The Multivitamin

13. Aug, 2008 Comments Off

Multi-Vitamins No matter how hard we try to maintain healthy eating habits, we have to face facts; sometimes we eat and do unhealthy things. Today’s busy women are especially vulnerable. Between work and home we sometimes have very little time to eat, let alone eat healthy. We are also very guilty of serving our family healthy foods, but skimping on eating ourselves to save calories. Not to mention all the running around and stress the average woman faces taking care of her family.

On average women get less sleep then men. This can lead to reduced energy and even illness. So what about adding a multivitamin to your daily routine? Now, I know several studies have come out recently that give conflicting reports about whether multivitamins really provide any benefits, or if in fact they can be harmful. Despite what these studies say I believe that a multivitamin is beneficial to overall health. I take a multivitamin every day. Basically, the research seems to suggest that more harm then good can come to people who already take a supplement or use fortified products (such as cereal or dairy). The use of these products in conjunction with a multivitamin can send them over their Daily Recommended Intake for certain vitamins and minerals. This can cause health problems.

To prevent overloading on vitamins or minerals, you should either use individual supplements for areas you think you are deficient in such as’ vitamin D or Magnesium or you should use an overall multivitamin. None of the reports deny the importance of women consuming the proper amount of folic acid prior to conceiving. It is easy to find a multivitamin with the recommended amount of folic acid. Also, iron is essential to pre menopausal women but taking an iron supplement can be very hard on your system, as anyone who has had to take one can tell you. It is much easier to include an iron fortified multivitamin in your daily routine. Of course, increasing your intake of naturally vitamin and mineral rich items would be optimum, it is not always practical. So with that in mind adding a multivitamin to your diet can help you maintain your health.