Choosing the Right Multivitamin Supplement

No matter how much we follow a healthy lifestyle (including a balanced diet, exercise and meditation) we still need a healthy supplementation (package full of multivitamins) to bridge the nutritional gaps. So, to bridge these nutritional gaps and leading towards a fitter life choosing of a right multivitamin is very much required.

Parameters to be considered while choosing the right multivitamin

Importance of multivitamins is well understood but there are seemingly different ways to choose them. Following are some parameters to be pondered upon while choosing the right multivitamin for optimal health and wellness.

• Reading the label: check for age, gender and for any specific condition: Individual person in terms of age, gender and condition differs so as their nutritional needs change over time, therefore to help ensure that you get proper levels of the nutrients you have to consider a proper multivitamin which can fulfill the nutritional needs along with preventing him/her from many deficiency diseases.
• Looking for recommended daily value or attention toward the percentages: a supplement label should identify the amount and per serving of nutrients for an individual. It’s generally best to select a multivitamin that offers 100 percent of the recommended daily value for the majority of vitamins and minerals in the supplement. Certain nutrients (e.g., calcium, magnesium) cannot offer 100 percent of the recommended value because of the big size of the pill which will be difficult in swallowing it.
• Looking for the nutrients: looking for common, uncommon, essential, and non-essential nutrients in the label such vitamins, minerals, extract of some herbs and some amino acids and enzymes.
• Avoid Overdosing: Consideration of a multivitamin which provides more than 100% of recommended value is always considered to meet the nutritional demands. But sometimes over-dosage may lead to “overload syndrome.” Avoiding overdosage is especially important with vitamin A because sometimes over 200% of vitamin A can increase the risk of birth defects and liver damage. Consideration of products which is less or about 3,000 IU of vitamin A or 60 percent of the DV, ideally with at least a third from beta-carotene, the safer form of vitamin A.
• Additional parameters: availability of multivitamins is varied according to the condition (celiac, peanut allergy), nutritional needs (e.g., vegetarian, vegan) of a person.

Advantages and disadvantages to consider while choosing a multivitamin

There are people who consume multivitamin daily to meet their nutritional demands on the basis of recommended value or percentage. These multivitamins have advantages and disadvantages at the same time. Some of them are:

• During pregnancy and breastfeeding: Pregnant women are recommended to have 400mg of folic acid daily to combat neural-tube defects in newborns. Therefore pregnant and breastfeeding mothers demand a higher iron and calcium requirements so to prevent deficiencies. Hence a multivitamin supplement can bridge the gaps and provide all the essential nutrients.
• People on restricted diets: People who are following a diet regime or consuming less than 1,200 calories per day or avoiding carbohydrate from their diet require supplementation.
• Condition specific supplementation: Some disorders such as diabetes, chronic gastrointestinal problems such as colitis and pancreatitis, liver cirrhosis, iron and vitamin D deficiency require more absorbable forms of higher doses of certain nutrients than a multivitamin and they are basically known as condition specific neutraceuticals; therefore, Advalife’s category has a wide range of condition specific neutraceuticals which is gender, age and disease specific.
• Risk of disease is not lowered: studies from clinical trials have found that taking vitamins and mineral supplements, including multivitamins, don’t lower the risk of any disease when compared to an individual not taking it. Studies from Women's Health Initiative have reported that 161,000 women, who took the pills, had no lower risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease or any cause over an eight-year period than those who didn't. In the Dietary Guidelines for Americans report released in June 2010, the Department of Agriculture stated that daily multivitamin/multimineral supplements have no health benefits at the same time urged for consuming balanced diet along with supplements of nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, and B12 whenever it's needed.

Multivitamins are not a food substitute

Food is the first choice to provide all the “essential nutrients” to the body for an optimal health and wellness. Food including fruits and vegetables provide minerals and vitamins necessary to prevent nutrient deficiencies and provide a higher bioavailability and lesser side effects than any multivitamin pill. But due to changes in the lifestyle and fast pacing globalization and industrialization maintaining a strict diet with 6-8 servings of fruits and vegetables on daily basis have become an obscure task. Therefore, addition or supplementation of a pill along with food/meals is advisable to maintain an optimal health and with a stronger immunity to prevent from deficiency diseases.

AdvaCare has a wide range of supplements with varied formulas which can help maintain optimal health and can fight against diseases and lead to a stronger immunity.