Multivitamin Selection

Diet and Nutrition
1

Ok, so currently I’m taking a generic multi-vitamin, I’m not kidding, it literally says “Vitamins” on the side. I’m doing some research to determine what product I should switch to, but it seems the more I look into the subject, the more complicated it gets. I’m on the verge of diving into research for each individual component, but that will take a pretty serious amount of time.

My goal is to get a basic, no frills, but high quality product that handles my essential vitamin and mineral needs. I’m not looking for a greens+/Superfoods type product, as interesting as those are that’s a different topic altogether. What do you use, why, and how has it worked for you?

I’ve heard good thing about Animal Pak, but when I tried it a few years back, there were a ton of different pills, more than I wanted to deal with honestly. In addition, many of the ingredients seemed to be on pretty shaky ground research wise.

I did a bit of bumping around over on the bodybuilding.com forums, but they’re pretty much drowning in product reps pushing their particular brand so it was hard to separate out the information from the noise, though NOW Adam did get quite a few genuine seeming recommendations.

So far I haven’t found any comparison guides that didn’t turn out to be cleverly disguised marketing. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

2

One-a-Day, twice-a-day. Don’t kill yourself doing the research. Just make sure that it can dissolve in water so it won’t come out of you in one piece. Sorry for the boring answer.

3

Honestly I don’t think multivitamins work. When I took Animal Pak I felt like I pissed out all of the vitamins an hour after taking them. Also many multivitamins contain two ingredients that negate each other (ex. Calcium and Zinc). My advice would be to save the money, get some BCAA’s fish oil and protein powder.

4

[quote]FFBMikey wrote:
Honestly I don’t think multivitamins work. [/quote]

Agreed.

Get yourself some Biotest Superfood. I never really noticed a difference from taking multivitamins, but I feel more energy after just using Superfood for a few days.

5

I already use BCAA, Fish Oil and Protein. (Surge and Creatine also). I do think getting a proper amount of vitamins and minerals is a good idea, and no I don’t think Superfood is the way to do that. There is nothing wrong with it, just not designed to fill that function.

6

[quote]blue9steel wrote:
I do think getting a proper amount of vitamins and minerals is a good idea, and no I don’t think Superfood is the way to do that. There is nothing wrong with it, just not designed to fill that function.[/quote]

Actually, I’m pretty sure it was TC who said that this is one of the reasons they developed Superfood.

7

My own anecdote here:

I have your typical good diet like most on here: Broccoli, chicken, some red meat, spinach, mixed vegetables, different fruits/berries, plenty of eggs, cheeses, whole grains only, etc. Megadose Fish oil, Surge, ZMA are my supplements.

Now, over the last year I ditched my generic walmart multi in favor of my “good” diet.

Over the last few months I have noticed a definite decline in sex drive (basically, going from tons of erections a day to maybe just the one you wake up to).

About 3 weeks ago, I began taking a “good” multi that actually dissolves (got one of vitamins.com that comes recommended of Men’s Health forums). Not immediately, but slowly I began noticing my mind drifting off to sexual places during classes and I sure noticed. It’s slowly coming back to me.

Now I can’t say vitamins are the T booster or whatever, and cannot rule out something else going on in my psyche… but perhaps my unchanging diet was leaving me deficient in some area? Or maybe my cheat days was leaving me even lower in some areas? I mean not eating any veggies at all or whathaveyou. It more than likely is a long term sort of thing that finally reared it’s head? You tell me.

Truth is I have had some bouts with stress/heart break from class/women over the last few months so that is definitely a possibility for killing the T/sex drive. I’m still not over some of it and the semester just started again so I got some stress already, but I do feel better about things nowadays.

Anyway, I’m going to keep taking a multi as a safety net because lord knows on my cheat days I don’t get a “round” diet in, and I typically eat the same nutrient rich foods every day. If it’s not in those core foods, I don’t get it.

I’m 22, for the record.

8

well i take centrum performance… i took it last summer and found a positive increase in health and general vitality… then i tried normal centrum after upping my supplement intake and found that i didnt react to the normal centrum in the same way… so now i have kept my suppplement intake and now use performance… awaiting the results!!!

and yes some ingredients do negate each other but your body will take up what it needs… importantly all this talk about dissolving in water… its not so important… in the first instance your stomach contains a far superior system than your average glass of water… however, i would still like to use a vit pill dissolving in water as a good general rule of thumb…

9

I am convinced that I feel better, sleep better, and suffer less from allergies when I take Dr. Whitaker’s “Forward.”

