Vitamins

jessicapk
jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Just wondering what other people's opinions are of multivitamins... I used to take a Centruum multivitamin every day but, now that I'm monitoring my intake of a few vitamins on MFP, I'm noticing that I'm meeting my numbers very well. When I don't, I will take a half a vitamin or a whole, depending on where things are. What I'm wondering is about the other nutrients that might not be 100%. Another concern is not over-doing it on anything. Some vitamins hang around longer due to their solubility and some wash out of the body quickly. I'm not that into monitoring all of my vitamin intake unless MFP incorporates it into their app because I would have to manually log it all. What do you think?

Replies

  • KelleyFran28
    KelleyFran28 Posts: 5 Member
    I've read so much about how we "over-vitamin" ourselves so I just do one multivitamin a day. Since the program monitors my calcium intake I am more careful about getting sufficient quantities. Also, I do think that vitamins and minerals are best absorbed by the body when they come from natural foods instead of pills. If you're careful to eat a good selection of fruits and vegetables everyday a good multivitamin should be all the supplement you'd need. I use Nature Made, but I'm sure there are other good ones, too.
  • JustJennie1
    JustJennie1 Posts: 3,749 Member
    I take a bunch of vitamins and haven't had any issues. I get my blood tested yearly as well and adjust as needed. I am not of the "you can get every single one of your nutrients through food" because you can't. The RDA for vitamins is so pitifully low and there are a lot of nutrients out there that are good for your body that aren't found in food or you would have to eat mass quantities of the food to get even a miniscule benefit.

    The thing with vitamins is you need to know which ones are fat soluble and which ones are water soluble. The fat soluble ones -- like your fish oils, coQ10 -- need to be taken with food to help with the absorption. With regards to doses your body will get rid of whatever nutrients it doesn't need.

    Do your research and make sure when you choose a vitamin that there's not a lot of fillers in them. Your best bet would be to go to a health food store.
  • dellaquilaa
    dellaquilaa Posts: 230 Member
    I take a multivitamin and vitamin d every morning - I make sure my multi is a bit weak (no RDAs above 50%) because I just use it to fill in the gaps of what I'm not getting from food. But the previous poster was right - your body will excrete most vitamins if it gets too much of them.

    I'm a nurse though, and I do recommend a multivitamin with folic acid for any woman of childbearing age. And for those that live in the Midwest, or don't get 2+ hours of direct sunlight everyday (for vitamin d).
  • lilyaqha
    lilyaqha Posts: 26 Member
    I take a multi a day and a vit D in the winter. I've been doing the shaklee vitamins. I've noticed when I don't take them I feel weird, so i'm missing something but just don't know what it is. I also only take ONE and not 2 a day like the bottle says.
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
    Good to hear some extra points of view on this! I'm pretty susceptible to b vitamin deficiencies and will actually get borderline depressed if I don't get enough (goes for exercise, as well). That's one of the main ones I want to watch but can't track easily. I like the idea of supplementing just in case but I also believe that it should come from food. The higher nutrient rich foods are that much more efficient and tend to have other health benefits as well.

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