5. The Illusion Of More Is Better Is A Dangerous Illusion
Steven Salzberg, a professor of medicine who has written about Americans’ obsession with vitamins, points out that even with the above information, many people are reluctant to give up multivitamins. “I think this is a great example of how our intuition leads us astray. It seems reasonable that if a little bit of something is good for you, then more should be better for you. It’s not true. Supplementation with extra vitamins or micronutrients doesn’t really benefit you if you don’t have a deficiency,” he says.
This logic is particularly true for multivitamins — with people taking them assuming they’ll cover all of their vitamin needs. But for people who actually do have a vitamin deficiency, it’s usually in just one vitamin. A minority of women, for example, suffer from iron deficiencies, and a doctor may recommend supplements in that case — but they should only take iron supplements, not multivitamins.