I believe that good research supports the use of high doses of certain nutrients. (High-potency multis, BTW, WILL require taking a lot of pills each day. I just do it.) Whitaker’s formula uses forms and doses of the nutrients that are supported in the literature. It is revised occasionally to reflect new findings. It is also tested, every batch I believe, for quantities, potencies, and 130 contaminants.

I have tried Life Extension’s formula, but I did not feel as good on it as I do on Forward.

10

Multivitamins get some stick,but I stand by them.Even when I started eating clean,I found it hard to get the optimum amount of nutrients.
Note I said OPTIMUM,not the minimum required to function or prevent disease,but to actually function better.
I started taking Centrum,and I almost immediately noticed the effects,I felt sharper at work,less tired,could exercise better,etc.

I switched to Solgar VM-75 about 2 years ago,and it has improved my energy even more,my recovery,my mood,my concentration,skin,hair,etc.
If I forgot to take it,I would feel shitty and unable to focus,even if I was unaware until later I had forgotten to take it,so it is not just a placebo effect.

As for the immune system boost,in the five years I have been taking a multivitamin,i have not had a single infection,i.e. cold,flu,chest infection,NOTHING.
I have not had a single day off work,whereas before I took them,I would get EVERY bug going around and would be off work.This alone makes it a worthwhile investment.

I think it is naive to assume you get everything you need from your diet.It has been proven that vitamins and minerals deplete rapidly in fruit and vegetables,some vitamins are not stored very efficiently in the body,whereas some vitamin pills are designed as ‘time release’ formulas.
The OPTIMUM amount of nutrients for a very active person is FAR MORE than the minimu RDA,and FAR MORE than required by an average person,as exercise depletes the body’s stores and also more antioxidants are needed to fight the free radicals/waste products produced by exercise.

Also other factors such as pollution,how much sunshine you get,etc. affect your requirements.
To those who say pills contain nutrients which compete for absorption,this is true,but many tend to focus on nutrients more likely to be deficient and have less of the other,for example,as most muscleheads know,we don’t take our ZMA with milk,as calcium and zinc compete for absorption.

In many multis though,zinc is often included at a full RDA or more,whereas magnesium is lower and calcium is even lower,often way below RDA,as it is a bulky ingredient more suited to an individual pill.

Many companies (i.e. Myprotein/CNP/Solgar) have a formula designed with 2 pills,or a pill and a capsule,one to be taken in the AM and one in the PM.These formulas have different ingredients at different strengths in each pill,as some nutrients are better absorbed in the morning,and some are better absorbed in the evening.They also avoid the competing of different nutrients.
But I concede they are not a magic bullet,they are more like a little extra back-up.

If I was going to a rough part of town and I had two armed bodyguards escorting me,I would still feel better if my driver had an Uzi under his seat too-he probably won’t need it,but I feel better knowing it’s there,you see what I’m saying?

11

[quote]andersons wrote:
I have tried Life Extension’s formula, but I did not feel as good on it as I do on Forward.[/quote]
What LEF formula?

The Two-a-day plus Super Booster? Which is what I recommend.

Or the “Mix” which seems to be what most people mean.

12

Bill,

I was not able to find the two-a-day or Super Booster on the LEF site.

They are under the mutli-vitamin section?

13

I misnamed the first of the two.

The links are:

14

Bill what do you think of the AST 32x two a days?

15

I’d never looked at them. Doing so just briefly right now, at a glance there’s one thing jumping out immediately that says “cheap crappy vitamin”: the use of dl-alpha tocopherol as the source (and even worse, only source) of Vitamin E.

I know I’m repeating this line, having posted it recently in the same context, so please forgive that, but… “You don’t get more than you pay for.”

The only exception being closeout sales or whatever where the seller is taking an actual loss. Then you might.

While saving money is always good if getting the same thing, when it comes to multivitamins (and many other things) when the price is down in the sub-basement, it really doesn’t take any information beyond that to know that the product isn’t good, though looking into it will reveal the fact also. The ONLY way they can get a multivitamin’s price down to that level is by crapping out the quality.

