Do you take a multivitamin?

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts on multivitamins are. Are they worth the money? I know Scooby has multivitamins listed in the "might give you a 5% edge -not worth the money or the potential health risks" category. If you recommend taking a multivitamin please state why and also let us know what brand you use. If not, what are your reasons for not taking one? Personally, I'm on the fence on this one. I recently stopped taking multivitamins and I do not notice any difference in my overall health. On the other hand though, there are a lot of bodybuilders who recommend you incorporate a good multi into your diet. Heck, even Dr. Oz says everyone should take one! So what are your guy's thoughts? To take or not to take?

They're not very useful. First of all, a vitamin taken out of its natural environment and away from other elements we have hardly researched yet isn't nearly as effective as a vitamin found in food. Second, the more controlled and objective the study about a multivitamin, the more it turns out that multivitamins have little to no effect and recent research even suggests they do more harm than good. Under certain circumstances it actually can be advisable to supplement trace elements, for instance when recovering from surgery of during pregnancy. But let your doc tell you that. Besides, it's not really hard to get all vitamins in, just eat those veggies, add a piece of fruit or two and eat a variety of different foods (different meals come with different vitamins and minerals).

There has NEVER been a gold-standard study (double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized controlled trial) published examining an over-the-counter multivitamin and mortality. The only one is still in progress (Physicians' Health Study II) and should be published sometime this year iirc.

But based on the bulk of cohort and case-control studies, there does not seem to be any benefit from taking multi's. Specific supplementation is a totally different story though.