Recently my friend N joined a gym. As part of his new gym experience, he got a meet-n-greet with a personal trainer. This gym, being of the swanky variety, offered him something better than a New Gym Smell car freshener. (No, I’ve never heard of those being offered but can you imagine how motivating that would be if every time you got in your car you smelled B.O., rubber and Head & Shoulders?) No, N’s personal trainer-for-a-day started him out with a standard spiel and then worked into recommendations that went something similar to this (I say “similar” because I wasn’t there and also I enjoy making up dialog for people.):
Personal Trainer: So if you really want to see a difference you need to take a really good multi-vitamin, some quality fish oils, a solid protein powder, some creatine…
N: Wait, wait, do you sell all this stuff?
PT: Of course! We have an excellent line of supplements!
N: Well, I have a problem taking supplement advice from people who sell them.
PT: Wha…? Why?
N: It’s called a conflict of interest.
PT: You are no fun.
So then N did what any reasonable person would do – he asked me for advice. Because I am a good friend and because I delight in giving opinions on things which are not in my area of expertise (which is apparently obsolete computer skills), I gave him my best answer: “I don’t know.”
To Supplement or Not To Supplement
That is the question. And it’s a valid one. Long touted as a way to fill in the “gaps” in one’s nutrition, multi-vitamins and other supplements have been pushed on every demographic imaginable. Prenatal vitamins alone sell millions of pills a year. And for pregnant and lactating women, the advice is supported by research. But what about the rest of us who either don’t have a uterus or aren’t using it except for chocolate cravings every 28 days?
This is where it the research gets mixed. Individual vitamins have been studied and found to have many positive effects but it is nearly impossible to isolate the vitamin from the food that delivers it and from the interactions with other substances and/or lifestyle issues in human beings. Take vitamin E for instance. For years it could do no wrong and was touted as a wonder “nutraceutical” for everything from scar tissue to high blood pressure. People were encouraged to eat more almonds, yes, but also to pop thousands of milligrams a day in pills. The vitamin E bubble popped when researchers showed that excessive amounts of the vitamin actually increased mortality from all causes, by up to 20%.
The news about multi-vitamins is similarly disturbing. Researchers in Copenhagen found that in a meta-analysis of several large vitamin studies, taking a multi actually increased the risk of an early death. Critics, notably those in the supplement industry, have called the study flawed and warn that people who do not get adequate nutrients from their diets need to supplement for good health.
To further muddy the waters, some vitamins seem to really have a positive effect. Fish oil’s life-lengthening properties, for example, have been born out in several studies. And vitamin D, like I have discussed before, while it has not been shown to necessarily increase life span, a deficiency has been shown to decrease it thereby throwing it in many people’s minds into the “better too much than too little” category.
For me, the fundamental question in all of this is: Is it possible to get all the vitamins and minerals your body needs to be healthy from a balanced diet? Surely not even the most enthusiastic vitamin-peddler would say that a vitamin could make up for the ill effects of subsisting on junk food and watching back-to-back marathons of The Real World. But what about those of us that eat healthy most of the time? Is it enough?
Anecdotal Evidence
Last June when I decided to stop taking Wellbutrin I also decided that I was done with pills altogether and quit taking my multi, calcium, fish oil, and vitamin C at the same time. What happened? Nothing. Of course I am a healthy eater most of the time. And, also, 6 months might not have been a long enough experiment. I know that I liked not having to take a fistful of pills every day. However, I also know that I am still in my fertile years and spina bifida is not pretty. And so I’m now taking a multi again.
In the past I have experimented with almost every supplement out there. I’ve done L-Carnitine (which works for some people), CLA, all the B vitamins, creatine, protein powder, Bragg’s amino acids and many others in addition to the standard ones. Nothing has ever made a noticeable difference in my health. And yet because I didn’t notice anything doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t helping on some cellular level, right?
It is in the midst of this confusion that the supplement industry has stepped in. I think that they take advantage of our uncertainty and the lack of definitive research and then play off of our worst fears. The net result is spending a lot of money on things that we probably don’t need and may possibly be hurting us.
Unless they’re helping us.
