There has been a lot of press recently about how Vitamins and Multi-Vitamins are “Useless”. Most recently it was within The Times Newspaper, so we thought we would speak to our senior Nutrionist, Mary Lou.

At the New You Boot Camp, Head Nutritionist Mary-Lou Harris (FdSc, Dip ION, ITEC) advocates the Functional Medicine therapeutic approach of supporting your underlying body systems to create better health, rather than just supplementing with a multi vitamin.  Her thoughts are that many standard high street multi and other vitamins are synthetic, and often of an inferior quality, and cannot be properly digested, even by someone with a healthy gut.  If your liver is ‘tired’ especially from too much alcohol, coffee, smoking and drugs of any nature, you will not be able to ‘humanise’ your vitamins for your body to use them. She focuses on the importance of creating balance in the body so that your digestion can get better value from the food that you eat, in order for your body to use the nutrients to repair and rebuild.  Mary-Lou recommends addressing any compromising factors to your health that cannot just be dealt with by popping a multi. Only superior quality vitamins, etc should therapeutically address the individual’s specific health issues.

We recommend vitamin and mineral supplements…but only those of a high quality and where possible, that are food based, rather than synthetic. She is also very clear that it is important that people take supplements that are therapeutically ‘targeted’ to their needs.  Mary-Lou does not agree with ‘just taking a multi’ or taking something that’ worked for a friend’ or that you read about in a magazine that claims to help specific health issues.  She feels strongly that a professional nutritionist should be consulted before randomly taking supplements…much in the same way that you would consult with a doctor or qualified pharmacist for medication advice, as nutritionists have studied the subject, and understand contraindications and potential body responses that they can discuss with the client.

In essence vitamins and minerals are needed but each of you are individual. Make sure you get advice and take the vitamins and minerals to help you reach your personal goals.