'B' FOR BENEFIT, 'R' FOR RISK 'B' FOR BENEFIT, 'R' FOR RISK More than half of adults take multivitamins, at least some of the time, studies suggest. But is taking vitamins a healthy habit? Maybe -- or maybe not. The evidence is inconclusive, says a 2006 Institute of Medicine report. Some studies suggest benefits; others suggest risks, especially if people end up getting too much of certain nutrients from a combination of food and pills. But some multivitamin ingredients do have proven benefits. For example, women who take 400 micrograms of folic acid a day can help prevent spina bifida and related disorders in their babies. Digg



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Facebook In this week's mailbag, readers wander the health and grocery aisles and ask: Why? Q: Why are multivitamin pills so huge? I should be taking them, but I don't because they are such horse pills. —Nancy Huston, Wilmington, Del. A: Don't blame the vitamins. Blame the other stuff — especially the minerals — in the most popular supplement pills. A pill that contained nothing but full doses of the 13 vitamins that have been assigned "daily values" (recommended intakes) would weigh less than 200 milligrams and be smaller than a pea, says Annette Dickinson, a Minneapolis consultant and former president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a group representing vitamin manufacturers. But many popular vitamin-plus-mineral supplements weigh 1,000 mg. to 1,500 mg. and are about as big as kidney beans. That's largely because of two minerals, magnesium and calcium, which have daily values (400 mg. and 1,000 mg., respectively) so high that if they were added at those doses, the resulting pill would be enormous. As a compromise, most pillmakers offer a smattering of magnesium and 100 mg. to 200 mg. of calcium, Dickinson says. And when calcium is added in the most common form, calcium carbonate, the size of the pill grows, because 500 mg. of calcium carbonate is needed to supply 200 mg. of calcium. Iron, zinc and other minerals may add another 100 mg. or so, Dickinson says. Finally, there are "fillers, binders and coatings that help it all hang together without chipping or breaking in the bottle and that make the tablet palatable," she says. There also are "disintegrating agents" that help the pill dissolve in the stomach. Add it all up and you get that "horse pill." Chewable or liquid versions are available for children and adults who literally can't swallow that. Another alternative, of course, is to buy and take separate vitamin and mineral pills. But, Dickinson says, "companies work very hard at getting this all in one tablet, because many consumers don't want to take more than one." Q: I must confess that I buy water in bottles. They are really convenient. I am also, however, a long-time recycler. It hurts my environmental heart to just toss the bottles. So I refill and reuse them over and over. But I have recently heard that the bottles should not be reused. Some bottles even say so on the label. Is there any health or safety reason for this? —Sue Causeman, Champaign, Ill. A: The main concern of bottlers is germs. Joseph Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, says: "When our members put that water in a bottle, it's under sanitary conditions. When you open the bottle, you drink from it, and when you let that bottle sit, bacteria can grow in it. If someone then takes that bottle, doesn't clean it properly and then drinks from it, he could get sick." I would add that a little common sense would be in order: If you are out for a walk, empty a just-purchased bottle and then refill it from a drinking fountain, you should be OK. Likewise, if you are willing to scrub your used bottles with a bottle brush, using hot, soapy water and reaching all the nooks and crannies, it's hard to see how you could go wrong. On the other hand, you could just buy one or two easier-to-clean reusable water bottles. And whenever you do buy a disposable bottle, you can be a fairly "green" human being if you just make sure it ends up in a recycling bin — unlike most of its kind. Share this story: Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.