PS> N – “chelated” in reference to vitamins apparently means firmly bonded to some other compound. Is that a good thing? According to this expert, “For some minerals, a chelated compound is better than some other forms. For some it is similar or worse and therefore a waste of money.” So, yeah, there you go.
So what’s your opinion on vitamins? Do you take anything? If not, what would your “Gym Smell Car Freshner” smell like?
Oy.
I take a multi and calcium. I never know what’s good or bad, aside from the obvious (like, a steady diet of Krispy Kremes will, most likely, put one in a coma), and I try to stay away from stuff that scares me (creatine falls into this category).
Bascically, I listen to my instincts, try to eat healthy food, and attempt moderation.
My doctor told me to take calcium/magnesium for my cramps. I dunno if they help my cramps, but my nails sure do look nice.
I started taking fish oil to see if it would help with my skin. I think it has a little, but the real change is with my mood. My mood swings have almost completely vanished, it’s amazing. I didn’t know the fish oil would do that, so it’s not the placebo effect either. It’s really helped.
I take Glu-Chon-MSM to help with joint cartilage, which I do believe has made a difference. I have increased my running a lot over the past few months and have noticed a decrease in knee pain right when I started taking the pills regularly.
I have also been taking cranberry extract since I have been deployed (since straight cranberry juice is no longer available when I feel a possible UTI coming on). I haven’t had a UTI or any other problems in 2 months.
Otherwise, I try to stay away from pills in general. They just seem scary, all the conflicting research and questioning whether your body can handle too much of something? I eat a varied diet and pay attention to how I feel.
I take a multi-vitamin, calcium (I do not do dairy), and fish oil. I’ve taken the vitamins for ages.. while I don’t know if they help, I DO know that I get fewer colds and infections when I’m taking them. And I feel healthy.
The fish oil helps with my moods, and supposedly helps prevent heart disease. You can’t prove a negative, though, so how do I know?
I think you should tell your friend to not use supplements until he finds he has a need for them.
When I wanted to lose weight and keep muscle, i was directed to a high-protein diet and only then started taking protein powder.
I tracked my nutrient intake for a while and found out i got too little calcium and iron every day, so now i supplement those too. Especially the iron makes a world of difference. Multivitamins we only use after a night of drinking 😉
A few months ago, I started taking a multivitamin with probiotic, fish oil, calcium, coenzyme q10 and a skin, hair and nails pill. I’m thinking about phasing out the last two and continuing the first three. I’ve noticed fantastic things from the calcium and fish oil pills, and I haven’t gotten sick in months, whereas before taking my vitamin regime, I would come down with every cold or flu that reared its ugly head. So far, vitamins are really working for me.
I only take a multi, tums for extra calcium (as waste of money Im sure) and vit C.
ohh and can we count the flax for the omegas? I do that.
For me it’s a little of ‘if I started taking vitamins it would become a HUGE STASH and there is time enough for that when Im elderly” 🙂 with a dollop of “right now Im not motivated enough to do it”
that said, Im open to suggestions from wiseworkoutwomen.
you have my email 🙂
I’ve been taking vitamin B (pyroxidine) for several months now, having started when I was having a depressive episode last winter – that along with some EFAs did seem to help a lot. I’ve cut back on the B dose, and can’t really stomach the fish oil (or even the flax capsules – seriously I get fish burps from them too)…
I take vitamin C from about October to May, along with vitamin D (I live in Newfoundland, so hoping this helps with SAD stuff). I nix both in the spring/summer as produce is more available and cheaper, and I do lots of outdoorsy stuff.
Oh, and even though I have no plans on using my uterus for babies, I take a folic acid most days just in case. That’s a fistful of inidividual vitamins, but I haven’t been able to find a multi that has everything I want in it…
“But what about the rest of us who either don’t have a uterus or aren’t using it except for chocolate cravings every 28 days?”
This sentence made me spit my Greens+ on the computer screen 🙂
Okay. If I had payed better attention in medical biochemistry, I could have a much better answer for you. Sadly (since I loved real biochem), that class was so boring it put me to sleep every day. But there was a section on vitamins.
