What’s a multivitamin?
You’ve heard of them before for sure, but I’ll just give a little bit of a description so you can understand fully what a multivitamin. So first of all, how many vitamins need to be inside that little capsule to make it a ‘Multivitamin’ So Wikipedia states that ‘’There is no standardized scientific definition for multivitamin.
In the United States, a multivitamin/mineral supplement is defined as a supplement containing three or more vitamins and minerals that does not include herbs, hormones, or drugs, where each vitamin and mineral is included.
At a dose below the tolerable upper intake level, as determined by the Food and Drug Board and does not present a risk of adverse health effects’’ in basic terms if the supplement has more than 3 different vitamins inside, I can legally be called a multivitamin
Can they be used for certain illnesses
So let’s take a very common disease that affects a huge percentage of people in the US, but to be specific 1 out of 10 people have it. Isn’t that insane? People that are diabetic will often be looking for the best multivitamin for diabetics, but why is that.
Well, when you have diabetes you are likely to experience malabsorption of foods. Meaning you can be running low on your vitamins, and we would want that would we! Vitamins for diabetics are prescribed professionally by a doctor a lot of the time.
As standard off-the-shelf multivitamins are not strong enough or not as dense in the specific vitamins needed to treat the malabsorption they are experiencing. So the answer to the question is no, it can not cure diabetes but it can improve one’s health and longevity
What is typically inside a multivitamin
So all multivitamins are different, like any supplement. The ingredients and the preparation process are different. Meaning if you are looking to try a different brand from the usual, make sure you check the nutritional profile on the back. And if it’s not there, don’t buy it!!
But inside most multivitamins are similar quantities of similar vitamins, although some are catered towards different people with different needs. A good well-rounded multivitamin should have the obvious ones like vitamin c and calcium.
If it is a good well-rounded one you should also see that it contains vitamins like Thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin. B6, B12, and folate. Calcium, magnesium, selenium, and zinc. With these extras, you’ll be covered.
Do we need all them vitamins
So there is an argument that’s been going on for years, the argument is that we take all these vitamins. But they all just go to waste, people say that we can only get our vitamins from food.
But the other side of the argument thinks differently, there are a number of people who swear by them and probably take them every day without fail. Some people are against this because you don’t need all the vitamins.
Do we? Well, I don’t know, that’s something you should ask yourself, isn’t it? I’ll give you 3 options, you should fall into one of these categories. Let’s call them A, B, and C
A – Eats an extremely clean diet, full of fruits, vegetables, varied oils, and just an overall super healthy diet. On top of this, the person (A) exercises regularly and does yoga. Kind of the perfect kind of person that we all envy deep down
B – The person (B) Eats a balanced varied diet, has a drink or two. Never overdoes it with food, maybe you could eat a little bit more veg and fruit. But the person (B) does have them at least 4 times per week. Person (B) is like a normal healthy individual, he goes to the gym and runs every now and then. But he’s not a fitness freak
C – Now person (C) is a bit naughty, they don’t eat a balanced diet. They constantly try out crash diets because they are uncomfortable with the way they look. They give up and go on binge eating episodes, filling themselves and devouring unhealthy fat and sugar-filled treats. Now, this is what we want to avoid, it’s far from an ideal situation.
So now we have 3 kinds of people, with 3 kinds of lifestyle and eating habits. Which one of these would benefit from a multivitamin? I think it’s obvious that the last person needs some help to get out of that rut, but some people are that way and you can’t go around trying to change people.
So I would say that they would definitely benefit from a multivitamin, the middle person could definitely benefit too. They have nothing to lose, as long as the brand is safe and he’s taking it within the recommended dose just pop away
Now moving on a person (A), I would say they don’t need it. That’s of course if they don’t have a medical condition that causes malabsorption of various nutrients. Just like we spoke about before, people who experience this will benefit as long as its under a doctor’s supervision
So now that we’ve cleared up who needs them, I think its time we move into the closing thoughts on this article
Closing thoughts on them
So, you’ve got a lot of valuable information there. I think the bottom line with this sort of thing is to go with your gut feeling. But if you don’t trust your gut feeling, get yourself to a doctor or maybe even contact a nutritionist or dietitian.
They will guide you into becoming the most healthy version of yourself, this could help you start a new chapter in your own life. Or with this information, you could give a little push to a friend that you know that is experiencing some of the issues mentioned in the article