Are regular vitamins actually good for you?

I'm trying to find out more about vitamines.

I'm wondering about regular vitamins you buy from almost anywhere. Are they actually good for you? Do they actually have some health benefit? Most are synthetic aren't they? So does that actually do anything for you then? Just wondering what you all know about this?

I use to take them but haven't for a long time. Thought about taking some vit C and D which my understanding is that those are the only 2 vitimines that your body doesn't create naturally. So it perhaps makes some sense to add more of those to your diet.

What do you think?

a reply to: lavatrance

Why wouldn't they be? Aside from preservatives in some of them. I take Vitamin D daily during the winter as I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and the winters here are quite cloud ridden. I take 1000 IU each morning. I doubt I get the full amount by the time it becomes bio-available in my blood stream but it's better than nothing and it's pretty cheap. I also take Omega's when I haven't eaten fish for a few days. I catch my own Salmon/Trout up here so I am lucky enough to not have to supplement too much. As for a multi-vitamin.. I wouldn't worry too much about taking it as long as you eat leafy greens, a variety of vegetables, and a variety of fruits regularly. If you are older or have some illness maybe. If you eat a healthy balanced diet, you shouldn't really need supplements. I doubt they hurt though.

Also there are plenty of things your body doesn't create aside from those. I am no expert but many amino acids, omegas, etc, your body can't make. Your body also would be better off getting a lot of the things it can make from food, so it doesn't have to make them. Just eat lots of veggies, fruits, and leafy greens (spinach, kale) daily.

eat healthy fresh foods and lots of fruit and veg and you don't need over the counter stuff.

the best vitamins for your body are the ones that mother nature gives us

a reply to: lavatrance


I live in the New England area, so I also take 5000 iu of vitamin D per day (year round, but it's definitely needed more in the winter)

fish oil

zinc and magnesium (supports testosterone, I do bodybuilding so that's a must)

and like LostWoods said, the best source of vitamins/nutrients would be from fresh produce

a reply to: lavatrance

I believe supplements are useful, but not as complete as foods. There are enzymes, trace nutrients and combinations present in foods which you either won't get im the appropriate complete forms, or absorb as readily, from vitamins.

One I will recommend for certain, as nearly everyone is deficient in it, is Magnesium. Super important, extremely difficult to test for deficiencies accurately, and as a population, we are chronically deficient. I take Magnesium Citrate every day. I eat obnoxiously healthy, so most of my other supplements I just take "as needed" (such as how LostWoods described) - taking Omega/Fish Oil when you haven't eaten fish in a few days, Vitamin D when the sun goes into hiding (or we do, whichever), etc.

I do believe in choosing quality supplements, so that you're actually getting what is advertised, and in a form which is useful, keeping in mind the overall picture of your nutritional profile, understanding your body's needs and deficiencies, and striving for an appropriate balance.

Yes, vitimins are good for you, but you need to be careful on the level of input. Too much of anything can have adverse effects.

The thing about many supplements is that your body can't process the level or amount of vitimins in them, so a lot of it doesn't go to any use, or its urinated out.

The best way to get the vitimins you need, and also allow your body to process them properly, is to eat healthy foods and be active.

More whole foods, less foods that contain a high amount of unnecessary fats or sugar, and being active all contribute to your ability to properly process and regulate vitimins

a reply to: lavatrance

Normal usp vitamins do more harm than good. All B vitamins are made from petroleum industry effluent
99.9% of all vitamin c is made from gmo corn from china.

Get a food sourced, whole matrix vitamin like Garden of Life, or at the minimum yeast/bacteria cultivated nutrients which form a polypeptide bond allowing for "food" like absorption.

I'm on my phone, deeper comments to come

a reply to: lavatrance

One of my biology teachers told me vitamins are supplements, not substitutes!

From there you can probably come up with your own conclusion. As others have said--eat right. The stuff that comes in bottles is certainly not to replace a healthy diet.

Anyway, I do eat Flintstones vitamins just because I love the flavor

There is a boatload of marketing and good sounding crap not based in any science in vitamin land... but certain ones most definitely should be supplemented by everyone, like vit c.. .we simply cannot get enough from modern diets and the science about how much we need is contested... with the "mega dose" side making some sense when investigated... and the science is voluminous but obscure...

and other vitamins/supps should be investigated when ill ... or small preventive doses can be used, but I suggest careful self education...

and there are differences in vit c, too, but the "natural and bio-flavonoid" meme is marketing with no scientific backing (as far as I could glean), as vit c IS L-ascorbic acid and that is what most animals make and is what our human bodies would make from glucose if we didn't have a mutation/defect.... and the common memes about not being able to absorb large amounts is wrong.

