One A Day Vitamins Prevent Disease: Or Do They?

Bayer can’t prove its One A Day multivitamins prevent disease and should stop pretending they do, a nonprofit says.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is suing Bayer again over the way it markets its supplements. It sued the company in 2009 over prostate cancer claims. (Bayer then threatened to sue CSPI for libel, but ended up changing its labeling.)

Now the nonprofit is fighting to remove claims about breast and heart health:

“Bayer is literally putting One A Day multivitamins on a par with mammograms,” said CSPI litigation director Steve Gardner. “Bayer is saying: ‘Take these pills and you’ll reduce your risk of breast cancer.’ And elsewhere, when the company says it ‘supports breast health,’ it knows full well that cancer is far and away the top breast health issue for women.”

CSPI argues consumers will interpret Bayer’s One-A-Day labeling as a promise to lower blood pressure, prevent heart disease, breast cancer, and other illnesses. There’s no proof it does any of those things, and Bayer was prohibited in a 2010 settlement with several state attorneys’ general from making such claims without hard evidence.

Gardner says there’s no problem with selling or taking a multivitamin — only with making promises you can’t keep. We agree that multivitamins are fine, as long as you aren’t taking too many or overpaying. Check out the video below for our advice.