OK, so I have been taking Centrum for 10-15 years. Started with my GP suggesting I take a multi-vitamin and that was the convenient brand.
Long time ago, a friend who was into health food said to take vitamins which don't have artificial color. To this day, every time I pop one of those pills, and see the bright color, I wonder if I should take something better.
So with all the physicians and health professionals here, is there a consensus for the best multi-vitamin?
Let's dispense with the debate whether we need to take a MV! The AMA actually after years of debate endorsed the use of MV. There are actually two very compelling reasons. First, the NHANES study shows some very disturbing trends-the scariest being that the food that we eat doesn't contain the levels of macro and micronutrients we assume they should. (this is one good argument for organic food since it is grown to maturity, and is fresher due in part to being grown locally.) This is in part because we yank the food out of the ground as fast as possible to get it to the shelves. Second, I know very few people who eat a balanced diet where say they eat 35 different types of food/week. Most people eat the same thing every day for breakfast (if they eat breakfast) and lunch. The only variation is for dinner.
So as not to burst your bubble Amir, Centrum is really junk (but I can't tell you how many clients tell me they use Centrum). The reason I say that is Centrum and many other vitamins do not contain the levels of micronutrients shown on the label (I can't remember the site, but there is one website that checks vitamins for their accuracy). Some levels can be for instance 5X what is stated on the label. And many times, Centrum will crow about having say lycopene-when in reality, the levels are far below what are recommended.
There are three vitamins that I recommend and all are made to pharmaceutical standards and say in the case of Shaklee, have packaged the vitamins in multiple pills since different vitamins and trace elements are absorbed in different parts of the small intestine. For instance, the divalent cations like Fe, Ca, Mg are all absorbed by the same transporters in the upper part of the jejunum and can actually interfere with the others absorption eg. too high Ca can block absorption of Fe (if you have seen the movie "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" you would see that anyone can makes supplements on their kitchen table and market them.)
The first, possibly the best and highest priced vitamin is from Pharmatech(
http://www.pharmatech-usa.com). The ones that I use are Shaklee (
www.shaklee.com) and many of their products are tested in controlled clinical trials. They tend to have the highest recommended levels of micronutrients plus a few other things such as probiotic bacteria. (and in fact, you should see this year or next, the FDA up the recommended RDA for vitamins.) The other one comes from Apex Fitness (
www.apexfitness.com). The market two types of vitamins, one for people eating a high protein diet and another for those eating a high carb diet (now I don't know if that makes a difference, but intuitively is should). The reason is that for instance, someone eating a high protein diet will lack adequate levels of say some B vitamins that aid in the biogenergetic pathways, say entry into the Krebs cycle.)