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Is Nutritional Vitamin
Supplements Really Necessary?
Nutritional vitamin supplements are big business.
Many say they’re unnecessary, while others contend
that they’re more necessary than ever. They’ve been
a source of controversy and debate for many years.
Why?
They’ve been around a good long time in one form
or another. Cod liver oil was widely given to
children daily only 100 years ago. Those same
children would never have dreamed that one day
people would pay lots of money to not only take fish
oil, but take it more than once a day. You’ve
probably seen the daily vitamins sold in most stores
that even many doctors are now grudgingly stating
are fine to take regularly.
 The heart of the controversy is both the types
and potencies of many supplements. Often a single
dose contains a nutrient or nutrients in such high
concentration as to be completely impossible to
consume in a proportionate amount of foods that
contain that nutrient or nutrients.
Many in the medical establishment insist that
this is at best a foolish and at worst a potentially
dangerous practice. They state that some nutrients,
being water soluble, are simply passed through the
system and others that are fat soluble can be
absorbed into fat reserves in hazardous levels if
ingested without caution.
Those who support the use of supplements counter
that passing part of a dose of a water soluble
nutrient is worthwhile because it ensures saturation
of that nutrient at a cellular level, maxing out the
body’s available supply. The supplement industry
itself has added precautionary statements to their
labeling to warn of the potential hazard of
ingesting a high level of fat soluble nutrients.
Even so, for vitamins and minerals, there is some
monitoring by the Food and Drug Administration. For
others that are not recognized as essential
nutrients, the truth becomes less clear.
Benefits may only be implied at best, with
statements denying solid evidence of any now a
requirement of law. How much garlic do you need each
day? How much feverfew? There still remains no way
to know other than the assertions of alternative
health care proponents.
If you truly desire to take nutritional
supplements, start with small doses under the advice
and supervision of qualified professionals such as a
registered dietician. After all, they’re not called
supplements for nothing.
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