1. In a 2002 scientific review, the Harvard School of Medicine recommended,“Pending strong evidence of effectiveness from randomised trials, it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements”.
2. RDAs are set at levels known to prevent nutrient deficiencies, yet it is questionable whether these levels are high enough to promote optimal health. For example recent medical research has shown that human daily requirements of vitamin D may be up to ten times more than what is currently recommended. Taking a daily multi can help to support these optimal levels.
3. In a study published in the June 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that taking a daily multivitamin & mineral supplement may help to improve biological age.
4. Research shows that the typical Western diet supplies less than adequate amounts of several vitamins and minerals and nutrition surveys have found that large numbers of people consume too little calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and possible copper and manganese.
5. A study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that in obese individuals, multivitamin and mineral supplementation could reduce body weight and fat compartments and improve serum lipid profiles, possibly through increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation. In addition, multivitamin and mineral supplementation helped to reduce blood pressure and serum CRP in obese women with increased cardiovascular disease risk.
Why take a multivitamin and mineral supplement?
Ideally optimal vitamin and mineral intake would be provided through food, however most people don’t eat well, most of the time. Despite public health recommendations, a minority of people meet the recommended 5 daily servings of fruit and vegetables, and while there have been efforts to fortify foods with nutrients such as folic acid and vitamin D, this does not ensure nutritional adequacy.
Add to these factors nutrient losses in food from processing and storage, as well as increased requirements due to alcohol use, chronic illness and increasing age, and it quickly becomes clear why suboptimal intakes of micronutrients are remarkably common.
In fact, a scientific review on the topic from a team at Harvard University concluded that everyone should be taking a multivitamin.
Multivitamin supplements are not intended to replace healthy eating recommendations; rather leading experts recommend they are used as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Walter Willet MD and Meir Stampfer MD from Harvard Medical School wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine:
“Substantial data suggest that higher intakes of folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and vitamin D will benefit many people, and a multivitamin will ensure an adequate intake of other vitamins for which the evidence of benefit is indirect.”
Dr Bruce Ames, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, also wrote that “micronutrient inadequacies are widespread in the population, and a multivitamin and mineral supplement is inexpensive. A solution is to encourage multivitamin and mineral supplementation, particularly in those groups with widespread deficiencies such as the poor, teenagers, the obese and the elderly, in addition to urging people to eat a more balanced diet.”
Leading experts recommend a daily multivitamin
In summary, a high quality daily multivitamin and mineral supplement should complement healthy eating advice to ensure optimal daily nutrient intakes.
