Vitamins: you can’t live without them, that’s for sure. The question, then, is: where do you get them? In the ‘good old days’ (which may have been in your grandparents’ generation, but perhaps much further back) we got our vitamins and other nutrients from entirely natural sources: the sun, the water we drank, and the food we ate. .

Today, and this is no secret, our food and everything we drink just doesn’t have the same impact as it did in the old days. There are many reasons for this, and I don’t want to write a dissertation about it. But, for example, many of us get our food from soil that is not as rich as it used to be. And the many chemicals that are used in most of the foods we probably eat can further deplete nutrition, or at least add some unnecessary poisons to our diet. And it often comes from places far away from where we live, so it may have lost some more of its nutritional content on the way here.

So what should we do? Well, a common approach is to take vitamins. This view has supporters and detractors.

Recently, according to the Seattle Times, a longtime critic of this approach has changed his view.

They note that “the American Medical Association (AMA) recommends that all adults take at least one multivitamin per day, reversing its long-standing anti-vitamin policy.”

It seems that their policy has changed, due to advances in research on the effects of vitamins. It now appears that people who consume enough vitamins may have a lower risk of some common chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis.

Perhaps his change of heart mirrors that of the American public. For example, 20 years ago, the AMA only encouraged vitamin supplements for pregnant women and people with chronic diseases.

I remember when I was younger there were some multivitamins on the market and some other vitamins and nutritional supplements as well, but they weren’t your common fare. And when I started going to health food stores, I was met with a barrage of strange vitamins that I had certainly never heard of in biology class.

But now, for example, the value of folic acid in preventing some birth defects and heart disease is recognized.

Who had heard of folic acid 20 or 30 years ago?

Of course, it’s not just that food has less nutrition nowadays, but also that we are not as conscious about taking care of our own nutrition and how it relates to health. The AMA says that nearly 80 percent of Americans don’t eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day to provide essential nutrients.

If that’s the case, then we need to get our vitamins and minerals from somewhere. And it seems that vitamin supplements are now accepted by the scientists and doctors who should know about these things.

Another thing scientists are learning more about is that our RDAs for vitamins may need a rethink.

Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg, of Tuft University’s Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, said nutrition experts are concerned that the recommended daily amounts of many vitamins are too low. The RDAs were originally established to prevent symptoms of vitamin deficiency disorders. But there is growing evidence that higher levels of many vitamins are needed for optimal health.

And, as we know, if these vitamins don’t come from our food, we need them from somewhere, like vitamin supplements.

Dr. Robert Fletcher of Harvard University agrees. He reflects that many of us thought as children that a sensible diet would take care of our vitamin needs. “But,” he says, “the new evidence … is that vitamins also prevent the common diseases we deal with every day, (like) heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and birth defects.” .

However, experts, and others with common sense, remember that vitamins are a “supplement” to our diet. They do not replace a balanced diet. So eat a balanced diet, but if you want to reduce your risk of today’s common chronic diseases, you might as well add a good multivitamin supplement to your diet.