In the U.S., sales of vitamin supplements has grown from $20 billion in 2004, to $35 billion in 2016. Vitamins and minerals are substances the body needs for normal function and growth. Some facilitate important chemical reactions, while others act as building blocks for the body. A normal, varied daily diet of fruit, vegetables, carbohydrates and protein provides sufficient vitamins and minerals to maintain health. Vegetables and whole grains also contain fiber and other important nutrients that cannot be adequately delivered through pills.
“There are literally thousands of these compounds, and we’re just scratching the surface on knowing what their role is,” says David Grotto, a registered dietitian and spokesman for the American Dietetic Association. “We’re sending the wrong message if people believe they’ve got everything under control if they’re taking vitamins while eating a horrible diet.”
Can vitamin and mineral supplements really make a person healthier? Which ones really work? Exactly how effective are they? Are they worth the money?
“Sales of multivitamins and other supplements have not been affected by major studies that produced null results, and the U.S. supplement industry continues to grow,” wrote Dr. Eliseo Guallar, a professor of epidemiology who specializes in heart disease prevention at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “The message is simple: Most supplements do not prevent chronic disease or death, their use is not justified, and they should be avoided.”
Industry representatives argue that foods don’t contain all the necessary nutrients to maintain health and we need supplements.
“These studies demonstrate a close-minded, one-sided approach that attempts to dismiss proven benefits of vitamins and minerals,” Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said in a statement.
Myths:
Vitamins provide energy.
Some people need very high amounts of vitamins to be healthy.
Organic vitamins are better than synthetic vitamins.
The more vitamins, the better.
A person cannot get enough vitamins from the foods he eats.
Facts:
Vitamins do not provide energy.
People do not need amounts higher than the Recommended Dietary Allowance.
A body cannot tell the difference between synthetic or organic vitamins.
Some vitamins (A, D, K, niacin and B6) may be harmful in large amounts.
Eating a variety of foods will provide sufficient vitamins, and foods have other substances necessary for health.
Numerous clinical trials conducted over many years have repeatedly demonstrated that taking vitamin and mineral supplements doesn’t do anything much for the health of an average person. Though less conclusive, a growing body of evidence suggests that they may even shorten life. Unless taking vitamins to address a specific deficiency, malnutrition or illness, ingesting quantities of supplements in the expectation of preventing disease or prolonging life is one of the most prevalent medical myths of our time.
Yet people the world over are not getting the message, demonstrated by the increasing demand for supplements. As recently as 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association recommended that, “All adults take one multivitamin daily.” For the last several years, many doctors have begun to reverse their previous recommendations. A study published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2006, combed through 63 randomized, controlled trials on multivitamins, showed that vitamin and mineral supplements did nothing to prevent cancer or heart disease in most people, with the exception of those in developing countries where nutritional deficiencies are common. In another study published in 2009, scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center followed 160,000 postmenopausal women for some 10 years, also found that taking multivitamins did not improve health, regardless of what the women were eating.
In a 2010 study, a team of French researchers, who published their work in the International Journal of Epidemiology, tracked over 8,000 volunteers who took either a multivitamin or a placebo every day for six years. The findings showed no improvement in health over the placebo group. People take multivitamins in the mistaken belief that they act as a form of insurance against a poor or inadequate diet. However, in developed countries, people have a sufficiently varied diet that avoids specific vitamin deficiencies. Even if a person has a specific deficiency demonstrated by a blood test, it does not necessarily follow that a supplement will overcome that deficiency.
It is also possible to overdose on vitamins. Between food consumed during the course of a day, including items like cereal fortified with vitamins and minerals, and any additional ingested supplements, a person can easily exceed the recommended daily dose of a given vitamin and mineral. Large doses of folic acid have been associated with higher risk of precancerous colon polyps. Too much beta carotene was linked to lung cancer. The chances of dying for people who take antioxidant supplements has been found to be five percent higher than for non-users. As the New York Times stated in a 2009 article, “The selling point of antioxidant vitamins is that they eliminate free radicals, the damaging molecular fragments linked to aging and disease.” The problem with that assertion is that the body needs free radicals in order to fight off illnesses.
In December 1972, the FDA, alarmed at the growing vitamin obsession, tried to regulate supplements containing more than 150 percent of the recommended daily allowance. The goal was to force manufacturers to prove that they were safe. The vitamin industry not only destroyed the bill, they engaged William Proxmire, a Democrat senator from Wisconsin, to put up an alternate bill blocking the FDA from requiring safety tests. The industry leaders pleaded that consumer costs would go up if they were constrained by regulations. Among those who maintained that the Proxmire bill was demonstrably incorrect were the American Medical Association, the FDA, the National Nutrition Consortium (which represents jointly the American Institute of Nutrition, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, the American Dietetic Association, and the Society of Food Technologists), Ralph Nader’s Consumers’ Union, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association, the American Association of Retired Persons, and the president of the National Academy of Sciences. The Proxmire bill was passed, allowing the supplements industry to create the great vitamin myth.
What is not clearly understood is how the public continues to ignore clinical trials and evidence proving that taking vitamin and mineral supplements does not enhance health or longevity. Part of the problem is that the average person does not understand or appreciate the effect of supplements on the body, and the multi-billion dollar supplements industry relies on this ignorance to promote and sell their products. Bombarded with daily advertising, crowded supermarket shelves, health stores, it is understandable how consumers are taken in by the hype. What is regrettable, studies reported in scientific journals that refute the vitamin myth, are not given broad exposure in newspapers, TV and the social media, giving the supplements industry a captive consumer audience.
The bottom line? Never take any vitamin or supplement without discussing it with your doctor and having appropriate diagnostic tests for your condition. If your doctor prescribes preventative vitamins, ask for evidence that the prescription is necessary and demand information on clinical trials. It is the doctor’s responsibility to demonstrate the efficacy of taking supplements. Not considering social and environmental factors, a balanced diet will ensure health and longevity, rather than relying on pills and marketing hype.
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