Yes, I saw that. But that was from the vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council of for Responsible Nutrition, which is a vitamin industry trade group.
The article ended with a conclusion from the study's author:
Dr. Neuhouser said she realizes that many people who are devoted vitamin users will be skeptical of the finding that they are receiving no benefit from a daily multivitamin.
“I don’t want to disparage people who take multivitamins — it’s their choice as a consumer,” Dr. Neuhouser said. “What we’re presenting is the science showing it’s neither beneficial nor harmful. If they want to choose to spend their dollars elsewhere this might be a good place to do so. Perhaps they can buy more fruits and vegetables.”
My take-away from these studies is that unless you have a vitamin deficiency, taking multivitamins does nothing. And if you have a specific vitamin deficiency, then you may be better off just taking supplementation of that vitamin; a general multivitamin will only help because it happens to contain what you are deficient in.
The article ended with a conclusion from the study's author:
Dr. Neuhouser said she realizes that many people who are devoted vitamin users will be skeptical of the finding that they are receiving no benefit from a daily multivitamin.
“I don’t want to disparage people who take multivitamins — it’s their choice as a consumer,” Dr. Neuhouser said. “What we’re presenting is the science showing it’s neither beneficial nor harmful. If they want to choose to spend their dollars elsewhere this might be a good place to do so. Perhaps they can buy more fruits and vegetables.”
My take-away from these studies is that unless you have a vitamin deficiency, taking multivitamins does nothing. And if you have a specific vitamin deficiency, then you may be better off just taking supplementation of that vitamin; a general multivitamin will only help because it happens to contain what you are deficient in.