Multivitamins: OK to keep taking, dietitian says

[SecularMotion]

If you fear your diet isn't healthy enough, and you're taking a multivitamin to compensate, don't let this week's news cause you to toss the bottle of tablets into the trash, a local dietitian says.

Sharon Smalling, Memorial Hermann Hospital clinical dietitian, cautioned that Monday's news about a long-term study showing women who took multivitamins - including vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper and iron - might have an increased risk of death may not be as bad as it sounds.

She explained the risk of death increased by only 1 percent, from 39.8 percent for those who did not take vitamins to 40.8 for those who did. The study was based on data from the long-term Iowa Women's Health Study and looked at nearly 39,000 women over 19 years. The women's average age was 62 at the start of the study.

"We just don't have enough information to draw a conclusion on whether it's bad for you or good for you," Smalling said. "If your diet's not perfect, and most of us are not perfect, if you're not meeting nutrient needs, maybe a multivitamin is OK to take."

http://www.chron.com/news/health/article/Multivitamins-OK-to-keep-taking-dietitian-says-2222572.php

[no_hypocrisy]

1. With the high cost of eating a comprehensively healthy diet, one has

little options other than a multivitamin at the least to make up for the deficits of vitamins and minerals not provided in a daily diet. Your cells need them for regeneration, your organs to function at their maximal level to last longer, your blood marrow to produce all the blood cells needed to protect your immune system, your bones to remain fortified in youth, adulthood, and old age.

[midnight]

2. K&R My Grandmother wouldn't have had a very productive life without her b vitamin shots...

Maybe Big pharma doesn't like health....

[CanSocDem]

3. The free-market food industry...

...doesn't "like health" either. Replacing nutrition with convenience, 'brand loyalty' and taste is far more important than maintaining public health. And besides, they have ModernMedicalScience to back them up.

.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. No question I was on a physical decline up to a year ago.

My knees were weak, I had hip problems and all of it got worse when I began to exercise. It was like I couldn't move forward. Then I started taking a series of vitamins and probiotics and my world changed. Just knowing my knees won't give out climbing up or down the stairs is as major improvement.

[starroute]

5. And maybe people who eat well and are healthy take fewer vitamins

If people are taking vitamins because they know they're not eating properly and getting all their veggies ...

Or if they're in their 60's and already starting to feel the ailments of old age creeping up on them ...

Those people are presumably more likely to try to compensate with vitamins than those who are vigorous and bursting with health.

If that was the case, it might seem just as valid to conclude that multivitamins can almost completely compensate for any negative effects of diet, lifestyle, and heredity. But of course that's not the way this is being pitched.

[BuddhaGirl]

6. interesting to hear a dietician say this

most I know are negative toward vitamins...nutritionists usually know more about them, in my experience.

[MedicalAdmin]

7. Hmmmmm.

Where's the howling wooooo patrol? They usually show up early and start insulting people while making unsubstantiated accusations ...

:popcorn: