Okay, so you’re convinced.  You need to take a good vitamin regimen.  So what do you buy?  You listen to infomercials about nutritional supplements and hear one thing.  You go on-line and every company says their supplements are the best.  You go into a specialty store and they try to sell you a different vitamin every week.  Or do you just cave in to the pressure of the ten million dollar weekly advertising budget of the “everything from A to Zinc” vitamin pills?  Hopefully this quick primer on choosing a supplement will help you make an informed decision. Here are seven things to look for first on any vitamin label.

1. Check for numbers –

This is the fastest and easiest strategy for choosing a multivitamin and one that can be used when shopping for food as well.  Simply do a quick scan of the label and look for numbers in the ingredient list.  As soon as you see “#40” or “#6” you can be sure that there are artificial colors in your product.  Artificial colors, particularly Red Dye #40 should be avoided in any food or nutritional supplement.

2. Look at the quantity of ingredients –

Are the percentages of vitamins and minerals closer to the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowances) which were developed in the 1930s as minimums needed to avoid malnutrition, or are they closer to the numbers that the current mainstream medical literature recommends taking for fighting degenerative disease.  Let’s face it, people rarely die from scurvy any more but lots of people die every year from cancer and heart disease.  Why buy a vitamin supplement that was designed to fight scurvy?  That’s what the RDA’s are for.  Here’s just one example.  The RDA for Vitamin E is 30 International Units (IUs).  The medical literature shows a consistent increase in health benefits all the way to 400 IU and then a slightly higher benefit all the way up to 800.  Not much of an increased benefit is seen after 800.  But why take only 30 IU?

3. Look at the TYPEs of ingredients –

Are the ingredients in the pills or food “dirt-based” or plant-based?  Are they alkaline or acid forming?  Are they the most bioavailable forms (will they get where they need to get in your body?)  And frankly, are they dangerous?  Let’s break this down.  What do I mean by dirt-based vitamins and what don’t you want them in your supplements?  If the human body could absorb vitamins, minerals, and cofactors from dirt, we could just go around eating dirt all the time and forget about eating plants or animals.  The reason we don’t eat dirt is that our bodies cannot readily absorb all the nutrients they need from dirt. 

They can, however, absorb these vitamins from plants or from animals that have eaten these plants.  Nutrients that our bodies can absorb in their raw form are things like gluconates, citrates, and amino acid chelates.  Nutrients our bodies have a much more difficult time absorbing include chlorides, oxides, etc. Nutrients that are essentially salts or “dirts.” So when you are reading the nutritional information label on your vitamin supplements or foods, simply scan the product label for excessive amounts of oxides and chlorides.  If there are many more oxides and chlorides than gluconates, citrates, and chelates you should probably not choose that vitamin supplement or food.

Once again, a great example is Vitamin E.  Most Vitamin E you will find is either d-alpha tocopherol or dl-alpha tocopherol.  Now, first of all, did you even notice that those two terms were different? Did you notice the small letter “l”?  Most people don’t and believe me, on a small supplement label, it is even more difficult to see.  But there is a HUGE difference.  D-alpha is natural and typically from vitamin E (again, plant-based and easily absorbed) whereas Dl-alpha is a synthetic and not as easily absorbed! Take the time and read the fine print on the nutritional labels. A small difference on the label can mean a big difference in your body.

4. Let’s Talk Cofactors –

There are two forms of Calcium used in our foods and vitamin supplements. Calcium Carbonate is basically limestone (hmmm… sounds like dirt).  Calcium citrate is plant-based and as we just finished saying is the more preferable form.  However, calcium in either form doesn’t work alone.  Even in its more digestible form, in order for our bodies to gain maximum benefit from the calcium we eat it needs be in a two to one ratio with magnesium and it requires four cofactors: silicon, boron, Vitamin D, and Vitamin K.  So when you’re looking at the vitamins in you supplements or food, remember to look for the plant-based form, but don’t forget to scan that label for all the associated cofactors!

5. Look for chlorides and oxides –

One more advantage of plant based vitamins in your supplements and food relates to their pH (alkaline versus acid scale). In general plant-based supplements tend to be more alkaline forming in your body.  The salts (chlorides) and oxides as well as synthetic vitamins tend to be more acid forming.    This is why eating lots of vegetables in your diet, particularly raw vegetables, is very healthy.  Diseases love acidity.  So keep your body alkaline!

6. Look for independent studies –

The problem with “asking the experts” is that the experts are typically selling their own products.  This is why it is always recommend that you look for independent studies when evaluating vitamins and nutritional supplements.  The most comprehensive study I’ve found is the “Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” by Dr. Lyle MacWilliam. You can find it on Amazon.com or directly through www.comparativeguide.com.  The Comparative Guide looks at over 1,500 multivitamins in North America.  Rather than comparing them against the RDA nutritional levels, the study used a blended standard developed by 12 experts in the field of nutrition.  The reason you can trust the standards in The Comparative Guide is that many of the 12 experts who established them have competing product lines that they recommend.

7. Look for transparency –

There are several factors that a quality provider of vitamin and supplements should have no fear of disclosing to consumers.  A few simple inquiries can go a long way toward figuring out the kind of company you’re dealing with. Does the nutritional product manufacturer’s website give you immediate access to the ingredient list?  Does the company seek out 3^rd party verification of its quality and potency?  Does the manufacturer adhere to pharmaceutical manufacturing standards?  If any of these answers is no, look for a different provider of your nutritional vitamin supplements and food.

Choosing a vitamin supplement can be a daunting task.  Hopefully these seven quick-look-hints will help make the process a little easier to swallow (pardon the pun).