Multivitamins: Are They Really Necessary?

I used to be that guy who popped a multivitamin every morning with breakfast, believing that the  little chalky orange capsule was truly making a difference in my health and fitness, and that without it I'd feel like crap, perform like dirt and look like garbage.  I swore by the thing, and when it came time to buy new multivitamins I always looked for the brand that was "performance oriented", and gave you along the lines of a few thousand percent of the daily recommended value of each vitamin and mineral.  Heck, they even threw other things in those pills, like amino acids, folate, selenium, all sorts of stuff.  It was the classic "more is better" mindset, and I was stuck in it.

Then, upon visiting my grandparents, my grandfather, a PhD biochemist and a long and very prosperous career at Pfizer to boot, watched me take my multivitamin with a sort of disappointment.  He said to me "You don't need that giant pill, especially one with those kind of vitamin amounts.  People go way overboard on multivitamins. You only really need 100% of everything, and it's possible to overdose on certain vitamins.  I don't understand super strong multivitamins these days.  People don't need them, especially you at your age with your diet."

At first, I argued with him, saying excess water soluble vitamins were just expelled along with excess water in your body.  And while that's true, I realized he did have a point about certain vitamins that are fat soluble, because it's quite possible to overdose on those, especially if your diet's healthy and your pill is HUGE.  So what did I do?  I took a little vacation from multivitamins.  And guess what?  About three months later, I'm still on that vacation, and I'm feeling just fine.  I've had no noticeable side effects from going cold turkey.  No fatigue, no power loss, and no loss of strength at the gym.  In fact, if anything, I feel better.  So what gives?  Are multivitamins really pointless?  Should you just save that money you shell out on those pills?  Let's explore a little bit.

First of all, let me start by saying this.  I am a firm believer in nature, and long before multivitamins ever existed there were people living long and happy lives off natural foods alone.  Nature has a way of putting pretty much everything you need right there in the palm of your hand, if you know how to look for it.  No, I'm not some hippy telling you to go hug a tree, but if you eat healthy, have a little confidence that you'll be getting nearly 100% of all necessary vitamins and minerals from your diet each and every day.  To prove this point, let's look at a few foods that contain large quantities of the vitamins and minerals you'd normally supplement with a vitamin.

Vitamin C- Strawberries-  You can get 140% of your daily vitamin C from one cup of strawberries!

Vitamin A- Sweet potatoes-  In one 100g sweet potato, you'll get almost 380% of your recommended vitamin A!

Vitamin B6-Tuna, Salmon, and Chicken- Tuna contains about 60% of your daily recommended value of vitamin B6, while chicken and salmon both contain a little over 30%.

Vitamin B12-Salmon/calf liver- Salmon contains about 95% of your DV of B12, and if you can stomach it, a serving of calf liver has about 1500% of your DV.  Wow!  The good news is that if you can't find the oh so common calf liver, shrimp, beef, and yogurt are also very high in B12.

Calcium-Cheese and Almonds- Cheese has about 40% of your daily calcium per ounce, and almonds are around 30% per ounce.

Selenium- Tuna, Cod, Halibut, and Mushrooms- The first 3 fish mentioned have about 75% of your daily selenium per serving, and crimini mushrooms have about 50% per serving.  Not bad!

Folate- Spinach and Chickpeas- Both of these have about 65% of your daily recommended serving of folate per serving, and it's easy to put both into one salad!

I could keep going, but hopefully I've made my point relatively clear that you can get the vast majority of everything you need from your diet.  And the best part is, that while even though the foods I mentioned happen to be rich in one particular nutrient, every single one contains a vast spectrum of other nutrients.  You're getting a virtual rainbow of nutrition with every serving of healthy food, not to mention that the way the nutrients are distributed in natural whole foods is something a man-made multivitamin could never really replicate.

How about what I said before, could multivitamins be dangerous?  Well, for someone like me who eats loads and loads of veggies on a daily basis, I really don't need a giant pill on top of all that.  In fact, I'd be slightly worried that I would overdose on fat soluble vitamins EVENTUALLY.  What are the 4 fat soluble vitamins?  Vitamins A, E, D, and K.  How easy would it be to overdose?  Well, a 25,000 IU dose of vitamin A can cause liver cirrhosis.


Let's compare the vitamin A dosage in three different multivitamins: Opti-Men, Animal Pak (a very famous bodybuilding oriented vitamin), and mega mens sport (my roommates current MV)

Mega Men's-5000 IU
Opti-men's-10000 IU
Animal Pak- 9900 IU

Those are some pretty impressive doses, and it's recommended not to exceed over 10,000 IU a day for vitamin A.  Take two of any one of these vitamins and you're on track for an overdose.  Heck, one a day almost seems like too much, especially if you're eating healthy otherwise.

What I find quite funny is that all these vitamins contain several hundred percent of your daily recommended value for vitamin D.  Vitamin D can be obtained naturally by just standing in the sun for a bit, as the UVB rays create vitamin D in your skin.  This is why with the big pills, you're pretty much paying for stuff you REALLY don't need.


