How to Choose A Multivitamin

In a landmark article published in The Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA), the AMA recommended that all adults should take vitamin supplements to help prevent chronic diseases. Twenty years ago JAMA recommended that healthy adults do not take a daily multivitamin. The belief was that people could obtain all of the necessary nutrients from their food, and multivitamins weren't worth the hassle.

In June 2002, JAMA researchers reversed this guideline, and they are now recommending that adults supplement their diet with a multivitamin each day. Recognizing the importance of a multivitamin for good health is a major reversal for the AMA. Nutritional research is increasing our knowledge and understanding of the role vitamins play in overall health, and the AMA has published their broad review of how certain nutrients affect our health. These new recommendations are an excellent guideline in choosing your multivitamin.

What Nutrients Do We Get in Our Diet

Almost 80% of Americans do not receive the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables that would provide critical vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy diet. A study done by the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Agriculture reported that 40% of Americans do not eat a single fruit, and 20% have no vegetables each day. Nearly 45% of Americans ate no vegetable other than potatoes, beans, or salad.

And even if we did consume the recommended serving of fruits and vegetables, would the nutrients be sufficient to keep us healthy and free of disease. The Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs stated that 60% of the leading causes of death in the U.S. are directly linked to diet. An exhaustive analysis of dietary records from over 21,500 individuals, done by the USDA National Food consumption committee revealed that not a single person consumed 100% of the RDA for Vitamins B6, B12, A, C, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, & magnesium.

The Consequences of Sub-clinical Nutritional Deficiencies

Ongoing scientific research confirms that consuming inadequate levels of some vitamins may increase the risk of developing chronic diseases. For example, low levels of folate and vitamins B6 and B12 are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, neural tube defects, colon and breast cancers. Inadequate levels of vitamin D may lead to osteoporosis and fractures, and insufficient levels of vitamins A, C, and E may increase the risk for several chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

Most Americans do not receive enough of all vitamins from their diet alone. "Fruits and vegetables are the primary dietary source of many vitamins, and health experts have long recommended at least five daily servings. A recent survey showed that only 20% to 30% of the population meets this goal," (Fletcher & Fairfield, 3128). Approximately one out of three Americans consumes multivitamins, and hopefully this number will increase as a result of the AMA's recommendation.

Can We Get All Our Essential Nutrients in our Diet?

Can you get all the essential nutrients your body needs in your diet? Quite simply, the answer is no. Even if we consume the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables each day, there are factors, which prevent us from getting the necessary nutritional values of essential nutrients. According to U.S. Senate Document # 264, 74th Congress "Farm soils and range soils and the fruits, grains, nuts and vegetables grown on these soils are mineral deficient and people who eat them get mineral deficiency diseases." The most alarming aspect of this statement was that congress issued this document in 1936. Today, more than seventy years later, this problem has gotten worse.

Does Food Lose Nutritional Value

It is a well-recognized fact that the "standard American diet" is a nutritional train wreck. To make matters worse, our food loses nutrient value for many reasons from the time it is harvested to the time it reaches the table. For instance, in order for agri-business to get foods to the marketplace quickly, there are many cases of early harvesting that can deplete nutrient values up to 25%.

The transporting of foods can remove a similar amount, and long-term storage can remove up to 50% of the foods nutrient value. The freezing of foods can remove nutritional value, and excessive cooking can deplete up to 50% of the remaining nutrients. The nutrient losses for processed or over-refined foods can be as high as 95%.

Making matters worse, your diet can put your body under additional physiological stress because of the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Unless you are buying organic, the foods in your market are loaded with pesticide and herbicide residue, artificial flavors, colors, and a whole bunch of chemicals that you don't want to put into your body. These toxins create a stress on the body that requires more nutrients. However, our food supply is nearly depleted of nutrients because of processing and the soil conditions.

Supplement Your Diet with a High Quality multivitamin

When choosing a multivitamin, there are several things that you should consider. First, the multivitamin should be comprehensive. A good multivitamin should contain all of the U.S. RDA nutrients; these include Vitamins A, D, E, C, Folic Acid, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Biotin, Pantothenic Acid, Calcium, Phosphorus, Iodine, Magnesium, Copper, and Zinc. These nutrients should all be present in a quality multivitamins formula. Biotin is the B vitamin that is most often left out, included at a tiny percentage. It is expensive, and many vitamin manufacturers reduce it or leave it out to save themselves production costs. A deficiency in biotin can cause fatigue, depression, hair loss, and various skin problems such as itching and scaly skin.

