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Fresh ’n Juicy There’s no substitute for fresh vegetables and fruits

The truth is that healthy people on a balanced diet do not need multivitamins to stay healthy. The stress of daily living, athletic activity and even minor illnesses do not require an automatic vitamin prescription.

A selling point of vitamin pills is that they contain antioxidants which may help prevent cancer and atherosclerosis. Linus Pauling, the Nobel laureate for Chemistry and for Peace, famously proposed that mega doses of Vitamin C could prevent the common cold and cancer. Pauling took 10 gram of Vitamin C every day, and he lived to be 93. In the last few decades, beta-carotene and Vitamin E have joined the hit parade. There is no doubt that a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables reduces the risk of cancer and atherosclerosis, but can nutrient pills do the same thing?

Not really, according to a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on the subject of vitamins and cancer prevention. Beta-carotenes fare no better in other studies.

Mega supplements are not risk free. Excess of Vitamin E, for example, interferes with clotting mechanisms and increases risk of death.

The role of calcium and Vitamin D supplements in elderly and women is well established. People with malabsorption, a history of gastric bypass surgery, alcoholism, some inborn errors of metabolism, and those on haemodialysis or parenteral nutrition, require daily multivitamin supplements. A multivitamin pill’s presence in a prescription requires justification every time. Vitamins are essential for life, but they are not magic pills.

Linus Pauling, after all, died of prostate cancer.

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