How Many Vitamins Are in Your Multivitamin?

Vitamins that aren’t as good as they claim to be are frequently endorsed by celebrities or doctors. Companies that sell low-quality supplements employ a number of ploys to conceal their low quality, spending more money on marketing than on manufacturing.

As the owner of a dietary supplement company- what does magnesium do for your body and a leading nutritional expert, I frequently receive inquiries regarding quality. The best way to understand a topic is to examine a company’s various vitamin and mineral products because so much is hidden from the consumer, including the specifics of the raw materials used in a product. You might be able to see past the spin and comprehend that company’s actual production philosophy thanks to this.

When you know what’s on a multivitamin’s label, you can quickly tell the difference between a high-quality product and a low-quality product. Take a look at the minerals in every company’s multiple vitamin and mineral products to get started.

Beware of Really Cheap Minerals Minerals are essential nutrients for health because they are necessary for the proper operation of numerous enzymes in your body. Minerals in food are low as a result of over-processing, poor farming practices that deplete our soils, and pesticides that disrupt the natural sulfur cycle. This results in food that is not only chemically altered but also lower in nutritional value. Supplementing with high-quality minerals, including essential trace minerals, is now common sense.

Any company’s vitamin and bone-related products contain these minerals. In contrast to how the term “organic” is used to describe food that does not contain pesticides, minerals found in plants or crops are considered to be organic because they are structured by living cells.

Gym chalk, or inorganic calcium carbonate, is the cheapest type of calcium. Bone meal, oyster shell, and dolomite are other ground-up rock forms of inexpensive calcium. Calcium gluconate, which consists of 9 percent calcium and 91 percent sugar glucose, is another inexpensive form. Because they are used as over-the-counter antacids and require a significant amount of hydrochloric acid to become bioavailable, these calcium forms have poor absorption. They are biologically ineffective once they are in your body, and depending on your overall health, they may calcify your arteries, resulting in alarming breast lumps, gallstones, or kidney stones. It is highly unlikely that calcium of this low quality will benefit your bones.

Magnesium oxide, which is the least expensive form of what magnesium do for your body, is frequently used in products that contain low-quality calcium. Antioxidants are required to deactivate oxynes after they are absorbed. Unless, of course, you have no concern whatsoever for the person who is taking it, there is no justification for using a mineral form that depletes valuable antioxidants. Inorganic calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide products ought to be thrown out, along with any other products produced by such a company.

What are the best minerals?

Typically, minerals used in supplements are bound to another substance. How they are absorbed and, more importantly, where they go and what they do in your body are profoundly influenced by what they are bound to.

It is known that calcium citrate, made up of 20% calcium and 80% citric acid, is more easily absorbed than inorganic calcium carbonate. However, equivalent to eating a pound of tomatoes, taking 1000 mg of calcium citrate provides 4000 mg of citric acid. By flooding the citric acid cycle of your cells (mitochondria) with an excessive amount of citrate, this amount of citric acid has the potential to shut down their engines. High doses of citric acid frequently have a negative effect on tired or exhausted people, making them even more tired or causing headaches. Calcium citrate is not a good mineral to use on a daily basis because your cells cannot use so much citric acid effectively. No matter how much, too many people have a problem with energy when they consume too much.

Some businesses have switched to magnesium aspartate, a cheaper salt with 20% magnesium and 80% aspartic acid, in an effort to avoid what magnesium does for your body oxide. Small amounts of aspartic acid can be found in food and are not harmful. It can act as an excitotoxin if consumed in large quantities, which is undesirable if nerves are already under stress because it increases excitement. As the primary form of magnesium or calcium in any dietary supplement, aspartate is never a good option.

Minerals in forms that are not only easy to absorb but also useful are really what you want. For instance, I use magnesium malate (rather than citrate) in my Wellness Resources Daily Energy Multiple Vitamin because this form is easier to absorb and contains malic acid, a valuable additional nutrient. It actually helps initiate the citric acid cycle, which is responsible for producing energy, and it enters cells along with magnesium. Compared to citric acid, this is a completely different reaction. Malic acid is the Krebs citric acid cycle nutrient that fatigue sufferers most frequently lack because it accelerates cell energy production.

In the products I design for Wellness Resources, I use a variety of calcium forms; based on the idea that your body can use both the calcium itself and whatever it is bound to. As an excellent nerve nutrient, calcium AEP, for instance, strengthens your nerves to improve your stress tolerance. Because taurine is a well-known relaxant*calcium taurate (Tri Cal) helps calm your nerves.

I use a portion of the calcium in Wellness Resources Daily Bone Xcel in the form of microcrystalline hydroxyappetite (MCHC), which are tiny particles of intact bone. These serve as true bone food and are easy to absorb, transport to your bones, and attach to the existing bone matrix*.

How useful is coral calcium?

Coral calcium can be an excellent dietary supplement, depending on the type. Wellness Resources products use coral calcium from ocean waters, which has a natural ratio of two parts calcium to one part what does magnesium do for your body and many other ocean trace minerals. It is usually taken from dead coral reefs in the clear waters off the coast of Okinawa (this is not a bad thing for the environment to do). The raw material is tested by reputable businesses to guarantee its quality for human consumption. The Okinawan population’s bone health is legendary.*

These calcium and magnesium forms have a carbonate structure, but they are very different from gym chalk. Like a true food form, they are organically formed by living coral reefs into highly organized geometric structures. They are the only mineral form that can be absorbed more efficiently than citrates and are both fat- and water-soluble. They make mineral ions quickly, which your body can use in a lot of metabolic processes*.

