Tips to Choose a Vitamin Supplement
This post was actually in response to another question from David!
When you walk into a pharmacy or health food store, you are bombarded with bottles of vitamin supplements. How do you know which one is best for you?
Here are some tips to help you select a vitamin/mineral supplement:
1. First, keep in mind that food comes first and supplements are not a substitute for a poor diet. Our bodies need a balance of vitamins and minerals to function at an optimum level. Real food provides this balance, whereas supplements do not. So while it is not a bad idea to take a supplement, the major focus should be on making your diet as healthy as it can be. Real food also provides disease fighting phytochemicals - which are not found in supplements.
2. I would recommend that you buy a general multivitamin / mineral supplement that contains 100 % of the RDA (or 150% at the most) for vitamins and minerals. This is a better bet than buying individual vitamin or mineral supplements (unless you were prescribed the individual supplement by your doctor for a specific condition such as iron or Vit. B12 for anemia). A general supplement is adequate for most people - however some people may need an additional calcium supplements if they are not consuming 1200 mg of calcium from food. Some of my clients have 15 bottles of individual vitamins and minerals where they could most likely be better off with a general multivitamin supplement along with a calcium supplement.
3. Avoid megadoses. Read the label and look for a supplement that has 100-150% of the RDA for vitamins and minerals. Some supplements contain megadoses (over 1000 times the RDA). More is not necessarily better. On the contrary, it can be harmful. Taking in too much of one vitamin or mineral can decrease the absorption of other vitamins or minerals. In addition, excess amounts of certain vitamins or minerals can actually create health problems.
4. There are no federal standards that tell exactly how supplements must be manufactured. Therefore I would recommend that you look for USP (United States Pharmacopeia) on the label. This ensures that the supplement meets standards for strength, purity, disintegration and dissolution. So basically when you buy a product with USP on the label, you know you are getting a product that contains what it claims to contain and has met standards that prove it actually dissolves in your body.
5. Look for expiration dates. Vitamins can lose potency over time, especially when kept in a hot and humid climate.
6. Avoid paying extras for ingredients (i.e. bee pollen, echinacea, coenzyme Q 10, lecithin, PABA, bioflavanoids) that have not been proven to be essential for health. The same goes for added herbs, amino acids or enzymes.
7. Ignore marketing gimmicks. It does not matter whether Vitamin C is derived from organic rose hips or synthesized in a lab. And unless you are allergic to wheat, rice or lactose, there is not need to buy allergen-free products.
8. “Natural” vitamins are not necessarily better than synthetic vitamins but they cost a lot more! Generally, synthetic vitamins are just as good as natural ones. The one exception could be Vitamin E. Natural Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol) appears to be slightly better retained and used by the body. As long as the E in your supplement is labeled as International Units (IU), you need not worry as any amount of IU of synthetic Vitamin E will be just as potent as natural Vitamin E.
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