Brandon Barrett's List: Direction of mvm industry

• Higher costs of particular   brands don’t necessarily mean higher quality. Generic brands are   often indistinguishable from brand name supplements, but have lower prices.   A year’s supply may cost as little as $30.

• Jane Higdon, Ph.D.
  LPI Research  Associate

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• Although it hasn’t been  proven that a daily multivitamin supplement containing 100% of the Daily Value  of most vitamins and essential minerals will lead to better health for  well-nourished people, recent research indicates that several of the nutrients  found in standard multivitamin supplements play important roles in preventing  chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. A daily  multivitamin supplement ensures an adequate intake of several micronutrients  that are not always present in the diet in optimal amounts:

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• Although one would expect  the Daily Values (DV) listed on supplement labels to reflect the latest intake  recommendations from the U.S. Institute of Medicine, most of them are actually  based on outdated recommendations made in 1968.

   

  The latest nutrient intake  recommendations from the Institute of Medicine are called Dietary Reference  Intakes (DRIs), which have been set for males and females throughout the  lifespan. They include the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) as well as the  Adequate Intake (AI), which is established for a nutrient when there is  insufficient data to calculate an RDA. Supplement labels continue to display the  outdated DV. A comparison of the DVs and the DRIs for adults is shown in the  table below.

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• Supplements that contain more  than 100% of the DV for these micronutrients are not necessary for most  people.

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• Don’t worry about the  relatively small amounts of chloride, phosphorus, and potassium in multivitamin  supplements. Most people get plenty of chloride from salt, and phosphorus and  potassium are best obtained from diets rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole  grains.

• Trace elements like boron,  nickel, silicon, tin, and vanadium are not necessary since they may not even be  required by humans.
• Vitamin A in supplements may  come from retinol, beta-carotene, or both. Recent research suggests there may be  an association between higher retinol intakes (5,000 IU/day) and an increased  risk of osteoporosis in older men and women. However, vitamin A intakes from  beta-carotene have not been associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis.  Look for supplements containing no more than 2,500 IU of vitamin A or, if  unavailable, supplements containing 5,000 IU, of which at least 50% comes from  beta-carotene.
• Although the DV is 300 mcg,  the most recent recommended intake for biotin is 30 mcg/day.
• In March 2003, the   U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed new regulations that would,   for the first time, establish standards to ensure that dietary supplements   are not adulterated with contaminants or impurities and are labeled accurately.   However, these regulations are not yet finalized or implemented.

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• The United States  Pharmacopeia (USP) has a voluntary testing program called the Dietary Supplement  Verification Program. The USP Dietary Supplement Verification mark shows that  the supplement has passed USP tests to ensure that it contains the ingredients  listed on the label, contains the amount of each ingredient listed on the label,  dissolves effectively, does not contain harmful contaminants, and was  manufactured using safe and sanitary procedures.

   

  Higher costs of particular  brands don’t necessarily mean higher quality. Generic brands are often  indistinguishable from brand name supplements, but have lower prices. A year’s  supply may cost as little as $30.

  • sales/manufacturing
• Higher costs of particular   brands don’t necessarily mean higher quality. Generic brands are   often indistinguishable from brand name supplements, but have lower prices.   A year’s supply may cost as little as $30.

  • Cost Effectiveness
• Higher costs of particular   brands don’t necessarily mean higher quality. Generic brands are   often indistinguishable from brand name supplements, but have lower prices.   A year’s supply may cost a

  • Cost Effectiveness

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• Consumer Reports warns about buying ultra-cheap vitamins from closeout and  dollar stores. In testing, half the tested vitamins did not contain the claimed  amount of at least one nutrient, and several didn't dissolve enough for the  nutrients to even be absorbed by the body. However, store brands from well-known  retailers like Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Kroger and Eckerd aren't included in this  group. In fact, many generic and store-brand vitamins from major retailers  perform just as well as well-known brands like Centrum and One-A-Day in analysis  by Nutrition Action Healthletter.
• In January 2007, ConsumerLab.com reported lead contamination in The Vitamin  Shoppe's Multivitamins Especially for Women. The Vitamin Shoppe quickly stopped  selling the product and has agreed to settle a class-action suit.
• In another case, ConsumerLab.com found a children's vitamin, Hero Nutritionals  Yummi Bears, contained 5400 IU of vitamin A in the form of retinol per daily  dose. According to the Institute of Medicine, the safe upper limit is just 3000  IU for four-to-eight-year-olds and 2000 IU for kids between one and three (they  only need around 1000 IU a day).
• Several multivitamins have been recalled because they did not have  child-resistant packaging despite containing iron, which can cause serious  injury or death if ingested by children

• Experts warn that liquid and chewable vitamins are often lacking compared to  their pill-form counterparts, so don't assume that different forms of the same  multivitamin are equal without comparing the labels. It's also best to avoid  vitamins that contain herbs or that make extra claims on the label for weight  loss, energy, stress or "maximum" benefit. Such claims haven't been proven in  testing.

• Consumers are lambasted by advertising for vitamins that help you lose  weight, vitamins that lower cholesterol and vitamins that give you energy.  However, none of that advertising answers the essential question: Do you really  need a multivitamin? Health experts agree that certain groups of people can  clearly benefit from a multivitamin. These include pregnant or breastfeeding  women, or women who are trying to conceive. Multivitamins are also recommended  for people with nutrient-depleting diseases of the gastrointestinal system,  diabetes or cancer. Those who are strict vegetarians and people on restricted  diets should also consider a multivitamin to replace nutrients they may not be  receiving through diet alone.
• However, for most other people, getting vitamins and minerals from food is best  because interactions between foods may offer benefits that can't be matched by  supplements. The reality, however, is that many of us don't eat healthy enough  diets to get all of our DV of vitamins and minerals. In 2002, the Journal of the  American Medical Association recommended that all adults supplement their diets  with a multivitamin, but a review by a federal panel in May 2006 concluded that  there's no evidence to recommend for or against multivitamins for people who  don't fall into one of the risk groups mentioned above.

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