By Kira Farnsworth
While students may remember taking daily vitamins as children, experts disagree about their necessity for college-age students.
Lora Beth Brown, associate professor of the BYU Food Science and Nutrition Department said she thinks that in general, vitamin use in unnecessary.
'Heavenly Father designed our bodies so that we can get the nutrients we need from what we eat if we use our agency to eat a wide variety of nutritious foods,' Brown said.
Other experts say vitamin supplements are essential.
'The food pyramid means nothing anymore, so how do we know the proper food categories and how many of this and that to eat?' said Blaine Chambers, an Orem Health, Wellness and Nutritional consultant. 'And then, how do we know if the foods we get out of the supermarket are nutrient packed with vitamins? If not, where are we going to get it? The answer is, I think we have to supplement with vitamins.'
Chambers said that everyone, regardless of their diet, should take vitamin supplements.
'I am a proponent of everyone, not just students, taking a good, food-grade, natural multiple vitamin, multiple mineral and multiple amino acid complex and that can be derived all in one capsule,' he said.
Brown said most students get plenty of vitamins and minerals from their morning bowl of cereal because cereal companies enrich their products. She also said the only people who need supplements include the elderly, people with low calorie intakes, pregnant women and people with major illnesses that affect their diet.
Brown warns students who decide to use vitamins that they are a supplement, not a cure-all.
'There is a mind set that vitamins will take care of everything, and the dietetics industry capitalizes on that,' she said. 'There is a magical hope that goes along with a lot of dietary supplements.'
Students also vary in their opinions.
Rachel Dolan, a student from Maynard, Mass., majoring in early childhood education, said she thinks vitamins are helpful to most college students, even though she doesn''t take them herself.
'I don''t use them because they''re expensive, and I forget to take them so they just sit around until they expire,' Dolan said. 'I think that if you don''t eat right, like most college students, then vitamins give you what your body needs, but if you do eat right, it''s probably not necessary.'
Dolan''s roommate sees vitamin use from a different perspective.
'I think I''m generally more healthy when I take vitamins,' said Emily Browne, a student majoring in neuroscience from Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Browne takes a multi-vitamin everyday.
'I used to get sick a lot more before I took them,' she said.
Browne said she thinks if people eat healthy, then they probably don''t need vitamins.
'But, I''m not sure anyone eats totally healthy, especially not college students,' she said.
Browne also said she doesn''t think people should be fanatical about vitamins either.
'People shouldn''t buy and take loads of vitamins a day,' Browne said. 'Taking 10 or so a day seems overboard to me.'
Tera Thompson, a student majoring in special education teaching from Mount Vernon, Wash., said she takes vitamins whenever she remembers them.
'I feel like I don''t get sick as often, and I have more energy when I take vitamins' Thompson said.
Thompson lives by her own vitamin-taking motto: 'One a day keeps the doctor away.'