Multivitamins are some of the most popular supplements. And in most first-world countries, about half of the population routinely takes such a product. But what benefits do multivitamins actually provide?
In this article, we’ll look at eight evidence-based ways in which multivitamins can enhance your health, well-being, athletic performance, and figure.
1) Multivitamins Can Help You Lose Fat
If you want to lose fat and keep it off, then upgrade your diet with a multivitamin. That’s what a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 96 obese Chinese women indicates.(1)
The scientists found that when their participants took a daily multivitamin for twenty-six weeks, on average, they:
- lost 3.6 kg of body weight
- lowered their BMI by 1.4 points
- reduced their waist circumference by 2.4 cm
- and lost 2.8 kg of body fat.
Not bad. Especially since the women didn’t receive any instructions on changing their nutrition plan or activity level. All the researchers told them to do was to take a multivitamin each day.
But why did the women experience such improvements? The reason is that all vitamins and minerals are, in one way or another, involved in processes related to your body weight and physical appearance.
Zinc, for instance, has a significant influence on your metabolism. Calcium enhances the ability of your body to burn fat. And Vitamin D is essential for hormonal health.(2)(3)(4)
In other words, whether you want to lose fat or want to maintain an already healthy weight, a multivitamin gives you an advantage on getting the job done.
2) Multivitamins Help You Alleviate Nutrient Deficiencies
Almost all of us are deficient in one or more key micronutrients. Just consider the bullets below, which point out the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies among the adult population:(5)
- Vitamin A: 35%
- Vitamin C: 31%
- Vitamin D: 74%
- Vitamin E: 67%
- Magnesium: 46%
- Calcium: 39%
- Choline: 92%
- Potassium: 100%
Such nutrient deficiencies can have severe consequences. These include impaired athletic performance, excess body fat, and an increased risk of depression, heart disease, and cancer.
What's problematic is that even a well-rounded, nutritious diet doesn't guarantee you'll hit your nutritional needs.
That's because of various reasons, one of them being that the vitamin and mineral content of food has declined a lot over the last decades owing to agricultural practices.(6)
The good news?
A multivitamin can offer a solution. While such a supplement isn’t an alternative for a nutritious diet, taking them provides you with a “safety net” of vitamins and minerals to help you cover your nutritional bases.
3) Multivitamins May Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease
Heart diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. They account for almost one-fourth of all deaths. And they cost the UK economy tens of billions of Pounds each year.
The good news? Multivitamins may reduce your risk of heart disease, as shown by several observational studies.(7)(8)
One study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that women who took a multivitamin for at least three years were 35% less likely to die from heart disease.(9)
The scientists observed, however, no reduction in heart disease risk among men who took a daily multivitamin. Thus, the cardiovascular benefits may be gender specific.
4) Multivitamins Can Uplift Your Mood
Taking a multivitamin may support your grey matter. That’s what was found by scientists from the University of Swansea, who conducted a meta-analysis on the influence of dietary supplements on mood.(10)
The researchers found that multivitamins can improve symptoms related to anxiety, fatigue, clarity of thought, and stress among adults without clinical disorders.
That makes sense. After all, various studies show a link between nutrient deficiencies and poor mood.(11)(12)(13)
So, if you want to boost your brain functioning, you may want to upgrade your daily routine with a multivitamin.
5) Multivitamins Enhance Your Gym Performance
Many vitamins and minerals are involved in processes related to workout performance.
An example is iron, a mineral that is essential for the production of energy. It helps you perform at your best in the gym by converting nutrients into ATP.
The problem, however, is that many of us are deficient in iron. Research indicates that 53% of female athletes are deficient in iron and that 43% of elite male athletes don't get enough of this nutrient.(14)(15)
Such a deficiency can hurt your fitness results by impairing endurance capacity, resistance to fatigue, and strength levels.(16)(17)
By taking a multivitamin, however, you can ensure that you get enough iron, which benefits gym performance.
So found one study on female volleyball players that eleven weeks of iron supplementation improved strength on the bench press, military press, half squat, power clean, and other strength exercises.(18)
Besides, a multivitamin also supplies you with various other micronutrients that are essential for exercise performance, such as calcium and Vitamin D, both of which play an essential role in neuromuscular functioning.
6) Multivitamins May Reduce Your Risk of Cancer
Although some studies show no positive effect, trials indicate that taking a multivitamin may reduce your risk of various cancers.
One study found that long-term multivitamin supplementation decreases the risk of cancer by 8%.(19)
Two observational studies found that long-term multivitamin supplementation reduced the risk of colon cancer in both men and women.(20)(21)
And one review of randomized controlled trials involving 47,289 participants found that taking a multivitamin a day reduced cancer risk in men by 31%.(22)
When you take a multivitamin, however, it’s essential that you select the right product. That’s because most of such supplements contain micronutrient forms that your body can’t absorb effectively.
Plus, most multivitamin manufacturers mess up their vitamin and mineral dosages. They overdose on cheap-to-manufacture nutrients such as the B vitamins while underdosing on vitamin D, vitamin K, and magnesium.
That's why we created our own multivitamin. Not only does this product contain bioavailable micronutrients in the right amounts, but it’s also enhanced with over thirty different fruits, vegetables, and superfoods.
That’ll help you get all the vitamins and minerals you need, so that you can boost your health, improve your vitality, enhance your energy levels, and feel at your best every single day.
Click here to try our Half Human multivitamin + super greens product.