Multi vits, and are they worth taking?

I have always been at two minds regarding taking a daily multi vitamin, but wanted to gauge what consensus is from other forumites regarding multi vitamins for those the wrong side of 40.

Not sure about wrong side of 40, But I read somewhere that vitamin D is advised for the elderly. I think a healthy diet covers all the rest easily.

I think a healthy diet covers all the rest easily.

That’s back to that I’ll defined “balanced diet” thing again….

As I’ve posted on the diet threads, I’ve been surprised how unbalanced my diet was. Wasn’t overly bothered about multivitamins until I saw I was getting almost NO vit A or iron….

Drink more beer. That has all the ‘vitermins’ you will need.

vitamins are marketed to the ‘worried well’ – people who have enough interest in there wellbeing to eat properly in the first place, but can easily be convinced that whatever it is they do isn’t enough. You can’t sell health to people who don’t care about themselves, but you can sell the the idea of being unwell to people who are perfectly healthy – even if they neither sense nor exhibit any symptoms of being unwell. The problem is the vast majority of people who buy vitamins have a healthy intake already, so at best you’re pissing the additional supplements straight down the cludgy, at worst you can suffer ill effects from high doses.

Wasn’t overly bothered about multivitamins until I saw I was getting almost NO vit A or iron….

how did this deficiency manifest itself?

But I read somewhere that vitamin D is advised for the elderly.

Not a bad idea for most people as I understand it.

Deficiency is linked to various nasty things like MS and most people don’t get the recommended amount from diet (or sunshine!).

I steadfastly refuse to believe the marketing hype around vitamins.

Not everyone’s body works efficiently, not necessarily to do with diet either. Women perhaps are more affected.

I asked for a Vit D test and the result was that my level was extremely low.

Not saying some people wouldn’t benefit from vitamins or other supplements if they have a specific deficiency but I’m not convinced they do much for people with a balanced diet…If a given pill contains 100% RDA how much of that can you actually absorb and make use of anyway?

This guy is a bit of a ranter but there’s a lot of sense in his message:

mastiles_fanylion – Member
I steadfastly refuse to believe the marketing hype around vitamins.

Immune to marketing eh? 😉

I’n in the “healthy diet is enough camp”, but WFT do I know?

8)

‘May be of benefit to the elderly’ says enough for me.

Vit d for some older folk is fairly well proven – its the only supplement I see regularly prescribed.

If you eat well then unlikely to need anything else

getting enough sunlight cg?
a balanced diet including fish, eggs etc should easily provide enough vit D

kimbers – low Vit D is a feature of my medical condition so am taking a high-strength supplement. And I’m elderly. Unfortunately.

Pretty sure there was a big EU meta study on this recently that concluded there wasn’t really any point unless you had a specific health problem or deficiency.

Mature CG – mature. Like a fine wine – or a bit of mouldy cheese

a balanced diet including fish, eggs etc should easily provide enough vit D

Recommended levels of vit D seem to vary between around 600-4000IU per day.

Assuming that you’re not getting it though sunlight, that’s
30-200 eggs a day or
160grammes to 1.1kg of salmon a day.

a balanced diet including fish, eggs etc should easily provide enough vit D

That’s the trouble most people in the UK don’t eat a lot of oily fish (pilchards anyone?)
And eggs are out of favour too. Combined with a general lack of sunlight (crap weather, indoor jobs, driving everywhere etc).
Result is that Vit D deficiency is very common.

Hence why the Dept of Health recommend daily vitamin D for ALL kids under 5. And pregnant women. And the over 65s.

I notice a difference in recovery, strength and endurance when I don’t take multi-vitamins.

For your average sedentary individual it probably won’t make much difference (unless diet is abysmal), but for those doing hard exercise regularly, it makes a difference.

awaits the STW naysayers………..

Oh, and I’m 31 🙂

And eggs are out of favour too.

not on this forum they’re not! 🙂

In short, multi vitamins may actually contribute to lowering your life expectancy.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/28971

And Vitamin D may increase your life expectancy:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21731036/

i never bothered with multi-vits and was definitely in the ‘healthy diet’ camp. but i can’t always maintain a healthy diet and for the sake of a couple of pennies each day taking a tablet knowing my body will get rid of what it doesnt need seems like a good compromise for me.

weirdly, and its probably psychological (although it wasn’t me who noticed, it ws my partner) i’ve been sleeping better since taking multi-vits.