Why we need a multivitamin in our lives?
The Protection capsule is the cornerstone to the VitxCycle complex, and we think it’s the best multivitamin on the market. So this week we’re looking at 9 reasons why you should consider taking a multivitamin and the benefits they bring.
It goes without saying that the nutrients we need should, first and foremost, come from the food we eat. However, people often want to know what more they can do to make sure they are getting sufficient essential vitamins and minerals if their diet is lacking, even if it’s only on the odd day.
A healthy variety in your diet (just like in your exercise regime) is important for maintaining good support for your body and mind. Different food groups contain different nutrients which are all necessary for your health. The same applies when supplementing.
Often people will buy supplements to achieve a specific result; zinc to support skin, vitamin B6 to balance hormones or vitamin C to support the immune system, but multivitamins provide a good-all round support for daily health and prevention especially if you are undertaking prolonged periods of exercise that can increase the body’s demand for these essential nutrients.
9 Reasons you should be taking a Multivitamin
1. Healthy Ageing
As we age, our metabolic processes slow down and natural production of nutrients decrease but our demand for these nutrients stay the same; it even increases in some cases! Keeping your body supplied with daily support helps you age well.
2. Replaces What We Lose
Water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin C and the range of Bs are not stored in the body, unlike fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K. This means it’s necessary to get these vitamins topped up on a daily basis.
3. Feel Energised
The range of B vitamins are involved in the production of energy in the body. Therefore, one of the keyways of feeling revived and energised every day is to keep up with your B vitamins.
4. Look and Feel Healthy
Vitamin A, C, E, B3, zinc and selenium all support the maintenance of hair, skin and nails. So, if you’re noticing your nails becoming brittle, your hair dull and skin sluggish, you could be missing out on the nutrients they need to be at their best.
5. Healthy Eyes
We value our eyesight above most things, but they are susceptible to decline, from a high sugar diet and oxidative stress as well as genetics. Vitamin A, B3, selenium and zinc can be found in multivitamins and support eye function and protect them from harmful rays.
6. Antioxidant Support
We’ve all heard of antioxidants and the damage caused by free radicals that they protect us from. Oxidative stress and inflammation are the main causes for decline and disease in the body. If you want to take actions to protect the body and prevent illness where you can, having a daily influx of antioxidants is nature’s way of keeping us healthy. Multivitamins are teaming with antioxidants, such as vitamin C, E, B2, copper, manganese, selenium and zinc which all have approved health claims supporting their antioxidant capacity.
7. Keeping your Heart Healthy
Heart disease is a leading cause of death, especially in Western society. Taking a high-quality multivitamin may support the body against such disease, as much of what can be found in a multivitamin supports the cardiovascular system. Specifically, B vitamins and magnesium are known to aid cardiovascular health.
8. Keeping the Immune System Strong
The immune system helps your body fight illnesses, and a strong immune system requires certain tools to do its job. Keeping the body free from inflammation helps the immune system, so as mentioned above, antioxidants and anti-inflammatories such as those in multivitamins can most certainly help. Vitamin C and D are regulators of the immune system and its metabolic processes. 80% of immunity is found in the gut, and the gut requires nutrients for cell division to keep its tissue strong and free from permeability.
9. A Good Place to Start
Often when people have spent a lifetime with poor lifestyle and nutritional choices, their body can be left depleted and in need of nutrients across the board. Most disease starts in the gut, and a poor gut can mean poor absorption of nutrients. Taking a daily multivitamin is often a useful tool to begin the road to recovery when getting as many nutrients as possible into the body is the main priority.
What to look for when choosing a multivitamin:
Levels
Quite often, you may look at a multivitamin and see that it has everything inside, but if you take a closer look, the levels are too low. Of course, it’s important to bear in mind that vitamins and minerals are not all equal in weight or the amount required by the body. Multivitamins tend to include a broad spectrum of vitamins and minerals but the specific formula (ingredients and their volume) varies massively by brand.
That is why it’s important to do your research before deciding what to put in your body. Magnesium is a classic example of an ingredient that takes up a lot of space for a small amount. So, if you’re keen on getting a higher intake of magnesium, and can’t find a multivitamin with a content higher than 100mg, it’s probably best to supplement that separately. Equally, if you find a multivitamin with a high amount of magnesium, don’t be surprised if the rest of the ingredients seem low.
Capsules or tablets
VitxCycle’s Protection is only produced in capsule form because we want to keep our product pure and don’t want to be using binding agents (glue), sweeteners and excipients, all of which have to pass through your body and can reduce the effectiveness of the active ingredients. To compensate, tablets do however tend to pack higher levels of vitamins and minerals inside. So it comes down to a judgement call on the individual wanting slightly higher levels with additives that may impact the absorption of the good stuff or a more pure and cleaner product?
Of course, multivitamins can come in other forms than just capsules and tablets. You can also try liquids or chewables too. Both are highly absorbable but usually contain sweeteners and other preservatives to make them palatable and improve shelf life.
Beware of fillers and other nasty stuff
Often, manufactures will use fillers and other excipients to extend shelf-life, make it taste better, make it cheaper or to make the manufacturing process easier. Our Protector contains none of these nasties…..
Ultimately when it comes to supplementing our diet with multivitamins and the like, we are all in charge of what goes into our body. So it’s important to do your research, understand what your body needs and make an informed decision about where you get your supplements from.
You can check out what goes into our supplements on our ingredients page and we have more posts on health, supplements and cycling on our blog.
Happy cycling
