Many of us take vitamins, minerals and other supplements for our health. Are they really necessary, or are we wasting our money?

Simply Central is a home and lifestyle series for your Sundays. We talk to local experts about what’s hot, what’s not, and everything lifestyle.

Minister for Food Safety Dr Ayesha Verrall said the Government is providing certainty for the dietary supplements industry as they work to overhaul the rules governing the products.

Dietary supplements are health and wellness products taken orally to supplement a traditional diet. Some examples include vitamin and mineral supplements, echinacea, fish oils and probiotic tablets.

“The dietary supplements industry is worth an estimated $2.3 billion to the economy and continues to grow,” Dr Verrall said.

“The Food (Continuation of Dietary Supplements Regulations) Amendment Bill passed its third reading today. We need modern regulations in place to keep pace with these changes in the products and consumers’ expectations.

“We've extended the current regulations for five years to ensure industry and consumers have certainty while we do this work.”

In December last year, Consumer NZ published an article stating multivitamin benefits may simply be a placebo effect.

“Multivitamins are big business, with supplement companies earning millions of dollars a year from sales. But good evidence regular multivitamin use has any measurable effect on health is yet to be found.”

An article published in January this year in Medical News Today also pointed to a lack of robust research on health outcomes from vitamin supplementation. The article concluded that more studies were needed, before we could definitively say that supplementation has health benefits. 

The article points to the huge range of vitamin and mineral supplements available, and the huge range of medical conditions for which people may choose to take these supplements.

We asked Cromwell pharmacist Jackie Hamilton whether we should be looking at vitamin supplements or leaving them alone.

Jackie said, first and foremost we should understand it is very important to have a varied and plant-based diet as the cornerstone of our nutritional intake.

“However it is well known that New Zealand has farmed its soils to the detriment of several important minerals, namely chromium and selenium. 

“Hence many practitioners advise that New Zealanders should supplement every day with a basic multivitamin to ‘top up’ the nutrient levels from diet.  

“In my opinion this is good practice – much like an insurance policy.”  

Jackie also pointed out that a placebo effect could still be a good thing.

“Placebo effect can equate to around 30% of the benefits, so we never write it off entirely.”

Jackie went further to explain there are situations where supplements can be used specifically to target a particular problem or issue.  

“For instance there is a study just published in the UK which  discusses evidence linking Vitamin D deficiency with Covid-19 severity – the evidence is circumstantial but considerable.  

“Vitamin D supplementation is cheap and accessible and acts to optimise immune health, particularly for institutionalised patients in care homes and prisons, as well as the elderly, those with darker skin, and people who tend to be indoors for most of the winter. 

“Therefore you can see that by targeting specific populations with higher needs, vitamin supplementation can be very useful indeed.”

I asked Jackie whether there could be inherent dangers in taking vitamin and other supplements.

“In terms of the dangers and risks of supplements, pharmacists are very cautious and ask patients if they take supplements, whether they are bought online, at the supermarket or from a practitioner.  

“This is because there are many drug-supplement interactions that can be quite significant.  

“One example is St John's Wort when taken with antidepressants.  

“Another is Vitamin K with warfarin.  

“Supplements come with similar risks to the medications you take, so I always suggest that discussing patients' needs with a pharmacist is a good idea.  

“Avoiding herbs in pregnancy is also sensible as there are not many studies showing their safety profile, and it is always better to be conservative, especially in the first trimester.”