Talk to me about vitamins please

[Dollydolly13]

I try to take a multivitamin. I’m 41, probably in perimenopause but have always had terrible pms symptoms.

I usually just take the basic Wellwoman which cost less than £10 a pack. Lots of my friends are recommending health and her brand, but looking at the nutrition info they’ve got pretty much the same vitamins in with a few added extra things such as sage extract, green tea extract but they’re twice the cost of the Wellwoman. But people swear by them.

Does anyone actually know if it’s worth spending extra and vitamins or do the basic ones do exactly the same job?

I did take the perfectil hair ones a few years back when I seemed to be losing hair and I’m sure my hair thickened up after a couple of months.

But is it all coincidence/placebo?

All multivitamins so is give you expensive pee. Eating a good variety and volume of fruit and veg and meat is a much better way of getting vitamins in a bioavailable form.

@FruAashild If I ate enough food to get the daily recommended amounts vitamins, minerals, fibre and protein I would have to eat more than my calorie needs, it can be tricky as you get older. And most Brits need to supplement vit D due to lack of sunlight Oct - April.
I think the pills are much the same as each other @Dollydolly13. There is evidence liposomal vits are more readily absorbed - Zooki sell a wide range - but they are very expensive. I buy the vit D during the winter after a bad year when I had flu twice, and ended up in hospital with pneumonia. I find it very good.

Intensive farming has meant that fruit and vegetables grown these days don't have the same nutrient content that they did years ago. For this reason, I take a multi-vitamin tablet as an additional source of nutrients on top of my diet.

Even some doctors are admitting that it is a good idea to take multi-vitamin tablets to make sure that our bodies are 'fed' well. Vitamin D supplements are essential because of our climate.

At the moment, I am also taking separate iron tablets as well as multi-vitamin tablets. I buy my multi-vitamins from Aldi/Lidl - I don't think that the expensive ones are that different to justify the cost.

For many people it’s not possible to eat their RDA of every single vitamin - because of intolerances or dietary restrictions or just lack of appetite. Plus everyone should at least be supplementing vitamin D in the UK no matter how good their diet is.

A multivitamin will do you no harm, but basically they are all pretty similar. You could argue the ingredients they use can be different, but something like Boots basic ones are fine. Vitamin D is the biggy, and I do use the Better You spray for that.

I've tried various vitamins, none of which have done anything but cost me money.

You need vit D in the uk winter

For everything else - the gold standard is diet and that is where your money is better spent

the vitamins and minerals absorb better as part of your diet

A lot of the cheaper vitamins are full of nasty fillers I think to keep the cost down.

Certain vitamins work better in some carriers than others (eg vitamin D should be taken as a soft gel capsule in an olive oil carrier).

Some multivitamins actually have too much of some vitamins (eg B6 - you should take no more than 10mg a day and take a break for 2 months every 4 months as it will build up in your system and is toxic if your levels get too high).

Many multivitamins have nowhere near the amount you actually need anyway. You’d be better off finding out which ones you don’t get enough of in your diet and taking the correct amounts of those.

You should be wary of taking anything containing B12. This is because if you ever suspect you have a B12 deficiency, you need to have not taken ANYTHING containing added B12 in the 4-6 months prior to a blood test for it. It can make it a nightmare to ever get diagnosed (and if you are deficient in it, tablets won’t help you a you’d need the injections).

Generally speaking though, I would assume the more expensive ones are a better quality and the fillers in them won’t have quite as nasty side effects as the cheap ones. If you don’t have any issues with side effects then you’re probably fine to stick with the cheaper ones. All I would say is check the quantities of everything that is in there and do you own research about whether it’s enough/too much and if you need to take any breaks at all.

I take a multivit because no, I don't have a "balanced diet", I am a normal human being who wants to eat well but often doesn't 😆

I also need iron, as I'm borderline deficient. And as others say, vit D is good at this time of year 🌧

ETA: I take Wellwoman 50+, I get it on a three for two offer at Boots which helps to bring the cost down.

Exactly - it’s all very well saying “diet” but very few people eat a perfectly balanced diet that gives them the perfect amount of every single vitamin and mineral that they need.

And that’s before you factor in allergies, intolerances, dietary preferences, likes/dislikes, and any other food issues like sensory restrictions or whatever.