Multivitamin or No?

by Jeff Wooten

This is a timeless question. I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked this very question: Is it necessary to take a multivitamin?

One thing is for sure, just as with nearly every other aspect of fitness and nutrition, there are ‘experts’ on each end of the spectrum. So, you may wonder, where does The Body Mechanic fall on this issue? Well, before I answer, let me give you one of the biggest arguments I have heard against taking a multivitamin. I usually hear someone say something like, ‘You should get all the nutrition you need from the food you eat’.

Well, in a perfect world, this statement would be very true. However, we don’t live in a perfect world. The US RDA has determined how much of each essential nutrient the ‘typical’ person should consume. The problem is, absolutely none of us are ‘typical’.

Let’s take a look at vitamin C. Vitamin C is a very necessary, water-soluble, antioxidant. Everyone needs vitamin C. Now, do we all need the same amount of vitamin C? If the RDA for vitamin C is 100 mg, is that recommendation just as valid for the high strung businessman in the taxicab infested smog of New York City as it is for the mountain man in the hills of North Carolina? I think not.

That NY businessman is in constant need of antioxidants and his body (in particular, his respiration) is under tremendous attack. He is also stressed beyond belief (which further necessitates antioxidants).

Now, you may say, he just needs to watch his diet to make sure he gets the right amount of green and yellow vegetables. Yeah, right. Good luck with that one! The fact is, very, very few of us get ‘the right amounts’ of everything we need. It just doesn’t happen. Remember, this is not a perfect world. There is no real formula to determine precisely how much of each vitamin and mineral each individual should consume.

So, can you guess by now where The Body Mechanic falls on this issue? Obviously, I believe everyone’s needs are different. If you work out very hard, you need more of everything. If you are more sedentary, you need less of some things. If you live in smog, you need more antioxidants (in general) than someone that lives where the air is cleaner.

The obvious answer for me is simple: Insure yourself.

You can take a good quality multivitamin for just pennies per serving. I see each multivitamin as ‘insurance’. This makes sure you get everything you need. Of course, you want to avoid the super-high dosages, in particular of the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K). But you can guesstimate how much you need based upon your fitness lifestyle, then find the right multivitamin for you.

There you have it. Now, to tackle the rest of your day!

Jeff Wooten, president of The Body Mechanic™, is a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMBT #4626), Certified Fitness Trainer and Certified Specialist in Martial Arts Conditioning. Wooten has extensive martial arts, power yoga and Brazilian jujitsu training and is certified by The International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA). He incorporates the healing effects of massage into his classes, teaching group fitness, martial arts, health and fitness, and meeting with clients in their homes for personal training sessions.

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