What Multivitamin is Right for Me?

What you need to know to pick a quality multivitamin.

Making an educated choice from the abundance of multivitamins on the market can be tough. The most important thing to know is that all multivitamins are not created equal, so shopping based on price or convenience can be a risky approach.

Why take a multivitamin at all? Research shows that people who take multivitamins lower their risk of both simple illnesses such as colds and flu as well as more serious problems such as cancer and heart disease. In an ideal world, we would be able to get all the nutrition we need from our food. However, due to poor farming methods and depleted soil, our food is not what it used to be. So, to attain optimal health a multivitamin becomes essential.

Applying the following short list of quality measures to your choice of multivitamins is one way to quickly determine if the product you are considering provides the nutrition and quality you deserve.

Pill Form

Multivitamins come in multiple forms such as liquids, powders, liquid-gels, capsules and tablets. In general, the more solid the form, the more tightly packed the ingredients. Although there are exceptions to this rule, liquid or powder forms typically breakdown more easily in the digestive tract, improving the chances for absorption and use by the body.

Dosage

Although the convenience of a one-a-day product may be appealing, cramming all the ingredients typically found in a multivitamin into one pill often produces something resembling a rock rather than a nutritional supplement. You will notice that these products are often tablets, bringing us back to the problem of form mentioned above.

Binders

Many vitamins and minerals are bound to another compound to stabilize the ingredient until it can be dissolved and used in the body. These binding ingredients have a large impact on how readily the nutrient will absorb once in the digestive tract. A quick way to determine if the product you are considering uses favorable binding compounds is to check the ingredient calcium. Calcium carbonate is a common compound ingredient in multivitamins. Unfortunately, this form of calcium has a relatively low absorption rate. Compounds such as calcium citrate or calcium malate are better absorbed, so if the product you are considering uses one of these forms, chances are the overall quality of the product is better.

Taking a multivitamin is a smart choice. Taking the time to make sure the multivitamin you choose is a quality product makes your decision even smarter.

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