Should I take a vitamin supplement?

One of the most common questions I receive is whether I recommend taking vitamin supplements. You must ask yourself several questions when considering taking a supplement. First, what kind of supplement are you considering? For a healthy individual, I would encourage a multivitamin supplement that provides a full range of vitamins and minerals over supplements that provide specifically one vitamin. The benefit of this type of supplement is that it can serve as a back-up to a great diet. No one eats a "perfect" diet, so making sure that you are giving your body everything that it needs is a good idea. Supplements do not replace the role of food, but they can compliment a full and varied diet to ensure excellent nutrition. Taking a specific vitamin supplement can be a little bit more difficult. In my opinion, this only becomes necessary if you have a specific health concern that requires it. Often single vitamin supplements provide more than 100% of the recommended intake, and sometimes this can be problematic. If you are considering taking a single vitamin, I would encourage you to talk to a dietitian or doctor about your situation.
Second, what are you hoping to gain from a suppplement? If you are hoping to help your body function at its peak ability, you are in luck! If you are hoping to provide additional energy for your body or help your body acheive a goal that just isn't realistic, you are going to be disappointed. Vitamins and minerals do not provide energy. Only calories (found in carbs, protein, and fats) provide energy.
So, perhaps you've decided to go pick out a supplement. What should you be looking for? In general, look for products that provide around 100% of the recommended intake. You don't need anything more than 100%, especially because you are also getting nutrients in your food. For the water soluble vitamins (all of the B vitamins), if you get more than 100%, your body will excreted the vitamins as urine. There is little risk of serious toxicity with water soluble vitamins. With fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E & K), there is a risk of toxicity because the body stores these vitamins instead of excretes them daily. You want to be especially careful with not over doing it with these vitamins.
A few other tips for picking out a supplement: more expensive is not always better- remember check out the percentages on the back; don't rely on the supplement to take the place of food- food is absorbed better and provides the energy; take your new supplement with a meal- it is easier on the stomach and will increase the amount of vitamins that are actually absorbed; and supplements are not regulated by the FDA so we don't have any guarantees- be sure to eat well!
-Nicole