Decades ago, scientists discovered that getting the right amount of certain vitamins and minerals could help cure and prevent numerous diseases. Businesspeople, realizing the huge market for goods believed to make you healthier and live longer, immediately latched on to the next big thing, which was selling vitamins directly to the general public. The consumers, of course, believed that taking these daily multivitamins would cure them of all ailments, and why wouldn’t they believe that? It seems perfectly plausible that taking a vitamin a day would help you more than hurt you, but in reality, the opposite is true. Daily multivitamins are actually more harmful than they are helpful because, often, too much of a particular vitamin is taken, most of the vitamins consumed do not properly absorb into the bloodstream, and, for many, the use of a daily multivitamin is an excuse to avoid the consumption of vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables.
   

One of the most popular daily multivitamins in the U.S. is the Centrum Daily Multivitamin. In one serving, which is one tablet, there is, among other things, 333% of the recommended amount of vitamin B1, 176% of B2, 250% of B5,6, and 7, and 208% of B12. This is more than the recommended amount of six different vitamins for a day and you’re consuming it in a few seconds. Apparently, whoever decided on the amount of each nutrient in their daily multivitamin at Centrum has never heard of the popular mantra, “too much of a good thing, isn’t such a good thing.” There is a reason those numbers exist, and even though you’ll be fine if you exceed them, it shouldn’t be something you want to do. This is especially true considering the fact that you get the recommended daily amount of a lot of those vitamins over the course of the day through normal consumption anyways. When you add on the fact that many people do not listen to the label, which reads one tablet per serving, and have multiple tablets in hopes of becoming “extra healthy,” it spells disaster. There have been many cases of children and adults actually overdosing on daily multivitamins and dying. It is still concerning that even if you only take the recommended one tablet, you are getting more than triple the prescribed daily amount of some vitamins. This excess of certain vitamins and minerals can cause daily multivitamins to end up more harmful than they are helpful.
   

When you buy a bottle of multivitamins at the store, you pay 100 percent of the price for it, so it stands to reason that you should use 100 percent of the vitamins in the bottle. That seems like the way it should be, but that’s not how it really is. It turns out that when you swallow one of these pills, your body may end up absorbing as little as three percent of the vitamins in the pill. If you’re only really getting such a miniscule amount of each vitamin, then what’s the point in even taking them, and also buying them, in the first place? There really is no point. Multivitamins are often absorbed into the bloodstream unevenly with some nutrients getting mostly absorbed and some not at all. This lack of and unevenness of absorption can often leave people short on some vitamins while they have too much of others. If they had just spent their money on fruits and vegetables instead, however, they may be in a better situation.
   

Upon taking a daily multivitamin, most people feel as though because they've taken the vitamin, as far as they’re concerned, they have all the vitamins and minerals they’ll need for the day. This false sentiment then leads them to eat unhealthier food during the day, thinking that the fact that they took a multivitamin will make up for not eating nutritious food. Often, people will avoid fruits and vegetables, and “just have a vitamin.” Not only does this lead to a lack of essential vitamins and minerals because the daily multivitamin doesn’t cover all bases, but also, people will often end up eating too much of the unhealthy fats and sugars in the foods they feel they can now eat more of because of their vitamin supplement. The false idea that the daily multivitamin is a miracle cure to all illnesses and ailments drives people to believe they don't have to eat as many vitamin-rich foods, which makes the daily multivitamin more harmful than helpful.
   

Vitamins and minerals are essential to human life. Though combining them into one “miracle pill” seems like a great idea, it turns out that it is more harmful than helpful to have one of these daily multivitamins. The reason this is so is because, often, too much of the vitamins are eaten, the vitamins aren’t absorbed well, and multivitamins are often wrongfully used as a substitute for fruits and vegetables.

Works Cited

HealthDay, WebMD News from. "Experts: Don't Waste Your Money on Multivitamins – WebMD." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
"Multivitamins Are, at Best, a Waste of Money, Johns Hopkins Doctors Say." The Hub. N.p., 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
"Why Multivitamins Might Do More Harm Than Good." Greatist. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.