There is a strong debate surrounding how effective multivitamins really are, alongside the ever present discussion on whether we really need supplements. Should we simply be getting our nutrients from our diet, or are supplements an effective way of ensuring that we get all the nutrients we need to stay healthy?
Experts agree that we should eat our way through the nutrient list, rather than relying on supplements and tablets to do the hard work for us. But an article from Natural News, published in May, states that the growing concern surrounding supplements may be true – those bought at the supermarket or pharmacies are composed of isolated, inorganic and synthetic forms of vitamins and minerals. This is a problem for a number of reasons – firstly, the human body isn’t familiar with these forms of vitamins and minerals, so absorbing them can become a problem. This means they aren’t as effective as they need to be. Secondly, they often also include synthetic chemicals to bind the ingredients together, which are toxic to your body and actually have more of a detrimental effect on your health rather than helping it. It’s important to remember that we take vitamin supplements as a way of shortening the gaps that our diet causes – if they’re causing more harm than good, these gaps become wider and multivitamins become less useful to us. Where certain nutrients are concerns, such as iron and calcium, the minerals found in multivitamins have been likened more to rocks than nutrients – they’re not good for our health and could actually cause us damage internally. It’s safer to opt for a healthy diet in order to get the nutrients you need, so that you can be sure the vitamins and minerals are exactly as state, rather than synthetic versions.