The Reason You Should Supplement Your Meal with Multivitamins


Many people take a multi-vitamin every day to help them achieve optimal health, however should everyone take a multi-vitamin? What does the science say about the benefits of taking a multi-vitamin? This article should help you answer those questions for yourself.

While the availability of food has increased dramatically, the modern western diet and lifestyle still leaves many people with inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals for health maintenance. Processed foods are a large part of the typical western diet and it is well established that these foods while often higher in calories, are lower in nutritional quality. If processed foods are a big part of your diet, then it is likely that you are deficient in more than one vital nutrient.

Those people that do their best to eat a well-rounded, whole foods diet, high in a variety of fruits and vegetables and low in processed foods should be able to achieve nutrient adequacy.  However, other challenges still exist even with a healthy diet. The medium in which a plant is grown has a significant effect on the nutrient content of those plants. Monocropping and hydroponics (growing plants using water and mineral nutrient solution instead of soil) have changed the amount of nutrients that are available in agriculture. There is a large variety in the nutrients that are found between different growing strategies which makes it hard to know if you are getting adequate amounts of vital nutrients.

One should also consider that the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) were established to meet the needs of the majority of the healthy population. Thus, those individuals who may have chronic illness, digestive disorders, are extremely physically active or are taller and larger than the average person may require a greater intake of vitamins and minerals then the RDAs.

Someone’s age should also be considered in the decision to take a multi-vitamin or not. A study done in 2007 in the US reported that the addition of a multivitamin and mineral supplement significantly increased the proportion of 45-75-year-old participants who achieved nutrient adequacy. As you age not only does appetite and caloric intake diminish but the body’s ability to digest and extract vitamins and minerals from the food we do eat diminishes. Thus, as one ages it may be necessary to supplement with a multi-vitamin to help overcome these obstacles to nutrient adequacy.

A double bind placebo controlled trial involving healthy female subjects from 25-50 years of age, underwent cognitive function, mood and fatigue testing while they completed a multi-tasking activity. They were then allocated to a placebo or a multi-vitamin group for 9 weeks before they were re-assessed. Those in the multi-vitamin group exhibited improvements in accuracy and speed on all tasks, while minimizing feelings of fatigue and negative mood. The study concluded that even healthy people may benefit from vitamin and mineral supplementation.

While multi-vitamins generally appear to provide some health benefits, they should always remain a supplement to a healthy well rounded diet and not a replacement.



Sources:
Haskell CF et al. Effects of a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement on cognitive function and fatigue during extended multi-tasking. Hum Psychopharmacol. 2010 Aug;25(6):448-61.
Datta M, Vitolins MZ. Food Fortification and Supplement Use-Are There Health Implications? Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2016 Oct 2;56(13):2149-59.

<Written by David Health Research Centre>

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