Am I taking too many vitamins?

[Amni]

I was wondering if anyone can tell me if my daily vitamin intake is too much:

with breakfast meal:
1 Vitamin C 1000mg, 1 flaxseed capsule, 1 cal-mag, 1 folic acid, 1 multivitamin, 1 vitamin E

with dinner meal:
1 cal-mag, 1 b complex

I heard somewhere that your body can only absorb so much before it just flushes the rest away. Not sure if this is correct.
Your help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[kathryn]

Your supplementation plan doesn't look excessive to me, but it depends on what % of vitamins and minerals are in your multivitamin.

If you take in an excess of water-soluble vitamins (B, C, etc.), the excess is flushed away (which is why taking a lot of vitamin C makes you visit the restroom more often!). One the other hand, excess fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and--I think ---K) are stored in the body, and it's not good to take them in excess. It's safer to take beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A)as your source of vitamin A, as your body converts only as much as it needs into actual vitamin A.

 

[Debra]

It's my understanding that one should not take a multi-vitamin & calcium at the same time.

I'd look carefully at the content of the multi-vitamin. If your multi includes C&E you might want to take them at a different time since the C is water soluble. Ditto with the B-complex.

One more thought, if you regularly consume foods that are essentially vitamin pills (e.g. Total cereal, Luna Bars), you might be consuming too much of some nutrients. Got to read those labels.

Debra