My mentor, Charles Poliquin, taught me that one of the keys to a quality MV is non-synthetic ingredients. The research recently and subsequent media coverage does not distinguish between the two.
Both Charles Poliquin and another expert, Dr. Mercola, (http://products.mercola.com/multivitamin-vital-minerals/) concur that a quality MV daily is ESSENTIAL for optimal health (and it must be broad based... meaning you have to take it throughout the day) on top of nutrient-dense, clean, balanced nutrition.
Please remember, there is negative research and media coverage on /everything/. The media loves to exploit and emphasize (and misinterpret!) the negative.
Listen to your body, eat well, stay active, enjoy life, be open to trying new modalities to improve your health and you can't go wrong. Read below for more information on quality multivitamins.
Not All Multivitamins Are Created Equal by Charles Poliquin
It is important to ask tough questions when looking for the best multivitamin for you.
First, consider the ingredients. Here’s a nightmare scenario.
What if you were a typical, large, unscrupulous supplement manufacturer and you decided to make a multivitamin/mineral (MVM) to be sold in a mass merchant like the local grocery store or major nutrition center? How would you decide what to use in your MVM? How would you compete in this market where the corporate buyers aren’t interested in health; they’re all about the bottom line?
You know that their consumers are relatively unsophisticated regarding supplement quality and nutrient absorption. They aren’t individuals trying to optimize their health and function. They aren’t athletes trying to maximize their performance and recovery. Instead, you know that their buying decision will be based on two things: taking one tablet a day and price.
You don’t want any risk of tablets breaking inside the bottle so you would use chemical fillers and make sure that the tablets are compressed extra hard, even if it means they aren’t broken down as well in the gastrointestinal tract (or at all).
You would buy the cheapest raw materials, regardless of bioavailability or health implications. You wouldn’t hesitate to use cheap synthetics like d/l/-alpha tocopherol and you definitely wouldn’t waste space on the more expensive gamma tocopherol (or beta or delta). You would choose cheap, small molecule minerals like magnesium oxide so you can fit it all into one tablet instead of using a large (well-absorbed) molecule like magnesium glycinate or magnesium citrate. You wouldn’t raise the cost of production by assaying raw materials or finished products; you would just assume it’s good enough knowing that the "Average Joe " consumer will do the same. You would laugh at raw material suppliers that try to sell you a mixture of natural carotenoids and would instead use a little bit of synthetic beta-carotene (even if it may raise the risk of lung cancer), just so it can be on the label.^1
You would assume that all a consumer wants to see is the 100% mark next to the RDA if they even look at all. You would cut corners wherever you could in hopes that the unsuspecting consumer would see a cheap price and say “good enough.”
Quality comes first at the PPC
You can probably guess that we take the opposite approach at the PPC. Quality, functionality, and health come first here. As a result, our new Multi-Intense meets or exceeds all of our rigorous requirements.
For instance, many people are concerned (and rightfully so) that their supplement pills aren’t even getting broken down. Well, besides meeting the United States Pharmacopeia standards of 20 to 30 minute tablet breakdown tested in a GMP /certified/ facility, our Multi-Intense has actually been verified to break down even in the achlorhydric “stomach” of gastric bypass patients in less than 15 minutes. This was verified by using pill cams!
Quality goes way beyond pill dissolution, though. Quality also means nutrients your body can absorb and that your body truly needs. We use patented Albion amino acid chelates for our minerals. We use a patented blend of natural carotenoids. We use therapeutic levels of B vitamins, not the pathetic RDA. We use natural vitamin E with a 1:1 ratio of alpha to gamma tocopherols (as well as beta and delta) to resemble the profile of vitamin E rich plants. We use a patented blend of folic acid and folic acid metabolites that bypasses a genetic defect that may affect as much as 35% of the population.^2 We use calcium citrate and microcrystalline hydroxyapatite that the body can actually use to build bone.^3,4 If you want calcium carbonate, go eat a stalactite; you won’t find it in Multi-Intense.
What you will find are the key nutrients that you should be getting from your diet, but often don’t or can’t, so supplementation with a high-quality MVM is critical to optimal function. It’s a well-known fact that the nutrient density of today’s food pales in comparison to even 30 years ago. The nutrients in Multi-Intense are in highly absorbable, natural forms that result in much more bang for your buck. Multi-Intense is the “dead-lift of multivitamins”, while the store brands are like leg extensions.
The moral of the story is that "a little research can help you choose an effective multi." Try our product today
References:
1 Omenn, Gilbert S. M.D. PhD, et al, “Effects of a Combination of Beta Carotene and Vitamin A on Lung Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease”, /New England Journal of Medicine/, May 2, 1996 Number 18, volume 334:1150-1155.
2 Födinger, Manuela, et al “Molecular Biology of 5,10 Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase”, /Journal of Nephrology,/ 2000, Volume 13:20-33.
3 Epstein O, et al. “Vitamin D, Hydroxyapatite, and Calcium Gluconate in Treatment of Cortical Bone Thinning in Postmenopausal Women with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis”, /AJCN/ 1982 Sep; 36(3): 426-430.
4 Heller HJ, Stewart A, Haynes S, and Pak CY “Pharmacokinetics of calcium absorption from two commercial calcium supplements”. /J Clin Pharmacol,/ 1999 39: 1151-1154.
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