And true, most vit c is now made in China from gmo corn, but the real problem is the end product... it doesn't matter what it's derived from as long as the end molecule is correct... the problem is that some v-c seems not to be well made and also, other, cheaper forms of the ascorbic acid is used... rumor has it that the "D" form is cheaper and easier to make but is not active as vit c, but is used in many "cheaper" products that just list "ascorbic acid." So look for an "L" in front of the ascorbic acid.

Vit e, too, should be "natural." Other vitamins and supplements are likely not as needed if one takes care of themselves and has a very healthy diet and some people are just bonkers about the amount of supplements they take... but I gotta admit the folks I know who take some supplements are generally healthier... so? And things like heart disease seems linked to non-acute scurvy (vit c deficiency).

I got schooled at www.vitamincfoundation.org ... a cheesy, dated looking site, but is has info with footnotes! They seem to try to keep it scientific there... the discussion forum is full of wonks and gets deep.

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: lavatrance


I live in the New England area, so I also take 5000 iu of vitamin D per day (year round, but it's definitely needed more in the winter)

fish oil

zinc and magnesium (supports testosterone, I do bodybuilding so that's a must)

and like LostWoods said, the best source of vitamins/nutrients would be from fresh produce

I too am from New England. My Doctor recommended I take vitamin D as I am low in that. I also take fish oil and a regular vitamin.

a reply to: lavatrance

Taking vitamins is not recommended by any means. The supplements can give you over and above the daily allowance. Please search for vitamin overdose effects! I can't link at the moment. The effects of too much vitamin far outweigh the "benefits". A balanced healthy lifestyle with a highly varied diet would be better for you. Cut out all caffeine etc drink plenty of water and exercise regularly. That is better for you.

a reply to: Night Star

I actually was told a few years ago that I needed to take it since my bloodwork showed a significant deficiency


Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with many common and serious diseases, including cancers - "ain't nobody got time for that"


"Vitamin D: importance in the prevention of cancers, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis.
Holick MF1.
Author information
Erratum in

Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 May;79(5):890. "
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

I can't take a regular vitamin mineral pill on a long term basis. I take one a week and there is no problem though. I do take a multimineral pill every day and that does not negatively effect me at all. I have done much research as to why that is, but I am not sure exactly what the reason is. I also take a magnesium pill once in a while when I start to get constipated. I have a whole bunch of different things, and I will take one once in a while when I have symptoms that I have found the supplement would help.

It would be nice if I could find a multivitamin I could take.

I think I'll just leave it

Regular vitamins are not accepted into your system. You pee them out in your urine. Fruits and vegitables are where you get most of your absorbable vitamins, the sun, sea salt and spring water make up the rest. Most vitamin suppliments are advertising lies.

originally posted by: StickyBuddha
eat healthy fresh foods and lots of fruit and veg and you don't need over the counter stuff.

the best vitamins for your body are the ones that mother nature gives us

Some people still do need to supplement.

originally posted by: texasyeti
Regular vitamins are not accepted into your system. You pee them out in your urine. Fruits and vegitables are where you get most of your absorbable vitamins, the sun, sea salt and spring water make up the rest. Most vitamin suppliments are advertising lies.

That is simply not true.

a reply to: lavatrance

I try to stay away from vit c supplements unless I have a cold. I don't have a clue if there's any medical data to support only overloading on vit c when sick but it seems to work for me.

a reply to: texasyeti

ya that's what Mike Adams, of NaturalNews said too. And that's why I was sort of asking. he said that a lemon for example has far more vit c that you're body can use than a 1000mg vit c pill.

a reply to: lavatrance

Just wrong... easy to check if some small effort is exerted.

Most fruit have less than 25 mgs of c (if memory is working) and one can absorb more than 4 gms at once.. .and more when the body is compromised... most animals make their own v-c and if the amount present in their blood was averaged up to human size, the average daily range would be from 3 gms to 18 gms for a healthy, human sized organism.

But look at the research at that site I gave, don't take some fool's faulty memory as any sort of correct.

All I know is that my chronic infections disappeared when enough was ingested and there seemed to be a tipping point where enough was on hand and all the stuff the enthusiasts described happened... plus I know several folks who cleared their arteries of blockage with vit c and lysine ...and that's a whole weird story in itself based on relatively unknown research and patents by Pauling/Rath that I sure wish I'd known about before losing loved ones to heart disease.

So yeah, vitamins have been largely ignored by the mainstream for whatever reason and some should be supplemented.