When it comes to eating right it is difficult to know whether you are getting the right about of vitamins and minerals through your foods. Unless you are growing your own and buying organic you really never know how processed food holds its vitamins and nutrients. Trying to follow all the studies on vitamins and health is almost impossible, and having a deficiency in trace minerals can lead to big health consequences down the road. A daily multivitamin is a great way to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need to be healthy. The folic acid in most multivitamins helps prevent neural tube defects in newborns; it may lower the risk of heart disease, colon cancer, and breast cancer. Vitamin D from a multivitamin supplement can lower the risk of colon and possibly many other cancers. It’s important not to take more than the recommended daily amounts. While a multivitamin supplement can help fill some of the gaps in a less than optimal diet, too much can be harmful. In general, stick close to standard recommended doses in a multivitamin. And since your multivitamin will likely contain all the folic acid you’ll need, stay away from other foods that are super-fortified with folic acid.

Certainly a multivitamin helps against deficiencies in vitamins and nutrients but it is more important to eat right. Choose a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and healthy oils, and low in red meat and unhealthy fats. A daily multivitamin is an inexpensive nutrition insurance policy and taking one every day is good way to protect your health. In addition to its bone health benefits, there’s growing evidence that getting some extra vitamin D can help lower the risk of colon and breast cancer. Aim for getting 1,000 to 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day. Higher doses of vitamin E may help to prevent heart disease, but in general, the amount in a standard multivitamin is enough to have health benefits. Most multivitamins also have a day’s worth of folic acid, so you should avoid foods that have high amounts of folic acid added to them, but Vitamin D is an exception, as many people need more than the RDA.