Do we really need vitamins if we eat whole foods?

heykatieben

If so, what vitamins do we need? Opinions?

exacerbe

If you eat a wide range of fruits, veggies, lean proteins... not really. But a multivitamin won't hurt.. It depends on the person and your body's ability to absorb and use vitamins/minerals. Vegetarians have to watch out for iron deficiencies. Lactose intolerant have to watch out for calcium deficiencies... and so forth..

Bottom line, if you eat healthy, whole foods with a wide range of fruits and veggies then no.

emergencytennis

It is hard to get all the iron you need if you dont eat red meat - you have to live on spinach and dried apricots.

asyouseefit

You don't need vitamins if you eat a balanced diet.

JPDad

I eat a balanced whole food diet. The only vitamin I add is Vitamin D during the winter months. The reason being there is not enough sunlight during the winter months in Canada. When it is sunny in January, the sun is too low to the horizon and has more atmosphere to go through. It's also hard to soak up the rays in a parka.

Multi vitamins are waste of money.

sharonhauptman

I agree. Sometimes when I go to give blood, my count is too low. I run home and start pouring spinach and some meat into myself so I can give blood. I hardly ever eat meat, but will compromise on that so I can help someone with blood.

Pebble321

I don't think they are necessary unless there is a specific one that you know you have issues with (ie, if you've been diagnosed as deficitient in iron or vit b12 or you live somewhere with no sunlight - gah!).
Otherwise you are just producing rather expensive urine as many vitamins aren't stored in your body if they aren't needed, they just go straight down the toilet. In my opinion, most of the vitamins out there are sold as a result of good marketing rather than need.

Lazlocats

The problem comes not with whole foods but how the food was grown....In 1950 you would get a lot of vitamins and minerals from the food grown and eaten whole, but today you are lucky to get 10 percent of that, due to the farming methods and the soil quality. So, yes vitamins with minerals are needed even with whole foods and organic foods. But not all vitamiins are created equal. Some are chemicals and the body sees them as thus. If you want a good vitamin don't go to Walmart or any of these corner pharmacies. Health food stores have whole food vitamins and natural sourced good vitamins that the body can use. Don't let anyone fool you with chemicals and bad advice.

RonSwanson66

The problem comes not with whole foods but how the food was grown....In 1950 you would get a lot of vitamins and minerals from the food grown and eaten whole, but today you are lucky to get 10 percent of that, due to the farming methods and the soil quality. So, yes vitamins with minerals are needed even with whole foods and organic foods. But not all vitamiins are created equal. Some are chemicals and the body sees them as thus. If you want a good vitamin don't go to Walmart or any of these corner pharmacies. Health food stores have whole food vitamins and natural sourced good vitamins that the body can use. Don't let anyone fool you with chemicals and bad advice.

All vitamins are chemicals.


Don't let anyone fool you with naturalistic fallacies and woo.

it_be_asin

All matter is composed of chemicals.

Jorra

The problem comes not with whole foods but how the food was grown....In 1950 you would get a lot of vitamins and minerals from the food grown and eaten whole, but today you are lucky to get 10 percent of that, due to the farming methods and the soil quality. So, yes vitamins with minerals are needed even with whole foods and organic foods. But not all vitamiins are created equal. Some are chemicals and the body sees them as thus. If you want a good vitamin don't go to Walmart or any of these corner pharmacies. Health food stores have whole food vitamins and natural sourced good vitamins that the body can use. Don't let anyone fool you with chemicals and bad advice.

I believe the word you are looking for is bio-availability. Some chemical forms of vitamins are less easily absorbed by the body than other chemical forms. Usually, cheaper vitamins use less bio-available forms. That doesn't mean you have to go to a fancy-schmancy health store to get a decent vitamin. I take Target brand and I'm doing just fine.

IvoryParchment

Are there any foods you don't eat much of? You need meat or grains for B vitamins, animal products for B12, green vegetables for vitamin K (often not included in vitamin tabs, by the way), sunlight for vitamin D, yellow/red/green vegetables for carotene that becomes vitamin A, unsaturated fats for essential fatty acids, a balanced assortment of proteins for essential amino acids. Potassium, calcium, magnesium are needed in significant amounts, and you also need trace amounts of things like selenium and zinc.

