For those who eat a healthy diet, a multivitamin may have little or no benefit. A diet that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, good protein packages, and healthy fats should provide most of the nutrients needed for good health.
But not everyone manages to eat a healthful diet. When it comes to micronutrients, many Americans get less than the adequate amounts, according to criteria set by the Institute of Medicine.
For example, more than 90 percent of Americans get less than the Estimated Average Requirement for vitamin D and vitamin E from food sources alone. Many older people have trouble absorbing vitamin B12 from food; the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, in fact, recommends that people over the age of 50 eat foods fortified with vitamin B12 or take vitamin B12 supplements.
Getting enough of another B vitamin, folate, is especially important for women who may become pregnant, since adequate folate can help lower the risk of having a baby with spina bifida or anencephaly. For the folate to be effective, it must be taken in the first few weeks of conception, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. Yet in the U.S., half of all pregnancies are unplanned.
That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all women of childbearing age (ages 15 to 45) consume 400 micrograms per day of folic acid. And a standard multivitamin that contains the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for folic acid offers a convenient way to do that.
For these reasons, we believe a daily multivitamin-multimineral pill offers safe, simple micronutrient insurance, and the findings from the latest study don’t change our recommendation.