If you take a normal balanced diet, you are unlikely to need additional vitamin supplements. A good diet will provide all of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that you need. Multivitamins cannot make up for a poor diet, as a healthy diet also provides extra micronutrients not found in vitamin pills.

The complex mixture of micronutrients found in food may be more effective than large doses of individual vitamins and minerals.
Vitamins and minerals are more bioavailable when found natually in food- this means they  are likely to be abosbed efficiently from your gut and used effectively by your body.
It is likely that most people spending their hard-earned money on vitamin supplements are doing little to improve their health. However, some people will have inadequate dietary intake of Vitamin A and E. 

Women of child-bearing age may be deficient in iron, folic acid and calcium.
Most commercial multivitamins contain inadequate calcium,iron and zinc despite the fact these are amongst the nutrients such women are most likely to be deficient in. Most commercial mutivitamins are loaded with Vitamin C which is cheap to produce and, yet, people with a western diet are extremely unlikely to be deficient in Vitamin C.

There is no evidence that taking extra Vitamin C will prevent coughs and colds – indeed most of the excess Vitamin C will not be aborbed and will simply be excreted by the body.
Fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E and K) are stored in body fat and in the liver. Therefore exceeding the RDA (recommended daily allowance) will result in the storage of excess quantities of these vitamins with potential harmful effects on the body


Written by Medpages Editorial Team
Last Editorial Review: 25/1/2010