Is it okay to take nutrients for a long time?

There is really no one-size-fits-all answer to this question: "yes" or "no". The core depends on what you are taking, whether the dose is reasonable, and whether you have corresponding needs. Individual differences can make a huge difference.

A while ago, I met a girl in her early 20s when I was receiving nutrition consultation. She followed the trend and bought vitamin C effervescent tablets from a certain Internet celebrity. She said that drinking them can whiten her skin and prevent colds. She took 2 tablets every day. Calculated, her daily intake of vitamin C was 2000mg. After taking it for 8 months, the physical examination showed that the calcium oxalate crystals in her urine exceeded the standard. The doctor said that if she continued to eat, she would probably develop kidney stones. She stopped for 3 months and then went for a review before it returned to normal. In fact, for most ordinary people who eat a balanced diet, if they eat one pound of vegetables and half a pound of fruits every day, their vitamin C intake is already sufficient. High-dose supplements for a long time will put a burden on the kidneys, not to mention that some people randomly supplement fat-soluble vitamins A and E. These nutrients will accumulate in the body, and excessive supplementation may even cause poisoning.

However, there is no need to make all nutrient supplements a scourge. There are indeed many people who need long-term or even lifelong supplementation of specific nutrients.

I have a distant uncle who was born with lactose intolerance. He drank milk for a long time and had diarrhea for a long time. He does not like to eat dark green leafy vegetables. When he was 40 years old, his physical examination showed that his bone density was much lower than that of his peers. The orthopedic doctor asked him to take a long-term supplement of 1,000 mg of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D per day. He has been taking this for almost 6 years now. Last year, his physical examination showed that his bone density has returned to the normal range, and he has no metabolic abnormalities. In addition, vegans need long-term vitamin B12 supplementation, hypothyroidism patients need long-term selenium supplementation, and pregnant women need folic acid and iron supplementation throughout the entire period. These are clinically proven safety requirements. As long as the dosage is controlled according to the doctor's instructions, there will be no problem at all.

Nowadays, two schools of thought are quarreling on the Internet. One school says that everyone should take multivitamins all year round to make up for the gaps in their daily diet. The other school says that if you eat well, you don’t need to take any supplements at all. In fact, both sides are a bit extreme. If you eat takeout every day and don’t eat enough vegetables, but only highly processed rice noodles and dishes heavy in oil and salt, then taking a low-dose multivitamin can really make up for the gap, and it won’t be a big problem even if you eat it for a long time. ； But if you can combine meat and vegetables every day, eat enough eggs, milk and whole grains, and still take high-dose supplements every day, then you are really wasting your money and causing your body to suffer.

To put it bluntly, nutrient supplements are more like "emergency power banks". Eating well is the only way to plug in the power bank and recharge it. If you travel frequently and have a hard time eating, it is no problem to prepare a low-dose power bank for long-term replenishment. However, if you can plug in the power bank for charging tomorrow and have to hold on to a high-power power bank, it will easily cause problems with the "battery", that is, our metabolic system.

If you are really not sure whether you want to eat it for a long time, it is better to get a specialized nutritional assessment first, follow the doctor's advice or find a reliable nutritionist to calculate the dosage. Don't just buy it and stuff it in your mouth based on the recommendations of Internet celebrities. After all, if you take the right supplement, it will be a boost, but if you take the wrong supplement, it will be a burden.