Pill Poppers: How to Make Sure Your Multivitamin Works

According to wellness experts, popping a multivitamin in the morning is like recycling a plastic bottle; no matter how small the task, it’s a conscious-clearing baby step in the right direction­. Multivitamins are advised to guard your wellbeing against diseases, and fill the gaps in your diet where food is falling short of giving you the nutrients you need. However, like recycling, the benefits of taking a multivitamins aren’t immediately visible, and so, if it’s not working, how would you know?

One multivitamin belief that may be a myth is that they prevent diseases. According to a long-term, large-scale study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) last year, multivitamins do not prevent heart disease in men. Another JAMA study, unrelated to the first, also found that, in men over the age of 50, multivitamins did little to fend off cancer in men older than 50, too. Neither study looked at women, but it’s likely nonetheless that the same holds true.

Jayson Calton, PhD, co-author of the new bestselling book Rich Food, Poor Food, says that your multivitamin might be underperforming because, when consumed at the same time, some vitamins and minerals may compete against each other for absorption in the body. ‘Nearly 90% of the 34 common micronutrients found in a multivitamin are affected by micronutrient competition in some way,’ says Calton. ‘When researchers study specific nutrients, they’ll separate them from a multivitamin and watch them work beautifully on their own, but when you put them all together in a pill, it’s all about the competition.’

Calton, who spent six years with his wife, nutritionist Mira Calton, formulating a solution called Anti-Competition Technology which separates competing micronutrients in order to increase their absorption, metabolisation, and utilisation, also warns that a multivitamin may mess with your mechanics. ‘When key micronutrients don’t get absorbed, the ability of other micronutrients to perform specific functions in the body can be greatly diminished or even eliminated,’ he says.

Finally, one mistake of the multivitamin is that it’s stuck in the past. Multivitamins are still manufactured the same way they were when they were introduced in the 1930s, even though supplement companies are well aware of the non-existent or even damaging effects they can have. Calton speculates, ‘Even though science now understands much more about vitamins than it did back in the early 20th century, the billion-dollar industry may not be ready to admit that their current products don’t work.’