Multivitamins can be an excellent source of vitamins and minerals if you feel like your current diet isn’t giving you enough of the nutrients your body needs.  If you’re always feeling tired, for example, you may be low on iron or potassium.  Brittle teeth could be a sign of a calcium deficiency or easily catching colds might mean you need more vitamin C.  A multivitamin can help make sure your body gets exactly what it needs on a regular basis – but how do you know what to look for when choosing a multivitamin?

The most expensive multivitamins aren’t always the best.  Many generic varieties or private label brands sold by your local drugstore or pharmacy are just as good as the name brand versions.  You’ll want to make sure that the right multivitamin has at least 100% of your recommended daily value (marked as DV on the label) for the following vitamins:

-          B1 (thiamin)

-          B2 (riboflavin)

-          B3 (niacin)

-          B12

-          B6

-          Vitamin C

-          Vitamin D

-          Vitamin E (less than 100 mg is best)

-          Folic Acid

When it comes to Vitamin A, make sure the vitamin contains AT MOST 15,000 International Units (IU’s) of beta carotene, where 4,000 of those come from retinol.  This is crucial to keep in mind as too much retinol can be toxic to your body and cause a whole slew of unintended side effects.  The same can happen with Vitamin C too as too much causes stomach upsets and diarrhea.

The most crucial nutrients to look for in a multivitamin include at least 18 mg of iron and at least 100 mg of magnesium.  Copper, selenium and zinc are also good minerals to look for when buying a multivitamin.  Calcium is tricky, as most multivitamins only contain around 200 mg of calcium, but your body really needs around 1,200 mg or more.  That’s why it’s a good idea to indulge in calcium-fortified foods.  One cup of calcium-fortified orange juice, yogurt or milk gives you approximately 300 mg of calcium.

Typically, the foods you eat each day will supply you with plenty of iodine, potassium, phosphorous, manganese, biotin and pantothenic acid.  In fact, if you can find a multivitamin with a low (or no) amount of phosphorous in it, even better, as phosphorous hampers calcium absorption in your body.

You should also not rely on multivitamins as a substitute for food.  I know one fitness buff who ate a ham and cheese sandwich every day and then gulped down a fistful of multivitamins, thinking he was doing his body good.  He’d wonder why he always felt tired, sluggish and HUNGRY until he learned that getting vitamins from your food naturally is so much better than taking them in pill form!

Many people read my pages because they have questions about memory supplements – so what does buying a multivitamin have to do with it?  It’s because the product I use, Focus Factor, actually doubles as a multivitamin.  It even has certain vital nutrients (like Omega 3 fatty acid, found in fish) that most multivitamins don’t have!

It also contains several botanical extracts that have been shown to improve memory as well as doctor-recommended ingredients to help boost brain power and improve focus.  I recommend getting your free trial bottle at www.focusfactor.com and seeing for yourself how much it helps!