Multivitamin Brands and Links

Credible information about multivitamins and related health issues

The Food and Nutrition Information Center at the U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains detailed lists of the recommended daily intakes (RDA) for vitamins and minerals. Each RDA is listed for different genders and age groups. The National Institutes of Health also has "Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Fact Sheets" listing information about each nutrient, daily values and food sources.

In late 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released updated Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) and RDAs for both calcium and vitamin D. The IOM has a chart listing the new guidelines on its website. The report brief explains the updated guidelines in more detail.

Solubility has been a problem for some multivitamins. Obviously, if a vitamin doesn't dissolve properly, its nutrients won't be absorbed by the body. It's easy enough to test your own vitamins for this using a bowl of warmed vinegar. See the full test instructions in the article "What's in Your Multi?" by Wyn Snow, managing editor of SupplementQuality.com.

ConsumerLab.com's "Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements" testing results are available on its website. This document also includes information about each nutrient, daily values and food sources. A 12-month subscription, which provides access to all reports, costs $30.

The Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine publishes a brief article entitled "Should Healthy People Take a Multivitamin?" In it, a professor of nutrition argues that multivitamins cannot reproduce the health benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

The nutrition industry trade website NPI Center has a detailed article on what to look for in a multivitamin in "What Makes a Good Multivitamin?"

About.com has an interactive quiz entitled "Does Your Multivitamin Measure Up?" It answers a series of questions about the ingredients in your multivitamin and will tell you whether your multivitamin is giving you the right amount of nutrients, too much or too little. (Note: ConsumerSearch is owned by About.com, but the two don't share an editorial affiliation.)

The University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter publishes a guide to dietary supplements. Additional information about vitamins can be found by clicking on the supplement list.

The Organic Consumers Association posts information on organic multivitamins that use food-based ingredients instead of synthetic vitamins and minerals.

Multivitamin brands

Manufacturers' websites are also helpful sources of information about multivitamins. Most have ingredient labels for each product so you can compare different brands from the comfort of home.

Centrum

Dr. Fuhrman

Flintstones

GNC

L'il Critters

Kirkland Signature

Nature Made

Nature's Way

New Chapter

Now Foods

One-A-Day

Pregnancy Plus

Pure Encapsulations

Puritan's Pride

Rainbow Light

Stuart Prenatal

21st Century

Twinlab

Viactiv