There are several benefits associated with taking a daily multivitamin. They include but are not limited to:
- Multivitamins are designed to lower your risk for vitamin deficiencies.
- If you are pregnant, prenatal multivitamins help bridge the gap of the increased nutrient need.
- Digestive troubles such as Crohn’s Disease and other medical conditions can compromise your ability to absorb nutrients. Multivitamins can help.
The average person doesn’t need to take a multivitamin as long as they eat a balanced diet. Diagnosed deficiencies often require vitamin supplements. Multivitamins can be particularly beneficial for certain life stages where you need extra vitamins, like pregnancy, or when your body naturally stops absorbing nutrients from food as you age. Vitamin supplements serve a purpose, but they are not an absolute necessity for everyone.
Most multivitamins alone don’t pose a risk. The lack of regulations means there may be ingredients in the vitamin that aren’t listed, which may lead to drug interactions. If you’re on prescription medication and are unsure if you should take a multivitamin, you should talk to your doctor about your nutritional needs. For instance, vitamin K can interfere with blood thinners.
Multivitamins vary by their nutritional content, form and additional ingredients. When evaluating the best multivitamins, we found that Nature Made is the best overall budget multivitamin you can buy. Nature Made is a brand that’s been around for a long time and is widely trusted. Not to mention, you can get a dose of 23 essential vitamins for under $15 with Nature Made’s daily multivitamin.
In most cases, the answer to this question primarily revolves around the daily practices you follow and will differ from one person to another. In a nutshell, multivitamins are made to fill an existing gap in your diet, and Eve M. Glazier and Elizabeth Ko — at UCLA Health — believe they’re only essential if such a gap does exist. Make sure you consult with your doctor before making any decision to assess the need for multivitamins.
When used over an extended period and with a consistent cadence — once a day — Multivitamins are reported to not have adverse effects. They also help fill nutritional deficiencies in your daily diet and in most cases are a great addition to your day-to-day.
