I used to think vitamins had been thoroughly studied for their health trade-offs. They haven’t. The reason you take one multivitamin pill a day is marketing, not science.
One reason to take the latter is to make sure you don't get a deficiency disease.
I used to think I needed to drink a crazy-large amount of water each day, because smart people said so, but that wasn’t science either.
I don't know about "crazy-large" amounts (and too water much will kill you), but as far as I know, plus a little bit of time with Google just now, which indicates this has been the "scientific consensus" since the time of Hippocrates, unless you drink a fair amount, you're setting yourself up for kidney stones. Which I can attest are no fun at all.
One reason to take the latter is to make sure you don't get a deficiency disease.
And yet, what has started to come out (from what I understand and have read) is that taking a straight up multivitamin or something isn't that helpful. The general reason people seem to be finding being that the body doesn't absorb the stuff in the pill you just took very well, meaning you really aren't getting much benefit, if any, from taking said pill. Instead you would actually want to eat things that give you the vitamins and minerals that the body needs in order for it to be able to absorb those. Possibly including something such as a healthy fat which would promote absorbing the good things in stuff such as broccoli that much more. (again, from what I have read and understand) This is the possible reasoning behind the article saying taking multivitamins is marketing.
You don't need "much benefit" if the purpose is to avoid a deficiency disease, unless you're eating a really exotic diet (or have an absorption disease, but that's not in the remit of once-a-day vitamins), it's just to "top off" your normal diet. Especially since they come with instructions to take them with food to improve absorption.
Any specifics on this claimed problem? Like some interacting with others, or with various foods?
I'm not sure what specifically you could be referring to. In fact, for vegans it can be easier to sometimes take supplements that have iron and vitamin C in one package, rather than carefully preparing a meal so that you're eating both plant-derived iron and vitamin C at roughly the same time.
> shows that you are using a given diet that the human body is not meant to sustain?
In an industrialized society, you will have a difficult time finding a way of eating that can be justified as both optimally healthy and "as nature intended." By that measure the choices are bad, or less bad.
If you're an ethical Vegan, e.g. someone who does not believe in exploiting animals for your food, then the diet being "bad" like that could be legitimately remedied by supplements.
> One reason to take the latter is to make sure you don't get a deficiency disease.
Eating a balanced diet every day gets you way more vitamins than your body can absorb. I learnt this from a biologist who studied digestion about 18 years ago. According to him vitamin pills were completely unnecessary.
I have never heard of people getting a deficiency disease with a balanced diet (say, a typical Mediterranean diet). So it's probably a combination of marketing and quick-fixes (The real message behind the pill is ... "Want to sit on your couch and eat pizza every day? No problem, just pop-in a pill!")
"Deficiency disease" in this context and Vitamin D means rickets.
And in addition to a one-a-day multivitamin multimineral tablet (split in two, each half in a different meal to improve absorption), I separately take 5,000 IU spread across all my meals, which has got my blood levels up to what they apparently should be. That's all the vitamin and mineral supplementation I take.
I used to think vitamins had been thoroughly studied for their health trade-offs. They haven’t. The reason you take one multivitamin pill a day is marketing, not science.
One reason to take the latter is to make sure you don't get a deficiency disease.
I used to think I needed to drink a crazy-large amount of water each day, because smart people said so, but that wasn’t science either.
I don't know about "crazy-large" amounts (and too water much will kill you), but as far as I know, plus a little bit of time with Google just now, which indicates this has been the "scientific consensus" since the time of Hippocrates, unless you drink a fair amount, you're setting yourself up for kidney stones. Which I can attest are no fun at all.