I try to remember to take a multi and folic acid everyday, but only manage to about 3 – 4 times a week. I did ask my Dr what I needed to take, and she told me that with a balanced diet, I didn’t need to worry about taking one at all. You mostly just pee it out anyway!
I do eat a lot of Tums everyday (no hoorays for chronic heartburn) and get lots of dairy, so I’m not worried about calcium. I was taking a B supplement for awhile, and I really do think it increased my energy, but that may have just been the placebo effect!
I the the multi, calcium, Vitamin C, fish oil, iron when my uterus wants chocolate, and echinacea and zinc if I feel like I’m starting to come down with something.
It’s about 4-pills a day.
Good post!
I take a Calcium twice per day. I add flax to my cereal and cod liver oil(yes, the oil, not a pill) to my waffles, pancakes or oatmeal.
That’s all! My step-dad takes like 20 vitamins per day. It’s insane!
My belief is that you CAN get just about everything from your diet, but depending on where you live supplements are okay(amount of daylight, temp).
More important than the study results are the motivation for the particular study. A pharmaceutical company for example, may have its own reasons for skewing a study in a particular way. A pharmaceutical is going to make less money on a blood pressure drug if people are turning to vitamins and minerals. It’s all a little…much, I know.
The Vitamin E study has been proven faulty as only one of eight types of E were used, and a full spectrum is needed for optimum health, in addition to other issues. Not all studies are as they appear.
http://www.naturalproductsassoc.org/site/DocServer/healthnotes.pdf?docID=302
Also, you CAN get everything you need from your diet, if you know where your food comes from. This means food as food is naturally intended…grass fed beef, free range chicken, organic produce, whole grains, etc.
Not enough of us do this. Supplements can help.
No, I don’t work for any kind of supplement company, just a concerned citizen with an amazing mentor.
One of the many reasons exercise is important, is that it allows you to eat more in order to get your sufficient nutrition from the volumn of food you must est. In my opinion, without doing this, unless you are an expert with CRON, it’s difficult with our changed nutritive environment. So yes I believe you can get everything you need without supplements. Also, as Charlotte “says”, some good stuff does not make up for the bad stuff you eat. That said, I do take supplements.
I take a high potency, no iron, Solgar multi. Vit. C and E. Selenium, Alpha Lipoic Acid, and Chromium.
There are some supplements that women can take that are questionable for men, such as calcium, and vice versa.
Like Charlotte, I don’t know if they really make a difference, but I guess at this time I feel they “do no harm.”
I honestly have no idea. :o( I wish I did know, I’ve tried Berocca (a soluble effervescent multi-vitamin), I’ve tried taking lots of tablets, I’ve tried liquid supplements, but I knestly don’t know if any of them are any good.
I went to donate blood a while back and I was told that my iron levels were low, so I took a tablet for a few months and then went to try again, as the nurse was taking a sample she asked if I’d been increasing my iron and I mentioned the tablets. She shook her head and said “oh that will just give us a false red blood cell reading now!” She told me to go away again and try a natural liquid iron supplement, like spatone or Galfer. If I could remember to take it every day then I might actually have a conclusion to this rambling tale…. :o)
I swear by magnesium (with chelated zinc) to keep my skin clear and help my nystagmus…I know the magnesium helps the nystagmus, but I’m not sure it’s “supposed” to help my skin…who knows! I sure don’t.
My air freshener would smell like fall (a mixture of leaves, rain, fabric softener and fire), the nicest weather for exercising outside!
I didn’t take vitamins for the longest time because every time I’d look at the nutritional info, it would be 400% of this, 500% of that. Now, they do that on the water soluble vitamins (which wash out every night), but still, I don’t see how it can possibly seem necessary to get more than we need in a day. So I didn’t take vitamins until I found a chewable (I hate pills) Centrum that doesn’t have more than 100% of anything.
I also take a chewable omega 3 and calcium supplement and I add flax oil to my protein shakes.
