Totally inadequate. The average balanced "diet" is already deficient. Depleted crop soils, industrial pollution, carcinogens, free radicals does a number on the human body. We also have an epidemic in over consumption of processed/fast/junk foods. Calorie dense, nutritionally void.
No one should overdose on vitamins or minerals, but taking enough to ensure optimum levels is wise and pretty cheap insurance.
The free radical theory of cellular damage, for example, has never been proven.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20021368/ The taking of antioxidants separately has been shown to actually increase or have zero effect on free radicals regardless.
As for crop soil depletion - that is a non starter. If a soil is depleted of essential nutrients for plants, the crops will barely grow in the first place. My son owns pasture land and we routinely measure the soil mineral content or else the crop dies early or has stunted growth. These crops are in turn fed to sheep who are ultrasensitive to the mineral concentration in the plants - far more than humans.
As for industrial pollution, let me know which vitamin removes lead, tetrachlorodibenzodioxin or organoflourines from the human body. None, in case you were wondering.
And finally " We also have an epidemic in over consumption of processed/fast/junk foods". No argument there. But the problem they present is a mixture of unsaturated fats with sugar that ultimately creates a high free fatty acid level in the blood stream, shutting off the glucose transport mechanism in the cell. This is one of the underlying causes of diabetes. No vitamin fix there.
The vitamin supplement industry is at least $12 billion a year and is constantly instilling that "insurance policy" fear into people. Sounds a lot like Covid-19 fears, lol
