now revealing that calcium supplements are actually fatal to your heart.

I'd recommend eating healthy first off, as this is where the most vital nutrients come from. Try and go organic if you're budget allows you to do so. Also, search for "Spirulina" and "Chlorella", these are superfoods that have massive amounts of nutrients, and are basically a nature-made multi-vitamin.

[sk8joyful]

oh boy

Originally Posted by thirdwar

Most vitamins in multi-vitamins, or even standalone vitamins, aren't absorbed by your body.

For example, most calcium tablets

um, CALCIUM is, not a vitamin, but in fact an essential MINERAL

Originally Posted by thirdwar

Technically speaking, shell fish shells are calcium, so when you take these tablets, you ARE ingesting calcium. BUT,
when we take in these calcium tablets, our body doesn't know what to do with them, so it can't absorb the calcium.

The reason Calcium concentrates in places it doesn't belong, is it's Not in the form, our body can absorb as this huge molecule.
When Calcium is citrated over 30% of it can be absorbed; which is why you are advised to take so much.

Originally Posted by thirdwar

On the contrary, studies are now revealing that calcium supplements are actually fatal to your heart.

So that not more errors are spawned, Please get the facts straight.

Originally Posted by thirdwar

I'd recommend eating healthy first off, as this is where the most vital nutrients come from.
Try and go organic if you're budget allows you to do so.

Start by studying what 'health', especially Optimal-health is.

Next do you know? what has gone missing in the past 100 yrs.
in Organic-soils, & how to make up the difference.

Then become aware of the fact that in many instances, the body CAN'T tell the difference,
between an (organic chemical), & a (manufactured chemical) for instance when substances are structurally identical

Originally Posted by thirdwar

Also search for Spirulina and Chlorella, these are superfoods
that have massive amounts of nutrients, and are basically a nature-made multi-vitamin.

The only thing 'massive' in that statement, is the amount of Marketing hype, people swallow.
Factually those supposed 'super' foods contain TINY-amounts of a few nutrients.

But the general public is easily hoodwinked & misled, because companies know they didn't learn what's UP,
either from their parents, nor the public schools, nor their doctors. -
Most medical doctors are frightfully ignorant when it comes to Nutritional biochemistry, etc.
why?
Increasingly doctors have turned, to serving as mostly "pharmaceutical-Reps for drug-companies".
.

[36burrows]

I also take a variety of supplements especially for the digestive system. But a good multi-vitamin will do wonders for your all around health. You should do some research though because of companies really do make crap supplements only because they're trying to save money by purchasing their ingredients from the cheapest sources possible.

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by 36burrows

a good multi-vitamin will do wonders for your all around health.

You should do some research though, companies really do make crap supplements, only because they're trying to save money by purchasing their ingredients from the cheapest sources possible.

Always buy Supplements from a GMP-company. Why?

Because the FDA requires it by law. So those companies
refusing to comply, risk being shut down, justifiably.

Buy from Good Manufacturing Processes

[36burrows]

Originally Posted by sk8joyful

Always buy Supplements from a GMP-company. Why?

Because the FDA requires it by law. So those companies
refusing to comply, risk being shut down, justifiably.

Buy from Good Manufacturing Processes

You can still put out crap cheap supplements while still complying with the FDA's regulations.

The FDA is a joke really, they don't give a damn about you or me.

Here's the one of the best multi-vitamins I've been using from a company that truly does follow GMP and uses top quality ingredients:

Essential Multiple Daily Multi-Vitamin

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by 36burrows

You can still put out crap cheap supplements while still complying with the FDA's regulations.
The FDA is a joke really, they don't give a damn about you or me.

More people are becoming aware of that.

Originally Posted by 36burrows

a company that truly does follow GMP and uses top quality ingredients:
Essential Multiple Daily Multi-Vitamin

Lessee:
First off, a man weighing 200 lbs. needs different amounts of Supplements, than a woman weighing 100 lbs, you realize?

2. Encapsulating, you won't need all those other ingredients, to get everything to stick together, you realize?

3. what's the source of the Fish-oil?

Calcium-Magnesium ratio is off, & both are woefully low for needs across the Lifespan.

the D, E, Niacinamide amounts are too low to assist the other various functions.

Why not disclose the amino-acid 'chelate' used?

Carotenes mentioned are normally written as mgs., not IU's.

About 10 other mentions could be made; but other than that, it's a pretty fair Supplement.