Vitamin D is very hard to get from diet. Most of the D we get comes from sunlight, and in the winter, many of us have a deficit (or in the summer, if you’re wearing sunscreen). I agree with whoever posted that people who aren’t exercising and eating enough of healthy foods are probably not rounding out their vitamin spectrum.
I take a boatload of really nasty medications for an autoimmune disease, many of these are known to deplete certain vitamins and minerals, so I take a Multi.
In addition to the multi, I take a fish oil supplement and 2000 IU Vitamin D a day (prescribed by my Dr). Surprisingly, the Vitamin D has really helped my autoimmune issues. I guess all that research was right.
On top of that I take a B-12 shot once a month (also prescribed by my Dr). I feel like a superhero the day after that bad boy. 🙂
Before my body decided it hated me, I didn’t take any supplements, and I was typically pretty healthy. So, I don’t really know if the average person benefits from multis or not.
My way of thinking is: if humans survived up until now with good quality of life without taking supplements, and I’m eating mostly natural foods and not eating much of the processed junk that they never ate, then I have no need to supplement my diet.
For people with diseases and pregnant women etc, then I think that supplements should be considered. Maybe when people get older they should consider a multivitamin or something. But for ordinary, healthy people? I don’t like the idea much. It seems like a money trap to me BECAUSE we don’t know what it will do, really… and you can’t count on the benefits being from one specific vitamin. The benefits come from the combination and amounts within different foods.
Besides, eating food is much more enjoyable than popping pills!
I take a multi-vitamin once a day, just cause I don’t eat the daily intake of veggie, fruit, dairy, bread, etc. that they say you should.
1) I can’t afford it.
2) Who has the time?? Seriously!
When I was training this weekend for TurboKick, P-to-the-U!! I was among sweaty bodies for hours. YUK! I would not recommend that air freshener!! I’ll go with the fall/leaves/fire freshener.
See you at the gym!! 🙂
My parents are HUGE supplement heads and have these vials full of pills they take at each lunch and dinner, have for years. They’re definitely healthier than the norm for their ages, so… good for them. They fed me handfuls of pills myself when I was younger, and it’s probably a good thing, because I pretty much only ate things if they were out of a can or a box.
In adulthood, I have tried to do the multivitamin and calcium thing, but I always “forgot” because, well, vitamins are yucky. The centrum chewables I tried tasted like burnt rubber. For the last year though, I’ve been taking the costco gummy chewable kids multi and calcium. Yes, I probably just disgusted a lot of you out there but they work for me. I look forward to taking them, it’s a 30 calorie sweet I can have every day (which can sometime save me from wanting desert). Since I normally eat pretty healthy, it’s just a little boost to help me up to the levels I should be at, not 50000% of what I need.
Of course it also depends on the type of vitamin. To keep this from being free advertising, I usually take supplements that are food derived and have extra herb blends specific to whatever formula ie preggers, women, men etc. I really like them because they are the first vitamin that doesn’t make me feel like I’ve just swallowed a rock.
personal trainers that are certified arent allowed to recommend supplements- its against the certification’s code of ethics. throw THAT in their face
Kelly Turner
http://www.groundedfitness.com
I don’t take anything. I’m generally pretty healthy except for the occassional cold/stomach flu. I am, however, always tired. I used to think it was because I didn’t really exercise, but for the last year, I exercise a lot and haven’t seen a change. I still need to take a nap every day or I can’t function. Any ideas on what I might be missing???
Right now I’m taking anything because I had to move them out of my kitchen (because my 2-year-old climbed up on a chair, got in the top shelf of the cabinet, and had one of my multis in his mouth – I thought they were safe that high), and I keep forgetting. But I do usually take a multi (might be making more babies someday), and a fish oil. I tried extra B’s, as I’d heard they helped with depression, and felt nothing.
I eat very little meat (usually), and have always had trouble with my iron levels, so I feel I need a little boost there, and I do worry about my calcium, but I’m not sure we need as much as is recommended if we’re getting good exercise.
I do have a tendency to think that if one vitamin is good for me, then maybe taking 20 a day (different ones)would be better, so I have to be careful. Oh, and I give my boys a chewable multi (my 2-year-old’s iron levels were low) and a “green food” chewable, which I think is probably worthless.
