Too Much Value In Vitamins Essay

Not Much Value in Vitamins Every year, Americans spend tens of billions of dollars on purchasing vitamin supplements (“A challenge to Vitamins”). You many wonder, are vitamins still worth buying? According to Dr. Fortmann, an epidemiologist, those who buy vitamins may be just throwing their money away. One of the main problems of vitamins is that people believe vitamins will give them all the nutrients their body needs for the day. Overdosing on vitamins, another issue, can lead to damage to your body by various diseases. Despite these facts, some vitamin manufacturers think that a regular diet does not contain enough vitamins, and that taking supplements is always better than taking no vitamins at all (“Don’t Take Your Vitamins”). …show more content…
According to the Cochrane Collaboration, a healthcare government association, medical evidence shows that taking vitamins does not extend life (“A challenge to vitamins”). Some doctors do recommend taking extra Vitamin E and C to lower the risk of heart disease for patients that have had any history with high blood pressure, heart attack, or stroke (“American Family Physician”). Unfortunately though, there is very limited evidence that vitamins could prevent any kind of cancer or cardiovascular disease. In contrast, statistics show that there’s an increased mortality rate for people that take too many vitamins (“Why Multivitamins Might Do More Harm Than Good”).
Perhaps the biggest risk to taking vitamin supplements is overdose. Overdosing on vitamins found in foods is extremely uncommon. In many cases, extra vitamins consumed in foods are simply flushed out in urine (“Medical Daily”). The body may be equipped to protect itself from vitamins in foods, but not necessarily vitamin supplements. Overdosing on vitamin supplements is very dangerous and can lead to serious side effects (“Medical Daily”). It is important to examine the different types of vitamins and their purpose in the diet before taking a vitamin