In this day of fast foods, fad foods and highly processed foods a dose of multi-vitamins certainly will not harm you and most likely will supplement your diet.

Vitamins are essentially a drug. As such they should be taken in the context of your lifestyle, your eating habits, any underlying medical conditions and the type of vitamins being taken. Every person is different and has different requirements. Most of us are unskilled in the area of assessing our diets and the actual vitamin consumption in our diets. The vitamin content of foods also varies depending on the season, the quality, how it has been stored and how you consume it (raw or cooked). It must also be remembered that certain vitamins require the right conditions for absorption and use within the body.

For most over the counter prepared vitamins, it is very hard to overdose. In fact your body will generally either use the vitamins or discard the excess as waste.

The bottom line really is that over the counter multi-vitamins, taken in the prescribed dose, at the right time of day and with/without food (depending on the instructions) are either going to supplement your diet and improve your health, or be discarded by the body. There is very little harm in taking them. The harm often is in not taking them.