23 ms·

Very eloquent arguments, you've thoroughly convinced me.

• scarmig 13y ago
  Just to be clear, you're embarrassing yourself because multivitamins are the modern equivalent of magical totems of other civilizations that we patronizingly mock. Or, to reach more into our own history, they're the modern snake oil.
  • sillysaurus 13y ago
    multivitamins are the modern equivalent of snake oil You'll need to post some sort of citation in order to convince anyone of that.
    • scott_s 13y ago
      Study Finds No Benefit From Daily Multivitamin, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/study-finds-no-benefit-from-daily-multivitamin/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/study-finds-no-bene... Is This the End of Popping Vitamins?, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204644504576650980601014152.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020464450457665...
      • dntrkv 13y ago
        From your link: “From a practical standpoint, this study does not change the fact that the majority of consumers could benefit from taking an affordable multivitamin,” said Andrew Shao, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs with the council. “It is better to meet these recommendations than not, and consistently taking a multivitamin over the long term could help fill these nutrient gaps and may help consumers lead healthier lives.”
        • jongraehl 13y ago
          You'll often find such mealy-mouthed conclusions in write-ups of studies where the evidence doesn't confirm the author's hypothesis, and especially in anticipation of controversy. (in this case, your quote doesn't come from a study author, I guess) If there's no benefit on average, then there's no reason to recommend on average (disclaimer: I take a chewy multivitamin because I remember being convinced by evidence that manganese is a bad thing to supplement, and most multivitamins have 2mg of it).
        • scott_s 13y ago
          Yes, I saw that. But that was from the vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council of for Responsible Nutrition, which is a vitamin industry trade group. The article ended with a conclusion from the study's author: Dr. Neuhouser said she realizes that many people who are devoted vitamin users will be skeptical of the finding that they are receiving no benefit from a daily multivitamin. “I don’t want to disparage people who take multivitamins — it’s their choice as a consumer,” Dr. Neuhouser said. “What we’re presenting is the science showing it’s neither beneficial nor harmful. If they want to choose to spend their dollars elsewhere this might be a good place to do so. Perhaps they can buy more fruits and vegetables.” My take-away from these studies is that unless you have a vitamin deficiency, taking multivitamins does nothing. And if you have a specific vitamin deficiency, then you may be better off just taking supplementation of that vitamin; a general multivitamin will only help because it happens to contain what you are deficient in.
          • infinitone 13y ago
            Thanks for this mate... didn't know.