These days, every thing from bottled water to orange juice appears to have souped-up ranges of vitamins and minerals in it. That will sound like a means to assist cowl your dietary bases, particularly in case your food plan is lower than stellar. However routinely getting an overload of vitamins and minerals can damage you.
An excessive amount of vitamin C or zinc may trigger nausea, diarrhea, and stomach cramps. An excessive amount of selenium may result in hair loss, gastrointestinal upset, fatigue, and delicate nerve damage.
Whereas most individuals do not get megadoses, if you happen to eat a fortified cereal at breakfast, seize an vitality bar between meals, have enriched pasta for dinner, and take a every day complement, you might simply be over the advisable every day consumption of a number of vitamins.
Here is what it’s essential to know to keep away from overdoing it.
Chances are high, the unfortified meals you eat aren’t an issue. “It is fairly laborious to overdo it from meals alone,” says Johanna Dwyer, RD, a senior analysis scientist with the Nationwide Institutes of Well being’s Workplace of Dietary Supplements.
So you will need to take into consideration the supplements you are taking and fortified meals or drinks.
“Most individuals do not realize there isn’t any actual benefit to taking greater than the advisable quantities of nutritional vitamins and minerals, they usually do not acknowledge there could also be disadvantages,” Dwyer says.
“For those who’re taking a complement, stick to 1 that is not more than the every day worth,” Dwyer says. (Day by day worth is the quantity of a vitamin or nutrient that an individual ought to get for optimum well being.)
Discuss along with your physician about any supplements you are taking, together with nutritional vitamins and minerals, and the dose you are taking, too. That means, your physician will help you retain doses in a protected vary.
“For those who’re taking a fundamental multivitamin, there isn’t any have to concern taking an excessive amount of,” says Andrew Shao, PhD, senior vp of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Accountable Vitamin, a commerce group for the dietary supplements trade.
“Most multivitamins have such a large margin of security that even whenever you’re combining them with fortified meals, it is nonetheless not going to trigger you to keel over,” Shao says.
“I’ve not seen somebody off the road who was taking a poisonous degree of vitamin A or D — these are very uncommon,” says David Katz, MD, director of the Yale College Prevention Analysis Middle in New Haven, CT, whose medical follow focuses on nutrition. “What I am extra prone to see is an individual with a dosing degree of dietary supplements that is greater than optimum.”
Scientists do not but know if routinely getting a bit bit an excessive amount of of a vitamin or mineral (versus a megadose) is an issue, Katz says.
“There may be hints of concern, however they’d be very refined indicators,” he says.
These pretty delicate signs might embrace problem sleeping or concentrating, nerve issues reminiscent of numbness or tingling, or feeling extra irritable — relying on the nutrient that is going overboard.
The larger concern, Katz says, is that we’re “garnishing the meals provide with overfortification.”
He says producers have shifted their focus from what they’ve taken out of meals — reminiscent of its fats, sugar, or salt — to what they’re placing in, whether or not it is vitamin D, probiotics, or omega-3 fat — no matter nutrient is in vogue.
“When increasingly meals are enhanced, it turns into not possible for shoppers to know what dose they’re getting over the course of a day,” Katz says. “Clinicians have to appreciate we may be introducing new dietary imbalances due to this follow.”
Dwyer says vitamin D, calcium, and folic acid are three nutrients chances are you’ll get an excessive amount of of, particularly by means of dietary supplements.
Adults who frequently far exceed the 4,000 worldwide models (IUs) every day protected higher restrict for vitamin D may might find yourself with critical heart issues.
Folic acid is added to enriched grain merchandise — white flours, pasta, rice, breads, and cereals — to assist forestall beginning defects in infants as a consequence of folic acid deficiency in pregnant girls. Whereas folic acid fortification has reduce the variety of beginning defects by 25% to 50%, it might need created different well being considerations in individuals getting an excessive amount of.
It isn’t laborious to get greater than 1,000 micrograms of folic acid a day (the protected higher restrict for adults) from fortified meals and dietary supplements regularly. Doing so may disguise the indicators of a vitamin B12 deficiency in older adults. Vitamin B12 deficiency can generally result in everlasting nerve damage if left untreated.
There isn’t any want to fret about meals which are naturally wealthy in folate.
“Most individuals can now get sufficient folic acid with out having to depend on dietary supplements,” Dwyer says.
The truth is, she says, “most individuals haven’t any drawback [with getting too much vitamins or minerals] if they begin with meals, which is the healthiest and most secure strategy to get them.”
