The Great Vitamin Debate

Introduction.

Here at vitaminsandsupplements we’re all for engaging in the latest discussions on vitamins and health supplements, even if when those discussions try to cast the vitamin and health supplement industry in a bad light. In recent weeks in both printed media and on the internet there has been a lot said about the efficacy of taking vitamin supplements in particular, so we are glad to join in the great vitamin debate.

Their truth about vitamin supplements.

Keep taking vitamins to help you stay fit, strong and healthy.

The majority of the articles that are against the use of vitamin supplements you’ll come across invariably proclaim that they will tell you the truth about vitamin supplements. Well what exactly is that truth? The argument that is always put forward against taking a vitamin supplement is that we should/can get all the vitamins we need from our regular diet. Fair enough and, of course, because most of the vitamins we get through our food are from vegetables and fruit – we also consume lots of fiber with them which is important to a healthy digestive system. However, the argument put forward is invariably that by taking a vitamin supplement as well we’re overloading our bodies with vitamins doesn’t stack up for me. For example, with a well balanced diet everyone would exceed the amount of vitamin C that they’re recommended to take daily, resulting in some of it passing straight through our bodies. Conversely, an excess of vitamin A can build up in your liver and become toxic – so where do people who eat a lot of carrots, liver, spinach etc sit?

Taking vitamin supplements.

Whilst it has to be accepted that taking excessive quantities of vitamin supplements, way beyond the normal vitamin recommended daily allowance (RDA), will not make any significant difference to your health – does that mean that taking a vitamin supplement is a waste of time? The answer to that is an emphatic no. For all sorts of reason on any one day we might eat an imbalanced diet missing out on our RDA for particular vitamins. Taking a general multi-vitamin supplement containing the RDA for the all the vitamins is surely a sensible thing to do. Unless you are able to sit down and weigh/measure all of the nutritional content of all the foods that you eat in a day – how can you know that you’re taking in your vitamin RDA? Furthermore, the RDA is based on ‘the average human being’ – who amongst us considers themselves to be average? Does someone weighing 100 pounds need the same amount of vitamins as someone who’s 250 pounds?