Do you take multivitamins every day but wonder exactly how effective they are and how beneficial they are? Have you ever considered that there might be some drawbacks to taking multivitamins daily?
Most people think of multivitamins as something healthy they have with their morning meal and that helps them to function properly. They may think that taking these is a way to help with vitamin deficiencies and cover the vitamins and nutrients they are not getting from the food they eat.
Yes, multivitamins can be all that, but like anything, there are pros and cons to them. Let’s talk about those pros and cons of multivitamins so that you can make a more informed decision and understand better what it is that you’re putting into your body and what it does to you.
Benefits of Taking Multivitamins
Let’s start with some of the good things about multivitamins. Most people know them as something that is beneficial and advantageous to their health, and that’s very true. There’s plenty of great things we can say about multivitamins, so let’s get into it.
Reduces Chances of Vitamin Deficiencies
One of the biggest advantages when we’re talking about the pros and cons of multivitamins is that they can help to take care of vitamin deficiencies.
A lot of people do not get all the nutrients they need in their diet, and they may be lacking iron, magnesium, B vitamins and other essential components that they should be getting.
If you want to make sure that your diet is balanced and that you’re getting adequate nutrition, then taking multivitamins can help. It can ensure that you’re not missing out on any important nutrients, and that means that your body will function the way it’s supposed to function.
A Simple Way to Get Nutrition
It can be difficult to look closely at all the foods we eat. Do you look carefully to ensure that you’re getting a balanced diet and all the nutrients you need? How many people think about whether the foods they are eating for the day have enough vitamin B or enough manganese? The answer is probably not many.
What multivitamins do is give you an easy way to get all those nutrients you need without having to worry too much about which foods contain what.
Yes, you should try to eat healthy, but you won’t have to carefully calculate all your vitamin levels from each of the foods you eat for the day if you simply take a multivitamin. It takes a lot of guesswork out of your nutrition, making it easy to ensure you’re staying healthy.
It Boosts Health and Immunity
There are certain periods in your life where multivitamins will be more helpful than others. There may be times where a doctor will recommend that you take a multivitamin to help you get through a stressful or challenging situation.
Athletes may want to take multivitamins to help strengthen them when they are preparing for a big game. Pregnant or breastfeeding women many want to take multivitamins in order to ensure that their baby is getting adequate nutrition and that their body is staying healthy during these challenging times.
Multivitamins can also be helpful for people who are traveling and may not have access to high quality food or adequate nutrition. It can help supplement their diet and their nutrition in a simple way.
Anytime someone isn’t sure if they’re able to get adequate nutrition from their food or there’s some question about the nutritional value of the food they’re getting, multivitamins can fill in the gap and help them through that short period of time.
Disadvantages of Multivitamins
There are actually some disadvantages to using multi vitamins, and we’re going to talk about those as we cover the pros and cons of taking multivitamins.
It’s important that we talk about all aspects of multivitamins to give you a balanced and comprehensive assessment. You want to make the right decisionsfor yourself and for your family, so knowing all the facts can help.
They Can Make You Overconfident
People will use multivitamins as a catchall for their nutrition. In other words, they will think that they can eat whatever they want and not worry about how healthy it is because they are taking multivitamins.
They get overconfident with their nutrition and don’t pay too much attention to what they’re eating. This can be very unhealthy for you, as it is important that you control what you eat and make sure you’re getting nutrition in your foods.
If your foods have very little nutritional value, then they are not good for you. Yes, you may be getting enough vitamins, but what is your food doing to you?
It’s important to understand the role of multivitamins and supplement your nutrition and not cover all of it. You still ought to eat nutritious food that is full of vitamins and minerals and treat multivitamins as stopgap or as a minor corrective measure that can be used just in case rather than used for your entire nutritional consumption.
Excess Vitamins
Did you know that you can get too many vitamins? Some vitamins are not absorbed by your body very well, and your body will expel them if you get too much.
That’s not true of all vitamins, when talking about the pros and cons of multivitamins, we have to talk about how some multivitamins can be excessive. If you get too much of certain vitamins, you can have some symptoms, like diarrhea, sweating, depression, vomiting, trouble breathing, palpitations, kidney failure and more.
This is very unlikely and uncommon, but you should know that it happens.
There are few vitamins and need to be careful about overdosing on, and these tend to be the fat soluble vitamins which absorb into your body quickly. That would be the vitamins A, D, E, and K.
A lot of people get too much iron as well, which can be dangerous for you if you’re overdoing it. Consuming excessive iron could be bad for your digestive system. You may experience stomach pain or even liver or brain damage in extreme situations.
Some Multivitamins Are Not Safe
Not all multivitamins are thoroughly tested and have been approved. They don’t have to be approved to be sold in stores. What does that mean for you?
There could be manmade substances, chemicals, and additives in there that you don’t want. It may be more than just multivitamins that you’re consuming.
There are so many multivitamins out there, but it can be difficult to tell which ones are worth buying and which ones contain a little something extra that is not good for you.
Make sure you take time to look at product reviews and ingredient lists and only buy from trusted suppliers and manufacturers. Check for a safety guarantee as well and other promises on the packaging that can help you feel good about what you’re getting.
If you’re buying multivitamins that have extra ingredients that aren’t vitamins, not all of those things can be harmful. Some of them may be binders to keep the vitamin together, but others could be harmful chemicals that you need to be aware of.
They could cause side effects and symptoms that you may not be prepared for, so it’s good to do your research and make sure you’re buying a safe product.
The pros and cons of daily multivitamins should be considered before buying any multivitamin product.