If you even need to ask, it's a good idea to read up on nutrition and maybe analyze your daily intake. There is extensive information on the USDA website:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

pdworkman

Possibly Vit D. Vit B12 if you are vegan. You may need others if you have celiac disease or malabsorption issues.

Pam

_GlaDOS_

My opinion, and from what I've read, I don't believe you really need vitamins if you eat whole foods. Unless you are actually deficient in something, like Vitamin D. I would say some vegans or vegetarians may have a need to take some vitamins as well, like B12. There may be other reasons to do so, related to fitness (like for some reason many of my bulking friends take fish oil and I have yet to ask why).

There is no evidence that taking a multi-vitamin has any effect on long-term health. The research tells us that, in general, people who take multi-vitamins are "healthier", but there is no evidence that it is actually the multi-vitamin that makes those people healthier, or if people in general who take multi-vitamins simply eat more whole, nutritious foods and naturally lead healthier lifestyles.

I like Michael Pollan's view, based on the research that is out there - "Eat and live like you take vitamins, but don't take them."

Lazlocats

the test then is in the end ....when you are older.

Debbe2

I believe so. Multi, vitamin B, calcium

stylistchik

It is hard to get all the iron you need if you dont eat red meat - you have to live on spinach and dried apricots.

I track my iron because I'm a vegetarian and I'm rarely under. Calcium is the one I usually need to supplement.

kathleennf

OK well I used to work in the Vitamins and Minerals Nutrition research center for the USDA. I was just a student- so don't count me as an expert on this. Plus it was a LONG time ago. With that disclaimer I will tell you this- the prevailing wisdom there amongst the scientists who do research in this full time was: our bodies were made to live as hunter-gatherers and small-time farmers. This involved a huge amount of energy expenditure and thus a huge caloric intake - all completely natural foods of course. So unless you live a very active lifestyle and are eating about 4000 calories a day of meat, chicken, fish and vegetables mostly- YES, you need to take vitamins.

choirgirl1130

If you eat a variety of whole foods and very little processed or packaged food, a vitamin isn't necessarily needed but a mineral supplement might be good to incorporate. today's soil is leeched of many of the minerals due to high volumes of fruit/vegetable production.

TourThePast

If you are eating a healthy balanced diet every day, I don't believe that you need any form of vitamin supplements.

Personally though, I'm aware that although I try and eat a varied healthy diet, sometimes I fail, and even when I eat extremely healthily I still can't eat the quantities of fruit and veg that would be normal.

Therefore, I currently take:

1. A daily multivitamin and mineral
2. Fish fish oil because I've had to cut back on the amount of oily fish I'd normally eat on maintenance calories.
3. Glucosamine because I believe it has been a factor in helping my knee recover
4. Calcium because again, I eat far less dairy than I would normally eat on maintenance calories.

Play_outside

You can track a lot of your vitamins on MFP so if you are concerned I woudl just keep an eye there. Also, you could go see a dietitian for a professional opinion on whether you are eating enough of a variety to get the vitamins you need. If you have certain health issues then there are likely things you are lacking. I take vitamins because I am celiac and I eat very little meat and very little dairy.

Not sure where you live, but pretty much everyone in the northern hemisphere should be taking Vitamin D.

fteale

I think there's a lot of misinformation on both sides of this. Foods these days, grown with intensive farming, without fields having fallow years etc, have way less nutrients than they did in the past, even 100 years ago. So on the one hand you can be short of vitamins, even if you think you are eating all the right things.

On the other hand, people don't die of not having them, so clearly they aren't essential. I think if you grow your own food on good soil, you are getting everything you need. A lot depends on the soil composition where your food is grown.

I take vitamins as a precaution more than anything else. I started when I was trying for my first baby, as you need a lot more of most things when pregnant, and haven't got out of the habit, really.

WifeMomDVM

I'm in the camp that I believe you should take a multi-vitamin - even with a clean diet. As another poster said, alot is lost from farm to table (unfortunately)

Watch the documentary (free on Neftlix) "Food Matters". It talks alot about vitamin supplements and how safe they are and how much misleading information is out there.

koosdel

No.

