Why take vitamins if you can eat the right food?

November 14, 8:16 AMPhiladelphia Health ExaminerThomas Hartmann

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Many Americans like to take pills to solve their health problems. Maybe it's the magic bullet concept common to our culture -- that all one's problems can be solved in one fell swoop, and that the solution to health lies outside of our bodies.  Maybe it's because it's so convenient to take a pill and not think about what one is eating.  Or could it be that many Americans just don’t like to prepare food?

The vitamin industry certainly does nothing to encourage the idea that food could provide all necessary nutrients. The fact is, just taking vitamins is not the best way to get the nutrients one needs. Just taking vitamins on an empty stomach does not help them get absorbed naturally into one’s system. They should be taken after a meal, if at all, says homeopath Samuel Krinsky, M.D., Ph.D., D.H.M., of Ottsville, PA.

For those who enjoy eating food more than taking pills, there are many references available for which foods contain which nutrients. No matter how one decides to get nutrients, one should keep things in proportion: “you can control 80% of your health by yourself,” Krinsky says. Proper exercise, sleep, and good lifestyle habits all play a role, besides of course the role of genetics. How else could the rest of the world get by without a vitamin industry like America’s?

- not all doctors prescribe just pills:  see profile of Dr. Morton Herskowitz