4 Reasons to NEVER Take This #1 Doctor Recommended Multivitamin
I use a high quality multivitamin/mineral at the foundation of my protocols with clients, whether they're wanting to improve their energy, gut health, immune function or anything else. In this article, I’ll share why I do, why you should be cautious when choosing your multivitamin and one of the best options to choose.
I use a high quality multi as a foundation for a few key reasons:
Most people are severely lacking proper nutrition because:
They may be eating poorly and consuming foods depleted of nutrients due to processing and depleted soil, or simply not eating enough of the good stuff.
Their gut may not be functioning well enough to digest, absorb and assimilate nutrients from their foods.
Vitamins and minerals are required for literally every function that occurs in our bodies and while we might not know it, we can easily be missing key nutrients.
Nutrients interact with one another and work synergistically together. For example, in order to properly utilize iron, we need to pair it with vitamin C, especially in someone who has low iron.
Another example is zinc and copper. Zinc is fantastic for immune function, but when taken longer than a few months, it can cause copper depletion. We don't need much copper, but taking it in a multivitamin along with zinc can help balance these nutrients in the body.
Let's talk about the #1 Dr. recommended multivitamin: Centrum.
This company is owned by one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, which I won’t name in this article, but it starts with a “P” and rhymes with “wiser”. Yikes!!
What Are the 4 Main Issues with This Multivitamin?
The vitamins and minerals are in their synthetic forms.
Why is this a problem?
Synthetic vitamins and minerals require conversion into their active forms in the body, such as inactive B12, called cyanocobalamin, into active methylcobalamin, or inactive, sometimes toxic folic acid, into activate folate, called 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF). The issue is that most people cannot convert them properly and this can result in the toxic build up of certain nutrients.
(P.S. if you look on their website, they don’t even show the forms they use.)
The dosages are way too low.
The dosage of nutrients listed in this product are much lower than needed for therapeutic use, meaning you’re really not going to get much benefit anyway.
It’s a “One-A-Day Formula”
What’s the big deal? It may make it easier to remember to take your vitamins, but that’s not how we're meant to get our nutrients. In fact, water-soluble vitamins, like vitamin C and Bs, are only active for about 4 hours until they’re excreted, so we should be taking these multiple times a day for the greatest affects.
Scary ingredients.
It’s chock full of toxic fillers like corn starch, maltodextrin, modified starch, artificial dyes, talc, which is linked to ovarian cancer, titanium dioxide, silicone dioxide and glucose.
Should You Take a Multi with Iron?
A common mistake I see is that when people are tired, they start taking iron pills. You should only take iron supplements, or take a multivitamin with iron, if your iron is low, as you can develop iron toxicity. Additionally, supplementing iron is not a long-term solution and you need to get to the root of what’s causing your iron deficiency and fatigue. Oftentimes it’s malabsorption due to gut dysbiosis.
What to Choose Instead
There are many options for multi-vitamins out there, and many other brands have the same issues as this one. Knowing the specific active forms of nutrients is important. I've done the work for you and provided the iron-free multivitamin I use in my practice called Twice Daily Multi by Designs for Health, which you can find on my Full Script with a free account. It has active forms of vitamins and minerals at therapeutic dosages, separated throughout the day for better bioavailability.
Remember that nutrition always comes first and that supplements help supplement a healthy diet!
Asher Kleiber
Registered Holistic Nutritionist™
Supplements, of course, are meant to “supplement” a healthy diet, but they can be a game-changer for your immune health, giving you that extra boost of nutrition when you need it. What’s even better, is supplementation can help prevent getting sick altogether!