Study: There Are Really Only Two Vitamins You Should Be Buying

But you can keep taking that multivitamin if it makes you happy

Vitamins
Daily supplements may not be doing as much good as you think
Kayla Maurais/Unsplash

Living a healthy lifestyle sucks, but taking a vitamin is easy, which is why about 86 percent of Americans are doing it, according to the American Osteopathic Association. Unfortunately, most of them are probably wasting their money.

New research published in The Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that most vitamins and supplements aren’t particularly effective, The Daily Meal reported. The only two exceptions? Fish oil and folate.

The study investigated 16 different kinds of supplements, finding almost no significant link to longevity or heart health among them.

“The panacea or magic bullet that people keep searching for in dietary supplements isn’t there,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Erin D. Michos, in a statement. “People should focus on getting their nutrients from a heart-healthy diet.”

But before you resort to any drastic measures like eating right, the study did find some promising results from testing folate and fish oil.

Folate, a B vitamin also known as folic acid, was linked to a 20 percent reduced risk of stroke in healthy people. However, these results were particularly high in studies conducted in China, where folate is not commonly added to foods. According to the study authors, supplement takers in the U.S. may not see the same results, since a lot of American food is already fortified with folate.

Fish oil supplements, meanwhile, were linked to an 8 percent lower risk of heart attacks and a 7 percent lower risk of heart disease, although, as The Daily Meal noted, previous studies have disputed these benefits.

Either way, spending money on supplements is probably a waste when you could be getting the same or better nutrition from food. But if it makes you feel better, it’s probably not doing you any harm. Just don’t get them from Amazon.

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