Minerals - The Forgotten Nutrients

A high-quality multivitamin should provide a full complex of minerals vital to good health. It should contain adequate amounts of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. Calcium has a role in preventing osteoporosis and maintaining healthy bones. Calcium also plays a part in blood pressure reduction and possibly the prevention of colon cancer.

Magnesium and phosphorus work hand in hand with calcium to prevent or reverse osteoporosis. In additional to these well-known minerals, the highest quality multivitamin formula contains a full complex of essential trace minerals like copper, zinc, selenium, chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, boron and potassium. These trace minerals are essential to good health and in their absence; many of the major vitamins are ineffective.

You Are What You Absorb

There is an old cliché "you are what you eat". But this is a half-truth; actually, you are what you absorb. There are many different sources of the nutrients found in today's multivitamin formula. When choosing a multivitamin, choose one that has the highest quality sources of the nutrients. High-quality, nutrients are more expensive, however, vitamin manufacturers that are more concerned with the health of their customers than their bottom-line, use nothing but the best bio-available nutrients.

Why Daily Essentials w/Lycopene is the Best multivitamin

The multivitamin formula I recommend is Daily Essentials with Lycopene, a multivitamin formula that ranks among the best formulas available today. It is an extremely comprehensive multivitamin with more than 40 nutrients. Doctors chose every one of these nutrients for its superior absorption qualities without regard for the bottom-line. Although these high-quality nutrients cost more, the developers insisted on them because they are the ones that have the highest absorption rate. The vitamin E in Daily Essentials is a natural form d-alpha Tocopherol succinate. The B vitamin complex in Daily Essentials is in the phosphorylated co-enzyme form, which 500% more absorbable than the synthetic B vitamins found in

Daily Essentials with Lycopene has the Highest Quality Minerals

Quality is also important for the minerals in this excellent multivitamin formula. The calcium found in Daily Essentials is a Micro Crystalline Hydroxyapatite Complex (MCHC) and Calcium Citrate, which are the most natural sources. What makes these sources so superior is the presence of the numerous trace minerals found in bone, making it the highest quality Calcium available for growth of new bone and prevention of Osteoporosis. The Magnesium in Daily Essentials is in the form of glycinate and aspartate, which are more bio-available than other forms of Magnesium. Daily Essentials complex of trace minerals is also in the highest quality most absorbable forms.

Daily Essentials Contains No Iron

Daily Essentials was formulated by doctors to maintain optimum health. Because of this, there is no iron in Daily Essentials. Recent studies indicate a strong connection between iron consumption and the increased risk for heart disease. Pretty much the only demographic group that should consider taking iron as a supplement is those of us who are anemic. Even then, it should never be in a multivitamin. Iron reacts with so many other ingredients in a multivitamin formula, producing different compounds, it is amazing that any vitamin manufacturer includes it. Excluding iron makes the remaining ingredients more stable.

multivitamins Lower Your Risk for Heart Disease

In the first clinical study of its kind, Tufts University researchers have found that a multivitamin supplement may decrease the risk of heart disease and enhance the benefits of a healthy diet. According to Jeffrey Blumberg chief of the Antioxidants Laboratory at the USDA Nutrition Research Center at Tufts, "taking a daily multivitamin is like cheap health insurance." Unlike single doses of certain vitamins, which may disrupt absorption of other vital nutrients and even become toxic, multivitamins are balanced formulas that can't hurt. If you fall short of any essential nutrient, your immune function will suffer."

Try Daily Essentials at a Special Price

There is much more to Daily Essentials, but far too much to mention each ingredient in the limited space of this publication. Doctors and research scientists formulated this superior multivitamin formula for bioavailability and absorbability.

If you are presently taking another brand of multivitamin, now is a great time to try Daily Essentials at a very special sale price. If Daily Essentials is the vitamin you and your family are taking, take advantage of the special pricing to stock up. There is no restriction on quantities for this offer. No need to worry about ordering too much, Daily Essentials is so fresh it has an expiration date of nearly three years.