So am I telling you to toss your vitamins?  No, not quite.  I believe a multivitamin can be beneficial for certain reasons.  Firstly, for those who don't eat as much as me (which would be the majority of you), you probably won't get as many vitamins and minerals from your diet alone.  Second, those who don't eat as healthy as they could might also be lacking in at least a few nutritional areas.  Third, as our bodies age they become less able to efficiently absorb vitamins and minerals.  I believe a multivitamin has one particular purpose that it does quite well:  to fill in the gaps.  No matter how fantastic your diet, there will most likely be just one or two little nutrients you're lacking.  A multivitamin can bump these areas up to snuff, and you'll be set to go.  Guess what that means though?  YOU DON'T NEED A GIANT PILL.  If you're really set on taking a multivitamin, read the ingredients, and get the cheapest one that covers all the bases sufficiently.  You don't need a million percent of anything.  100% is fine.  Save yourself some money, please.

But if you don't want to take a multivitamin, by all means, toss them.  Eat healthy, and you'll be fine.  Don't be afraid to load up on veggies at dinner time, and heap some good lean meat onto your plate.  Most likely they'll contain more than enough of everything your body needs to keep on trucking through your workouts, your school-work, and life in general.  And it'd be nice to forget about one more pill in the morning, right?

Trust your diet, eat the good stuff, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

References:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32

Food Worship #11: Brussels Sprouts

I know what you're thinking...I'm crazy.  Those nasty little cabbages you used to hate as a kid?  Why would those be a super food?  Well as you might have guessed, their green exterior and dense, veggie "aura" means that like your mother said, they're remarkably good for you.  And you know what?  I personally believe they're absolutely delicious.  They're packed with fiber, and when cooked right they're dense and provide an incredibly satisfying bite, requiring just the right amount of effort to really know you've got some substantial food in your mouth.  Yup, I love brussels sprouts.  Sue me.

So what makes these things so good for you?  Well, they're loaded with nutrients of all kinds, both macro and micro, and most definitely help your body out in all sorts of ways.  Not to mention they can really bulk up a meal (these little guys fill you up fast, they're quite substantial for sure.)  Also, when they're cooked just right, brussels sprouts are actually quite tender and delicious, and I bet if you haven't had them in a few years (due to painful childhood memories) that if you tried them again in your maturity you'd be surprised to find they're pretty darn tasty, especially compared to certain other veggies.  Let's explore a little more in detail about why you should do just that, and how exactly you'd be doing your body good.

Fiber:  As I alluded to earlier, brussels sprouts have quite a bit of fiber in them.  In today's world, the more fiber you can get, the healthier you'll be and the better you'll feel.  One cup of brussels sprouts has about 7 grams of fiber (THAT'S A LOT!), and one sprout has about 1 gram of fiber.  All this fiber supports digestive/colon health, and also can assist in slowing the digestion of food so that the body more effectively uses what it's given. This can also prevent, to a certain degree, rapid fat gain, because it gives your body a longer time to use the food you've eaten.  So get your fiber, and stay on track.

Heart Health:  Brussels sprouts are great for your heart in a couple different ways.  Firstly, they lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol.  That's awesome, because with all the processed food out there today you'll need a good cholesterol-lowering tool that's easy to cook up and munch on.  Brussels sprouts also help to create a substance in the blood called isothiocyanate (ITC) sulforaphane which has anti-inflammatory properties and may even be able to repair damaged blood vessels.  That's pretty awesome if I don't say so myself.

Omega-3:  Now I know what you're thinking, how could brussels sprouts have an essential fatty acid in them, after all there's only 0.6 grams of fat in an entire cup!  But you'll be happy to know that the little bit of fat brussels sprouts do have is ALL good for you, and also is anti-inflammatory.  Oh, and it'll support good cholesterol too, as an added bonus (as if there aren't enough bonuses to brussels sprouts already...)

Anti-Oxidants:  Brussels sprouts have so many of these it's astounding:  everything from vitamin C, E, beta-carotene, ferulic acid, and a special one called D3T (3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thione) that's actually quite rare in food.  All these anti-oxidants help to prevent oxidation damage to your cells, which in turn can have effects on preventing several kinds of cancer.  Make brussels sprouts a lifetime habit and perhaps you'll have a better chance of warding off cancer throughout your entire life.  I'll take that kind of benefit any day.

