Do you need Vitamins to maintain best health? – yes

Which ones are the best? It depends.

Here are some key factors when looking at vitamins and multi vitamins.

1) The vitamin must be able to be absorbed – that is the coating must be able to break down in your stomach and after the coating is gone there must be a vitamin or mineral substance that can be absorbed beneath it.There are many many vitamin coatings still intact that enter the sewer systems.

2) Plants are the best supplier of the highest quality vitamins a minerals – you want your supplements made from whole plant concentrates, to have available a wide array of phytonutrients. Vitamins and minerals are nutrition, the body is designed to absorb plants and meat. Chemicals are not well utilized by the body ( that’s why they are used as drugs and medicine, and best administered intravenously – that is direct into eh blood stream) )

3) Light tight container. Make sure the tablets or liquid is in a light tight container. Many vitamins (like vitamin C ) break down quickly in even dim light. And chemically created vitamins sometimes breakdown even before they reach the store shelf.

4) Be able to trace where and from what they derive the vitamins. The company on the label may have great quality control, but does it suppliers? Does it list its suppliers. Are there any plants or whole food involved in the vitamins and minerals, or are they all made in a lab.Ideally the company that is selling the product, grows the product.

5) Price is a clue – the cheaper the product the less it cost to make it. The cheapest way to make vitamins is chemically. The most expensive is from pans under rigorous controls.

6) Chemicals though they are a wonder, are not useful for nutrition.

7) liquid or solid? – The body doesn’t absorb one better than the other, all things being equal.

8  Amount/dosage Most packaging will us RDI (recommended Daily Intake) created in 1968(!), or RDA recommended Dietary allowance. Both are minimums. However its all fairly theoretical as its the amount you absorb rather than the amount created in the lab that is key. Be aware of overdosing though, Vitamin K, B complex, A and E are dangerous in high doses

9) Read the ingredients (The list of ingredients for Flintstones for example includes things like Artificial Colors: FD&C Blue #2 Lake, FD&C Red #40 Lake and Calcium Carbonate. In addition, in the list of ingredients, only the name of the vitamin or mineral appears, without its chemical name. No plant sources were given.)

Other Ingredients you may see Dicalcium Phosphate, Sorbitol, Crystalline Fructose, Calcium Carbonate, Cellulose, Silica, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Citric Acid, Yellow 5 Lake (tartrazine), Blue 2 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Magnesium Stearate, Red 40 Lake, Sucralose, Retinyl Acetate, Beta-Carotene and a trivial amount of sugar.Do not buy any multivitamin that lists sugar, sucrose of any complex sugars. You are buying vitamins not children’s cereal.

And don’t buy anything that list chemical color additives etc. Its a vitamin not a toy.

10) Your body will  have different needs and reactions than other bodies. Try the vitamins, over a period of time say 2 weeks. Symptoms may be hyperactive (especially if there’s ginseng involved) or gassy feeling- (alfalfa as the base for the vitamins can cause gas, or nausea, a reaction). However gasiness tends to go away as your body settles in the the new regime.
But take it a step at a time. You should notice increased energy and alertness, at the very least.