Vitamin supplements

Vitamins are critical for a healthy nutrition. We need them to stay healthy and to avoid certain diseases that can arise with their deficiencies. Our body needs 13 vitamins to function properly. Vitamins A, C, D, E, K and the B vitamins (vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, niacin, riboflavin and thiamine) are all the named vitamins we need. Each of these fill specific roles and combines to provide our body with everything it needs to grow, remain healthy and repair from damages. Different vitamins are acquired in various quantities from certain food substances. But not all foods may provide you with the required daily amount of a particular vitamin. It is due to this reason that vitamin supplements in many brands and names are now available, and these fulfill the vitamin your body is lacking. Some even have minerals which are not easily available to our body otherwise.

The best forms of a vitamin supplements  are said to be the ones that read ‘multi-vitamins’, as they claim to contain nutrients from Vitamin A to Zinc. It’s better to get all the vitamins you need in one pill or capsule than taking various pills for individual vitamins. However, a multivitamin pill will have a smaller quantity of each of the vitamins as all of them are squeezed into one pill. The amounts within it are helpful towards the daily minimum requirements they are by no means the optimal dosage. The daily requirement of a 200-800mg of vitamin E or a 2000mg requirement of vitamin C cannot be obtained from a multivitamin pill.

We shouldn’t expect to get the optimum amounts of all vitamins just by taking a single multi-pill daily. By ‘Recommended Daily Allowance’ (RDA), nutritionists mean the very minimum amount of vitamins required to avoid nutritional deficiency. It is not the amount needed to provide optimal health for a healthy living. A multivitamin pill may give you all or almost all of the RDA for some vitamins and minerals, but you actually need much more for the best health and nourishment.

But taking multivitamin pills or capsules daily is a good insurance that you are getting at least small amounts of the vitamins and minerals it contains. Pills are not so expensive and contain more vitamins, but they dissolve very slowly in the stomach to provide the best absorption of the contents. Capsules are more expensive than pills, but they are more effective as they tend to dissolve readily in the stomach, and provide full use of its contents. But before purchasing multivitamin supplements, make sure to read the contents listed on the package, and compare the total number of supplements contained in each pill as well as the amounts of each. You must consider how much extra supplementation you need to take to get optimum amounts of some of the vitamins you need most.

Our first inspiration should be to try to obtain as many vitamins from the nutrition we have. A supplement is just an addition to what we are lacking. You should use these supplements under the recommendation and supervision of a doctor.