Do I need vitamin supplements?

So many ask the question, "If I am eating 'well', do I still need vitamins?"
Here are some interesting statistics:

• On any one day, an estimated 45% of people don't consume any fruit or juice and 22% don't eat any vegetables.
• Less than 10% consume the recommended 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables.
• Only a third of the population consumes foods from all the food groups on a typical day, with less than 3% consuming foods from all the food groups in at least the recommended amount.
• Many diets contain half the recommended amount of magnesium and folic acid; as many as 80% of women who exercise may be iron-deficient; and their average calcium intake is 636 mg per day (2/3 the RDA).
• 71% of males and 90% of females consume less than the 1980 recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of vitamin B6.
• The average calcium intake of teenage girls resembles that necessary for 3-5 year olds.

So where do you fit into this equation? Are you eating even close to the RDA standards? If not, do you need supplementation? What are the best supplements? What happens when you are deficient? Those are questions we answer next time....