The world is gravitating towards healthcare like never before. We are all keener to maintain health by embarking on a workout spree, gorging on raw food so that we can stay healthy, and supplementing on tablets to fulfill our nutritional requirements. The upsurge of advertisements and the recommendations by influencers – That’s it. We fall for all those that come across as remotely ‘healthy’. When they say that popping in vitamin pills would supplement you with the required nutrients, you fall for it. But are you aware of the Multivitamins Composition to ensure that you are supplied with the requisite nutrients? Let’s dive deep into the world of health supplements.
The health that is synthesized in a multivitamin plant.
Quite often, the resounding question that we, as nutritionists, face is whether I should take multivitamin supplements. The answer to this question can be two questions.
- Do you take multiple servings of fresh fruits and vegetables per day? (not once in a while but every day)
- Does 80% of your diet consist of unprocessed or whole foods?
If your answer is yes, you need not take any health supplements unless you have any specific ailments or deficiencies. Because a balanced diet is enough to keep you healthy. But as the present conditions stand, the soil is depleted of its natural minerals and goodness due to the continuous and inadvertent use of fertilizers. This in turn tampers with the nutritional quality of the produce. Also, we receive our fruits and vegetables after transportation.
A lot of nutrients are lost in this process. So we cannot be rest assured of the quality of the produce that we buy from the shops. If the vegetables and fruits are produced in your backyard or they are bought from an organic farmer in your locality. Your dietary routine should be as per mentioned above, you need not take nutritional supplements. Otherwise, it would be ideal to supplement your diet because more nutrients could be lost due to overcooking and unscientific packing.
Single vitamin and multivitamin
Now that you have an idea about whether you should consume supplements. The next question is whether you should consume any particular vitamin or multivitamin. If you have a specific vitamin deficiency, it is advisable to take single vitamins. For instance, I have Vitamin C and Vitamin D deficiency. Hence I take supplements for these two. Though my levels are almost back to normal after my wellness lifestyle, I take supplements once in a while just in case. If you are pregnant, the gynec might prescribe folic acid, iron, and calcium supplements. Patients above 50 would be suggested Vitamin D and Calcium because their chances of having Osteoporosis are higher. Vegans are suggested Vitamin B12. But if you are an overall healthy human it is better to have the right multivitamins dosage for adults due to the following reasons.
Single vitamins can be expensive
If you choose to consume a separate tablet for each vitamin and mineral requirement, it would burn your pockets. Moreover, you have to pop in multiple pills instead of a single multivitamin tablet. The multivitamins multi minerals and antioxidants tablets uses are more pronounced in such scenarios.
We don’t know how they act
If we pop in multiple vitamin pills, we don’t know how they will react and whether one vitamin will affect the absorption of another. The medical world is still unsure about the repercussions. Multivitamin contraindications are lesser in comparison because a good multivitamin company will take into account all of these while formulating the tablets.
Now you know whether to take single vitamins or multivitamins. Now let’s have a look at the Multivitamins Compositions which is the key factor in deciding whether the tablet we consume is beneficial or not.
Multivitamin composition – What to look for?
The multivitamins multiminerals and antioxidants tablets uses depend on the composition that they are formulated in. You need to know if you are consuming the synthetic drug created in a multivitamin plant or the one with the right multivitamins compositions. While all the jargon would be overwhelming for you, we shall share a few terms to look for in your supplement. Before we go further, take your multivitamin bottle and look at the label.
Before going further let us see what are co factors. Co factors are the substances that along with the enzymes and other substances, help the nutrients to be absorbed into your body. Once you take synthetic tablets with multivitamins composition that mimic the chemical structure, they don’t get absorbed due to the lack of co-factors. However, there are other companies that go about to ensure that you are provided with bioactive (easily absorbable) forms of vitamins and minerals.
The composition to look for
To know the difference, let us dive deep into the multivitamins composition.
- Vitamin B-6 -The bioactive form of B-6 is Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate but if you look at the label, most of the commercial tablets available have Pyridoxine HCL, which is the synthetic form and would be ejected through urine.
- Vitamin B-12 – The bioactive form of B-12 methylcobalamine but most tablets have cyanocobalamin in their tablets. This is the cheaper version and is not the bioactive form
- Vitamin B-9 – For Vitamin B-9 or folate, the bioactive form is L-5 Methyltetrahydrofolate
- Minerals – Minerals are mostly poorly absorbed unless combined with the chelate. Most companies don’t provide chelated minerals.
Some companies skip the addition of bioactive forms of the vitamins. In such cases, without any further research, you can be assured that the product is synthetic because the companies that go the extra mile to provide you with bioactive multivitamins mention that on the label. We don’t want any unnecessary fillers like gluten, yeast, artificial colors lactose, etc. The components that you might want to look for are cellulose and silicon dioxide which are natural.
The dosage matters
Another key factor is the dosage. We need a continuous supply of nutrients in our body. Though it is not practicable to take 5-6 dosages of the tablet per day at least two doses is a must. If a company is asking you to pop only one pill and go about the day, you can be assured that their Multivitamins Composition is as good as not. The website multivitamin guide has a comprehensive list of approved multivitamins. For more assistance about your diet, you can take our diet plans and start formulating healthy eating habits.
This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’
hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.