TV rots the brain, apparently.

cramernh

If so, what vitamins do we need? Opinions?

There are some prescription medications that actually do require an additional vitamin or supplement because of opposite reactions. That can be determined by the prescribing provider who is giving you said-medication. Im on a particular diuretic/blood pressure pill that can deplete my potassium and calcium levels, so I have been instructed to take a type of calcium product and a type of Vit D product in conjunction with eating fresh healthy vegetables, which Ive already been doing anyway.

I believe your PCP should be the one to determine whether or not taking anything OTC is right in an individual's situation.

woou

Without my multi, I used to be hungry all the time, although I was eatting what I considered a whole. nonprocessed, balance diet.

Silverkittycat

If so, what vitamins do we need? Opinions?

Only if you're lacking a specific vitamin or mineral. An annual visit to the doctor, get your blood done. If you're feeling "off" get it done again. Guessing and wondering about it is added stress/ anxiety that I'd rather do without. IMO a simple blood test is well worth the investment.

CenlaCoach

I used to think that multivitamin wasnt necessary and there was a lot of hype to get people to buy them. Through my own research and experiences I dont think that way any more. Like others have said dont go somewhere and buy the cheap brands because of bioavailability.
Dont think just because your a vegetarian that you need calcium. You can get more calcium per serving of broccoli than from milk. I am not a vegetarian but I have pretty much taken dairy out of my diet. The key is variety and balanced eating. Just because your eating healthy doesnt mean your eating balanced.
Now I try to eat pretty healthy, I drink shakeology (made from 70 whole food ingredients) to help fill in the gaps most of my nutrition. I still take a good vitamin pack because of my workouts and activity levels. If your active, an athlete, or working out extremely hard for 5-6 days a week then your body probably needs the extra to help repair itself. If your not very active then you may not need to do the extra things. For me though I can tell a difference in my cravings and hunger when I am taking them and when I am not.
There other thing I wanted to mention was that we are so far removed from our foods these days we have no idea whats in it unless you grow it yourself or get it from a local farmers market and you know the farmers. Our overfarming techniques have taken a lot of the nutrients out of our foods. Yes everything we eat is made up of chemicals but if you think just because something has the same chemicals or enriched vitamins that it is just as good or better than the natural stuff then your mistaken. I challenge you to eat a whole food diet (nothing out of box, has more than 5 ingredients on the list, has things in it you can read, not enriched) for 30 days and then go back and eat something you used to eat. 1. It will make you sick. 2. It wont fill you up unless you take in a huge amount and tons of extra calories. 3. It wont taste as good as you remember.

IvoryParchment

Don't get too nostalgic about how nutritious food was in the olden days. People understood nothing about nutrition and vitamins. There's no scientific way to compare the nutritional value of the food then and now, when people had nutritional diseases then because they didn't understand/have access to the healthy fresh foods. Even kings ate crappy diets, because they thought the best diet was one that was all meat and poultry. There were no fruits or vegetables except root vegetables in the winter. There was no refrigeration to preserve things, and unless you lived on a farm, it's unlikely your foods retained as much nourishment as they do now, where they are frozen right as they are picked in the field.

Tuberculosis didn't stop killing people because of antibiotics, but because of better diet and living conditions. Anybody have any idea how to recognize scurvy, pellagra, beriberi, rickets, etc? Probably not, because very few people have seen a case of any of them, but they were common enough in the past to have common names rather than the Latin/Greek medical names that rare diseases get.

Go to a museum and look at the suits of armor, so you can see how small people were back then. You had to be pretty well-to-do to afford armor, but those people were stunted.

TAWoody

Most people can't stick to a diet that covers all vitamins and minerals every day and multi vitamins are so darn cheap that it's better everyone just takes them every day anyways. This way you won't ever have to worry or stress out wondering if you've eaten enough of this veggie or that veggie just to get a certain amount of a vitamin. Would drive sane people crazy.

Silverkittycat

http://gettingstronger.org/2011/03/the-case-against-antioxidants/