The following article: Whole food nutritional support system versus fractionated, isolated nutrients is a wonderful article written by Dr. Marilyn Joyce, RD.  It is a great explaination as to why we need whole food nutrition instead of multi-vitamins. 

 

"Let's start with vitamin and mineral isolates.  What are they?  Well, if we take an orange and examine what's in it, we know that it is a great source of Vitamin C, as well as about 10,000 other nutrients, that work together with each other synergistically to make each of them more available to, and usable by, your body.  In Nature, you will never find fractionated (a tiny fraction of the whole), isolated (separating out from, and keeping apart from, the whole) Vitamin C, or any other nutrient for that matter, out there on its own, in high concentrations.  Everything in nature seeks balance, not potency - never too much of any one thing!  And on a cellular level, the body does not recognize Vitamin C on its own.  It recognizes real food with all of the thousands of nutrients working together in synergy.

 

"Now, let's look at a Vitamin C tablet with just Vitamin C in it.  Is this tablet a whole food?  Obviously not!  The active ingredient, Vitamin C in this case, had to be removed from the orange synthetically, in a laboratory, and then formulated into a tablet or capsule.  And then fillers and other ingredients are added that are not essential, and may be harmful over time, for your body.  All of the 10,000 or so essential nutrients, such as bioflavonoids, enzymes, fiber, and other vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals, are missing.  So, in fact, what you are taking is just one ingredient from the orange.  And that one ingredient has been synthetically processed and placed in an unnatural environment.  Let's see - 10,000 nutrients in a natural environment versus one nutrient in an unnatural environment - this, to me, is a no brainer!  How could one lonely, synthetically processed nutrient ever accomplish what 10,000 natural nutrients, working synergistically together, can do!"