Baylor Health Care System

Choosing the Right Multivitamin

July 16 - Gone shopping for multi-vitamins recently? You probably had to sort through dozens of options, hard-to-decipher labeling and tricky marketing gimmicks.

So how do you find the right one for you?

Dr. David Winter from Baylor Health Care System is here to tell us on today’s HealthSource report.

DAN BELL

Good morning Dr. Winter.

DR. WINTER

Good morning Dan.

DAN BELL

So Dr. Winter—what should we look for in a multi-vitamin?

DR. WINTER

Well my first recommendation is to look at the percent of daily values listed on the back of the bottle. You actually don’t want something that contains 100% of all the vitamins and minerals.

Here’s why—you’ll get some of the nutrition you need each day from the food you eat. So you really only need between 25 to 80% of those vitamins and minerals to come from your multivitamin.

Keep in mind that getting too much of a vitamin or mineral can actually be bad for you.

DAN BELL

Now I’ve seen those multi-vitamins that promise to help you loose eight or gain energy. Do those really work?

DR. WINTER

There’s often very little research behind claims like that. So you may not want to spend the extra money buying those promises. Also be wary of those vitamins listed as “organic.” There’s really no proof those are any better either.

DAN BELL

Great information Dr. Winter. Thanks for joining us on today’s HealthSource report.

For more information you can call 1-800-4-BAYLOR.