What to Look For in a Multivitamin Articles | MultiVitamin

By: Teck Cheong Yeap

At the very least, everybody needs to be taking a multivitamin, but how do you know which multivitamin is the best? The best multivitamin should replace the vitamins and minerals that your regular diet cannot provide.

There are a vast number of vitamins available on the market, but if you were to purchase a bottle for every vitamin you needed to take to ensure your health, you would find that you have a cabinet full of vitamins and you would be taking a handful of bills once or twice a day. Because of this, a multivitamin supplement is a great idea for individuals who are trying to ensure that they receive the nutrients and minerals that they need in a healthy diet.

The first thing you want to look at when you're searching for the best multivitamin supplement is what vitamins it contains. You also want to look at any additional nutrients the multivitamin has. If a particular multivitamin supplement appears to have all the vitamins you need in it, you will then want to check the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for those vitamins. Vitamins should be at the least 100% of the RDA in the multivitamin you select. Minerals should be at least 50%, excluding iron, phosphorous, fluoride, and electrolytes. Many multivitamin supplements do not contain a sufficient amount of minerals because they are too large to include in one pill, so be sure to check the mineral content of the multivitamin.

Additionally, you want to check for individual vitamins in the multivitamin supplement. Vitamin A should be in the form of non-toxic beta-carotene, as this is the safest form of the vitamin. The form of vitamin D is also important. Many people who are obese are unable to convert D2 into its active form, so if you are obese and the vitamin contains vitamin D2, then this may not be the best multivitamin for you. Another vitamin to consider is E. This vitamin is available in its natural form as well as a synthetic form. Those forms that are most useful will have a "d" in front of them, such as d-alpha tocopheryl acetate.

A good multivitamin supplement is the foundation of your health, as it picks up and provides you nutrition where your diet does not. As you are searching for the best multivitamin, be certain to consider scientific reviews as well as reviews of popular brands when choosing the best multivitamin for you.