Vitamins get thumbs-up from Canadians

More than three-quarters of Canadians regularly taking vitamin supplements think they are having a moderate to strong impacton their overall health. And more than 80 per cent believe vitamins can help prevent a number of diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and birth defects, according to the latest bi-annual survey commissioned by Canada's Vitamin Information Service.

The survey carried out in February found that 42 per cent of Canadians take a vitamin supplement with most taking vitamins every day or almost every day.

Approximately one out of five said they took more vitamins in the past year and/or added a new vitamin supplement to those they were taking.

The reasons Canadians take vitamins are largely the same as in previous surveys, according to the report. "To feel healthy or make me feel better" remains number one, cited bynearly one-third of current users. "To supplement diet and 'don't eat right'" remains the second most commonly given reason, followed by for "energy/strength" and "to prevent disease".

A number of specific diseases orhealth concerns such as "improve/maintain the immune system", "fight or getrid of colds", "osteoporosis" and "arthritis" are also starting to appear on the list, the survey revealed.

Sex, age and geographic region continue to affect vitamin and supplementusage. Women are still more likely to take avitamin supplement than men, a trend that has remained virtually unchanged inthe last four years. Canadians aged over 65 years old remain the heaviest supplement users, up slightly from 2001, while Western Canadians lead the way with just under 48per cent regular supplement use, compared to the Ontario and Atlantic Canada regions at 40per cent, followed by Quebec at 36 per cent use.

A multi-vitamin remains the most commonly taken vitamin supplement (49per cent), followed by vitamin C at 28 per cent, vitamin E (22 per cent) and Bvitamins (9 per cent).

The report added that although the profile of Canadian vitamin users does not seem to bechanging much, their attitudes continue to evolve to reflect key health and nutrition concerns.

At the same time, there are still gaps and deficiencies in the nutritional health of Canadians that throw into question the validity of the top reason given by non-users, namelythat they are "in good health already/don't need them".