Prenatal Vitamins Dangerous? Rethinking taking them...

I'm not denying that omega 3 or iron, etc. are important. but I am taking the Michael Pollan "In Defense of Food" route that says the nutrients arent the only important thing. That is, why isolate the omega 3 in fish - it might not be the reason the fish oil is so healthy. Instead just eat the fish, not the pill.

I recommend this speech let me know what you think about it.

ive been thinking about this for some time, and just seeing this in the news really made the final decision for me.

actually i have read that Iron supplments are the worst of all these vitamin pills; and you should definitely not take them in the 1st trimester.

but i think it all boils down to what kind of diet one has.
i dont really have a typical american diet that usually lacks in necessary vitamins.

we eat lots of fruits and whole foods. rarely drink soda or sugar, mostly fresh fruit drinks daily, hourly...
we mostly eat at home as well, on a mixed traditional iranian diet which has lots of herbs, beans, rice, etc., with some italian and mexican foods as well.

so im thinking i dont really need a supplement....

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im starting to wonder if some prenatals make us so sick because they have lead in them or too much folic acid or iron, or something?

I just have read so many studies on omega 3 and how my own body feels from taking them, but I also am of Norwegian descent and so cold water fish is part of my family diet historically, but I don't get to eat it often enough because of my DH not exactly enjoying it.

My diet is not perfect, but we eat mainly whole foods, fruits and veggies. We do eat some processed stuff, but not enough to be alarmed about.

I just know that iron is incredibly important the last few months of pregnancy because the baby making it's storage of iron for the first 6 months of life. I also know from first hand experience that my DD was much more aware than most newborns that we have encountered, I believe that it was from my intake of omega 3 fish oil. My Dh's family commented on how alert she was and while yes my evidence is purely anecdotal I believe it helped herand myself immensely. I just am basing what I am saying on how I feel, I seriously started taking them again awhile back and within days I just felt different, I felt like I was calmer, had my sex drive back and numerous other things, this is just of course my personal experience.

I just also always find that there is one study to contradict another, so I kinda just go with my gut and what my body tells my I need. I am hitting 3.5 months and all the sudden crave milk, so I am going with that.

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Great advice! I enjoy the way my DHA pills make me feel, too, so I take them. I also take my prenatal. My midwives were really shocked I never got anemic at any point in my pregnancy. I do not eat red meat.

Eating the fish instead of taking the pill IS solid advice, but with the way our fish is contaminated, it's really not that much better. That's truly unfortunate.

I think what it boils down to is the bodies ability to assimilate the "nutrients" that are in most multi-vitamins. I therefore prefer organic whole food vitamins like New Chapter or a high quality green superfood like Dr Schulze Superfood. Both are recognized by your body as food. For iron you can't beat Floradix. It is also a food supplement. Some people need more than the recommended daily allowances. Those recommendations are somewhat arbitrary and are also usually the minimum required intake. As far as vitamin A goes, most supplements contain a beta carotene which is just a precursor to vitamin A and is not going to cause an overdose. Vitamin A has received a bad wrap in my opinion. For more on that read Weston A. Price's site. Vitamin D received a bad wrap for the same reason (it is fat soluable and possible to get TOO much) but now people have cut back so much many of us even in sunny climates are seriously deficient. Add to that the lack of nutrients in the soil and you can see why many pregnant women NEED vitamins. I like to eat eat fish but I'm fussy about it being wild caught and fresh and I can't eat most of oilier fish because of mercury contamination. It is a crapshoot. I'm sure you will be fine, especially considering his is your first baby and you eat well. The more we breastfeed and make babies the more necessary it is for some of us to supplement.

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Thanks for this! I do agree a lot of stuff gets a bad rap. My primary irritation with the Hero vitamins is the excess vitamin A is not in beta carotene form. Otherwise I would not be concerned. Although I am sure it is not all absorbed either. I still need to search for something else for my son which really annoys me because it took us forever to find something he would eat and like. He LOVES these.

I wrote their customer service department an angry email. I wonder if I'll get any response.

Catubodua - thanks for the links.

