How to Choose Multiple Vitamins

1. Get a gender specific formula. The body chemistry of men and women are uniquely different. For optimal health each gender has different nutritional requirements and rightfully so necessitates an individual formula to specifically target those individual requirements.

2. Get an age/activity specific formula. Being that a male could be a 20 year old athlete or a 55 year old coach potato shows that age and activity level play a role in the formula as well. Someone who is more active or has a limited food intake would require more vitamins and minerals than someone who expends little energy or eats a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Look for multiple vitamins that cater to your age (Teen, adult, senior) and your activity level (normal, active).

3. Get an absorbable capsule. With liquid multiple vitamins being rare and rather expensive, capsule delivery systems offer a highly absorbable dose of quality vitamins at only a slightly higher cost than caplet. While proper absorbing caplets do exist, you are much more likely to get the full benefit of the product from a highly absorbable capsule. Many people would be surprised to hear that they might only be absorbing 5% of their “one a day" grocery store caplet formulas. The extra cents for capsules is a much smarter choice.

4. Get a multi-pill formula. There are two reasons to get multiple vitamins that require more than one pill a day. Your body is much better at absorbing smaller doses of nutrients multiple times a day then it is one large dose all at once. This is the same for vitamins. So by increasing the frequency of vitamin intake increases the percentage of vitamin absorption. Second, all the ingredients required to make great multiple vitamins will not fit into a one a day pill (unless it is one very large pill). If the vitamins come in a one a day format chances are they do not contain the proper beneficial ingredients for your needs.

5. Manufactured under cGMP and/USP requirements. All vitamins are not all created equal. Two industry standards: Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) as well as United States Pharmacoepia (USP) are in place to aid in the consistent quality and potency of the finished products. The cGMP deals with the quality control measures involving production and the USP standards deal with ingredient quality and potency. When purchasing multiple vitamins look for one or both of these requirements right on the product label. If you are not sure what to look for, ask a knowledgeable health and wellness store. They will know.

6. Shop at a trusted specialty health store. While many grocery and drug stores currently sell multiple vitamins, almost all do not provide vitamins with the qualities listed above. The main reason is the majority of high quality multiple vitamins are only sold at trusted health specialty stores meaning many of the multiple vitamins sold at pharmacies or grocery stores are inferior. Trusted health stores can also provide you with much needed education and can provide great value in finding you the ideal multiple vitamin formula.

7. Don’t let cost be the deciding factor. You are taking the multiple vitamins for a reason and your reason is not just so you can tell your friends you are healthy because you take multiple vitamins. You genuinely want to benefit from those vitamins, improve your health and prevent disease. Most likely the cheapest multiple vitamins do not adhere to the above recommendations, which means chances are they are not going to provide you with the individualized benefit you deserve. Do not bother taking multiple vitamins for the sake of taking them, invest in quality multiple vitamins and you will be much more pleased with the long term benefit.

Mark Holowaychuk is the President of Live Pure Inc. Having been involved in the health and customer service industry for over half his life, Mark believes in providing high levels of customer service and educating customers on proactive healthcare while enhancing the value of their shopping experience and overall health. He can be reached through the Live Pure website at www.LivePureHealth.ca  or directly by e-mail at mark@livepurehealth.ca.