Do you take multivitamins?

[DavidW]

Considerably, and for the worst. Of course, stress and work have taken their toll as well, but the sporadic occasions i manage to get a good meal everything gets better almost instantaneously. I've even considered relocating in Italy as a form of therapy but i can't afford to quit my job.

If it's important to you, you can find the time to cook, learn to cook, learn to cook well.

[Mozart]

So is that it? No one mentioned anything negative about vitamins.

[drogulus]

    From the Onion, a respected health weekly:

    New Nietzschean Diet Lets You Eat Whatever You Fear Most

   

     

   

[Mozart]

Just curious, which brand do you take and is there any specific reason you chose it over another?

[Scarpia]

So is that it? No one mentioned anything negative about vitamins.

Did you read the thread at all? 

Multi-vitamins can be an aid if you have a severely deficient diet.  For instance the fact that almost all grain products in the US are required to be "enriched" with folic acid has reduced birth defects due to vitamin deficiency.  However anything is poisonous if taken in large enough quantities (even water).  It is quite possible to harm yourself by ingesting a nutrient in excessive quanitites. 

Multivitamins are no substitute for a good diet.  Eat generous portions of vegetables and there is no need for multivitamins.

[Mozart]

Did you read the thread at all? 

Multi-vitamins can be an aid if you have a severely deficient diet.  For instance the fact that almost all grain products in the US are required to be "enriched" with folic acid has reduced birth defects due to vitamin deficiency.  However anything is poisonous if taken in large enough quantities (even water).  It is quite possible to harm yourself by ingesting a nutrient in excessive quanitites. 

Multivitamins are no substitute for a good diet.  Eat generous portions of vegetables and there is no need for multivitamins.

I do take a good diet, and I try and avoid as much as possible enriched grains. I've seen someone take a magnet in a cereal and little chunks of iron stuck onto the magnet. The purpose of the multivitamin would not be to substitute a good diet for a bad one, but to ensure that I am getting all of the essential nutrients. Even a good diet can't have everything you need when the soil it grows on has been depleted of its nutrients.

[Scarpia]

I do take a good diet, and I try and avoid as much as possible enriched grains. I've seen someone take a magnet in a cereal and little chunks of iron stuck onto the magnet. The purpose of the multivitamin would not be to substitute a good diet for a bad one, but to ensure that I am getting all of the essential nutrients. Even a good diet can't have everything you need when the soil it grows on has been depleted of its nutrients.

What you are describing is not an enriched grain.  You are seeing a cereal company that puts a nutrient in a non-absorbable form in the cereal in order to be able to put a good number on the nutrition disclosure.  Your multi-vitamin would likely be the same stuff.

If the soil is depleted of its nutrients the plant won't grow.  The plant grows to the extent that nutrients are available, so if it grows the nutrients are there.

[owlice]

Taking a regular multivitamin isn't going to hurt you; if you feel better about your diet while taking one, take it.

I took pregnancy vitamins while I was pregnant (and sometimes, even managed to keep them down). I don't take vitamins now, but I have a pretty balanced diet: equal portions of chocolate, caffeine, fat, sugar, and salt. Okay, kidding about that breakdown, of course.

If you're concerned about your diet, you can plug what you're eating into an online food tracking system which will break down your diet into protein, carbs, and fats overall, give you nutritional info for the foods you eat, track your calories, and so on. One such place that lets you do that is here: http://caloriecount.about.com

One need not know how to cook to have a good diet; some folks stick to a diet of entirely raw foods. I'm not one of them; I like my meats cooked, my eggs over easy, and pasta al dente. Bon appetit!

[Mozart]

Someone told me that your body can't actually asborb vitamins without some plant fiber?

Thanks for the website owlice! If I werent so lazy now I'd check it out.

[zamyrabyrd]

So is that it? No one mentioned anything negative about vitamins.

I'll say something negative about vitamins--the filler, what they are embedded in, also, about CAUSING imbalances by taking for instance, certain B vitamins that need the others to be used.

But to get back to my first point (and I'd REALLY be interested if someone else had the same reactions), I think that my body reached some kind of saturation point about 2 years ago and to this day, I can't take any more vitamins or amino acids without tasting them hours later or feeling like they are oozing from my skin. I read in "Life Extension" (the original book from the 1980's) that a person had such a reaction from acidic vitamins and it took him 3 months to metabolize them.

So at the time they were suggesting that one should neutralize acidic vitamins. But to this day, I have a hard time believing they were stuffing themselves with so many pills per day, at least around 50, and getting NO bad reactions from them. I am really skeptical about pills, even vitamins, now.

ZB

[The new erato]

These pills are part of a conspiracy. I'm waiting for robnewman to throw in some FACTs here, and then I'm going in the opposite direction.