Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements

It's not as Black and White as works/doesn't work.
Depending on your diet, some supplements may be useful.

I'd personally never take a Vitamin or fish oil supplement, as I eat sufficiently well.
if you're not eating fruit and veg you will not get enough dietary fibre(which is protective against bowel cancer).

I think the fluoride supplements I took as an adolescent are the reason my teeth are OK.
Probably something to do with my Socialist leanings too;)
 
EddieJessup said:
It's not as Black and White as works/doesn't work.
Depending on your diet, some supplements may be useful
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Gotta agree with this. A healthy diet that naturally supplies your body with the vitamins and nutrients you need is every bodies best bet.
If you have a trusted brand for certain vitamins you may be lacking threw poor diet why not supplement.
No need to over do it and take more then 100% of the vitamins your already getting tho.

supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful.”
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If this is you are these supplements really intended for you any way?
 
I one day realized that the only info I had supporting the supplements I was taking were either from those selling them or fluff articles. I stopped taking them all, even my daily multivitamin and not only do I feel better but haven't been sick in ages (like a couple years--not even a cold). I eat a balanced diet, keep my weight in check. I feel stupid for all the money I've wasted on supplements over the years....
 
Well, there's a recommended daily intake of each vitamin and mineral, right? So if you are getting below your RDI, wouldn't it make sense to take a supplement? Or are they basically saying that the RDI is complete bullshit?

Also, the study is only claiming that vitamin and mineral supplements do not significantly reduce the risk of cancers and cardiovascular disease. That doesn't prove them useless. They could still have benefits for general well-being, muscle mass, fatigue reduction, etc. I'm not saying they do have these benefits, just that the study isn't claiming they don't, so the title of the article is hyperbolic.
 
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For someone whose diet consists of beer, valium or xanax and methadone, a piece of bread or two a day if I can stomach it - unless I can get some heroin, then I have an appetite and can eat as normal, albeit only in small amounts because my stomach is so small from barely eating, are multivitamins worth it?
 
vitamin c is good for when you think you are going to get ill (after 2 night shifts) or when your liver is under strain

vitamin b6 (i tend to take a strong complex) is especially good for depression/insomnia in my experience but you need a decent strength complex

and omega3 fish oils are good but you can eat a lot of fish instead

before i started taking b vitamins and was finally able to sleep i had terrible anxiety and depression and was diagnosed as bipolar. funny how once you can sleep your cycles slowly fade into memory as a thing of the past. also i dont drink caffeine or smoke tobacco ( harmala alkaloids maoi poroperties anyone?)


doctors/pharma (who can tell the fucking difference these days?) would love us all to be on drugs instead of looking for other ways to deal with depression that they can't patent/make money from

http://www.examiner.com/article/the...vitamin-b6-tryptophan-serotonin-and-melatonin
 
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weekend addiction said:
Fat and well-nourished are two different things.
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This point needs to be made.
The SAD (Standard American Diet) does not lead to well-nourished individuals.

It's not as Black and White as works/doesn't work.
Depending on your diet, some supplements may be useful.
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Totally agree with this, too.
For someone like opi8, I would think that multis make a lot more sense as a preventative measure than for someone like me, for example, with my diet based on vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, fruits, and (fairly small quantities of) meats.
 
opi8 said:
For someone whose diet consists of beer, valium or xanax and methadone, a piece of bread or two a day if I can stomach it - unless I can get some heroin, then I have an appetite and can eat as normal, albeit only in small amounts because my stomach is so small from barely eating, are multivitamins worth it?
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Yes. For recreational and daily drug users a multivitamin is worth it.

There are a lot of supplements out there that work. Even if you do get a balanced diet, genetically you might have condition where you lack a particular compound in your body and supplementing helps.
 
Another issue is, how do you know you're getting a completely balanced diet? A friend of mine started seeing her hair fall out and figured out it was a lack of iron. She supplemented and the problem resolved. And so but then her diet was pretty much a standard American's.
 
^ It seems very safe to assume that the Standard American Diet is not balanced.
I would say that, if you eat a wide variety of veggies and fruits, try for whole grains whenever possible, and limit meat consumption to sane levels (basically by eating beans instead of meat for protein regularly), you are pretty safe.
 
The thing is is that you gotta get the right form of the supplements. You don't find these forms in MOST stores, you have to order them off the internet. For example, say you want to supplement with Magnesium, there are literally dozens of different forms of Magnesium like Oxide, Citrate, lactate, etc... Those forms all suck and are not absorbed in the body at all. If you want to supplement with Magnesium you need to get the Chelated Magnesium Glycinate. That is just one example. Do you research.
 
I'm skeptical as to the majority of supplements unless you have a proven deficiency. I recently had a blood test that showed I was highly deficient in Vitamin D so now take supplements to make up for it. Other than that I believe that most of it is just down to your diet. My old man religiously takes his multi-vitamins, cod liver oil, vitamin C and whatever other supplements he takes every morning.

IMO, any affect is likely to be placeboic in nature.
 
Most western people's diets are far from nutritious and well balanced. We mostly eat carbs, fat and processed protein.

Sure there can be overkill with some supplements but overall most people I know could definitely would benefit from either eating better, supplements or both.
 
Most western people's diets are far from nutritious
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Three words for you: Enriched white flour. Beriberi, rickets, goiter, scurvy, etc are not exactly endemic in the US any more due to the extensive amount of fortification that food goes through.

People may not eat balanced diets, but IME they certainly get enough nutrition to grow, develop, and even raise some approximation of healthy children. Horrible diseases of malnutrition (noma etc) are comparatively rare in the US.

different forms of Magnesium like Oxide, Citrate, lactate, etc... Those forms all suck and are not absorbed in the body at all. [...] Do you research.
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Magnesium oxide is actually absorbed - just poorly? And salts like lactate, citrate, glycinate etc are all essentially equivalent - "chelated" magnesium simply means it has a carbon-containing anion.

I am of the mind that "holistic supplementation" (read: dietary modification) is better than taking multivitamins. But at the same time, I don't see anything wrong with people taking whatever array of vitamins they'd like. The worst that is going to happen is most of them end up excreted again. (I assume that most people aren't going to get vitamin A/iron poisoning from being overzealous... ) Especially taking stuff like vitamin C, fish oil, vit. D supplements.

On the topic of vitamin D i also think some people could do with more UV exposure...
 
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