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From a scientific standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense to think that we somehow need to take large quantities of purified or synthesized vitamins, when the human race has existed for the last million years or so without them. If you eat a balanced diet, you shouldn’t need vitamins.

Vitamin companies have done a very good job of convincing people that they absolutely need to pop handfuls of vitamin pills.

Studies have shown that a mega vitamin/anti-oxidant supplement can slow or stop the progress of macular degeneration. As one diagnosed with this ailment I intend to keep taking the supplements since to eat the required amount of food to get the same amount of anti-oxidants would kill me with obesity.

You asserted, "If you eat a balanced diet, you shouldn’t need vitamins." I don't know your educational background, but it is a well documented medical fact that genetics come into play on how well and for how long during the lifetime vitamins and minerals are absorbed. I happen to not absorb certain vitamins as well at 66 a I did at 30. I'm thankful supplementation can make up the deficit and extra anti-oxidants can slow my going blind.

But as we evolved over millions of years, life expectancy was not what we hope for today. People suffered from all sorts of diseases mediated by vitaHin deficiencies, from the obvious rickets (which often caused death in childbed in an age before Caesarean sections), visual problems, osteoporosis, cancers potentially linked to Vitamin D deficiencies, and so forth. People lived short lives full of suffering. We’d like to do a bit better now. We have a not-unrealistic expectation that we’ll be able to live long, healthy lives and remain active into our eighties.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to do that with today’s “balanced diet.” By the time that tomato arrives at your house after its trip from Holland, or the green pepper gets here from California, or the grape is eaten after being shipped from Chile, it’s questionable whether much nutrition remains in it. A valid case can be made that people who don’t raise their own food ought to take supplements just to restore the nutrition that is supposed to be in a balanced diet.

It’s also been clearly demonstrated that the office worker who lives north of Charleston, South Carolina is not getting enough Vitamin D because he isn’t exposed to enough sunlight in the winter, especially if he’s black. This phenomenon has been linked to the increasing incidence of asthma in black children. One may reasonably assert that it’s appropriate for those who live in northern latitudes to take Vitamin D supplements.

And are you really going to be able to consume enough dairy foods to take in 1500 mg per day of calcium needed to sustain strong bones into old age? You can eat a “balanced diet,” whatever that may consist of, and still have osteopenia or osteoporosis after menopause. So calcium and Vitamin D supplements may be appropriate.

There’s just too much sound science demonstrating that some supplements really do improve health and the quality of life.

PS....I eat healthy and have most of my life, I exercise and have most of my life....never smoked....but, menopause almost killed me. My maternal grandfather died in his sleep of either a massive cardio problem or something similar (he was thin).....I will take vitamins because I think they help, and because people are DIFFERENT! As people age their abilities to process nutrients can change for the worse...IMHO...oh, and I have a doc who is a MD and ND....who does research and teaches....I’ll listen to him.

You're absolutely right, as long as you don't want to live long and prosper. Pauling (PDF) had it right about Vitamin C, my doctor and his advisors have it wrong about vitamin D ("everyone gets enough vitamin D from sunlight and no one needs supplements"), and almost no one gets it right about iron.

Funny thing, my doctor is 15 years younger than me and has had colon cancer, but not me. We both live at Latitude 51° N, with less sunlight than south of here, plus on the cloudy west coast of B.C., but I take 4000 IU daily of Vitamin D, and he takes none. But hey, what do I know, that's just an n=2 survey.

In addition to the Vitamin D I take 1 multi-vitamin pill per day (iron free), 8-10 grams if Vitamin C, and a bit of B₁₂.

Most animals synthesize their own Vitamin C, and don't have heart attacks. Primates including humans lost that ability somewhere along the way to now. Back in the old days before the great FR purge, some evolutionist pointed out the gene where this loss occurred. I have no idea how to find it now. As well, women develop heart disease later than men due to monthly menses (regular loss of blood, and therefore iron).

I first heard of the iron-heart connection through internet postings of someone who called himself The Watchman. He may be this Freeper.