Buy Walking VideosShould I take a vitamin “just in case?”
If you are eating a healthy diet and following the USDA’s food pyramid, do you need to take a vitamin and mineral supplement? Some organizations say you should, while others say you don’t need to. Who is right? Is it better to just take one “just in caseĀ?” The following article is a very detailed examination of the issue.
Vitamin Supplementation Who Needs What? By Matthew Johnson
This article is provided by the Ortogo Healthy Lifestyle website (a vitamin supplement company), so the information may be weighted toward the use of vitamins. The information provided, however, states the recommendations from many health organizations and is a good basis for information on the issues.
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December 24th, 2004 at 8:30 am
There’s another interesting question lurking in the background when discussing whether or not a daily multivitamin is a good idea. What of all the food products now that contain vitamin supplements? I’m a regular consumer of the Snapple A Day products (90 cals, lots of nutrients – I use it instead of breakfast) and have also been drinking the Minute Maid Kids+ orange juice for some time. Have you seen anything that covers the possibility of overdoing nutrient intake by using such supplemented products?
December 29th, 2004 at 1:16 pm
The real question is what are you doing following the USDA’s food pyramid. Try reading some books like Eat, Drink and Be Healthy by Walter W Willet from the Harvard Medical School.
January 9th, 2005 at 11:52 am
Interesting to see the article posted here, it is always fun when that happens. I am the author of the supplementation article above and can maybe help clarify some points made here.
1) Ortogo is not a vitamin supplement company per se. Yes we do sell them but we don’t manufacture any of them we pick the best (in my opinion) and supply those to our customers helping them make a good decision.
2) Sinistar, overdosing on any particular micronutrient is possible, but highly unlikely. The most common micronutrients to watch out for are the fat soluble vitamins like vit. E or Vit. A, though there are studies with people taking extremeley large amounts of these nutrients and having no problems. Still it is always smart to have a yearly full panel blood test to watch out for high intakes. The most common problems are actually in small children and overdosing on iron, which can kill them. Again I want to stress that everyone is unique and that the statistics only show trends for an individual to know if they are high is one miconutrient or another they should have a full panel blood test done.
3) The added micronutrients in most of the food products people buy have very low bioavailability, and many actually do not contain what they say (hence the reason Ortogo only provides top quality supplements) for actual independant testing I would recommend checking out Consumerlab.com (of which I am not affiliated with in any way but they provide good information) or contact the company and ask them for lab results on there products. If they are a good company they will supply them to you free of cost. Remember that the government does not check for purity on supplements.
3)I agree with Timeflys the USDA guidelines are grossly outdated and very politically charged (the high dairy recommendation for example when many people especially Asians are lactose intolerant). the basics of eating a healthy diet are posted here on Ortogo for general guidelines. http://www.ortogo.com/php/explore/nutrition/build_art.php?35
Hope that helps
Matt