Few consumer items are as confusing as vitamin and mineral supplements. Store shelves are stocked with various brands of vitamins and minerals with different slogans and lists of ingredients, which can leave a buyer confused. How to choose?

Look for a multivitamin that is in capsule form, so that your body can break it down and it is able to fully absorb into your system.  If you do choose a tablet, be sure that it is speckled and not a solid color (coated tablets are generally worthless because your body doesn’t break them down in time to adsorb the nutrients). Also perform a little test and try to break the tablet in half.  If it breaks easily, then it will be easy for your body to breakdown during the digestion process.  If it is very difficult to break, then it will be difficult to break down inside of you as well.

I suggest that you look for a Vitamin supplement only, and take your minerals separately at a different point in the day to be sure that they get properly absorbed. The all in one, “A to Zinc” concept is simply misleading and a waste of money.  Take a look at the absorption chart below.  It will give you an idea as to how the elements interact with each other in your system when they are taken at the same time.

As you can see, if you take certain elements together, one will get absorbed while others are not absorbed at all. It seems a little complicated, but as long as you take the competing elements about an hour apart, you should be fine.  But, take a look at this chart when choosing a multivitamin/multimineral supplement, and make sure that you are actually getting your money’s worth!

I do believe that it is important to supplement for your overall health, as it is almost impossible to get all of the essential elements we need from food.  This is especially true for someone who is exercising regularly and is depleting their muscle stores of nutrients.  Oh, and drink a lot of water with your vitamins!  Remember to drink the whole glass or bottle, not just a swig.

Good luck shopping! For those of you who want a CLEAN 100% absorption multi-vitamin NOW, a link to a brand I trust and use personally is below. We have ALL of our 6-week challengers on this multi, and use the promo code “FFLS20” at www.SNAC.com to receive 20% off not only the multi-vitamin but your ENTIRE purchase!