Food is Best Source for Your Vitamin Needs (Most of the Time)

Next time you have an urge to pop some vitamin pills, consider the evidence: You are probably wasting your money and doing nothing beneficial for your health.

And remember this: For most people, eating wholesome food — and it doesn’t take that much — is the most cost-effective and healthiest way to get your vitamin needs met.

The latest study in a series on vitamin trends, published in JAMA, showed that the percentage of U.S. adults using dietary supplements remained stable at 52 percent. However the popularity of multivitamins waned a bit in the latest two-year study period, 2011-2012. The percentage of people taking a multivitamin dropped to 31 percent from the 37 percent who reported multivitamin use in 1999-2000.

Experts Don’t Recommend Multivitamins

In 2013, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force decided not to recommend the use of multivitamins and minerals to prevent cardiovascular disease or cancer for people without nutritional deficiencies. This recommendation from the independent group of doctors came after numerous studies failed to show health benefits from taking vitamin and mineral supplements.

Even so, millions of Americans spend more than $30 billion a year, according to the Journal of Nutrition, in the hopes that supplements will keep them healthy, relieve an ache or pain, and even prevent or cure prevent disease.

The ongoing study, conducted by an epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, found that the use of vitamin D increased to 19 percent from 5 percent, and the use of fish oil supplements increased to 12 percent from 1 percent. Other individual supplements declined somewhat in popularity, including vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium.

The no-supplement recommendation pertains to generally healthy people. People with certain illnesses or nutritional deficiencies, including those with bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, or weight-loss surgery patients, do need to take vitamin supplements to ensure they are getting the minimal amount of vitamins and minerals for their body to function properly. Pregnant women and those trying to become pregnant are urged to take a folic acid supplement because studies have shown that its abundant use reduces birth defects, especially those involving the neural tube, which develops into the central nervous system. Breast-feeding women also have additional vitamin needs.

The following is a chart compiled by WebMD of the recommended daily/dietary allowance (RDA) or adequate intake (AI) of vitamins and minerals for adults, as well as the upper tolerable limit (UL), or the amount you can take without risking your health.