Why Your Multi Vitamin Isn't Working...

The vitamin industry has consistently posted domestic annual sales figures at $23 billion. It’s one of the few products everyone is told they need, while there’s little to no research that supports it’s benefits unless you’re severely malnourished.

I’m not saying we don’t need vitamins, because we do. There are 40 essential nutrients your body needs to function and survive. It’s just that multivitamins don’t work. Because mulit’s create a false sense of dietary security, most people eat poorly thinking the multi will make up for it. Not only is this not true, it’s actually less effective.

Absorption
There are receptor sites for different nutrients. In the body these receptor sites are limited, and can be overloaded by competing nutrients or refined carbohydrates. When we metabolize complex carbohydrates such as fruits or non-starchy vegetables, digestion happens slower than with refined carbohydrates. This allows the receptors time to absorb the nutrients.

Your receptors can’t absorb a days worth of nutrients all at once by using multivitamin, and we can’t absorb the nutrients sufficiently when the digestive process is taxed with refined carbohydrates.

Outsmarting Nature
Our bodies are incredibly complex. We need a precise amount of each essential vitamin and mineral. Unprocessed Fruits, Veggies, Protein Sources, and Nuts happen to have all the nutrients we need, in very safe concentrations. Using an artificial nutrient source poses several risks.

I stopped taking a multivitamin ten years ago, because they caused me to vomit if I didn’t eat enough before hand. I switched to a liquid multi, but it still irritated my digestive system. My reactions were mild compared to the damage they can cause children. Over absorption of Vitamin A is known to cause birth defects, while an Iron overdose can be lethal to children.

Conclusion
Don’t take the easy way out. Try to improve your diet naturally, even a small increase of fruits and veggies will have a significant impact. Unlike a multi, eating whole foods is a improvement you will notice after just a day or two. You will digest food easier, have more energy, and get sick less often.

Sources
Vitamin, Mineral, and Specialty Supplements and Risk of Hematologic Malignancies in the Prospective VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) Study Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. October 1, 2011 20:2298-2308

Dietary Supplement Use in the United States, 2003-2006J. Nutr. 2011 141: 261-266

Increasing longevity by tuning up metabolism, Bruce N. Ames EMBO Rep. 2005 July; 6(S1): S20–S24

Multivitamin/Mineral Supplements and Prevention of Chronic Disease,  The Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center, Baltimore, MD AHRQ Publication No. 06-E012 May 2006