Do multivitamins work? Are
multivitamins just a waste of money? This is an ongoing question, and the
answers seem to change with the ebb and flow of supplement and wellness
marketing trends. I have broken down some of the basic questions around multivitamins
that I receive, and provided information to help make more informed decisions
when choosing whether or not to take them.

Are Multivitamins Necessary?

It depends on who you ask. The nutritional supplement industry,
with it’s roughly $60-billion in US sales alone, will respond with a
resounding “yes!” However, if you start asking the experts, you
might find a different answer. More and more doctors are acknowledging that
extracting (a.k.a. isolating) a single nutrient or vitamin and putting it
into a pill may not be the best way to deliver the nutrition to our bodies.
 “We believe
that the case is closed — supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults
with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might
even be harmful,” concluded the authors of an
editorial summarizing the new research papers, published Dec. 16, 2013
in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “These vitamins should not be used for
chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough.” They went on to urge consumers
to not “waste” their money on multivitamins. Further research on this subject
revealed to me many doctors and experts making similar
statements. Read More