Norasmomma - I know what you mean about feeling the effects of the supplements.
I just wonder whether we are kidding ourselves to be focusing so much on taking the vitamins daily rather than really thinking about just eating healthier.

[Just a side note: you mentioned your DD was very alert compared to other babies. Did you have any epidural? If you didn't that also is a reason for the alertness of some babies when compared to the majority who are born with the effects of drugs on their system.]

my diet is certainly not perfect. but I am so confused now by all the information coming and going about what we should eat and what we shouldn't eat that I don't even know what a perfect diet looks like. How am I supposed to figure that out?

We were trained as children to dismiss our intuition, so I know mine doesn't really work that well. (joseph chilton pearce moment)
I really don't care for the FDA, corporations, and "experts" of food to tell me what to eat either.

i'm just a little overwhelmed right now by the amount of junk and chemicals we allow to enter our body. (i was checking my body care products www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ and OMG don't get me started)

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But don't they get the fish oil omega 3 supplements from fish? If so then the pills should be just as contaminated as the source....

sigh

I cetainly would agree that your nutrition from whole foods should be your first line of defense. I strongly rely on foods as preventative medicine and have seen lower health care costs since making that a priority.

Finding reputable fish was pretty simple in Denver...in fact, Door to Door Organics would actually deliver it to your door. But now that we live in the midwest it simply does NOT exist! Very frustrating. We don't eat fish anymore. Anyone else in an area where they can't find good fish? Do you order it from somewhere?

I have found it to be very helpful to consult various doctors (naturaopathic, chinese, etc) when choosing a prenatal. Vitamins and supplements are a great way to throw away your money...unless you are POSITIVE that you've got a good product. There are just so few good ones out there. I take the SuperNutrition Prenatal Blend and before that just a regular women's blend, same company. I do believe they contributed to my health...but so did a healthy diet and exercise.

I completely agree with you about the fish oil and all these supplements. I feel people need to be very careful about which ones they choose to buy. I have found supplements that I trust and that I can tell support my health. I NEED supplementation especially of B vitamins, omega fatty acids, iodine, and often times in pregnancy iron. I just want to be sure that women understand that it isn't ALWAYS possible to get everything you need from food. I would have to eat so much more food than I do to get what my body requires. This is why I drink two servings of Superfood everyday, take my tried and true fish oil, and make my salad dressings out of high quality flax oil.

I also agree that the majority of supplements out there are crap. Even if they contain what they say they do there is no guarantee that your body can break down the nutrients and absorb them. There are good vits out there, you just have do some reading and look for them. Someone asked for a healthy fish ordering site and I have read a lot on www.vitalchoice.com, but the taste of their fish is not so good IMO. And I like fish.

I think if your body is telling you not to take them, then you shouldn't. I didn't take them with my first pregnancy. I just hope that all the preggers ladies understand that this decsion is something that should be made on a case by case basis and hopefully with the help of a midwife or other practitioner that can do blood testing.

i would love to say that i can get all the nutrients i need from food, but it hasn't proven to work out that way.

we eat mostly organic, and local and still i have had low iron and b12...i even cook in iron-cast pots and pans.

the big problem is our foods just aren't as nutritious as they once were. i know here in canada, the soil varies so much across the country - for example there is plenty of selenium in the soil in the prairies, but little on the east coast where there is more iodine in the soil (i had to take lots of nutrition courses, and they were holistic based, so it was interesting to learn about things like soil )

i agree about seeing a naturopathic doctor or a holistic nutritionist. my nd only recommends three brands of vitamins here (they are all canadian) - sisu, trophic, and natural factors. and the method you take them can be important - i take my b12 sublingually, and my prenatals are a vegetarian based capsule, and the iron is liquid. taking my b12 sublingually was something my family dr wasn't even familiar with and i no longer have to take shots of b12 because of taking it sublingually

i do think there are a lot of vitamins that are sub-standard, which is why i deferred to my nd on that one.

i do think ideally if you can get all your vitamins from food it is of course preferable, but i know here it is hard to especially from nov-apr when so many products are shipped in from far flung places with produce that is picked before its prime.