Vitamins bad for us?

[WebLady]

I was looking up some stuff about vitamins and came across a couple of articles about pill form vitamins being potentially bad for us. From causing headaches, diarrhea and such and even shorten our lives in some cases.

The claim was that our bodies don't deal with supplements the same as they do with vitamins in foods. This and the risk of too much of certain vitamins is thought to not be so good.

One article also mentioned that most people get enough vitamins from foods anyway, so unless you are sick, pregnant or an athlete you probably don't need extra supplements anyway.

DH says he agrees and this is why he doesn't take any daily vitamin; though he will take a multi-vitamin a couple times a week.

Most of the info was from 2006-2007 though so I am still looking for something more recent.

[SkippyNXC]

hmm i'd love to see the articles. i'll ask FH if he's seen any research in the medical journals as well....

[ChristineLS]

My understanding was that too much fat soluble vitamins are bad for you, because while we need them, if you take too many vitamins they can become toxic. Your body can't excise fat soluble vitamins as they can water soluble vitamins, of which excessive amounts leave your body dissolved in urine. So taking lots of water soluble vitamins (such as Vitamin C) is just ineffective, but taking lots of fat soluble ones (like vitamin A) risks poisoning you.

[WebLady]

Yeah one of the articles said something about fat solible ones since they are stored in your body.

Here are the older articles I found -
www.netdoctor.co.uk/menshealth/feature/vitamins.htm

www.abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/Story?id=2908054&page=1

Here is a newer one -
http://vitamins.ygoy.com/2009/01/03/why-vitamins-are-bad-for-you/

[KMS]

The scary thing about the vitamin and supplement industry is that it is so unregulated. I've seen testing done on some vitamins that had maybe 20% less of some vitamins listed and others maybe 200% more. So you really don't know what you're getting. And this is even the brand name stuff. A little concerning to me, that's for sure.

[TheWeddingPlanner]

Not generally bad for you. Some non water soluble vitamins can become toxic if you take to much, but the water soluble ones, like C, you just piss out what you don't use.