Thread: Multi-Vitamins... A scam?...

This comes up about once a year.

If you have scurvy, vitamin C will cure you. This incontrovertibly shows that vitamins have an effect on the body.

A multivitamin isn't a panacea. It's just insurance in case you're deficient in any given vitamin.

If you're a lazy slob eating junk food, a multivitamin isn't going to protect against that lifestyle. If they're going to do a worthwhile study, they need to include the overall beginning health of the individuals at the beginning of the study. They also need to cover the quality of life for them.

They're not that expensive and I would much rather piss out $.12 of nutrients that my body didn't need than not have enough. Cheap insurance if you ask me.

I've always wondered how useful they are. ESpecially the ones most bbers use, which aren't a high quality at all. I doubt ON multi is super high quality. I know it just makes my piss vibrant yellow

I notice a boost from the vitamin b but not as good as when I get the injection from my doc....

Originally Posted by DOMS

This comes up about once a year.

If you have scurvy, vitamin C will cure you. This incontrovertibly shows that vitamins have an effect on the body.

A multivitamin isn't a panacea. It's just insurance in case you're deficient in any given vitamin.

If you're a lazy slob eating junk food, a multivitamin isn't going to protect against that lifestyle. If they're going to do a worthwhile study, they need to include the overall beginning health of the individuals at the beginning of the study. They also need to cover the quality of life for them.

A lot of the studies are constructed to account for the differences in lifestyle. Specifically, smoking, obesity and exercise habits. Even after accounting for these, they find no difference in health between those that take them and those that do not. But, they also find no harm in taking them either, except for a few in megadoses. Vitamin A is an example.

I heard an explanation once about why they don't do anything and I thought it was a good analogy. "eating whole, nutritious foods gives the body an orchestra of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals and probably substances that we haven't discovered yet, but isolating individual nutrients and putting them into pill form at 1000% the amount we would get in foods doesn't even come close to the benefits of eating whole foods, and doesn't perform as a replacement." paraphrased.

Originally Posted by exphysiologist88

A lot of the studies are constructed to account for the differences in lifestyle. Specifically, smoking, obesity and exercise habits. Even after accounting for these, they find no difference in health between those that take them and those that do not. But, they also find no harm in taking them either, except for a few in megadoses. Vitamin A is an example.

I heard an explanation once about why they don't do anything and I thought it was a good analogy. "eating whole, nutritious foods gives the body an orchestra of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals and probably substances that we haven't discovered yet, but isolating individual nutrients and putting them into pill form at 1000% the amount we would get in foods doesn't even come close to the benefits of eating whole foods, and doesn't perform as a replacement." paraphrased.

This statement seems to be filled with "DUH". Of course they're not going to perform as a replacement, that's why they're called SUPPLEMENTS.

Originally Posted by ALBOB

This statement seems to be filled with "DUH". Of course they're not going to perform as a replacement, that's why they're called SUPPLEMENTS.

But, people w horrific diets think they are "replacing" the nutrients that are lacking in the diet. If your diet is correct, there is no need to supplement vitamins and minerals because you're getting them in their original form from the food you eat.

I think the last part of the article sums things up nicely.

Spokeswoman Dr Carrie Ruxton said: ‘The role of vitamin supplements is to prevent deficiencies and make sure people are receiving their recommended levels.
‘They won’t have a measurable impact on how you feel on a day-to-day basis but what they are doing is topping up your recommended levels to the right amount. They are not meant to be a magic bullet.’


Read more: Taking multi-vitamin pills 'does nothing for our health' | Mail Online

Originally Posted by exphysiologist88

But, people w horrific diets think they are "replacing" the nutrients that are lacking in the diet.

True, those people are stupid beyond hope.

Originally Posted by exphysiologist88

If your diet is correct, there is no need to supplement vitamins and minerals because you're getting them in their original form from the food you eat.

True but, that's in a perfect world. I certainly don't mind paying a dollar or two for a little bit of insurance.

I'll keep taking them until they say that they will hurt me. If it does "nothing" that isn't so bad. If it does "very little" then I am still better off than I would have been before.

So wait, multi-vitamins don't help with cancer or heart disease? 2 diseases that are more tightly linked to sugar/carbohydrate overconsumption than vitamin deficiency. Surely you jest. Besides, 6 years would probably not be long enough to even detect an effect, especially if the subjects weren't entirely compliant. Dr. Walter Willett did a study on I believe beta carotene in aging adults and found no statistically significant difference in cognitive factors after 12 years. After 18 years, the results were both significant and dramatic.

