西部落：一天得吃多少片维生素（在线收听）

Are Vitamins Necessary

Dietician Nancy Clark says food is a better source of vitamins than pills

Hello, I’m Elizabeth Vargas and welcome to 20/20 in touch.

Trying to find a way to cut back on your spending, maybe you can save on all those vitamin supplements you’ve been buying. Doctor Tim Johnson has a new prescription for your physical and financial health.

24-year-old graduate student Ashley Mason is the picture of health. She does everything possible to stay that way. She watches her diet, exercises everyday. And she takes supplements to prevent health problem as she gets older.

Stop wrinkles before they start. Take these pills before you get sick. And it all sounds like a very good idea to me.

In fact, Ashley takes nearly a dozen different pills everyday.

Every week, I sort them into this sorter.

But Ashley is not a finale. Millions of people follow a regiment like this. Last year American spent 22.5 billion dollars on dietary supplements, hoping to buy a protection against the whole range of illnesses. This is what Ashley is counting on to keep her healthy. A multi-vitamin, fish oil, flaxseed oil, calcium, B-vitamins, magnesium, glucosamine and vitamin E. It’s expensive, but she believes it’s an investment in her health.

It’s a lot of money for a graduate student to be paying every month for medication, while it’s not even really medication, I’m not sick.

Physically, Ashley feels fine. It’s her pocketbook that hurts. A student on a tight budget, she's scraping together a thousand dollars a year for all her supplements. And since the manufactures don’t have to prove to consumers that any of this stuff actually works, 20/20 set out to see if taking all these pills is smart medicine.

Doctor Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health says a simple multi-vitamin can provide a sort of safety net against the less-than-perfect diet.

If you’re really on a generic mouthful vitamin which I think is probably enough for most people if you’re taking a supplement. The only thing where I would think there may be benefit would be taking from...er, will be taking vitamin D.

Vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin because it’s made when sunlight gets your skin.

Every tissue and cell in your body needs vitamin D for maximum health.

Nancy Clark说，食物是比维生素片更好的维生素来源。

大家好，我是Elizabeth Vargas，欢迎大家收听20/20 in touch节目。

为了减少开支，你可以减掉所有补充维生素方面的花销。Tim Johnson医生有一个针对身体和财政健康的新药方。

24岁的研究生Ashley Mason非常重视健康问题。她尽一切努力来保持健康。她非常关注自己的饮食，而且每天保持运动。她还会服用一些药物来防止随着年龄增长出现的健康问题。

在皱纹开始出现之前就阻止他们，在生病之前就服用这些药片。这些听上去对我来说都是挺不错的主义。

实际上，Ashley每天服用接近一打不同的药片。

每周我都会将它们分门别类整理好。

但是Ashley不是唯一一个，也不是最后一个这样做的人。数百万人这样做。去年，美国人花费在饮食补给品方面的费用高达225亿美元，希望能够预防一些列的疾病。像Ashley一样，他们希望这些药品能让他们保持健康。多种维生素片，鱼油，亚麻油，钙片，维生素B，镁，葡(萄)糖胺和维生素E。这些都很昂贵，但是她相信这是在为健康投资。

对一个研究生来说，每个月花费在药品方面的这些花费太高了。而实际上，根本就不是药，因为我根本就没生病。

Ashley的身体倒是感觉不错，但是她的钱包却感觉到很大压力。学生的预算一向很紧张，她每年又要节衣缩食省出一千美元来购买这些补给品。生产商并没有给消费者证明任何一种补给品是有效的，我们节目并不认同服用这些药物是明智的选择。

哈佛大学公共卫生学院的Eric Rimm说，简单的多种维生素片比不完美的饮食提供更好的安全网。

如果你仍然在服用满嘴的普通维生素片，我想那就足够了。我认为唯一有效的就是服用维生素D。

维生素D号称阳光维他命，因为它是阳光照耀在你皮肤上时产生的。

身体的每一个组织，每一个细胞都需要维生素D来保持最大程度的健康。