Synthetic Multivitamin Sales Go Through the Roof in 2007; But Do We Really Need Them?

November 16, 2007

SYNTHETIC MULTIVITAMIN SALES GO THROUGH THE ROOF IN 2007 BUT DO WE REALLY NEED THEM?The year's sales figures are in: According to Nutrition Business Journal, the dietary supplement market went from a $14 billion industry in 1999 to a $22.4 billion industry in 2007. But many nutrition experts are advising people to focus more on their diet than on purchasing synthetic supplements. "With some medical exceptions, there¹s no reason to take vitamins if you have a decent diet,² says Pete Anderson, a lecturer in nutritional sciences at UW-Madison. According to Dr. Chad Oler, N.D., the only supplements worth taking are non-synthetic supplements made from whole foods, since the purpose of a supplement is to fill in gaps where the nutrition is not acquired through food. ³Ninety-five to 98 percent of the stuff over the counter is crap. They use cheap, raw materials that are not bio-available, meaning that the body, even if it can

absorb it, cannot utilize the nutrients very well,² he said. The general rule of thumb in distinguishing a truly natural vitamin from a synthetic is that most synthetics advertise highly inflated daily values of a given nutrient, which can actually damage the body. Stick to a naturally occurring, organic if possible multivitamin that has 100 percent of the recommended daily intake or less. Learn more about this issue in OCA's "Nutri-con" campaign headquarters: http://www.organicconsumers.org/nutricon.cfm

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