If you’ve ever found yourself perusing the vitamin and supplement aisle at your local health food store or scrolling through an online store’s dietary supplement inventory, you may have found yourself wondering, “are multivitamins actually necessary?”
The answer (in most cases): Yes, you should be taking a multivitamin!
We all know just how important it is to eat a healthy and balanced diet -- but more often than not, those diets probably aren’t as nutrient-dense as your body really needs. Very often, a multivitamin can be the missing ingredient that you need to bridge that gap and get all of the nutrients your body needs to carry out its various functions that keep you healthy and happy. Here’s why you may absolutely benefit from adding a multivitamin to your daily regimen no matter how healthily you eat.
What are multivitamins?
Multivitamins are dietary supplements that contain doses of a variety of essential and important nutrients that many people don’t get from food alone. Rather than taking multiple vitamin and mineral supplements, multivitamins combine all of these important nutrients into just one capsule or pill, which is then meant to be taken daily.
Some common vitamins and minerals you may find in a multivitamin include (but are definitely not limited to):
- Iron
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin A
- B-complex vitamins
- Calcium
- Zinc
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
These nutrients play a variety of roles in your body, from supporting your immune system to promoting hormonal balance and everything in between.
Why you need a multivitamin
In a perfect world, we’d be able to get all of our nutrition purely from the whole foods that we eat. Unfortunately, this is very rarely the case in real life, and nutrient deficiencies are more common than you might think. In fact, an analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that about 31% of the US population is at risk of at least one vitamin deficiency or anemia.
In addition, not all nutrients are equally available to every kind of eater. For example, Vitamin B12 plays a variety of roles in your body from helping your cells make usable energy to forming important components necessary for healthy red blood cells. Unfortunately, B12 vitamins are not easily found in plant-based foods and are best sourced from meat, eggs, and dairy, which means that adequate B12 consumption can be hard for vegans and vegetarians.
In addition, some people may have a harder time absorbing certain nutrients from food and require higher dosages from supplements to ensure that their body gets enough nutrients to use. For example, your ability to absorb and utilize nutrients can decline with age, which means that older adults are more prone to nutrient deficiencies if they don’t also use dietary supplements.
Finally, some important nutrients can be hard to come by in food alone no matter what your current health and diet plans are. Take Vitamin D, aka the “sunshine vitamin.” Vitamin D is crucial for healthy bones and is also linked to your brain and immune system, while Vitamin D deficiencies have been found to be associated with brittle bones, weakened immunity, and even depression. But Vitamin D is found very rarely in natural foods, which means that people need to eat foods fortified with Vitamin D or take a multivitamin supplement to get enough of it. As a result, despite the fact that your body can actually synthesize this vitamin on its own when your skin is exposed to sunlight, Vitamin D deficiency is still one of the most common nutrient deficiencies not only in the United States, but throughout the whole world.
Multivitamin benefits
So, no matter how healthy and balanced your diet is, you could probably still use a multivitamin to make sure you’re getting all of the nutrients your body needs!
Convenience
Taking a multivitamin fills in the gaps even if you are always careful to eat a healthy and nutritionally dense diet. You also don’t have to buy multiple bottles of different nutrients -- a single multivitamin with all of your target nutrients will often suffice.
May be protective against certain conditions
Multivitamins may even help boost your protection against various chronic ailments. For example, a large study that followed 14,641 men over the course of ten years who were given either a multivitamin or a placebo found that the men who took the daily multivitamin had a modest but significant reduction in the risk of total cancer at the end of the observation period!
Suitable for people with dietary restrictions
Finally, as long as you take care to choose the right vitamins for your health needs and dietary preferences, taking a multivitamin can help you bridge any nutritional gaps no matter what kind of eater you are. For example, a plant-based eater who might otherwise have a hard time getting enough B vitamins in their diet can take a plant-based whole-food multivitamin instead, which allows them to get those necessary nutrients without compromising.
Where to find quality whole food multivitamins
If you’re looking for the best whole food multivitamins for a variety of needs, check out our multivitamins. Not only do these whole food multivitamins contain the vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function at its fullest, but they are also a fantastic source of phytochemicals, which are the plant-based nutrients that make fruits, vegetables, and herbs such an important part of a balanced diet.
Pure Essence multivitamins come in several different options that you can choose from based on your specific needs, including:
- Women’s multivitamins with iron
- Men’s daily multivitamins
- Multivitamin powders
Need help finding the perfect multi for you? Take our 2-minute quiz for a personalized recommendation.
Final Thoughts
Multivitamins are a powerful tool that can be used to supplement even the healthiest of diets and ensure that you’re always getting the right nutrients every single day. Taking a multivitamin is one of the simplest and easiest ways that you can show your body the care that it needs.