To think we don't need daily vitamins

[user87382294757]

Just been reading about how taking day multivitamins might not be necessary and even cause harms in some - I have taken them for a while, quite expensive and not even sure any use. Had Vitamin D test a while back at the GPs which was a bit low so maybe just take that as is ultra cheap and discard the others.

Vitamins & minerals you can probably get from a healthy, varied diet but I don't know many people who eat the recommended 2 portions of oily fish a day.
So we all take omega 3 supplements.

Our vegetables have less vitamins and minerals than previous generations did. We'd have to eat 3+ more portions a day than they did to get the same goodness.

In previous generations, poorer women would drink various teas. Nettle tea is richer in iron than anyother food.

People got old quicker and died sooner. Women don't shrink and have bent backs, like they used to.

So comparisons aren't helpful.

There's good evidence that every post Menopausal Woman should take a Vit B suppliment.

@PookieDo Have a look on iHerb. I get my vitamin D3 on there. I like the healthy origins one. A years supply for£15.

The recommendation is not 2 portions of oily fish a day. Was that a typo?
Lots of people now avoid dairy which gives vitamin D and do not go outside without suncream.

On B vits...does anyone know about those methylated supplements? I tried one of them and it made me feel really ill. www.healthline.com/nutrition/folic-acid#sources

@user87382294757 For B vits I use Solgar sublingual B12. It dissolves under your tongue.

I am an office worker so I take Vit D I have been deficient in the past as has DH (he is North African so has darker skin). He also needs B12 injections. I take fish oils and I probably take a multivit once a week. We grow some fruit and veg in our garden so I hope that is a bit more nutrient dense as we pick and cook / eat straight away.

Thanks Fre00

I've never taken a vitamin supplement in my life (well apart from as a baby) and never had any health problems. I spend at least an hour outdoors every day and hardly ever wear sunscreen.

Feeljnglazy I’m exactly the same as you. I think we are being sold the idea that we need to keep buying stuff to be healthy. Like gym membership, sun screen every day, vitamin supplements, statins, ultra expensive moisturisers, cleansers, toners, feminine wash and deodorant, anti-bac everything, the list goes on. I choose to ignore the marketing. I walk, I eat well, I get sun, I rarely get ill.

Just because you have the freedom to get an hour a day in the sun during the darker winter months doesn’t make the rest of us stupid. It is hard to do that when you work all of the daylight hours in an office/commuting

I also do believe we need deodorant. Have you ever been on the London Underground. It would be 100 times worse without it!

Absolutely agree with above posters saying that we are sold the idea of buying stuff to be healthy.

As long as you consume a varied diet with sufficient fibre and low sugar there's really no need to supplement (unless you have a diagnosed deficiency).

I eat a plant based diet, and for the first year of doing so I was obsessive about taking a multivitamin because of the press scaremongering there is behind b12 and protein deficiency in vegans. This is all utter rubbish, as proved by subsequent blood tests years later when I'd stopped taking them, showing everything to be completely normal! I now take folic acid (I'm pregnant) and that's it. Still have vitamin checks regularly and all normal. It's all just a load of shit to sell us things we don't need.

I take:

Magnesium
B12
D
Omega 3
Rhodiola
Multi vitamin
Glucosamine
Turmeric
Ashgawanda
Nails and Hair supplement
Sage

Every day

I take vitamins because I have 3 health conditions (so far, probably 4) that cause malabsorption
So healthy diet is kind of irrelevant and even the supplements might not be doing much use but without them I would probably be really, really deficient not just borderline.

Evidence does seem to support your opinion and unless you have a deficiency ie iron, vit D whIch can be difficult to optimise naturally or through diet, I reckon they’re unnecessary.

I think some people need them more than others. Vegans, for example, generally need a B12 supplement. People who are anaemic need iron. Other people need more vitamin D.

Problem is, many people do not have a healthy / balanced diet

They have very little veg & fruit, too much junk food, ready meals
due to being time / money poor, food preferences / aversions etc

A multivitamin can help compensate for deficiencies in that case

As for "expensive wee", you get that with prescribed meds too - all of them exit the bod eventually

I take a daily dose of vit b12 sublingually- to avoid the first pass mechanism and absorb quicker.

However I still have b12 I injections every 6 weeks as even the sublingual b12 doesnt properly work, it just prolongs the time between injected b12 doses.
I just wish this country would take the same attitude as most other European countries when it comes to b12

I agree unless you have a deficiency then you should be able to get all the vitamins and minerals you need from your food.

People have been living in those countries for thousands of years. I know that in the past daylight exposure will have been higher, and diets will have been different (but surely more restricted?), so how the hell have we ever managed to keep stable populations in these northern climes, if we literally cannot absorb enough Vitamin D?

This is not a comment on the usefulness or otherwise of vitamin supplements, just an answer to the question: we only really need to survive long enough to reproduce (and raise children). Having depression, soft bones, teeth and hair loss (or whatever) doesn’t impact on that as long as you make it to about 20 or so or whatever age people generally used to have children.

@user87382294757

The GP orders them. Every 6 months I have a full blood count, vitamin D, zinc, selenium, copper, B12, folate, Bone Profile, Also Thyroid because I am hypothyroid - which apparently is common post bariatric surgery

My son has low calcium levels so has been told to take vitamin D, we were actually advised by GOSH that when it comes to vitamins you get what you pay for (unlike with drugs where branded or generic they should be the same). It seems cheap vitamins aren’t worthwhile.

@GreenGrowTheRushesOhh - for a very long time life expectancy in the Uk and the northern climbs of Europe and the Artic was lower than the Southern Europe /Middle East / Asia.

I got tan during the warm spell we had in February 2019. I read that UV-B causes tans and means skin is generating vit D. So I humbly submit that it is possible to generate Vitamin D from sun exposure in winter in Britain.