Should I Take Vitamins?

I saw a very powerful ad in a magazine the other day:  A gorgeous blonde woman wearing a bathing suit that revealed her enviable abdominal muscles was gazing over her sunny dominion on an idyllic beach.  It was, unarguably, a beautiful-executed photograph of a visually-appealing subject matter.  The caption was a pithy two words:  "LIVE HOT".  The advertisement was for a major retailer that sells vitamins and nutritional supplements.  Wow.

I will be very surprised if this ad campaign does not increase sales for this retailer.  Most women, myself included, would love to be sculpted like the woman in the picture. And, of course, our friendly retailer is insinuating that if you pop a couple of their tablets or down a couple of their power drinks, you'll be on your way to this level of perfect fitness.  Vitamins used to politely sit on the back shelves of pharmacies, but now they are splashed across the pages of glossy magazines.

If you hadn't already wondered before, after seeing an ad like that, you might wonder:  should I take vitamins?

I think the only fair answer is:  "Maybe...maybe not", and that's not much of an answer, now is it?

So, why the wishy-washy answer to a question that might be very important in this day and age of genetically-modifed mass-produced food and increased food-related disease?  Because science has been unable to give us a definitive answer.  Some theories claim that supplements deliver hard-to-obtain micronutrients, while others say that supplements are not bio-available enough for your body to absorb and use them properly--that you are essentially paying for expensive urine.  Even doctors are divided on the subject.  In my personal experience, I have had MDs that roll their eyes at talk of taking supplements, while others have had faith in them and offered specific recommendations to me.

Personally, I have taken supplements most of my life on the (flawed) principle of "it can't hurt and it might help."  As my life experience has increased, I have come to learn that my ideas of "it can't hurt" can be dangerously wrong.  If you are inclined to use supplements, it is of paramount importance that you run it by your MD before you start popping handfuls of capsules with your breakfast.  Some vitamins can have dangerous interactions with medications.  Some supplements can be brutal on your kidney function.  Some may contain hidden allergens.  You get the picture....

While it is appealing to think that there are magic tablets out there at the vitamin shop that will make us invincible beacons of good health, the truth is that the most bio-available, easy-to-assimilate nutrients come from what you eat.  I think that eating well should always be the top priority---lots and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, good clean proteins, hearty grains (I still like them, even though a lot of the trends are down on them at the moment), and even some indulgent, silky fats.  Fat actually helps your body to absorb a lot of vitamins.

The people who think they can half-starve themselves or subsist on a poor diet and still maintain good health through the use of vitamin supplements don't quite get it.  It's plastic "health"...it has no depth.

Going back to my old philosophy that "it can't hurt and it might help,"  I counted this morning no less than 15 vitamin bottles on my kitchen counter.  I probably have another 15 up in the medicine chest.  Why so many?  Like everyone else, I wanted to believe that vitamins were the way to LIVE HOT,  or at the very least, to live healthy.  Was I duped?  Well...yes and no.  I continue to take about 5 of these supplements, with a doctor's approval, on a regular basis.  There are a few more I take under atypical circumstances, when I feel there might be a special need.  The rest of those pretty little bottles probably need to get thrown away.  Most of them didn't do diddly squat...they didn't even deliver a placebo effect.   And a few of the supplements I once purchased  were the aforementioned kinds that could have some undesirable effects over time.

Obviously, if your doc tells you to take a certain supplement, do it.  Or, if you are inclined to supplement on your own, make sure you clear it with the doc.  But if you don't have extra money to spend at the pharmacy or you know you'll never remember to take your vitamins, just skip it.  Because what is really, truly going to enable you to LIVE HOT is eating a well-rounded diet (but not too much of it!), eschewing the things you know are "bad", breaking a sweat while you exercise, and getting plenty of fresh air and sound sleep.