How to Choose a Multivitamin: Here’s What You Need to Know

Key points:

• Multivitamins are supplements containing important vitamins and minerals that support good health and development.
• Taking multivitamin supplements helps fill the nutritional gaps caused by dietary deficiencies or poor eating habits.
• To get the most out of multivitamins, you need to know how to choose a multivitamin based on age, gender, quality specifications, etc.

When it comes to getting the right nutrients your family needs to stay healthy, the standard American diet leaves a lot to be desired. This is why many people take some form of multivitamin supplements. Multivitamin supplements can help fill in the nutritional gaps so you get enough of the vitamins and minerals you need.

But with the overwhelming number of supplements on the market today, choosing the right multivitamin can be tricky. This blog post will explore the basics of multivitamin supplements and what to look for as you search for the right multivitamin. Read on to learn all you need to know about how to choose a multivitamin.

What Are Multivitamins?

A multivitamin is a group of vitamins and minerals that work together to support your body’s nutritional needs.

Though you only need small quantities of them, vitamins and minerals play important roles in the body. These nutrients are needed from prenatal life to adulthood. Lacking vitamins and minerals at any stage of life can result in poor health or development.

Multivitamins are usually sold in pill, gummy, or chewable form and often taken alongside a meal. Multivitamins aren’t meant to replace food. Rather, they are supposed to complement the nutritional value of food.

The key nutrients contained in multivitamins are:

• Vitamin A: Needed for good visual health, healthy immune system, and cell growth and reproduction.
• B vitamins including thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), pantothenic acid(vitamin B5), vitamin B6, biotin (vitamin B7), folate, and vitamin B12: Help with energy production, red blood cell production, digestion, and proper nerve function.
• Vitamin C: Strengthens the immune system, bones, and teeth, and promotes wound healing.
• Vitamin D: Improves the responses of the immune system and supports bone and teeth development.

Multivitamins may also contain essential minerals, such as:

• Calcium: Supports the development of strong bones and teeth.
• Magnesium: Promotes muscle and nerve function, improves mood, and boosts heart health. 
• Zinc: Boosts metabolic function and strengthens the immune system.
• Iron: Needed for red blood cell formation.

These nutrients are available in several foods that make up a healthy diet. But even if you’re already getting these nutrients from food, you’ll still benefit from taking multivitamin supplements. Before we get into how to choose a multivitamin, let’s look at why you might need a multivitamin in the first place.

Why Do You Need Multivitamin Supplements?

Sticking to a healthy diet is the best way to get all the nutrients you and your family need. However, there are many reasons why your diet may fall short on nutrition.

For one, the typical Western diet is rich in calories, proteins, and fat but deficient in important sources of vitamins such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Micronutrient deficiency is a common problem that affects a huge part of the population in the U.S. and increases their risk of developing serious health conditions.

Even with a balanced diet, kids tend to be picky eaters, so they may not get enough micronutrients from their meals. Plus, modern agricultural methods have stripped increasing amounts of nutrients from the soil, leading to fewer nutrients in the food they do eat. In addition, their guts may not be mature enough to absorb and process the nutrients. 

Pregnant women and older adults also have special considerations to take into account. Pregnant women need more vitamins and minerals, including folic acid and vitamin D, to support the developing baby. Older adults may have problems with digestion and absorption of nutrients.

You don’t want to take chances with your family’s health and well-being. Deficiencies in some micronutrients may have lifelong effects, such as birth defects resulting from a lack of folic acid during pregnancy.

That’s where multivitamin supplements come in. Multivitamins provide the essential vitamins and minerals the body needs to function well. Instead of second-guessing whether or not your family is meeting their daily requirements of these nutrients, multivitamins help you make sure everyone is getting what they need.

Now you know why multivitamins are important, but do you understand how to choose a multivitamin supplement that’s best for your needs? If you know what to consider, you can make the right choice for yourself and your family. 

How to Choose a Multivitamin Supplement

Choosing the right multivitamin can be tricky, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. It’s easy to fall for supplements that are affordable, colorful, or aggressively advertised.

However, not all multivitamins are created equal. Taking into account your individual needs, age, gender, quality demands, and other factors may help you choose one product over another.

Here are some things you should look for in a multivitamin supplement:

1. Nutritional Content

When scouting for the best multivitamin, always check the labels to ensure that the product contains a good number of essential vitamins. The thirteen essential vitamins are A, C, D, E, K, and B vitamins. These nutrients pack all the important health benefits you’ll need.

Apart from vitamins, mineral supplements are also important. You may want to consider a multivitamin that contains major minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, iodine, copper, selenium, and others.

2. Quality

High-quality multivitamins are usually from organic, whole-food ingredients, since natural vitamins have been shown to have higher absorption vs. synthetic vitamins. In addition, quality supplements don’t contain added contaminants such as metals or toxins.

A good quality multivitamin guarantees your safety. Taking supplements with unnatural additives could increase your chances of experiencing side effects.

3. Dosage

The amount of daily multivitamin supplement you need is estimated in the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). RDA varies for different age groups, genders, and special conditions, like pregnancy.

Be sure you know the dosage of daily multivitamins that each member of your family needs and look for products that match their RDAs. It might seem like too much of a vitamin or mineral can’t be a bad thing, but supplement overdoses can result in serious side effects. Gastrointestinal issues or dangerous drops in blood pressure are among the risks of exceeding RDA.

4. Regulatory Oversight

The FDA regulates dietary supplements differently from food and other drugs. Unfortunately, this makes it easy for manufacturers to get away with making false claims about their products. 

Where does that leave you?

You might unknowingly purchase poor-quality products that don’t meet required safety standards. To choose the right multivitamin supplement, buy from a brand that you trust, and look for those that perform third-party testing and/or have third-party GMP certifications. 

The USP Dietary Supplement Verification Program is a popular regulatory oversight system that was created by the pharmaceutical industry. The program conducts rigorous auditing and testing to ensure that products meet science-based quality standards. As such, products that bear the USP Verification Mark have that extra layer of quality control and safety. 

However, these products are almost always synthetically manufactured vitamins, produced by large brands only. Therefore these products don’t typically contain innovative natural ingredients. 

Note: Before using any supplements, consult your healthcare provider or dietitian for medical advice, especially on the correct dosage to use.

Llama Naturals Multivitamin Supplements: Your Best Choice

Now that you know how to choose the right multivitamin, your next challenge is finding a product that matches your specifications and meets your standards. Fortunately, you don't have to look any further. Llama Naturals has you covered.

Llama Naturals Whole Fruit Multivitamin Gummies for kids and adults check all the boxes. Our plant-based multivitamin gummies are made from real fruits and vegetables, with no added sugar, no preservatives, and no artificial sweeteners, colors, or flavors.

Our gummies are a rich source of 13 essential vitamins, including vitamins B6, B1, B2, B12, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, biotin, folate, niacin, pantothenic acid, and other healthy nutrients you and your child need. 

Even with no added sugar, Llama Naturals gummies taste great; your kids will love them and so will you. It’s never been easier to find a multivitamin that’s both healthy and delicious.

Llama Naturals is a plant-based nutrition brand that has created the World’s First Whole Fruit Gummy Vitamins that are made with no added sugar and whole-food vitamins. They are USDA Organic, Vegan, Gluten-Free, free of common allergens, and are slow-cooked on low heat to retain rich phytonutrients & fruit flavor. It’s a win-win gummy vitamin that you and the family will love.