16

Oh, and as to why the dl-alpha tocopherol is not the way to go:

Vitamin E isomers are naturally in the d form, and furthermore are a mix of different tocopherols of which the most important appears to be gamma, or at least gamma is critically important.

Providing only alpha-tocopherol is bad and may be worse than providing no Vitamin E at all, as high alpha-tocopherol intake without correspondingly increased gamma-tocepherol intake results in displacement of what gamma-tocopherol was present from the diet.

However, d-alpha-tocepherol is much cheaper than the other tocopherols, and so a compromised-for-cost multivitamin will use only it or use just token amounts of the other tocopherols.

But what if you’re aiming for a yet cheaper price point?

Well then, synthetic alpha-tocopherol which is a mix of forms (called dl) is much cheaper yet. Now it’s really crappy, as the forms other than d are worse than useless, but hey it is cheap!

By the way, for reference on a good formulation, the LEF Super Booster content of Vitamin E is:

Alpha tocopherol: 18-36 mg
Beta tocopherol: 0-7.2 mg
Gamma tocopherol: 215-244 mg
Delta tocopherol: 90-126 mg
Total tocopherols: 359 mg

All being in the natural d form.

This alone, as a guess, accounts for half the price of the product. It just can’t be done in a cheap multivitamin.

17

Considerin vitamin E has been linked to cancer, I’d rather have the non-bioavailable form.

IMO, the only vitamin that people should really supplement is vitamin d, and even then only in non-sunny times.

18

[quote]byukid wrote:
Considerin vitamin E has been linked to cancer, I’d rather have the non-bioavailable form.[/quote]

Oh puh-leeze.

Please cite me the study showing natural forms of Vitamin E in anything like natural distribution is “linked to cancer.”

If you’re referring to the AMA lately claiming that a study shows “Vitamin E” worsens risk of prostate cancer, that was a study doomed to show no good result from the beginning due to ignorantly using only alpha-tocopherol.

You are also wrong in assuming that synthetic dl-form alpha-tocopherol is not bioavailable. Calling it actually preferable is going even further wrong.

19

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
byukid wrote:
Considerin vitamin E has been linked to cancer, I’d rather have the non-bioavailable form.

Oh puh-leeze.

Please cite me the study showing natural forms of Vitamin E in anything like natural distribution is “linked to cancer.”

If you’re referring to the AMA lately claiming that a study shows “Vitamin E” worsens risk of prostate cancer, that was a study doomed to show no good result from the beginning due to ignorantly using only alpha-tocopherol.

You are also wrong in assuming that synthetic dl-form alpha-tocopherol is not bioavailable. Calling it actually preferable is going even further wrong.[/quote]

Hm, that’s interesting to know about the AMA thing.

And I never said anything about the bioavailability. I’ll assume that was directed to someone else.

But do you really believe it necessary to supplement with vitamin e? I mean, do you have any studies linking the super bioavailability of all the tocopherols to positive health benefits? I need some good reads on it.

20

Well, myself I tend to interpret a statement such as “Considerin vitamin E has been linked to cancer, I’d rather have the non-bioavailable form” to be a statement regarding bioavailability.

And you write bioavailability again in this post, this time referring to “super bioavailability of all the tocopherols.”

I am suspecting that perhaps you have acquired a misunderstanding of what the term means.

The bioavailability of a substance is the ratio between the amount absorbed into the bloodstream versus the amount supplied. For example if you take 100 mg of a substance but tests reveal that only 50 mg is absorbed and the other 50 mg is not, it is 50% bioavailable.

Is it “necessary” to supplement with Vitamin E?

Well, you will survive if you do not. So in that sense, not “necessary.”

If you consume plenty of Vitamin E rich foods you will do fine also. So it’s not “necessary” in that sense either.

However many do not do that. They won’t promptly die fron not supplementing with a quality Vitamin E supplement.

As for whether there are studies showing “postive health benefits” to Vitamin E, of course. For example one study showed that men in the highest quintile (upper 20%) for blood levels (from whatever source) of gamma tocopherol had five times less risk of prostate cancer than men in the lowest quintile: J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000 Dec 20;92(24):2018-23

Really, any time you see something saying something bad about Vitamin E, before taking it seriously one needs to look into what form of Vitamin E was supplied. The study might in fact demonstrate only that taking only alpha-tocopherol was either not worth doing or actually bad.