Today I am going to post about giving children multivitamins. Horror of horrors, yes it's true. In fact, Star has had them since he was, hmmm, let me think, five days old. There are a few common arguments people put forward for not taking/giving their kids multivits...
- We get all the nutrients we need in our food/milk
2. Recommended Daily Amounts (RDAs) of nutrients are printed on packets of food/baby formula....
...so we know we're getting enough, right ? Again, not true. You need to ask yourself how the levels of RDA have been arrived at ? The RDA is set at a level to prevent diseases of malnutrition. We're talking scurvy and rickets here. It is not set at a level to ensure we are the fittest, strongest, healthiest we can be. Not by a very long way.
Of course the other thing as far as babies goes, is that if they are exclusively breast fed (which of course I wholeheartedly agree with), breast milk is only as nutritious as the mothers nutritional status. And what's more , that leaves even fewer nutrients for the mother.
So, having established why I believe in supplementation I will give you one example of a study that has been done to demonstrate further.
A new study from the Karolinska Institute (the highest ranked university in clinical medicine and pharmacy in Europe) has shown that supplementing with multivitamins has no effect on the incidence of asthma, eczema, hayfever or atopic sensitisation. However, when they looked at data from children who started supplementing before the age of four, they found a 39% decrease in the risk of sensitisation to food.
In the researchers own words “our results show no association between current use of multivitamins and risk of allergic disease but suggest that supplementation with multivitamins during the first years of life may reduce the risk of allergic disease at school age”.
This is just one little fact to consider. There are so many others, and I will post further at another time, but doesn't it make you think ?
One last point. If you work for a pharmaceutical company, or are a believer in their doctrine that all you need is drugs, please pass by and don't feel the need to comment. I am not blogging about this to have heated debates on the subject but to put some info out there for open minded people to consider. I've studied the subject, and seen the effects on my own family and am not about to have my mind changed. So There !
Woohoo and out comes all that wonderful knowldge. Both the boys have vits. Multivits and eyeQ tablets. I am a believer, even though they eat well and love veg, every little helps, as long as it is not hurting. Thanks for confirming it!!
ReplyDeleteGood for you. I believe in it so strongly that I forego new clothes and high maintenance hairdo's to ensure that we are all adequately nourished. There are oodles more good reasons to supplement, both routinely and for special circumstances, all of which I will come on to. Just need to get a few more readers now ! Thanks for giving me the prod ;-) x
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