A Multivitamin Doesn’t Get You Off the Hook for Eating a Healthy Diet

Many of my clients view eating a healthy diet as a total pain. I feel like that on occasion. I’m fortunate that I like a variety of foods and that Bree is the chef she is. It makes it easy for me to see that nutrition and flavor are not mutually exclusive. With the right tips and tricks, I can often encourage my clients to see things this way too. Still, even with nutritionally powerful meals, many people ask me if they can get away with eating less healthfully as long as they take a multivitamin.  Here’s how I answer.

Eating a Healthy Diet Can’t Be Replaced by a Multivitamin

Multivitamins and multi-mineral supplements have incredible ad campaigns. I’ve been seeing them for decades and even I find myself thinking that they can do a lot more for me than they can. I know better, and my thoughts will still go there at times. That’s more than just a bit frustrating to me.  Still, I’m sharing that here to show just how powerful the marketing campaigns have been. Even for those of us who absolutely 100 percent know better, the thought remains.

So, it doesn’t surprise me when guys ask me if they don’t have to keep eating a healthy diet all the time as long as they take the right multivitamin.  Unfortunately, the only answer I can give is “no”. Not even with the really expensive ones. Unless your doctor has specifically recommended a multivitamin, and has pointed out a specific product to you that has been formulated for your specific needs,

Are All Supplements Useless?

Not at all! In fact, I don’t even think of multivitamins as useless.  I take certain supplements on a regular basis. I wrote about it recently in the blog post I wrote called Health Supplements I Use to Reach My Goals. They can make a difference, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. In fact, there’s another one I’m planning to give a try to support my immune system over the colder months.

However, when it comes to nutritional supplements, they cannot replace eating a healthy diet. That’s just not what they were meant to do.  Instead, they’re meant to help fill the gap when you need certain nutrients topped off.  To be frank though, even in that case, the majority of us are just fine without them.  Instead, just doing our best to focus on eating a variety of colorful foods, focusing mainly on vegetables, some fruits, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats, we’ll get what we need overall. By cutting back on added sugars and highly processed foods, it makes that strategy even easier.

I still have days when I’ll eat junk food. I don’t need a multivitamin to make up for that. Instead, I just focus on eating a healthy diet overall within reason. It’s all the body needs! I save my supplementation for when I know what I’m doing and when I have a specific goal in mind like supporting my eye health, my immune system health, or giving my workouts a serious energy boost with an energizing diet pill.

If you want to take a multivitamin, go for it. I certainly won’t judge you or anything. However, just be sure to understand that you’re not doing it to replace eating a healthy diet. Instead, it’s just meant to fill in gaps here and there since we can’t – and shouldn’t – eat the exact same foods every day, even if we think we’ve found the perfect nutrient balance.