Among the perplexing experiences of modern life, selecting a multivitamin is right up there with filling out a tax form. The roomful of available brands, each with a different combination of ingredients, can be confusing even to a health nut. These three guidelines will make the process smoother, and improve the quality of your results.
Understand the difference between the types of multivitamins.
The common multivitamin is made up of United States Pharmacopia (USP) nutrients. These vitamins and minerals, which can come from natural or unnatural sources, are sometimes isolated using unnatural chemicals, making quality a concern. USP nutrients are also not as effective as the nutrients you get from whole foods. For example, an orange, with just 60 mgs of Vitamin C, may be more effective than 500 mg of USP Vitamin C, because the orange includes more than a hundred nutrient cofactors, such as bioflavinoids, that your body needs to utilize the Vitamin C.
Food-based multivitamins offer a more efficient, and holistic, option. Companies offering these multivitamins make the USP nutrients more effective by combining them with a base of super foods such as wheat grass, which contains almost every essential vitamin and mineral. Bee products, spirulina, aloe vera juice, and sea vegetables are other examples of super foods. Adding these superfoods to the multivitamin maximizes USP nutrients by supplying the necessary cofactors to make them easier for your body to absorb. Food-based multivatimins are labeled, with a list of superfoods on the back.
A third type of multivitamin is the whole-food multivitamin. This category is expanding, though there are only a few pure whole food vitamins on the market now. If you do want the benefits of whole foods, however, you can often find tablets or powders that mix several superfoods without USP nutrients. While they may not have every vitamin and mineral in a USP multivitamin, they nevertheless provide an excellent range of nutrients and nutritional support, including protein, fiber, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, enzymes, and probiotics.
Find out what dosages work for you.
Nutritional guidelines vary by country, suggesting that dosages may be based more on politics and culture than on science. But no matter the country you’re in, guidelines are generally beside the point—nutritional needs vary greatly between individuals, and guidelines can’t account for what vitamins and minerals your body needs. Rather, the supplements and doses that are best for you depend on many factors, including your diet, lifestyle, and current health condition. If you have a high stress lifestyle, try more B vitamins. If you don’t eat enough dark, leafy greens, make sure you are getting full-spectrum mineral support from your supplements.
To figure out the best dosages for you, learn to evaluate your diet and nutrition needs. Check out comprehensive reference books such as Healthy Healing or Prescription for Natural Health. The recommendations for dosages in these books are for USP nutrients. Keep in mind that you need smaller dosages of whole food nutrients than USP nutrients because the body utilizes them better.
Understand the difference between once-daily multivitamins and other options.
Many people take once-daily vitamins thinking they will enhance their nutritional intake. Unfortunately, while a once-daily multivitamin is better than nothing, it is not concentrated enough to make a noticeable difference: One tablet is too small to fit the amounts of nutrients your body needs, especially if you are taking whole food vitamins. Multivitamins are designed for convenience, optimizing nutrition in one pill for dosages of Folic Acid but not for other important nutrients such as calcium.
If you really want an improvement in energy and health, choose a multivitamin that is designed to be used two or three times a day. These multivitamins will suggest you take from one to four pills each time. That’s a bigger commitment, but your body will thank you.
Learn More
Health World Online has a helpful section on nutrition where you can get the truth about vitamins and supplements. The web is full of purveyors of multivitamins, and you can find a list of vitamin supplements and online stores in SustainLane’s green product and business directory. However, if you’re looking for information, try your local health food store. Many have a wide selection and knowledgeable staff that should be able to answer your questions.