I take a food-based multi (because our bodies absorb vitamins better when they come from food, so I figure a food-based multi is a good compromise) and a liquid form of Vitamin B, both on the advice of my (holistic) doctor.
Theoretically, it’s possible to get all your nutrients from food, but even if you’re eating organic, grass-fed, free-range, blah, blah, blah, you’d have to know how long it had been since the soil “went” organic.
Because of all the pesticides and other nasty things, a lot of our soil in the US is depleted. So you can eat organic food, but if it’s grown in soil that was being “pesticide-ed” just a couple of years ago, that soil is STILL depleted, and your fruits and veggies don’t contain all the vitamins they should.
On the other hand, if you know your stuff comes from a farm that’s been organic, pesticide-free, etc. for the last 10 or 20 years, you’re probably ok.
Me? I buy my food at the farmer’s markets, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Since I don’t know the condition of the soil, I take a multi. Just in case.
Vitamins have always made me queasy (yes, even if I take them at night); and I’m done having kids, so I’m not looking for the big guns of a prenatal multi. I just take my kids’ Costco chewable dinosaurs which have the added benefit of tasting like a Sweet-Tart.
aboyn, have you ever had your iron levels checked? I think I’ve heard that anemia can result in fatigue. If you eat red meat, try adding some to your diet, or eating spinach. But more than that, I’d say to check with your doctor. Are you getting enough sleep at night?
I don't take any vitamins regularly and I am one of the healthiest people I know. Maybe not the fittest, but healthy. A lot of that is due to my vegetarian diet & regular meditation.
Also whenever I feel something coming on I take high doses of C. Works every time. I haven't had a cold in probably over 5 years and I cannot remember the last time I had the flu.
Great post!
I swear by liquid fish oil. It keeps my hair, skin and nails in great condition, so I can only imagine what good things it’s doing to my insides. Multis? Not so much. The fish oil and a green powder supplement in protein shakes keeps me healthy enough…
I’ve been lurking for months, but wanted to let you know that I love reading about your exploits!
Your friend N is a rock star. Love the “conflict of interest” comeback…I will totally steal that one.
Personally, I loathe, loathe, loathe taking pills. My husband has to practically wrestle me to the ground to take a pain reliever if I get a headache.
That being said, I will NOT go a day without my fish oil.
About a year and a half ago, I started noticing slight pains in the joints of my hands. After reading about the benefits of Omega-3, I plunked down my money and started sucking up the capsules.
The results? The pain substantially decreased over the course of a week, and if I miss a couple of days, I can feel it creeping back.
I’m a complete and utter convert (at least on the fish oil) and tell everyone I know who even mentions the possibility of arthritis.
Also, I in no way, shape or form sell, produce or endorse any particular omega-3 capsules … I just really, really believe in them.
I am a late poster!
I take a multivitamin in the am with something that also has calcium (usually my yogurt) to aid in absorption. I take an iron pill in the evening with a small glass of juice (with lots of vitamin C). I guess iron doesn’t absorb well with calcium. I forgot to take my iron for a little while and my nails definitely suffered–I got bumps on my thumbs and I was tired a lot. One day, I realized–oh yeah, haven’t been taking my iron! 3 weeks later, not tired anymore and the bumps are growing out with my nails.
I’m also a vegetarian and eat very healthy foods, but I think I’ve always had low iron. When I started running a lot around the time I went veggie in college, I really needed the extra iron.
Anyway, while it’s true that we’ve survived many years without supplements–we also never lived this long before. This can be attributed to many things and a healthier, balanced diet may be one–but some bodies may need more of certain vitamins.
It seems the conclusion on the blog is to trust your body’s responses.
I think vitamins, unless you really have a deficiency (and maybe even then) just give you expensive peepee. I eat lots of nutrient dense food, never get sick, don’t bother with flu shots, just don’t worry about it.
And as for the soil being depleted of nutrients unless it’s been organic for a long time, I don’t think it works like that. Obviously, if you compost well, you can put nutrients back into the soil, but if the soil was truly depleted, the crops wouldn’t grow in the first place.
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