Daily Complete Vitamins - Not Your Father's Multivitamin

What are daily complete vitamins?

That is a question we hear quite frequently. With all the information out there, it can be a bit confusing to figure out just what they are and what they should contain.

In our opinion, the multivitamins that fit this bill are those that contain more than just vitamins! Imagine that! They would also contain other nutrients such as minerals, trace minerals, amino acids, enzymes, and much more.

Daily complete vitamins should contain minerals, for example. We find minerals in the soil. Minerals are essential for our continued good health.

Minerals will only be found in the food we eat if those minerals were first found in the soil our food was grown in.

The soils of today are thought to contain less and less mineral content as today's farming has become more intensive. As a matter of fact, U.S. Senate Document #264 tells us just that. This is why it is vital that daily complete vitamins contain minerals as well.

Daily complete vitamins should also contain chromium. Chromium has been shown to significantly lower blood sugar levels.

Even if you are not diabetic, lowering blood sugar levels can help to stave off type 2 or adult onset diabetes.

Daily complete vitamins should also contain selenium. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants have been shown to help in preventing up to 60 chronic diseases. Most multivitamins purchased over the counter do not contain selenium.

How about CoQ10. CoQ10 provides the energy to keep your heart strong.

Also daily complete vitamins should contain nutrients such as spirulina, lutein, ginseng, and pycnogenol or pine bark/grape seed extract.

And of course, daily complete vitamins should contain vitamins.

Although this goes without saying, you want to make sure that the vitamins are provided in sufficient quantities.

Minimum Daily Requirements

There are two schools of thought on this. One will tell you that the minimum daily requirements as set by the U.S. government should be all you need. More recent research seems to suggest otherwise.

Most so called daily complete vitamins you find just barely contain the minimum daily requirements of most nutrients. Some may even contain upwards of 200% of the minimum daily requirements.

But except in the case of Vitamin A (but not beta carotene), some think this still may be a bit to low for optimal health... especially when it comes to Vitamins C, D, E and your B vitamins.

Minimum daily requirements were originally established to assure that folks did not develop a deficiency disease like rickets (vitamin D) or scurvy (vitamin C).

More Than Just Preventing Nutrient Deficiencies

Today there is a push to have the daily requirements go beyond merely preventing nutrient deficiencies to optimizing one's health by cutting your risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis.

None other than Harvard School of Public Health weighed in by stating that the, "... intake of several vitamins above the minimum daily requirement may prevent heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other chronic diseases."

Also, an article appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) had this to say: "…suboptimal intake of some vitamins, above levels causing classic vitamin deficiency, is a risk factor for chronic diseases and common in the general population..."

In addition, the JAMA went on to say, "Most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. Pending strong evidence of effectiveness from randomized trials, it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements."

When Searching for Daily Complete Vitamins, What Should I Look For?

Most like to see Vitamin C at upwards of between 500 and 1000 mg, Vitamin D and Vitamin E at around 400 IU, and Vitamin A as beta-carotene at about 10,000 IU.

If you are a woman of childbearing age, daily complete vitamins should contain at least 400 mcg of folic acid and probably more.

Your B Vitamins such as Vitamin B6 you probably want at 50 mg and your Vitamin B12 at 100 mcg.

Jumping back to your minerals, daily complete vitamins should have at least 500 mg of calcium. If you don't get enough dairy products throughout your day, you want to add more calcium to bring your intake up to between 1000 and 1200 mg daily.

What Do We Recommened?

We've seen lots of products out there and we recommend not wasting your time or money on the mass produced, mass marketed thrift store variety multivitamins.

Most skimp on the nutrients you need and some are of questionable quality.