When you’re eating nutritious foods and exercising regularly but worried that you might be missing out on a few key nutrients, you might consider taking a multivitamin to supplement your routine. Dietary surveys show that for many Americans the intake of several vitamins, minerals and other nutrients essential to good health may be inadequate. The latest scientific research suggests that all adults can benefit from taking a multivitamin daily in conjunction with a healthy diet.
One common vitamin to supplement is Vitamin D, since Vitamin D is necessary for healthy teeth and bones. You can also support immune health with Vitamin D, so it is a priority nutrient for many. But can you take a multivitamin and Vitamin D together? Let’s examine how both multivitamins and Vitamin D can help to support our health.
Who Needs to Take a Multivitamin?
Even when we plan our meals and get our fruits, veggies, lean protein and whole grains on a daily basis, it is common to miss the mark on the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) set by the National Institutes of Health. Who has the time to follow a perfect diet plan with all of the macro and micronutrients in the right amounts? With 13 essential vitamins and many more minerals that our body needs to function at its best, most people don’t meet all of their nutritional needs every single day.
Inadequate intake of several vitamins have been linked to long term health concerns, impacting overall wellness, heart health, bone health and more. If you restrict any food groups (like avoiding dairy products or grains) or follow certain dietary patterns (vegan, keto), you may be missing vitamin targets more regularly. Getting a simple blood test from your doctor is a good way to assess your current vitamin status.
Read more: Why Are Multivitamins Right, Right Now?
Which Multivitamin Should I Take?
This is a tricky question – there are many multivitamins on the market and some are more tailored to specific groups (by gender, age, dietary concern) than others. Multivitamins also vary in the amounts of each vitamin and mineral that they contain – some have less than 100% of your RDA for each nutrient while others may exceed it for some ingredients. Not as simple as it sounds!
If you have a specific concern, seek out the type of multivitamin that can support your goals – do you need more energy? Want to focus on boosting your immune system? Concerned about bone health as you age? Pregnant and want to make sure you’re getting the nutrients your growing baby needs? If you’re taking other supplements at the same time (like Vitamin D), pay extra close attention to how much is in your multivitamin.
One of the main benefits of a multivitamin is the simplicity. You only have to think about purchasing, finding, and taking one supplement each day to feel good about adding to the nutrients you’re getting from your meals. They come in capsules, chews, gummies, and pill forms based on your preference.
Why is Vitamin D Important?
Vitamin D is necessary for proper calcium metabolism. Even if you get plenty of calcium in your diet, low levels of Vitamin D can still be a problem. Daily supplementation of Vitamin D provides dietary support to help maintain healthy bones. When the body is deficient in vitamin D, it is unable to properly regulate calcium and phosphate levels. In addition to food sources of Vitamin D, our bodies can make Vitamin D from sun exposure – in moderation, to preserve skin health.
The essential role of vitamin D in bone health is well established. Emerging research now suggests that vitamin D is important to overall health and wellness. While not all of the health benefits of Vitamin D completely understood, a 2011 study showed that up to 40% of the population could be lacking in Vitamin D (2).
Read more: The Importance of Vitamin D For Women’s Health
Read more: The Important of Vitamin D For Men’s Health
How Much Vitamin D Do I Need?
The National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements says we need about 15 mcg (micrograms) or 600 IU (international units) of Vitamin D per day (adults over 70 years old need 20 mcg or 800 IU) (1). Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning it is best absorbed by the body when we consume it with some source of fat (so it’s best to take it with food that has some fat content). Vitamin D is often added to whole milk, making it easily absorbed and able to work alongside the calcium naturally found in milk.
Can I Get Too Much Vitamin D?
The tolerable upper limit (UL) for Vitamin D is set at 100mcg or 4000 IU for adults. This is the amount of Vitamin D that the NIH has deemed safe (with intakes as high as 250 mcg per day not showing any negative health effects) but to prevent very high blood levels of Vitamin D sustained over time (1). Vitamin D does not occur in high levels in many foods – only cod liver oil, trout and salmon contain enough per serving to get close to your daily needs (3).
If you have one of these fish on your meal plan, you could skip the extra Vitamin D supplement for the day. If you’re worried about your Vitamin D levels, check in with your doctor or with a virtual doctor through GNC Health1.
Can I Take a Multivitamin and Vitamin D Together?
The short answer – yes, you can. As long as you do some simple math and make sure your total Vitamin D intake from your multi and Vitamin D isn’t over 100mcg for the day. The metabolism of micronutrients like vitamins is complex – the amount our body actually absorbs changes based on whether or not we are consuming them with different types of foods, our hydration status, our weight, age, and other health conditions (4).
Knowing that our bodies likely don’t absorb every single unit of the micronutrients we consume, it might be best to take your multivitamin and Vitamin D supplement at different times of the day while still staying within 100mcg total.
1 If required, your doctor may order lab work or will write a prescription for you. In some cases, your doctor may ask you to schedule a follow-up visit to ensure that you’re improving your health or achieving your health goals. Lab tests are not included in your GNC Health membership fee and are subject to out-of-pocket expenses.
References
1. National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements – Vitamin D – Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/
2. Forrest, K. Y., & Stuhldreher, W. L. (2011). Prevalence and correlates of vitamin D deficiency in US adults. Nutrition research, 31(1), 48-54.
3. Holden, J. M., & Lemar, L. E. (2008). Assessing vitamin D contents in foods and supplements: challenges and needs. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 88(2), 551S-553S.
4. Silva, M. C., & Furlanetto, T. W. (2018). Intestinal absorption of vitamin D: a systematic review. Nutrition reviews, 76(1), 60-76.
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