Is a supplement bad?

Whoever looks in my home in the vegetable drawer and the fruit basket will not have to worry about whether I get enough vitamins in. And I haven't even mentioned the meter jars of supplements that are on the kitchen shelf. But can you actually get too many vitamins if you also take supplements every day in addition to your portion of vegetables and fruit? Yes, that is possible.

The chance of getting too many vitamins and minerals from your daily diet is practically zero. But if you take high-dose dietary supplements without thinking about it in addition to your plate of spinach and your orange, you can indeed get too much of some micronutrients, which can cause health complaints. And then you are suddenly not so healthy anymore.

The European Food Safety Authority has established a maximum acceptable upper limit for vitamins and minerals known to be harmful in excessive intake. So you would say that not much can go wrong. However, pill manufacturers are not required to adhere to this limit. Prescribed supplements or jars that you buy at the drugstore or supermarket can be taken without worry, but placing an order online can be tricky. Many cheaper dietary supplements that are floating around on the worldwide web contain poorly absorbable vitamins and minerals. If these remain circulating in your bloodstream because they are not absorbed by your cells, it can do more harm than good. But that's not all. Some jars contain multivitamins that sometimes contain four times as much vitamin B6 as the acceptable upper limit. Vitamin B6 consists of an ‘active’ and a cheaper, ‘inactive’ form. The inactive form must first be converted by your body. And not everyone can do that. An excess of vitamins can ultimately lead to tingling feet, nerve pain, and numbness. We can't use that.

But when do you get enough and when are you doing it right? The Nutrition Center advises choosing a supplement that contains no more than one hundred percent of the recommended daily allowance. The Vitamin Information Bureau, on the other hand, says that you can safely take a multivitamin with three hundred percent of the RDA. There are also experts who believe that we should actually take much more than the RDA, often even more than three hundred percent, as our bodies nowadays cry out for extra vitamins and minerals due to stress, environmental pollution, and medication use.

In short, opinions are quite divided on this. But one thing is certain: as long as you keep filling your plate with vegetables and the right jars are on your shelf, not much can go wrong. Anyone want a carrot?