Should you take a multivitamin?

A multivitamin is a collection of isolated nutrients from food that current science has identified to be important for human health. Sounds good right? Well, here’s the thing-multivitamins are trying to mimic the benefits of a healthy diet rich in fruits and veggies, and they fall short. No vitamin, no matter how good they claim it is, or who is endorsing it, will ever equal the nutrient quality and variety found in real food.

“…In the early 19th century, an English doctor and chemist William Prout identified what came to be called the ''macronutrients'': protein, fat and carbohydrates. It was thought that that was pretty much all there was going on in food, until doctors noticed that an adequate supply of the big three did not necessarily keep people nourished. At the end of the 19th century, British doctors were puzzled by the fact that Chinese laborers in the Malay states were dying of a disease called beriberi, which didn't seem to afflict Tamils or native Malays. The mystery was solved when someone pointed out that the Chinese ate ''polished,'' or white, rice, while the others ate rice that hadn't been mechanically milled. A few years later, Casimir Funk, a Polish chemist, discovered the ''essential nutrient'' in rice husks that protected against beriberi and called it a ''vitamine,'' the first micronutrient.” (UnHappy Meals, Michael Pollan)

Thiamine, or B1, was the name given to the vitamin above. Its discovery lead to further investigation which identified the 13 other chemicals we call vitamins. So now that we can name the essential vitamins, does that mean that’s all there is too food? In the next decades, will we discover hundreds of other phytochemicals (naturally occurring chemicals found in plants) that are necessary for human health? Should we wait for science to name them all, isolate, extract, and put them in supplement form too? The answer is no, we should eat REAL food. Nature has already perfected the best way to nourish our bodies and it comes from plants.

Colorful fruits and veggies contain HUNDREDS of phytochemicals and some of them you may have heard already of- lycopene, bioflavonoids, carotenoids, quercetin, lutein and zeaxanthin. I wager there are hundreds more we have not identified yet. When you eat fruits and vegetables, the phytochemicals work with the nutrients, vitamins and minerals, making them easier to digest, absorb, and work synergistically to increase the health benefits to your body. There are some multivitamins now adding in these phytochemicals and antioxidants. However, the real food is superior still because at most, the supplement will only provide you with only one or two large doses of these phytochemicals. A multivitamin will never triumph the benefits of a diet rich in fruits and veggies.

What is a good healthy diet? The very simple version is this: base your diet on garden vegetables (especially greens), small portions of lean meats, some fruits (especially berries), nuts, seeds, and beans, little starch and no sugar.

In addition to the above diet in which you are getting 9-13 servings of fruit and veggies every day, I do recommend taking a green-food supplement. This is basically an instant fruit and vegetable drink that tastes good and is convenient. This is not a replacement for eating lots of plants, this is to fortify your diet to enable you to better handle the stressors, pollution, and other modern influences on our bodies. In this drink, you get the benefit of WHOLE plants; fruits and vegetables along with all their vitamins, minerals AND phytonutrients. You can add this to smoothies, yogurt, oatmeal, diluted juice, etc. The one I use tastes so good, I enjoy drinking it with just plain water. I use the GreensFirst brand; click the link to find out more.

So to answer the question, should you take a multivitamin comes down to this: The human body was designed to eat real food and that’s where we should be getting our nourishment from. Pills of isolated chemicals created in a laboratory will never surpass the bounty of what your garden can provide!