How to Tell If Your Supplements are High Quality

With every advertiser and friend suggesting their vitamin supplements are of the highest quality, there are a few tell-tale tips that will help you determine if they really are a better quality or not.  One of the first things you can do is grab any multi-vitamin or supplement from you favorite brand and look to see what type of calcium, magnesium and or zinc they are using.

Are they using Carbonates, Oxides and Sulfates?  Such as calcium carbonate, magnesium oxide or zinc sulfate?

These are the least expensive forms of minerals.  Not only that, they are poorly absorbed and utilized within the body.  So, if someone says, their supplements are of the highest quality.  I might question it.

Some of the better forms of minerals are the lactates, citrates, aspartates, malates and glycinates.  If your supplement doesn’t list what type of mineral it is, there is a good chance they are using the cheaper forms, which are typically not the best absorbed.

Just because you ate it – doesn’t mean you absorbed it! 

I hate to beat-up on my mom, but she would come back from her grocery store thinking she got such a great deal when she bought her calcium or multivitamins.

You have to realize, your digestive system and liver are part of an assembly line that takes those nutrients from your food and converts or repackages them so that they can be absorbed and utilized. Everyone’s digestive and elimination system is operating at different levels efficiency.

If you struggle with digestive issues and or liver problems, your ability to absorb and utilize the nutrients in your food or supplement only becomes more challenging when using a poorly absorbed nutrient or supplement.  This could be why you may not be getting the results you expect from your supplements.

If the supplement label only states; calcium, magnesium, etc…without telling you what type of calcium or magnesium.  You can pretty well bet that they are using the cheaper forms.  Unfortunately, a lot of nutrition manufacturers use the inexpensive forms – and the majority of consumers don’t know how to tell the difference or what to look for.  At least not yet.

There are some other simple keys to look for with regards to activated versus inactive forms of vitamins, to determine their quality, which I’ll discuss another time. But the types of minerals used in your supplement will give you a good and quick tell-tale sign as to their quality.

I hope that helps you in your search for a better, quality nutrient.