I don’t know about you, but as I’ve gotten older, so many people have been telling me to take multivitamins. From my mother to my friends to influencers on YouTube, it seems like multivitamins are everywhere these days. I’m sure we’ve all seen the ads for Ritual vitamins, and have probably passed by them in the vitamin aisle of the grocery store. Some of us, myself included, have taken multivitamins in the past, only to wonder if they really work or not. If you’ve ever wondered whether you should be taking multivitamins, or if they actually provide benefits to your body, read on for all the multivitamin details you need to know.
What are multivitamins?
Multivitamins are supplements for your regular diet. They often come in pill or gummy form, and contain various vitamins and minerals that are intended to benefit your existing diet. Usually, multivitamins include nutrients such as iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin C. Many vitamins can also include vitamins A, E, and K, as well as vitamin D2 or D3.
While everyone requires the same types of nutrients and minerals that can be found in multivitamins, men and women require different levels of each nutrient. This is why there are specific multivitamins that are tailored to each gender. It’s recommended that people take the multivitamin associated with their gender in order to address their unique health concerns.
The benefits of taking multivitamins
There are so many different kinds of multivitamins, all intended for various groups of people, but do they actually benefit your body in any concrete way? In an article from Johns Hopkins, Larry Appel, M.D., the director of Johns Hopkins Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, says that “other nutrition recommendations have much stronger evidence of benefits — eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing the amount of saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugar you eat.”
However, in an article from Harvard Health, Dr. Howard Sesso, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, thinks that “it is worth considering a multivitamin as part of a healthy lifestyle.”
There are no proven benefits to taking multivitamins, and many studies have concluded that taking these supplements don’t really add protection against cardiovascular disease, cancer, or memory loss.
Should you take multivitamins?
It seems like there isn’t a current conclusive decision as to whether multivitamins are beneficial or not. While most multivitamins haven’t been proven to be harmful, they also haven’t provided conclusive evidence that they add anything positive to your health. Ultimately, if you’re considering adding multivitamins to your routine, the best thing to do is ask your doctor if it’s something that will benefit your health. Your physician can also make sure you don’t have any vitamin deficiencies. It’s also important to remember that vitamins aren’t a replacement for a healthy lifestyle. Eating a mostly balanced diet and finding enjoyable ways to move our bodies can provide us with many of the essential vitamins and minerals we all need in a much more natural way.