Better Nutrition May 2019

naturalREMEDY/HOLISTIC STRATEGIES TO HELP YOU FEEL BETTER
10 Multivitamin M yths Busted
We cut through the misinformation surrounding this dietary
supplement staple /// BY VERA TWEED
The multivitamin is the most popular
type of supplement, most often taken for
overall health and wellness. Nevertheless,
myths about multivitamins persist and
can reduce the effectiveness of these
foundational supplements—or even
discourage you from taking them. Here
are the facts:
1. A healthy diet will provide
all the essential nutrients.
While a perfect diet could theoretically
provide adequate nutrients, it rarely
exists in the real world. In fact, large
U.S. government surveys show that
deficiencies are much more common
among people who take no supplements.
A study of more than 10,000 American
adults, published in The Journal of Family
Practice, compared nutritional shortfalls
among people who took no supplements
and those who took a multivitamin
on most days. Among the differences,
those who took no supplements were:
*
*
*
24 times more likely to lack vitamin D
8 times more likely to lack vitamin E
At least twice as likely to lack vitamins
A, C, and K, and magnesium
Vitamin D is essential for
bone health. Vitamin E protects
against DNA damage.
Vitamins A, C, and K are
necessary for healthy
vision, immunity,
and heart health.
And magnesium
is a key
component
of more than
300 internal
functions in
the human
body.
Another large study of American
adults found that those who took
multivitamins at least 21 days per month
had virtually no deficiencies in 14 of 17
essential nutrients examined. The three
exceptions were vitamin D, calcium,
and magnesium—multivitamins
aren’t designed to provide the full
daily requirements of these nutrients.
In contrast, there were significant
deficiencies in about a dozen of the
nutrients tested among people
who took no supplements.
2. You only need to take a
multivitamin if your energy sags
or you feel under the weather.
Quite the contrary. Studies show that
taking a multivitamin every day—or at
least on most days—provides the most
benefit. Yet, when researchers asked
more than 5,000 multivitamin users
how often they took the supplements,
only one in five took their multis at
least 21 days each month.
Healthy Tip!
For more information
about the importance
of multivitamins, go to
betternutrition.com and
search for “The Surprising
Health Benefits of
Multivitamins.”
3. If you miss a day, you should
double the dose the next day.
The human body does not store most B
vitamins (B 12
is an exception), vitamin
C, and zinc, yet it needs them every day.
If a double dose contains more than you
can absorb, the excess will be excreted,
so it doesn’t compensate. Other vitamins
and minerals can be stored, but it
makes more sense to take them daily.
4. It doesn’t matter if you take a
multivitamin with or without food.
Nutrients that are water-soluble,
such as B vitamins and vitamin C,
are absorbed without food. But
fat-soluble ones, such as vitamins
A, D, E, and K, need to be taken with
some fatty food to be properly absorbed.
Since a multivitamin contains both
types, always take it with food that
contains some fat. In addition, when
taken on an empty stomach, supplements
can produce digestive discomfort.
5. It’s especially important
to start taking a multivitamin
if you get pregnant.
While this is true, it’s a myth that you
can wait until after discovering that
you’re pregnant. Lack of folic
acid can lead to neural tube
defects, in the brain and
spine, which develop
in the first month of
pregnancy—before
many women
even know that
they’re pregnant.
Any woman
of child-bearing
age should
get 400 mg
of folic acid
daily—an
20 • MAY 2019