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HOLISTIC STR ATEGIES TO HELP YOU FEEL BET TER
10 Multivitamin Myths 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.
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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 (B12 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
• MAY 2019
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