When it comes to multivitamins, the temptation to buy cheap supplements at your local market may be too great to resist. But are you really getting any value for those rock-bottom priced multis? Maybe not. Here are the top 3 reasons why those low-cost multivitamins may not be worth a dime:
1. Bioavailability Problems. In order to pack a ton of nutrition into a little tablet, manufacturers use the least-expensive synthetic forms, which take up less room. Unfortunately, these synthetic forms are also harder for the body to recognize, absorb and utilize. To make those one-a-day tablets so small, they must undergo tremendous compression. To hold all the ingredients together, cheap vitamins use inexpensive synthetic fillers, binders and excipients. Cheap binders and fillers may help to hold the multivitamin pill together, but they are also believed to significantly interfere with the body’s ability to dissolve, digest and liberate the nutrition contained therein. Cheap vitamins often use “pharmaceutical glaze” too, which is a type of shellac that covers the entire pill in a hard, shiny coating. All of these factors combine to yield a multivitamin pill that may be extremely difficult to absorb, and may not even be digested at all — rendering the nutritional content useless.
2. Inferior Nutrient Forms. Not all vitamin forms are alike. A classic example is vitamin B12. The highly active and absorbable form of B12 is Methylcobalamin, which is more far effective than other forms, but also more expensive. Cyanocobalamin is a cheaper form, but it must be converted by the body into methylcobalamin in order to be used. Check your multivitamin: If it’s got cyanocobalamin, it’s the less-effective form… and you may not be getting the nutritional benefits you expect. Other inferior forms to look out for are zinc oxide, magnesium oxide, and vitamin D2. Synthetic vitamin E is another big one to watch out for. Synthetic E, seen as “dl-alpha-tocopheryl” is easy to recognize — just remember that the DL “does less” than natural vitamin E. Natural vitamin E is more expensive, but it’s twice as absorbable and is retained in the tissues far longer than synthetic.
3. Weird ingredients! Pick up the cheapest multivitamin you can find, and scrutinize the label. You might be shocked at what you discover: FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake, Hydrogenated Palm Oil (trans-fats in a “health” product, really?), modified food starch, silicon dioxide (a.k.a. SAND), talc (yes, like in the powder), titanium dioxide and worse. What the heck are these ingredients doing in a multivitamin? We’re not sure either. But it seems these cheap vitamins may use a lot of suspect ingredients to make their pills as small, bright and white as possible. If your multivitamin has a list of “other ingredients” that’s a mile long, it may raise a red flag about the quality and efficacy of your product. After all, you take a multivitamin to get nutrition, not weird synthetic garbage… right?
Multivitamins are often considered as the foundation of nutritional well-being; the non-negotiable must-have supplement in any nutrition regimen, including WTS protocols. Multis play a critical role in wellness today: They compensate for the nutritional shortfall that is so prevalent in Americans’ diets. We all love a good bargain, but when it comes to your health, it’s worth the expense to buy a quality multivitamin.
Look for products with superior-quality, natural forms of nutrients. Make sure your multivitamin doesn’t contain a bunch of fillers, binders, and chemical-sounding mystery ingredients.
Leave A Comment