Do we need a multivitamin?

What is a multivitamin?

'Multivitamin' is a blanket term to refer to any supplement, usually in a pill or tablet form, that provides essential vitamins or minerals. The majority of essential vitamins and minerals are in most multivitamins, in varying dosages.

They are normally used to 'cover all the bases' when it comes to supplementation of vitamins and minerals.

Who needs a multivitamin?

A multivitamin tends to be a good idea if:

• You are at risk for several nutrient deficiencies and your diet cannot otherwise be modified

• The multivitamin provides adequate dosages to cover the deficiency risk

• The multivitamin is a better purchasing option than the nutrients by themselves

Theoretically, multivitamins would provide more overall benefit to people with a lower income, who are financially unable to buy a wide variety of foods. Ironically, this group is the least likely to consume multivitamins.

Multivitamins can also be recommended to pregnant women, due to their increased need for folic acid, which is important for fetal development, and to reduce complications associated with pregnancy in general, elderly people can also benefit from multivitamins, as they tend to be at a higher risk for nutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin B12.

Healthy or dangerous?

Neither, really.

There is insufficient evidence to suggest a multivitamin is associated with less risk of cancer and disease, and this holds true when investigating the most popular compounds in multivitamins, the anti-oxidants.

Although nutrients in multivitamins may confer benefits when used for a specific purpose, (as some studies note high variability, suggesting some people benefit and others do not, the idea of taking a pill that contains all of the vitamins and minerals to better one's health does not appear to be supported by the literature. However, it does not appear to be significantly harmful either.

Why should we take it?

Unfortunately we are not getting enough from the food we consume in todays world, most people’s diets are deficient in many vitamins and minerals and even those who consume a good healthy diet still do not get enough due to the way the food is now being grown, full of herbicides and pesticides.

Can I just get any multivitamin?

Like anything in life, you get what you pay for! I would suggest to buy from a good source, good companies to buy from are Solgar, Nutri and Lamberts, stay away from the high street shops and supermarkets.

#changiglives

Ref: some of this information was taken from examine.com