iVillage logo
Search iVillage
Pregnancy
Parenting
Health
Diet & Fitness
Beauty & Fashion
Relationships
Home & Garden
Food & Drink
Work & Money
Entertainment
Horoscopes
Travel
Diet & Fitness 
  |  Eat Right  |  Vitamins and Supplements  |  Are vitamins essential for health?
Advertisement
Topics
Body and Soul
Stay on Track
Get Fit
Eat Right
Healthy Eating
Vegetarian
Protein
Sugar
Food and Diet
Vitamins and Supplements
Fat
Daily Requirements
Carbohydrates
Lose Weight
Community
Diets A-Z
Picture Galleries
Health
partners
iVillage shopping

Hot stuff
Get your 3-a-day
The urban girl's guide
Be Bikini Beautiful
Competitions
Fitness finder
Snack swapper
Special offers
Diets A-Z
Newsletters
sign up for FREE!




 
Promotions
Lose weight today
Get a personal diet plan
Finger lickin' good
Some surprising facts from the Colonel

Are vitamins essential for health?

by Ms. Alyson Greenhalgh and Dr. Sara Kirk

question
Do I need to take vitamins to be healthy?

answer
Probably not. This is a controversial issue, but unless your diet is severely limited, you are more than likely meeting your nutritional needs from your daily food intake, particularly if you eat a balanced diet containing at least five portions of fruits and vegetables. However, a debate is currently raging about the role of vitamins in achieving optimum nutritional status.

In other words, by taking vitamins can you actually enhance your health rather than simply meet nutritional requirements? The jury is still out, but because some people don’t know whether or not they’re meeting their daily requirements through their diet, they often choose to take a daily multivitamin to protect themselves from a potential deficiency.

iVillage TV - Diet & Fitness

View video in larger player
Delicious     Digg     reddit     Facebook     StumbleUpon