Standard Process Vitamins

Is it bad to take multivitamins like Centrum?

I hear it may be bad to take multivitamins for a long period of time. It reduces the body's effectiveness from getting nutrients naturally?

Public Comments

1. Centrum is bad because it contains potentially unhealthy preservatives like BHT.
2. That is true to a degree. vitamin supplements are not as readily absorbed by the body because they have been seperated from the other food components that work synergistically with them (notice beta carotene is absorbed better straight from the carrot than from a pill). However, if one is severely defficient in a vitamin or mineral, a supplement may be necessary until they are able to meet the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for that vitamin or mineral. While it is not "bad" to take a multivitamin, most people don't actually need multivitamins if they have a healthy diet. If the wrong person takes a multivitamin, they could potentially develop a toxicity of some vitamins. I recommend that before taking a multivitamin you should consider your diet and how you can alter it first. Then check what is in the multivitamin and what percent of your vitamin RDA 1 dose has in it. Weigh that against the cost of taking it. For instance, some vitamins might have 100% vitamin C in 1 dose, but 1 dose is 3 tablets or even 6. also remember that every vitamin has an Upper Level, which is the amount per day that you shouldn't exeed. Once you surpass the UL, you can either develop toxicity (such as with Vitamin A) or your body won't absorb it as efficiently (as with vitamin C). There is minimal to no risk of developing toxicity with natural food sources of a vitamin (however, deficiency can be a problem if you are eating the wrong foods) I strongly believe that the proper diet is the best supplement. To what the person said above me, I have heard some bad things about centrum vitamins, I don't know if it was necessarily BHT, but I haven't done any follow up to see if they are true. I do know that a lot of synthetic vitamin supplements like centrum are petroleum based. If you want to take a daily supplement, you can find one that is a "whole food supplement". This means the vitamin hasn't been extracted from the food. These are usually more costly than a centrum tablet though.