Today’s topic has been selected very carefully to create awareness about usually forgotten elements in General Health and Body Building too commonly named Multi vitamins and Multi minerals.
While working as a nutrition expert, I often come across this question”I am healthy why do i need multivitamin” or many a times “what the hell it is???”
Going back to school We have studied 7 vital nutrients for a healthy body, which includes
So the 5th and 6th points Vitamins and Minerals are also considered very much essential for a healthy body.
However needed in very small quantities on a daily basis they play a very important role. Our body is a moving machinery in which bio chemical processes are always in process. Any movement any thought even do not happen without a chemical reaction. And in almost all or most of them some or the other way vitamins or minerals are required to start/complete/control the reaction.
As the name suggest, they are a combination of essential vitamins and minerals. The quantity of each is kept according to the daily requirement of Human Body, so as to not exceed the RDA. Many multivitamins are formulated or labeled to differentiate consumer sectors, such as prenatal, children, mature or 50+, men’s, women’s, diabetic, or stress. Most multivitamins are intended to be taken once or twice per day, although some formulations may differ.
The first and the straight forward answer or rather a question we should ask ourselves, Are we eating right? There are lots of good reasons to take a multivitamin. Even the best eating plans can fall short of meeting all of the 40-plus nutrients you need each day. Our current diet habits or say less than healthy food choices are also the biggest reasons to go for it. Taking it just once or twice a day will only help to fulfill the nutritional gap.
Adding to this Multivitamins also help us to avoid the deficiency diseases. It also aids in improving overall health and wellness.
I find many fellow gym goers too reluctant to go for them even if they are taking other things like proteins, pre workouts, aminos etc. While when we go to gym or extra physical activity there is an increased requirement of all the nutrients.
Lets take an example to understand better – Play football for 1-2 hrs. What will happen? Sweat and tiredness plus increased requirement to re hydrate body in addition to increased hunger. While other elements requirements are increasing the requirement for vitamins and minerals also increases. Same happens for any physical activity like exercising.
In India only there are more than 1500 different multivitamins to select from. Steps to follow are
- Read the label – Understand what you are getting and in what quantity per serving
- Check for the percentage of daily requirement – Most of them should be 100% leaving a few like Calcium and Magnesium
- Look for the extras – Many of the multivitamins are added with antioxidants and herbal extracts like ginseng.
- Especially in cases of women you will find iron and folic acid to increase the hemoglobin content of red Blood Cells.
- Selecting the right form – capsules, softgels or liquid or even powder, for easy intake.
Finally, it is always a good idea to consult your health care provider when taking any supplement, especially if you take prescription or over-the-counter medication
Coming to conclusion, I would suggest each of us to add a multivitamin to our daily diet regime for a better health.
