Quick Thoughts on Multivitamins

When I bring up that I studied food science to my family and friends, I usually get asked tons of questions about diets. One question that pops up a lot is whether or not to use a multivitamin.

Using a multivitamin can be very beneficial. The way it works is the vitamin manufacturer takes a whole bunch of compounds of different vitamins and minerals and smashes them together into one pill. When the pill goes down, the body will break apart the pill form into the useful vitamin and mineral forms. And there you go, vitamin power.

The thing about vitamins is if we are eating a balanced meal as most perfectly outlined by MyPyramid, then we do not need to add these vitamins to our diet because we are already getting our vitamins and minerals from more natural sources. The percentages on the back of food labels and whatnot are designed to reach 100% or more when consuming a "perfect diet." The problem with this is it's pretty tough to eat the perfect diet!

In the end, it doesn't hurt to take a multivitamin. Most of the unusable stuff you will pee out anyway. Here's my pro tip for you all: do not take multivitamins first thing in the morning or on an empty stomach. Multivitamins work and get absorbed much better when taken with food. While the food is being broken down, so is the multivitamin, so the body can use the food as almost a vehicle for being used in the body. I take my multivitamin usually in the afternoon, right after lunch. If I forget, then I take it with dinner.

So go ahead and try a multivitamin, they aren't threatening. You still want to get most of your vitamins and minerals from natural sources, but like stated before, this isn't the easiest thing to do. I know there are probably tons more of specific questions out there, so ask away!