Vitamins and Minerals:  Oh boy do brussels sprouts have a bunch of these.  Eating a serving of brussels sprouts is almost like taking a multi-vitamin.  In one cup of brussels sprouts you'll be getting nearly 200% of your daily value of vitamin K, and 120% of your daily vitamin C.  WOW!  That's impressive.  You'll also be getting a heaping helping of folate, manganese, and vitamin A.  But that's not even close to the whole story.  Here's the nutritional profile of brussels sprouts, courtesy of WHFoods.com:

Brussels Sprouts 1.00 cup, raw 88.00 grams 37.84 calories
Nutrient	Amount	DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World's Healthiest Foods Rating
vitamin K	155.76 mcg	194.7	92.6	excellent
vitamin C	74.80 mg	124.7	59.3	excellent
manganese	0.30 mg	15.0	7.1	very good
folate	53.68 mcg	13.4	6.4	very good
dietary fiber	3.34 g	13.4	6.4	very good
vitamin A	663.52 IU	13.3	6.3	very good
potassium	342.32 mg	9.8	4.7	very good
vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)	0.19 mg	9.5	4.5	very good
tryptophan	0.03 g	9.4	4.5	very good
vitamin B1 (thiamin)	0.12 mg	8.0	3.8	very good
iron	1.23 mg	6.8	3.3	good
phosphorus	60.72 mg	6.1	2.9	good
protein	2.97 g	5.9	2.8	good
molybdenum	4.40 mcg	5.9	2.8	good
magnesium	20.24 mg	5.1	2.4	good
vitamin B2 (riboflavin)	0.08 mg	4.7	2.2	good
choline	16.81 mg	4.0	1.9	good
vitamin E	0.77 mg	3.9	1.8	good
omega 3 fatty acids	0.09 g	3.8	1.8	good
calcium	36.96 mg	3.7	1.8	good
vitamin B3 (niacin)	0.66 mg	3.3	1.6	good

World's Healthiest Foods Rating	Rule
excellent	DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DV>=10%
very good	DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DV>=5%
good	DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DV>=2.5%

Also, at the top there you can see that one cup of brussels sprouts has only about 40 calories.  This WILL vary depending on how big the sprouts are, but never will brussels sprouts be considered a calorie dense food.  If you decide to munch on these babies you'll get full far before you do your figure any damage.

So...brussels sprouts!  They're FANTASTIC!  They taste great, are tender and juicy, go great with almost any lunch/dinner, and are packed with all the health benefits you could ever want.  Try them out ASAP, there are a lot of AMAZING recipes out there for them.  I like mine boiled/steamed, but you can add all sorts of things to them.  In fact, here's a fantastic yet simple recipe I found online that'll really spice up a plain dish of brussels sprouts:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/danny-boome/sauteed-brussels-sprouts-and-red-cabbage-recipe/index.html

Give them a try, what do you have to lose except an unhealthy body?  GOOD LUCK!!


References:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=10

Stress Relieving Food

Eating a poorly balanced diet can do more than change your outward appearance.  In fact, processed food can  degrade your mental state to severely frustrating levels.  Bad food stresses you out!  No one likes stress, it can make every new day a beast to tackle, and can affect things like social relationships with others, work quality, workout quality, and even your sleep cycle.  A healthy diet is one of the greatest ways going to manage stress levels, and there's no doubt in my mind or the mind of top scientists that healthy foods will make you feel a heck of a lot better.  Let's examine what's in healthy food that can really combat stressful situations.

First of all, this won't be one of those "top 10 food" articles for stress relief.  I don't take much stock in those kind of lists, especially because the nutrients those foods contain that somehow make them "top 10" worthy are in fact shared by hundreds of foods that are equally as good for you.  To ignore such amazing diet choices is a very poor and naive idea.

So what foods do the best job of combating stress?  Well that's not a hard question to answer, and I honestly bet you could take a seriously good guess.  Healthy foods like Vegetables, fruits, and whole grains do an amazing job at providing your body with the nutrients you need to produce the hormones needed to fight off excess cortisol, one chemical associated with stress when excreted in excess.

Both Vitamin C and omega 3 fatty acids are incredible combatants of excess cortisol, and therefore can significantly decrease stress levels.  Foods rich in these are most vegetables and fruits (bell peppers, asparagus, tomatoes, green beans, apples, oranges, bananas, etc.), and lots of fish including salmon, tuna, crab, herring, swordfish, and many other varieties.

Foods high in folic acid are also great stress combatants, and once again, these foods include most any vegetable you can think of, especially dark, leafy green vegetables like spinach, asparagus, cucumbers, and many others.  Try a few for dinner tonight!

Another main cause of stress is the excess of free radicals in the body.  Free radicals are atoms that have an unpaired electron in their outermost (valence) shell, which makes them extremely unstable and damaging to human cells.  Certain nutrients have been shown to eliminate free radicals quite effectively.  Foods high in anti-oxidants will do the best job at eliminating these pesky little guys.  Foods high in anti-oxidants include most fruits, like blueberries, pomegranates, apples, bananas, raspberries, strawberries, etc.  A fruit, helping you to feel better?  Who would've guessed.

Certain other nutrients will help to combat free radicals very efficiently as well, including many vitamins and minerals such as vitamins C, B2, and E.  Surprise surprise, most fruits and vegetables are very high in all three of these.  Get some into your diet!


So there you have it.  Simple really, eat well, feel great!  Who knew?  Keep healthy foods in that diet of yours, and you'll do more than keep slim for the holidays.  With all that's going on these days, I'm guessing you could use all the chipper attitude you can muster, right?  Let those healthy foods help you out!

Eat your veggies, keep smiling, and as always, good luck!