Should we be taking vitamins?

__________________
InterfaithForums.com-Where your ideas and beliefs count.

Well, this lady seems to think so:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...25&q=kidstoned

__________________
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control;
these three alone lead one to sovereign power.
Tennyson

I've experimented with vitamins for most of my life, and found the results to be somewhat inconsistent. In an "all in one" tablet the dosages of the more useful vitamins are a bit on the low side.

With larger dosages, there's a lot of waste through excretion of water-soluble vitamins, and a danger of overdosing on oil-soluble vitamins. Then there's the problem of matching certain substances, calcium with vitamin C, not taking vitamin E at the same time as iron, and numerous other interactions that get very confusing really fast.

Then there are issues with quality control, and issues with "natural vs. synthetic".

Currently I'm using up the dregs of what I've got on the shelf. I probably won't be buying any more for a long time. I'd rather spend that money elsewhere.

Well, I'm not sure it matters to your body. Your body can't utilize any given vitamin until it breaks it down into its chemical constituents. Take Vitamin C, for example. Whether you eat rose hips or take a tablet of lab-produce Vitamin C, your body can't use it until it breaks it down into ascorbic acid.

Once that's done, your cells don't know whether it came from a rose bush or a test tube.

__________________
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control;
these three alone lead one to sovereign power.
Tennyson