I’ve been told that you just pass them through your digestive system like a seed by some and then that they are critical to your health by others.
In: 147
There are two answers.
The answer for five year olds is: no, multivitamins do not work and the reason they don’t work is you don’t understand what you need, what you’re getting, and what the effects of those vitamins are.
The answer not for five year old is: yes, multivitamins do work, but to make them work you have to really understand what you need, what you’re getting, and what the effects are. Basically you need serious knowledge that a five year old is not going to have. And yes, vitamins are critical to your health – that’s why they are called “vitamins” (from latin “vita” meaning life – “amine” is because they were originally thought to contain amino acids).
I’ll give two easy examples, but keep in mind that these are just easy examples and the subject matter is far more complex and difficult to evaluate.
1. Calcium: most multivitamins give you Calcium Carbonate, which is rocks, difficult to absorb and goes through your system.
2. Vitamin C: most multivitamins give you Ascorbic Acid, which is not a complete Vitamin and will pull the complete Vitamin out of your body when it leaves your system (ascorbic acid may still help you fight off a cold).
These are just two examples where the vitamins and minerals in a multivitamin might not be working to help you.
But, the kind of knowledge that you need to really understand multivitamins is vast and complex. For example, there are 12 different “B vitamins”, B1, B2, B3, all the way up to… B12 and each B Vitamin may have multiple forms and the effect of each B vitamin in your body varies slightly. There are many Vitamins and minerals to understand. In theory, if you did understand it, then you would understand multivitamins.
You might think that you just need to take the ones that you have less of. It’s not that simple. it turns out that the various Vitamins and minerals and other compounds within the body interact with each other like five seperate orchestras playing at once. You might think you need Calcium and discover you need Vitamins K and F and something else too and that you need to take Magnesium to balance the Calcium and etc. Your medications can affect your vitamins and minerals. Eating the wrong things can affect your vitamins and minerals, eating the right things can affect your vitamins and minerals, the amount of sun you get each day can affect your vitamins and minerals.
Sure… there is *some* mix of vitamins and minerals that is best for you, but you need some serious knowledge to really understand what you are getting and what it is doing inside your body.
Latest Answers