A Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention report released earlier this month says that Americans are essentially getting an adequate amount of vitamins and minerals in their diets.
Based off blood and urine samples collected between 2003 and 2006, the report examines levels of vitamin D, folate, iodine, iron and fatty acids by ethnicity and gender. Those demographic dividers revealed some discrepancies: non-Hispanic blacks had a noticeably higher vitamin D deficiency (31 percent) than whites (4 percent) or Mexican Americans (11 percent).
All of these statistics (available in full at www.cdc.gov/nutritionreport) make for more than enough data to chew on as it is. But for Marshall Thompson, a nutritional health coach at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, studies of this sort have to be viewed in context.
For one, the latest CDC report is just one study among many. And due to the methodology or rhetorical framing, the results often clash. For example, a study published just three years ago in the Archives of Internal Medicine painted a much grimmer picture on vitamin D levels in America, with a reported three-quarters of U.S. teens and adults falling below sufficient levels.
Moreover, Thompson draws a distinction between "adequate" and "ideal" vitamin intake.
"Reaching the daily allowance of a given vitamin is only enough to avoid a deficiency disease," Thompson said. "The vitamin D requirement is just enough to avoid getting rickets. The vitamin C requirement is just enough to avoid getting scurvy."
Thompson says he is more likely to believe the studies that show shortcomings in vitamin intake, based on what he sees in overall American health. While any number of commercial foods and drinks crow about being fortified with vitamins and minerals, Thompson says that only goes so far.
"I think the weight carries more for the marketing more than it does health as far as synthetic vitamins are concerned," Thompson said.
Natural Grocers sells a whole array of vitamin supplements, and Thompson (not surprisingly) says that these products are important to achieving ideal health.
On the other hand, Hendrick Medical Center dietitian Ansleigh Rowan recommends patients seek vitamins in the food they eat first before turning to supplements. While vitamin pills have their uses, Rowan says there's some gray area as to how efficiently the human body can digest their contents.
"If a patient is taking a multivitamin, I recommend that they take it with a meal, just because that makes it easier for the body to process," Rowan said.
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