How do you choose a multivitamin? What do you look for?

Simple question. Thanks for your advice.

Beth

i take a 2 childrens chewable flinstone chewables a day, i tried an adult multi-vitamin about a month but it made me sick to my stomach and constipated me.

Do you track your food in FitDay?

I looked at where my nutritional gaps were, based on FitDay analysis. Then I found a multivitamin that covered all of my gaps.

I take a Women's multi-v, since it has more calcium and zinc, two minerals I'm typically low on.

The best kinds are food based. They absorb better and don't upset your stomach.

I have the stomach issue myself and have to be careful what kind I take. If it's not a good one it comes right back up.

You'll want to buy a trusted brand. Maybe call your doctor's office and see which they recommend? Supplements aren't regulated like medicines are and they may not have in them what the label says, so don't buy too cheap.

I can't really stand taking pills and most multi vitamins are huge! They have to jam so much into them that it's like taking a horse tranquilizer. I take GNC's Women's Ultra Mega Nutritional Formula. I like it for two reasons; 1.) It's a powder and I can mix it into yogurt or milk or a shake and 2.) they can pack so much stuff into a powder that I don't need fish oils or zinc or any other pills on top of a multi vitamin. The downsides, though, may throw some people. It's hard to mix by hand into anything and if you hit a patch you didn't mix well, it's not a pleasant taste (even if it does say it tastes like vanilla or strawberry, we all know it never does...) and you need to take it twice a day to really get a good benefit from it. I usually just mix it into some fat free milk and pound it down.

All in all, the powder works if pills make you shiver, like they do me. Good luck finding a vitamin!

Centrum. It seems to be well balanced for my needs without overdosing on fat-soluble vitamins.
I tried Centrum Silver, but I didn't like it as well. It was missing a couple key ingredients.

BTW - I have been known to buy a store brand that is equivalent. My pharmacist DH ok'd the purchase

This is a really timely comment for me. I have been tracking in FitDay. The last couple of days I have deliberately not taken my multivitamin as I realized I had reached by RDAs for almost everything. The Vitamins/minerals that tend to be low are always the same ones. I'm going to make a list of the best foods for those nutrients and work those into my meal plans.

[One thing frustrating for FitDay is that for at least Selenium, I cannot enter it for foods or supplements I take, so it is only showing it for items already in its database. Also they do not have choices for vitamin D supplemented dairy. For awhile, I created a custom food item for sun exposure (I do live in Florida ). Then I realized that between dairy products not showing the supplemented Vitamin D and getting daily sun exposure, it doesn't matter what FitDay says, I'm getting my Vitamin D.]

Sorry for hi-jacking the thread - back to multivitamins

I take a children's vitamin, simply because I can't swallow the horse pills. I do also take fish oil as well-much easier to swallow gel tablets.