What is an appropriate price for a multivitamin?

[brimstoneSalad]

Okay, I wish you well in considering that what they call risky in the research is anything but that.

There should be multiple words for it. They call it a "risk" because it's not known with absolute certainty that it's not harming anybody, not because it's proved to be doing so or there's even a mechanistic reason to think it is (again, the evidence on tolerable upper limits for these things are very weak).

Compare to something like environmental ionizing radiation which is a risk period, because it works in a highly stochastic way and it has no real benefit (aside from xrays for imaging etc.) there is a certain probability of a certain number of people developing cancer. The risk can be so low as to not be worth worrying about, but it is objectively introducing some risk (even if just the risk introduced by the radioactive potassium in your average banana).

What this is doing is in no way known of quantitatively analyzed like that. We have basically no data and that's not a good reason to stop doing something that has known benefits like fortifying food. From what I saw they don't make any recommendations to stop doing it, they're just saying it's worth doing more research to find out. The most strongly worded part was with respect to children, and there I actually agree because of the amounts of cereal some kids eat.

And like I said, this is for the general population. I'd bet you that if we asked them if they think this applies to vegans and vegetarians too given potentially higher need and lower dietary consumption they'd say it's more likely to be that in that sub-population the risk/benefit is more in line with zinc.

Should we email them to settle this?

why they think it isn't likewise risky at the other end of the spectrum

Absolutely there is -- in mega-doses. The mega-doses that a lot of supplement brands sell shouldn't be considered "safe" in the sense that the benefit side of the risk-benefit analysis is absolutely lacking. There's no reason somebody would need to take 1,000% of RDI of iron or most other vitamins and minerals. It's so much overkill that the additional 800% or so is totally pointless, and the "unknown risk" becomes meaningful.

Most multivitamin/mineral supplements aren't mega-doses if simply because that would make them horse pills and the consumer has trouble swallowing them (literally).

[cornivore]

There should be multiple words for it...

Caution goes along with the potential risks for me, I don't presume that risk factors are outlined for the sake of publicity, especially in peer reviewed studies.

I also consider that when vitamins have been tested, they have been known to contain megadoses of at least one ingredient at times, even though the label says they don't, so I never take a whole vitamin, and this has happened with fortified foods (when kids got too much niacin in their school lunches from fortified rice, for instance). So I wouldn't trust the label on fortified foods enough to eat very much at a time (or with a vitamin either).

FYI, here's something I read when looking at info on calcium supplements (which I'd avoid taking additionally, because there is "evidence of excess risk for kidney stones" while there is also evidence of them not preventing bone loss, so I don't see the point of increasing the risk of kidney stones for nothing), but this other article mentioned some adverse effects from someone who took megadoses of some vitamins, thinking it would be healthy (I think people get the wrong impression about them being harmless, so I was just trying to point out that they can be risky, because there are also numerous case reports about people over doing it)...

Supplement nephropathy due to long-term, high-dose ingestion of ascorbic acid, calcium lactate, vitamin D and laxatives

A 48-year-old Japanese woman previously in good health was found to have severe proximal tubular dysfunction with a high serum level of ascorbic acid (57.3 microg/ml, reference range: 1.9 - 15.0 microg/ml). Renal biopsy specimen showed marked tubulointerstitial damage, i.e. tubular atrophy, dilatation of tubular lumen with flattened tubular epithelial cells, vacuolization of proximal and distal tubular epithelial cells, and severe interstitial fibrosis with mild infiltration of mononuclear cells. Calcified lesions, which caused tubular obstruction or stenosis, were also seen in interstitial area adjacent to degenerated proximal tubuli. Hypokalemic nephropathy, probably due to long-term use of laxatives, was clearly shown. However, calcified lesions seemed to be caused by inappropriate excessive daily ingestion of ascorbic acid (6 000 mg/day), calcium lactate, and vitamin D because of the patient's misunderstanding that these supplements could keep her in a good health. This condition may be clinically called "supplement nephropathy".

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16175950

Now those were some expensive vitamins. This is an example of how the risks are less well known than the misinformation (or hype) may be. I think there should be warning labels for things like Vitamin C too, really.

[SupaFly]

If you're vegan you likely need to take a multivitamin. If you are super careful about getting every micro nutrient with your food, then you might only need a B12 supplement and Vitamin D. But for most people, I think this is the best option: https://lovecomplement.com/products/com ... n-capsules

I used to use Deva and/or Dr Furhman brand, but neither has an all in one option that includes the omegas, and they both seem more profit-driven than the Complement brand, who seem to be more focused on keeping vegans healthy, just like the VeganHealth website.

Here is the best list I have found for blood testing: https://www.nomeatathlete.com/blood-tests/