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Do you take vitamins?

One pill each of men's one-a-day and vitamin C. I used to take garlic for high cholesterol (bad genes) but haven't taken garlic for several months.
 
Honestly is there any evidence that vitamins actually work? I was told a long time ago that there is a difference in getting vitamins in pill form and when you get it from a fruit. I think it had something to do with how the digestion processes the pill/food.
 
The typical multivitamin does very little for you, and many studies have shown that certain synthetic vitamins can in fact damage your heart and liver.

I eat healthy - only use smart balance for butter, olive oil for cooking oil and dressings, no bleached wheat products, don't drink soda, drink lots of green tea, and eat as many vegetables (and variety of) that I can.

If you want to take supplements, it's best to take an Ester-C complex (with bioflavanoids) and a natural Vitamin E complex with mixed Tocopherols.

Pills like "centrum" are mostly calcium carbonate, which has maybe a 5% digestion and absorption rate, and tend to pass through you like a rock. Plus the complex relationship of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes inhibits most of the absorption of various vitamins because you can't consume them together.
 
There is a 1 Hour special on Discovery Science channel that breaks down each individual vitamin in the typical multi-vitamin and tells the advantages and disadvantages for each and the best way to absorb them.

In the end, the recap basically said that a normal multivitamin is only absorbed ~10% of the way. So if you take 500mg of Calcium, you are getting ~50mg. They also tried all different types of absorbtion, like taking them with milk, water, morning, night, with food, without... nothing but food made a difference. Each individual vitamin gets absorbed differently, and all are absorbed poorly at that.

Basically... eat a decent diet and you will be leaps and bounds better off than taking a multi-vitamin.

On the other hand, multi-vitamins do have a good placebo effect and keep you motivated and on a good schedule. I take one for this reason 🙂
 
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Flintstones chewables. Honestly.
Click to expand...

And honestly, you are probably getting more benefit from those than most people here taking Centrum and One-a-day. Chewing it and mixing with saliva allows far more absorption. Plus, when compounds mix with saliva, there is some kind of mechanism where the body is actually told to get ready to put that compound to work or store it. I don't have a link on hand to show you though... Also, "time release" b vitamins can damage your liver because they continue to absorb farther down in the intestinal tract than they are suppose to, and the liver isn't prepared for it.
 
I found a progam online that allowed you to type in everything you ate and had a list of the amount of vitamins you needed a day based on weight and exercise level. I found out I was getting more than enough vitamins from my diet, which isn't expecially healthy, so I stopped taking the vitamins.
 
Originally posted by: bigdog1218
I found a progam online that allowed you to type in everything you ate and had a list of the amount of vitamins you needed a day based on weight and exercise level. I found out I was getting more than enough vitamins from my diet, which isn't expecially healthy, so I stopped taking the vitamins.
Click to expand...

Cool, see if you can find us a link to that. 😀
 
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