Hello all,

Thanks for all the great info!!! I have just started to workout and lose weight. I am looking for a great multi vitamin to take. Any info is greatly appreciated!!

Pbobes

I like Universal Animal Paks a little more expensive but pretty much covers all your needs.

Just for your info... all vitamins/supplements are not FDA approved.. so basically you do not know what you are putting in your body... So be careful... Here's a website I used for a project awhile back that "Consumer Labs" did on multivitamins... http://www.consumerlab.com/results/multivit.asp

Also kind of a "fun" thing I haven't tried that my old professor in college told me to do was to put your multivitamin I guess in vinegar and see what happens to it in 24 hours (anyone else heard of doing this?)

I have heard of the vinegar thing cant remember what you are supposed to look for, is it if it dissolves quickly than that is good and or is it good when it dissolves slowly?

i take a multivitamin formulated especially for women. it's called "women's exclusive formula" made by holland and barrett here in the UK.

i tried that test, but put one in a glass of water, not vinegar. it dissolved in about 1-2hours, can't remember exactly. i believe it's meant to dissolve in an hour? apart form that, it just turned the water a horrible yellow brown colour.

on the subject of multis, i'm just wondering if anyone with any knowledge knows whether it's normal and/or ok to have exceptionally high amounts of certain vitamins in them? here's a sample of what's in my multis:

vitamin B1 - 60mg - 2143% RDA
vitamin B2 - 30mg - 1875% RDA
vitamin B6 - 30mg - 1500% RDA
vitamin B12 - 130ug - 13000% RDA (!!!!!!)

the rest isn't quite so extreme. is this ok?

The best formulation I'm aware of is Source Natural's Life Force multiple.

the only main difference for woman multi is if your pregnant or nursing, otherwise woman need a lot more Iron than men and a little less of K than men. the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) precentages are just the minimal requirements for the average human, which has nothing to do with optimal levels of vitamins or minerals, so it is very common to see things like that neenaw. now then there are a few things to know about choosing a multi-vitamin. first is the source of the vit/min if it's from a natural source or dirt and waste. here is a list of good sources:
Vitamin A (Beta-Carotene)
Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid)
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
Vitamin B9 (Folic acid)
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
Biotin (Eggs, liver and nuts)
Vitamin C (Citrus fruits and leafy green vegetables)
Vitamin D (Salmon, tuna, eggs and milk)
Vitamin E (is found in almost all foods, especially in olive and vegetable oils)
Vitamin K (Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, liver, avocados and tomatoes)
then you have minerals which is much more complicated first you have the current essential minerals: calcium, chromium, copper, fluorine, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium and zinc. there is 4 categories for minerals which are:
(i) Main (or constituent);
(ii) Integrating (essential);
(iii) Facultative (partly essential or beneficial);
(iv) Indifferent (or negative).
the previous list falls into the first or second categories, you will see many more minerals in some multi's which will fall in the the faculative catagorie, this includes a large list that seems to change quite often, some of the more common ones are: aluminium, boron, bromine, vanadium, nickel, silicon. some multi's contain a host of micro-nutrients some good sources are: chlorella, spirulina, and aphanizomenon flos aquae which are algae's.
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ok section 2 I guess this one is about; Fillers, Binders, Disintegrants, and Coatings which is very important and can make or break a good multi.

ok so fillers do nothing more for the pill itself than take up volume. The pill must be large enough for human fingers to readily handle. Some common fillers are lactose (milk sugar), microcrystalline cellulose, corn starch, sugars (including sucrose, mannitol, sorbitol, fructose, dextrose), whey and yeast.

Binders are used to make the components stick together when the ingredients are compressed to make the pill. Some common binders are povidone, xanthan gum and Carbopol (an acrylic resin). Some fillers may also act as binding agents and are referred to as filler/binders.

Disintegrants facilitate the break-up of the tablet in the stomach. Some commonly used disintegrants are crospovidone, croscarmellose sodium and gellan gum.

Coatings help to prevent the tablet from dissolving too soon, thus breaking up in your mouth. They may also keep you from tasting or smelling the active ingredients. A common coating is shellac - the same as used on wood floors and boats.

Colorants or pigments include titanium dioxide (white) and iron oxides (red or yellow).
ok I guess I could go on forever about this, so basicly you want little as possable of this stuff in there. hopfully you only have Binders & Disintegrants in your pill. on a side note normal tablets must meet U.S. Pharmaceutical standards This means the tablets must dissolve within 15 to 30 minutes once in your stomach. To test your tablets, place white vinegar (to simulate the stomach acid) in a dish or glass and drop in your pill. Check periodically. It should dissolve within 15 to 30 minutes to meet standards. If it doesn't, then you are paying a high price for fillers! You can keep this test up for 45 to 60 minutes, but if the pill is not dissolved by then, it is highly unlikely to be of any benefit to your body.
some of you might be wondering "why should I be reading all of this isn't all multi's good or atleast ok?" that's not always true alot of companies use multi's with by-products which are second-hand substances derived from an original product. Brewer's Yeast is a leftover from the making of beer (where yeast is used to ferment the sugar). Many companies take these secondary products, put them in a white plastic bottle with a few other ingredients and label them with sensational sounding names - but really they are just waste products with little nutritional value. They may list the percentage of each component, but dirt is high in mineral contents too! Would you pay money for dirt?
almost forgot some fillers or binders have things in it to increase bioavailability this is usally a type of citric acid or ascorbic acid i.e. carbohydrates (glucose, lactose), amino acids (arginine, lysine, etc) vegetable gum, peptides; emulsifying agents.
well there you go I took the liberty of reading Fil's Source Naturals Life Force multiple and it's a very good one you can see the fillers listed on the bottem as "Other Ingredients" I left alot of stuff out on this subject but covered the basics in a way most would understand if you have anymore questions let me know. That concludes phaledax's lession on multi's have a nice day.

I'm curious about why this would be. We sell "One a day" tablets that supposedly dissolve over a longer period of time, and the "slow release" factor is supposed to be a benefit rather than a hindrance. Some are set up so the pill actually ends up in part in the intestine, where it will dissolve (hopefully) along the intenstinal tract releasing its nutrient casing along the intestine at the segments that are most capable of procssing those particular nutrients.

I mean, I guess what's your take on "slow release" or "one-a-days"?

One thing I read up on as far as FDA approved for vitamins and supplements is Apex Fitness products... They are made by an FDA pharmecutical company.. so the pills are FDA approved, but not the bottle... I looked at their prices and of course they are a little higher, but i guess if you want quality have to pay a little more

FDA does not equal quality

For many of us in the know, it's often quite the opposite.

the pills I was mainly talk about were the ones that dissolved right away. but from what I know your exactly right Time-release capsules contain a variety of micro-pills that are designed to disintegrate in the stomach at different times. Each micro-pill has a little bit of active ingredient and fillers coated with a mixture of shellac and other compounds. The precise nature of the chemicals used in the coating controls the time the micro-pill takes to dissolve in the stomach. unfortuantly you can't check the quality of the pill by looking at the ingredients and I don't think using a simple test would work (but I have never tried) maby you could, but I doubt it. So finding out if the pill meet the clames would be an issue. I have not seen a test on the time-release aspect of a pill to a specific brand so if somone find's one I would be intrested in seeing that.
The one-a-days look "ok" to me, it would be perfect for couch potatos out there, but there is definitely better ones for around the same price.
good question fil, though im not suprised, you probably know more about this than I do.