Why You Should Be Taking a Daily Multivitamin
Every day you get vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from the foods and drinks you consume. But it’s hard to get the right amounts of each vitamin your body needs from food alone. With our busy schedules, it can be hard to eat the right foods consistently.
There are 13 essential vitamins and minerals our bodies depend on: Vitamins A, C, D, and E, and also the B-Vitamins (B6, B12, niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, and biotin). When our bodies lack certain vitamins, the foods we consume can replace a small amount of these nutrients, but they can’t make up for all essential vitamins.
This is why taking a daily multivitamin is so important for people of all ages. Children, especially, need to take a multivitamin because it’s often difficult to get them to consume the diverse range of foods they need in their diets.
What Vitamins are Most Important?
Multivitamin formulas vary depending on the company that makes them. On average, a multivitamin has 26 or more vitamins and nutrients. These vitamins are essential to various body functions.
Vitamin A
This vitamin can be found in many different foods, including fish, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products. Vitamin A is essential for healthy vision, reproduction, and immune system function.
It also plays a large role in the function of the kidneys, heart, lungs, and other organs.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is found in many foods including citrus fruits, strawberries, broccoli, peppers, and potatoes. It’s an essential vitamin you always want to make sure you’re getting enough of! Vitamin C helps the body fully absorb iron and assists in creating collagen inside the body.
Vitamin C is also an antioxidant that plays a major role in immune system defense. It helps protect the body from colds, flus, and viruses.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is found in foods such as fatty fish, cheese, eggs, oranges, mushrooms, and more. You also get Vitamin D from the sun. It’s essential for the body’s strength, development, and essential functions. When your body lacks Vitamin D, you often begin experiencing bone pain. Calcium, a critical nutrient for the bones, doesn’t absorb fully in the body without Vitamin D.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdowns, many people spent most of their time indoors. Today there are many people now dealing with Vitamin D deficiencies from the lack of sun exposure.
Vitamin E
Found in many of the foods we consume every day—vegetable oils, nuts, green leafy vegetables, cereals, and fruits—Vitamin E is essential for the immune system. Though many think of Vitamin C or even Vitamin D for immune health, Vitamin E helps the body fight off colds and viruses. It’s also important for skin and eye health.
Vitamin K
Like all the other vitamins, Vitamin K is present in a variety of foods—green leafy vegetables, fish, meat, and eggs, to name a few. It’s an essential vitamin that’s important for bone metabolism, and it makes proteins that play a role in overall bone health and structure.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 can be found in pork, poultry, fish, peanuts, and certain fruits. It supports metabolism and the central nervous system, turning your food into energy, which then helps to create neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.
Vitamin B6 is just one of the B-Vitamins, but all play a key role in cell function.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is in the foods many people consume every day, including fish, meat, dairy, and other animal products. It’s essential for the body and everyday energy levels, the Vitamin B12 is important for blood and nerve cell health.
You may also know of Vitamin B12 for its role in preventing anemia and keeping your body from becoming tired and weak.
Niacin
You can find niacin in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, meat, fish, poultry, nuts, and seeds. The body uses niacin to turn food into energy, and it’s helpful for keeping your nervous system, digestive system, and skin healthy.
Usually most people consume enough niacin in the foods they eat daily. But it doesn’t hurt to have a little boost in your multivitamin!
Thiamine
This vitamin is present in whole grain foods, meat, fish, and bread. Thiamine is important because it helps our bodies generate energy from food. It’s also critical in the growth, function, and development of healthy cells.
Riboflavin
Riboflavin works together with all the other B-Vitamins and assists with growth and red blood cell production. Found in organ meats, eggs, milk, green vegetables, breads, cereal, and grains, riboflavin releases energy from proteins in the body.
Pantothenic Acid
If you consume poultry, beef, peanuts, and vegetables (mushrooms, potatoes, and broccoli, especially), you’ve encountered pantothenic acid. Together with the other B-Vitamins, pantothenic acid turns food into energy and creates blood cells.
Biotin
Organ meats, nuts, seeds, fish, and certain vegetables all contain biotin. It’s essential to help the body metabolize carbs, fats, and amino acids.
Biotin is a building block of the body’s proteins and is critical for keeping your hair, skin, and nails strong and healthy. Many people take biotin as a supplement to give their hair, skin, and nails the extra support they need.
Other Vitamins
While these are the primary vitamins you’ll find in a multivitamin, there are often other vitamins, nutrients, minerals, and even herbs on the ingredients list. All are beneficial for overall health and well-being.
For example, in Burman’s Ultra Liquid Multivitamin, there are more than 100 essential nutrients that can support anti-aging, inflammation, stress and anxiety, energy levels, and more.
What Should I Notice After Taking a Multivitamin?
When the body lacks essential vitamins, it can take a toll on your overall well-being. A vitamin deficiency causes a lack of energy, stress and anxiety, hair thinning, inflammation, and more.
Taking a daily multivitamin fills in the gaps with the essential vitamins and nutrients your body needs and can help repair the ailments you’re experiencing from vitamin deficiencies.
Looking for the right vitamins to support your health? Stop by our store or shop Burman’s Health Shop online! We’d love to help you feel your absolute best.