Companies that sell land-harvested coral calcium should be avoided. The natural magnesium and trace minerals have been washed away from this form of the mineral, which has been “weathered.” This form is used to make concrete for roads in Japan. In the United States, it is offered to unsuspecting customers as a dietary supplement, mistaking it for genuine coral calcium. These businesses are required to list the cheap magnesium that is always added back into the product on their labels (typically magnesium oxide). Therefore, if you have coral calcium products that contain magnesium oxide, discard them.

Amino Acid Chelates: What Are They?

One of the most significant advancements in human nutrition and mineral biochemistry is the capacity to bind a mineral to a protein. You won’t know what you’re taking unless reputable companies tell you which specific amino acid is used in the chelating process. Because good amino acid chelates not only cost more to include in a product, but also because the amino acids themselves are beneficial to your health, quality companies like to boast about the quantity of their amino acid chelates. For instance, I frequently incorporate magnesium glycinate into my products. Natural relaxant and beneficial detoxifier, glycine is an amino acid. Amino acid chelates of the highest quality serve two purposes in your metabolism.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of amino acid chelates available, and you shouldn’t take them without knowing what they are. On the label, they are always listed as “amino acid chelate,” which is a legal description of what they are and a great way to hide the poor quality. If a company uses the term “amino acid chelate” to describe a mineral’s form, you know it has something to hide. They would tell you what was in their product if they were truly proud of it.

This nonsense about amino acid chelates has been going on for a while, but the introduction of a brand name for these chelates called Biokey®, which are used in a product line promoted by a well-known alternative health doctor, brought it to a new high. The forms of minerals and amino acids used are not listed on the Biokey website. When I called the business, I asked them what they were and was met with silence.

It is interesting that the animal website provided much more information about the use of Biokey® minerals in animal nutrition than it did in human nutrition. It turns out that hydrolyzed soy protein is used to chelate all of these minerals. No human product label mentions that it contains soy, which is illegal under the current allergy labeling rules of the FDA. In addition, soy is now GMO and contains toxins that have been genetically spliced into the proteins unless it is specified as non-GMO.

The actual nature of the minerals used was also made public on the animal website. Calcium formate, for instance, is the form of calcium. Calcium formate is a food additive that has been approved, but the formate must be detoxified, is difficult for humans to remove, and has been linked to methanol intoxication. Calcium formate is used in industry to speed up the setting of concrete. As a result, people who consume calcium believe they are taking calcium – Biokey® amino acid chelate, a form of calcium that is easier to absorb. Yes, it is well absorbed and comes in a package with calcium, formate, and soy that contains genetically modified organisms.

Any product that does not disclose the amino acid chelates it contains should, in my opinion, be avoided.

Tablets vs. Capsules High-quality minerals take up a lot of space, so you’ll need to take more capsules to get the minerals you need to keep your bones healthy. As a result, calcium of low quality is frequently compressed into tablets. Tablets must be coated and glued together. They are difficult to break down, and it is common, particularly for tablets containing minerals, for them to pass through your digestive system without ever breaking down.

Any business that packs multiple vitamins or minerals into a tablet is not thinking about your health’s best interests. Run for cover as soon as you see a tablet containing multiple vitamins or minerals from any company!

Vegetable caps (Vcaps) are safer than beef gelatin and are the best form of capsule. Vegetable caps are easy for your digestive system to dissolve because they are made of vegetable cellulose. They are more expensive and add about $2 to a product’s retail price, but the assurance that prions from Mad Cow Disease won’t eat your brain is worth the extra cost.

What are liquids like?

Sulfate or chloride forms make up the majority of liquid minerals. They are not superior forms of the nutrients, and they are also notoriously difficult to use when taken orally. In water, they are fairly stable. Drinks containing ionic minerals are a good source of electrolytes, but they are not a good way to get more of the minerals you need.

Vitamin-containing liquid products frequently make exaggerated claims about being more absorbable. The fact of the matter is that fine-grade nutrients, particularly B vitamins, will rapidly degrade and lose their biological activity in any liquid form. None of them will likely maintain their effectiveness for more than a few weeks. If the FDA took action against these businesses, which they will eventually do, it would quickly become clear that their claims on the labels about their potency at the time of expiration are merely wishful thinking. Don’t throw away your cash.

How do B vitamins work?

Because your body is unable to synthesize B vitamins in sufficient quantities to maintain your health, you must consume them. B vitamins can be found in abundance in unprocessed, fresh food. Whole grains, animal meats, beans, fruits, vegetables, and other foods contain B vitamins. The best way to get these nutrients from food is to eat a variety of whole and unprocessed foods. For optimal health, at least half of Americans are deficient in B vitamins.

Microbial fermentation is used to make the B vitamins in dietary supplements. This is similar to the idea that the friendly bacteria in your digestive tract ferment the carbohydrates, protein, and fiber in your diet and produce useful metabolic byproducts. After being grown under controlled conditions, the B vitamins are purified, stabilized, and ready for use in nutritional supplements.

One problem with the B vitamins is their quality variables, especially how well they are purified. Low-cost B vitamins have been dumped on the consumer market as a result of China’s entry into the raw material market for dietary supplements. China’s production standards are currently unreliable.