If you eat a healthy diet, do you need to take vitamins? Not long ago, the answer from most experts would have been a resounding “no”. Today, though, there’s good evidence that taking a daily multivitamin makes sense for most adults.
What’s changed? Not only have scientists determined why we need pyridoxine (vitamin B6), but they are also accumulating evidence that this vitamin and others do much more than ward off the so-called diseases of deficiency, things like scurvy and rickets. Intake of several vitamins above the minimum daily requirement may prevent heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other chromic diseases.
In purchasing a multivitamin, look for a multivitamin that has 100% of the Dietary Reference Intakes for most vitamins. Be careful of supplements that have greater than 200% or 300% of the DRI, and in especially cautious of ones that have 1000% of the DRI. In such large does, you will excrete out what you don’t need for water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin C, and may experience liver damage or other toxic side effects for large doses of fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A.
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