Are Vitamins Gender Specific?

Are vitamins gender specific? Because vitamin ad campaigns certainly are. The L.A.Times separates the marketing from the mean truth, which is, in this case, maybe, but nobody knows. The reason nobody knows, says Jeffrey Blumberg, professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University, is that there aren’t any studies showing that gender-specific vitamins have any
particular health benefits. And the reason there aren’t any studies, he says, is that the studies would be very difficult and
costly to run.  On the other hand, it’s easy and inexpensive to claim that some vitamins best meet the needs of women and others best meet the need of men. The Times reports that while nutritional guidelines for men and women do have some differences, most products aren’t guided by guidelines. According to the Institute of Medicine, the paper reports, men and
women have the same basic requirements for calcium and vitamins D, E
and B12. (Women who are pregnant or nursing need extra amounts of many
vitamins and minerals.) Men need a little more vitamin C than women (90
mg. each day versus 75 mg), and premenopausal women need more iron (18
mg. versus 8 mg.). For postmenopausal women, the iron quota is the same
as for men.
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.