There was a really cool documentary by Nova the other day called What Darwin Never Knew. It explains the mechanisms through which evolution work. Basically there is coding DNA, switches, and hox genes that basically boss the other DNA around. What is really cool is that 2 fitches with identical DNA actually have completely different beaks. These 2 fitches were born to different islands on the Galpagos with different foods that were available. The difference in beaks is not due to different genes, but the expression of those genes (Time and frequency) in the fetus. Obviously diet has a dramatic effect on what genes are expressed when and it seems as though each fitch is basically downloading information from the environment via the nutrients it's mother is consuming. Our problem health-wise is that we find out that people who eat broccoli have lower incidences of cancer so we try to isolate the compound that does this and put it in to a supplement. The problem is, this only activates some of the genes that eating broccoli activates, so you don't get the results you are looking for. They have shown fish oil to cause the expression of up to 960 genes that are responsible for detoxification, reduced inflammation, and other healthful outcomes. Eat whole foods and take a multi-vitamin to cover your ass. Other than that, it's probably better to take fish oil capsules instead of fish as the potential for mercury contamination in fish is too high.

This stuff is all so complex that it's probably going to be a long time before we have solid conclusions. Virtually every nutrition study you'll read will end by stating that more studies are needed.

It has been shown that vitaman and mineral supplimentation can help prevent deseases of defeciency. They're unlikely to make healthy people healthier, but if an essential nutrient is lacking, they could help prevent some unfortunate condition.

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

So wait, multi-vitamins don't help with cancer or heart disease? 2 diseases that are more tightly linked to sugar/carbohydrate overconsumption than vitamin deficiency. Surely you jest. Besides, 6 years would probably not be long enough to even detect an effect, especially if the subjects weren't entirely compliant. Dr. Walter Willett did a study on I believe beta carotene in aging adults and found no statistically significant difference in cognitive factors after 12 years. After 18 years, the results were both significant and dramatic.

There was a really cool documentary by Nova the other day called What Darwin Never Knew. It explains the mechanisms through which evolution work. Basically there is coding DNA, switches, and hox genes that basically boss the other DNA around. What is really cool is that 2 fitches with identical DNA actually have completely different beaks. These 2 fitches were born to different islands on the Galpagos with different foods that were available. The difference in beaks is not due to different genes, but the expression of those genes (Time and frequency) in the fetus. Obviously diet has a dramatic effect on what genes are expressed when and it seems as though each fitch is basically downloading information from the environment via the nutrients it's mother is consuming. Our problem health-wise is that we find out that people who eat broccoli have lower incidences of cancer so we try to isolate the compound that does this and put it in to a supplement. The problem is, this only activates some of the genes that eating broccoli activates, so you don't get the results you are looking for. They have shown fish oil to cause the expression of up to 960 genes that are responsible for detoxification, reduced inflammation, and other healthful outcomes. Eat whole foods and take a multi-vitamin to cover your ass. Other than that, it's probably better to take fish oil capsules instead of fish as the potential for mercury contamination in fish is too high.

Good post. But, I think the recommendation is that in eating fatty fish like salmon, the benefits outweigh the risks of mercury. There are some fish to completely stay away from, but wild salmon is still a good choice, especially when replacing foods like hamburger or bacon.

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

So wait, multi-vitamins don't help with cancer or heart disease? 2 diseases that are more tightly linked to sugar/carbohydrate overconsumption than vitamin deficiency. Surely you jest. Besides, 6 years would probably not be long enough to even detect an effect, especially if the subjects weren't entirely compliant. Dr. Walter Willett did a study on I believe beta carotene in aging adults and found no statistically significant difference in cognitive factors after 12 years. After 18 years, the results were both significant and dramatic.

There was a really cool documentary by Nova the other day called What Darwin Never Knew. It explains the mechanisms through which evolution work. Basically there is coding DNA, switches, and hox genes that basically boss the other DNA around. What is really cool is that 2 fitches with identical DNA actually have completely different beaks. These 2 fitches were born to different islands on the Galpagos with different foods that were available. The difference in beaks is not due to different genes, but the expression of those genes (Time and frequency) in the fetus. Obviously diet has a dramatic effect on what genes are expressed when and it seems as though each fitch is basically downloading information from the environment via the nutrients it's mother is consuming. Our problem health-wise is that we find out that people who eat broccoli have lower incidences of cancer so we try to isolate the compound that does this and put it in to a supplement. The problem is, this only activates some of the genes that eating broccoli activates, so you don't get the results you are looking for. They have shown fish oil to cause the expression of up to 960 genes that are responsible for detoxification, reduced inflammation, and other healthful outcomes. Eat whole foods and take a multi-vitamin to cover your ass. Other than that, it's probably better to take fish oil capsules instead of fish as the potential for mercury contamination in fish is too high.

That is incredible.