In mid-May a National Institutes of Health panel concluded that there wasn't enough evidence to recommend whether people should or shouldn't take a daily pill containing multivitamins and minerals.
Still, many experts state firmly that everyone should take one every day. After all, they say, these supplements are safe and might improve health or prevent some chronic disease. Better safe than sorry, right?
I disagree. With a few exceptions, noted below, I believe that a healthy person eating a well-balanced diet (high in fruits and vegetables and low in total and saturated fats) containing an adequate amount of calories gets no benefit from a multivitamin or any vitamin pills.
Here are the three exceptions:
- Women who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant should take a folic acid supplement to prevent brain and spinal cord defects in the fetus. Some doctors would extend the recommendation to include all women of childbearing age.
- Consider a special supplement containing vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, zinc, and copper, which have been shown to slow visual loss in people with early manifestations of macular degeneration.
- Men over age 60 and especially postmenopausal women need supplements containing more vitamin D and calcium that are present in most multivitamin and mineral pills to protect against osteoporosis and bone fractures.
Others who can definitely benefit from a daily multivitamin include people following a very low-calorie, weight-loss diet, strict vegetarians and vegans, heavy alcohol drinkers, and those who don't follow an adequate diet because they are too sick, too poor, or too lonely to prepare proper meals.