eli5: Can someone live a healthy full life by substituting vegetables with regular multivitamins
In: 0
Sidenote: this person still has his regular intake of macros through normal food and fruits
It’s likely it will cut off a few years of life, but we don’t really know how many or why. Basically every study says that eating more plants, especially veggies, leads to improved health and longevity. But those studies don’t say why veggies and other plants are so helpful. It probably involves something about micronutrients and fiber, but neither of those things in isolation seem to make too much of a difference. That is, vitamin supplementation without a deficiency doesn’t seem to help overall health. Fiber supplementation without a
deficiency/bowel disorder doesn’t seem to help too much. Maybe. We’re not entirely sure yet.
It’s very unlikely you’ll get sick very quickly with the diet you describe. And maybe it won’t do anything harmful long term. But the best evidence is that veggies will make you live longer and healthier.
“Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” It’s still great advice.
Vegetables aren’t just a source of vitamins, they also contain *thousands* of other things (called [phytochemicals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytochemical)), most of which we don’t yet know the individual function of, and even less how they interact with each other.
So the answer to your question is “probably, but maybe not, we don’t really know”.
The issue is that in addition to the vitamins we have catalogued, there are tens of thousand of other compounds found in vegetables, spices, even coffee and tea, that positively benefit us. Known as ‘phytonutrients’, they provide benefits that we are struggling to quantify. They are incredibly disparate, and the science of nutrition is notoriously difficult to perform.
That’s why the most healthy diet is one that is highly varied, and the advisement to ‘eat the rainbow’ is so prevalent. Many of these nutrients synergize; one chemical can drastically amplify the impact of another. They also tend to be more fragile than other vitamins, making it very difficult to compound them into multivitamins.
Perhaps eventually you will be able to buy a nutrient paste with all of these compounds added synthetically, but for now your best bet is to eat the largest variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes that you have access to.
Source:
[NHS: Clinical Benefits of Phytonutrients in Human Health](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9102588/)
Yep.
I’ve got an eating disorder so vegetables (amongst other foods) are pretty much impossible for me to eat. According to dietitians and nutritionists I should’ve come out of puberty with severe deficiencies and issues like infertility, weak bones, poor lung capacity, etc.
I’m now a completely fine and healthy 26 year old without any deficiencies. Don’t even take any vitamin supplements. I stopped eating vegetables when I was 2 years old tho, so my body likely adapted to it.
Point is, it’s possible. Just get regular, extensive blood tests to make sure you’re handling it well.
You can live a solid life on many different diets.
There are healthy vegetarians, and there are healthy people who base most of their diets on meat. But the more foods you restrict yourself from, the more likely you are to run into problems, and sometimes it’s difficult to know how and when the problems will arise.
But in any case, you can’t really substitute foods with pills. Foods are incredibly complex and you can’t just reduce them down to macronutrients and vitamins. Complex interactions between many many different compounds are what ultimately makes your diet. And even though you’re taking pills to supplement vitamins, there are other substances in those foods that aren’t contained in pills.
Latest Answers