Are Vitamins Necessary?

IN an article in the LA Times today reporters Brink & Solovitch examine the evidence for taking vitamins and find it lacking. "Essentially, if you don't take multivitamins, there's no reason to start," says Dr. J. Michael McGinnis, senior scholar at the Institute of Medicine and chair of the NIH state-of-the-science panel on the role of multivitamins. "If you do, there's no evidence to stop." Also says Dr. Charles Halsted, editor of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: "You're deluding yourself if you think you're preventing a heart attack or cancer with a multivitamin. It's a waste of money if you're perfectly healthy and have a proper diet." Yet we waste millions of dollsrs on these worthless nostrums.