eli5: Can someone live a healthy full life by substituting vegetables with regular multivitamins
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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/)
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