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TOP 12 Reasons Why Women (and everyone!) Should Take A Daily Multi-Vitamin
1. Well respected institutions like Harvard School of Public Health and NIH recommend everyone, especially
women, take a daily multi-vitamin.
2. Vitamins and minerals can repair DNA damage - helping you live longer. A number of studies have been
done which show those not taking multi-vitamins had DNA which looked like it had been damaged by xray radiation. When these people were replenished with the lacking vitamins and minerals, and then
reexamined, their DNA looked normal. Our bodies have enzymes that can repair DNA--but require certain
nutrients in order to accomplish that task.
3. The recommended levels of nutrients are minimum amounts. The recommended daily allowance (RDA)
was created in 1941 to give Americans on food rations guidelines on how many nutrients they needed to
prevent deficiency diseases such as scurvy, rickets, and beriberi. The RDAs represent only the minimum
amounts your body needs--not the optimal amounts.
4. Most of us are nutritionally deficient. Most people, when tested, are shown to be nutritionally deficient.
The US Department of Agriculture reported that 93 percent of adults get inadequate amounts of vitamin E,
56 percent are deficient in magnesium, 31 percent get inadequate vitamin C, 70 percent are deficient in
vitamin D, and the list goes on and on.
5. Higher levels of certain nutrients have been shown to be beneficial. Levels of certain nutrients higher
than the RDA, such as vitamins D, C, E, and the mineral calcium, have been shown in numerous studies to
benefit the health of tissues in other ways besides just preventing deficiency diseases.
6. Women's Health - We absolutely need higher levels of calcium, folic acid, B12, and vitamin D.
7. Other nutrients found in high quality multi-vitamins are beneficial too. The best multivitamins also
contain plant chemicals known as phytonutrients. For example, lycopene has been shown to benefit
prostate, lung, stomach, pancreas, breast, and other cells. Green tea polyphenols benefit breast, bladder,
pancreas, and other cells. Quercetin benefits prostate cells. Here again, the benefits of phytonutrients are
extensive and widely agreed upon.
8. A typical diet cannot provide all the necessary trace minerals and vitamins. If you eat a healthy,
balanced diet, you'll get all the nutrients you need, right? Wrong, unless you have a master's degree in
food science and some very precise measuring instruments. For example, how many bites of black, red
Russian, or purple kale per day are necessary to obtain the B6 you need every day?
9. Our contemporary lifestyle makes supplementation more necessary than ever. The way our food is
grown and processed, the environmental toxins we're exposed to, and other aspects of contemporary diet
and lifestyle, such as the shift from manual labor to sedentary work, have made chronic diseases more
prevalent than they were just 200 years ago. Studies show a direct correlation between micronutrients and
disease prevention, and the best way to get plenty of these is by eating well and supplementing with a
multivitamin/multimineral/multiphytonutrients. Our cooking methods, aka boiling, mircowaving,
reheating...also destroys nutrients in food. This is precisely why eating leftovers may leave you a little cold
- each time you reheat food you destroy its inherent nutrient quality and quantity.
10. Nutritional Bio-Chemistry - Vitamins have to be taken in food in specific combinations i.e. Vitamin C
increases iron absorption but fiber decreases calcium absorption; i.e. zinc will not function without vitamin
B6, nor can some enzymes be made without it?; i.e. selenium and magnesium need B6 to function correctly
and selenium assists with vitamin E absorption; cannot absorb vitamins A,D,E,K without eating fat. Every
nutrient requires other nutrients as cofactors - for activism or function.
11. Organic - Nutrient in soil and foods are different (water from natural sources without minerals stripped
and without chlorine and flouride, pasture and livestock free pasturing/roaming and soil rest/crop
rotation, small farms; no pollution; no pesticides, chemicals, hormones, antibiotics; there were no
prepackaged, processed, refined foods – no artificial dyes, flavorings; SOIL QUALITY - According to the
1992 Earth Summit Soil Mineral Depletion Analysis, the United States has the worst soil in the world – 85%
mineral depleted. Minerals are naturally occurring elements found in earth. Minerals are also present in
plants and animals, but they are imported. Plants get minerals from soil and animals get minerals by
eating plants. This means that our foods have declined in nutritional value to help us to sustain optimum
health. POLLUTION - an estimated seven billion pounds of toxins and chemical agents added to our water,
air and food each year. In fact, our bodies now contain between 300-500 known toxins in our tissues that
were not found in humans prior to 1940. Toxins in our homes are said to be 5 times higher than those
outdoors and 3-5 times more dangerous – due to climate change, wind, weather, etc. COMMERCIAL
FARMING - Using pesticides, insecticides, and chemical fertilizers comes with a price. The cost is the loss of
nutritional value of our crops. Moreover, mass production of fruits and vegetables has robbed us of even
more essential nutrients because premature harvesting does not allow them to reach their natural peak of
nutrition. Foods are often picked before they are ripe and allowed to ripen in transit. i.e. Two peaches
back in 1951 would have provided the current RDA requirements of vitamin A for adult women. Today, a
woman would have to consume almost 53 peaches to meet her daily requirements of vitamin A.
12. Stress - Whether psychological or physical due to injury or illness, stress depletes or prevents the body
from absorbing or utilizing vital nutrients you take in. In addition, an existing vitamin or mineral deficiency
can be worsened or magnified by stress. Once deficiencies are present, lack of vitamin balance in the
body can be attributed to many disease processes, such as heart disease, for example.
What vitamin do you take? Start with www.newchapter.com By far one of the best pro-biotic, whole food, organic
vitamins on the market today. It was the only vitamin I could stomach during pregnancy and the difficult hurdle of
the incorrectly dubbed "morning sickness" (try all day nausea!). At the time, my OB/GYN (before I fired her, that
is), recommended taking a children's vitamin (one of those full dye, chewable things you get at the grocery store). I
picked up a bottle and I was appalled when I read the label. Saccharin in children's vitamins? Don't trust me
though, go read for yourself at your local grocery store.
Women (and men alike) - ask questions! Do not simply take a vitamin your health care provider recommends.
Doctors are not God, and neither are health care professionals (which includes me) - question everything they may
recommend to you, ask for rationale and research to back it up, and be armed with knowledge when you walk in
for every appointment. Knowledge is power.
Research your options for a whole food, organic, pro-biotic, vegetable based multi-vitamin. And women, you must
take a separate calcium supplement, as most multi-vitamins do not contain enough calcium.
Thanks to: excerpted in part from a lecture by Duke Johnson, MD and Cindy Amorin, the chief editor of NutritionalSupplement-Educational-Centre.com.
Note: this blog is never a substitute for medical advice. consult your health care provider about what multi-vitamin
might be best for you (and then do your homework!).