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Spitfire

To throw in my 10 bahts worth, yes, I do take a supplement or two. Why? Because as said the nutrient content of food now is only a fraction of what it used to be due to quality of soil etc and you would have to be eating all day a load of different stuff to aquire everything you really need.

Secondly, there are vitamin pills and vitamin pills, they are not all the same, for sure. Vitamin pills DO work but there are a couple of conditions that need to be met to ensure you benfit properly from them as the price does add up. Some people cynically say that vitamins are simply pissed out with the water and you waste your money, only half true. Examine the content list on the bottle and view what form the vitamin or mineral is in, the answer to that determines how absorbic it is. For example, the cheap supplements like say Centrum (230 baht for a month) will have "Zinc (Zinc oxide)" on the back or "Magnesium (Magnesium oxide)" and the oxide form of the mineral has a very low absorbic rate, say 5-10%, so even though it says 100% RDA etc it is simply not very absorbic, hence a lot of it gets pissed out, if the supplement uses, say, the suphate or another form of the mineral then it has a much higher absorbic rate by the body, upto 60-70% and then it's a benifit to take. Don't get me wrong, you stil benefit from taking the cheap ones but it is only a little bit, probably un-noticable unless you are suffering from real deficiency, which is uncommon.

Not surpringly, the cheap vitamin/mineral supplement use the oxide form of most minerals and the expensive ones don't, hence the price differential.

The other thing that you must realise is that your digestive system/stomach etc needs to be in a reasonable condition and detoxified for the supplements to work at optimen levels, for this I use "Bio C" from Nutrilite, pretty good, 700 baht or so for a 100 pills. Doesn't mean you have to stop drinking etc but you shoud make an effort to clear it out.

The other rule of thumb is that generally, not always, capsules are better than pills as they take longer to disolve and are more likely to deliver the supplement directly to the intestine.

I also take phytonutients with the multivitamin/mineral, as a pill, which are concentrated vegetable extracts and anti oxidents. Also take fish oil as well which is a must really as it can help anyone and those that say just eat lots of oily fish instead shoud be aware of the fact that most water today in the world is contaminated, even in very small amounts, with heavy metals such as lead/mercury etc and these do accumilate in the meat of fish, but up to you.

Those that are worried about cardio-vascular health and a few other things might want to have a look at "Coenzyme q10", often touted as the wonder nutrient, helpful for many things, but again it's not cheap.

The brand I take of everything is Nutrilite, the multivitamin/mineral is named "Double X", imported from the US, but it is not cheap. I feel a difference and IMO it works well, noticable improvement, just Google it if you want. I am careful of locally made stuff on this level/subject as the supplement industry is unregulated everywhere, even in the west, which was a surprise to me. I am suspectful of the ingredients of Thai sausages that you can buy so definately that extends to this stuff as well.

Go with what you are comfortable with or what you feel works for you as everyone is different. If you are unsure then always check with your doc as well.