Speaker 1: I'm Kristin Conger and I'm Caroline Irvan, and we're hosts
Speaker 1: of the podcast Stuff Mom never told you That gets
Speaker 1: down to the business of being women from every imaginable angle.
Speaker 1: That's right. Kristen and I skillfully decode the biology, psychology,
Speaker 1: and sociology of ladies and gents from their evolutionary past
Speaker 1: a millennial present to better understand all of that stuff
Speaker 1: Mom never told you. No offense moms, Now be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to brain
Speaker 1: Stuff from How Stuff Works. I'm Christian Seger and welcome
Speaker 1: to brain Stuff. If you're like me, you grew up
Speaker 1: being taught that taking your vitamins was an important part
Speaker 1: of a balanced healthy life. The alternative is to eat
Speaker 1: exactly the right amount of foods to supply your body
Speaker 1: with the recommended daily value of nutrients. And who wants
Speaker 1: to do all that work when you can just swallow
Speaker 1: a pill, or even better, chew on a block of
Speaker 1: sugar shaped like your favorite cartoon character. But our supplemental
Speaker 1: vitamins actually helpful? Does a vitamin a day truly keep
Speaker 1: you healthy to play well? First, let's get a simple
Speaker 1: understanding of how vitamins work. They're really just small molecules
Speaker 1: that our bodies need to carry out certain reactions. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: our bodies don't make vitamins themselves, so we need to
Speaker 1: eat food that contains these important molecules. There's two types
Speaker 1: of vitamins. Water soluble vitamins need to be replenished every day,
Speaker 1: and fat soluble vitamins need to dissolve before they enter
Speaker 1: our bodies. Our bile acids do this for us, breaking
Speaker 1: the vitamins down and storing them in our livers or
Speaker 1: body fat. The downside is that these vitamins can build
Speaker 1: up in our systems, surpassing their necessary value. Sixty years ago,
Speaker 1: the first multi vitamin became available on the American market. Basically,
Speaker 1: this is a pill that contains at least ten vitamins
Speaker 1: and ten minerals to supplement our diet. Now, millions of
Speaker 1: adults and children devour these pills every day, spending twelve
Speaker 1: billion dollars a year on them. If you don't have
Speaker 1: the time to gather fresh fruit, vegetables, and grains every day,
Speaker 1: then you're probably taking a multi vitamin. But several recent
Speaker 1: studies have shown that there are some negative effects to
Speaker 1: be aware of when taking multi vitamins. For instance, less
Speaker 1: than half the multi vitamins sold in the US and
Speaker 1: Canada actually contain what their labels say. Sometimes they'll have
Speaker 1: too much of a supplement, like a children's vitamin that
Speaker 1: had two hundred and sixteen percent the amount of vitamin
Speaker 1: A listed. You think kids just p out all that
Speaker 1: extra vitamin A. No, it weakens their bones and potentially
Speaker 1: causes abnormalities and their livers. Other multi vitamins can contain
Speaker 1: substances that don't even belong in them, like lead, for instance,
Speaker 1: and unless you really need to foil Superman's X ray vision,
Speaker 1: you probably shouldn't ingest that much lead. That, my friends,
Speaker 1: are just the multi vitamins that are mislabeled. Some experts
Speaker 1: believe that we don't always gain benefits from vitamins unless
Speaker 1: they are absorbed into our body along with the other
Speaker 1: compounds found in their natural form. So maybe vitamin C
Speaker 1: doesn't work unless you digest it with an orange. Also,
Speaker 1: supplement research is really difficult to gauge because each of
Speaker 1: us eats an incredibly broad variety of foods that could
Speaker 1: help or hinder the absorption of vitamins. Not to mention
Speaker 1: that the Food and Drug Administration doesn't require these supplements
Speaker 1: to go through the same scrutiny for safety and efficacy
Speaker 1: that it does for say, medicine or drugs. The more
Speaker 1: we look into it, it seems that multi vitamins either
Speaker 1: have no substantial health benefits or their benefits are too
Speaker 1: small to make much of a difference. Let's look at
Speaker 1: a few examples of how this plays out, Starting with
Speaker 1: folic acid. This is one of those supplements originally thought
Speaker 1: to protect the heart and prevent cancer. Based on a
Speaker 1: two thousand eight sty the out of Harvard, it turns
Speaker 1: out that too much folic acid may instead promote prostate
Speaker 1: and colorectal cancer, and because food companies add it to
Speaker 1: grain products, most of us are already getting our daily
Speaker 1: values worth What about vitamin C, the one we're supposed
Speaker 1: to take when we get sick. Well, if you eat
Speaker 1: foods that are rich in vitamin C, it can lower
Speaker 1: your risk of heart disease and cancer, But if you
Speaker 1: simply take it in pillform, it seems to have no benefits. Also,
Speaker 1: vitamin C can enhance your iron absorption, so be careful
Speaker 1: if you have hemochromatosis or you'll end up with too
Speaker 1: much iron in your system. Another vitamin that supposedly prevented
Speaker 1: heart disease and cancer is vitamin E. But again that's
Speaker 1: only in its natural form in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils,
Speaker 1: where it can also strengthen the immune system. As a supplement,
Speaker 1: there's no evidence vitamin E provides any of its natural benefits.
Speaker 1: In fact, some research shows that doses over four hundred
Speaker 1: international units a day can actually increase your mortality. Let
Speaker 1: me spell that out for you. That means you'll die
Speaker 1: faster if you have too much vitamin E. Vitamin A
Speaker 1: is very similar in that it doesn't actually prevent lung
Speaker 1: cancer as it's advertised. In fact, large doses actually increase
Speaker 1: the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Most of us
Speaker 1: are already getting plenty of vitamin A anyway, in eggs,
Speaker 1: whole milk, dark leafy veggies, and orange or yellow fruits.
Speaker 1: And remember those kids I mentioned who got too much
Speaker 1: vitamin A from their multi vitamin Both their bones and
Speaker 1: livers were weakened. But if you're pregnant adult, too much
Speaker 1: vitamin A can lead to birth defects. B vitamins were
Speaker 1: originally thought to help people with Alzheimer's disease or even
Speaker 1: raise your energy levels, but the trial results have been disappointing,
Speaker 1: with no evidence that it does either. But B twelve
Speaker 1: is one of the vitamins that can help supplement an
Speaker 1: unbalanced diet. It's good good for strict vegetarians who aren't
Speaker 1: getting everything they need from animal derived food, but otherwise
Speaker 1: you don't really need it unless you're pregnant or facing
Speaker 1: macular degeneration from old age, two things I'm not currently
Speaker 1: worried about. Finally, let's look at vitamin D, you know,
Speaker 1: the one we get from the sun. There's still hope
Speaker 1: that it can help with osteoporosis, but the data is
Speaker 1: inconclusive since everyone gets different amounts of sun exposure. If
Speaker 1: you're already getting a decent amount of midday sun exposure
Speaker 1: and regularly consume foods like fatty fish, eggs, and fortified
Speaker 1: dairy products, you probably don't need a d supplement. Perhaps
Speaker 1: in the future will be able to just pop a
Speaker 1: pill personally tailored to our nutrition, but as it stands today,
Speaker 1: your best bet is to still eat a balanced diet
Speaker 1: from good old fashioned hold foods. However, this doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you should run home and pour all your multi vitamins
Speaker 1: down the toilet. Just do a little research on what
Speaker 1: your body needs and whether the pill you're taking is
Speaker 1: actually necessary. Check out the brainstuff channel on YouTube, and
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com.