Consumers believe that vitamins and minerals improve their health, so companies have responded by adding small amounts of the nutrients to bottled water, sports drinks, and juices. Some scientists are concerned that even though the amounts are small, when added to a person's overall diet, which includes other foods that have added nutrients, they could be harmful, according to an article published in the New York Times.
 

"You have vitamins and minerals that occur naturally in foods, and then you have people taking supplements, and then you have all these fortified foods," said Mridul Datta, an assistant professor in the department of nutrition science at Purdue University. "It adds up to quite an excess. There’s the potential for people to get a lot more of these vitamins than they need," she told the New York Times.
 

More than half of Americans take a multivitamin or supplement, and everyday foods, such as bread and milk, are fortified with vitamins and minerals.
 

Last year, a study found that many Americans get more of some nutrients than the limits considered safe by the Institute of Medicine. Further, the people who usually take supplements tend to be the ones who need them the least. A new study found that many beverages contained amounts of some vitamins that far exceeded daily requirements. In addition, most of the added vitamins were those already abundant in most diets.
 

"We don’t know what the effects of chronic exposure may be," Valerie Tarasuk, the lead author of the study, told the New York Times. "With these products, we’ve embarked on a national experiment."

 

To read the entire New York Times article, go here.