Our obsession with supplements has become a 30 billion-dollar industry. Multivitamins top the list, with many people turning them when supplementation is necessary — think pregnancy, menopause, or chronic conditions. Aside from these conditions, a daily multivitamin provides a good foundation for your health and protects your mind and body when you’re experiencing stress, poor sleep, or irregular exercise. Convinced yet? Then, here are 4 ingredients to look for in your multivitamin.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps our bodies absorb calcium, which is important for bone health. Not getting enough of this vitamin can increase your likelihood of sickness, escalate your chances of back pain, and encourage hair loss. None of this sounds very favorable, right? While you technically should be able to get your daily vitamin D by being in the sunlight for fifteen minutes, the reality is that over 40 percent of people in the U.S. do not. Living in wintery locations with little sunlight, working from home, and applying sunscreen makes getting vitamin D difficult, and that’s why it should be in your multivitamin!
Magnesium
Magnesium is an essential nutrient and best known for being important to our bone health and energy production. However, magnesium has more benefits than just these, working to calm our nervous system, easing sleep problems, regulating muscle and nerve function, balancing blood sugar levels, and more! Unfortunately, many are magnesium deficient because they do not follow a proper diet. While you should ensure that magnesium is present in your multivitamin, you should incorporate it into your diet with foods, like spinach, soybeans, brown rice, and so forth.
Calcium
Similar to magnesium, over 40 percent of the U.S. population does not get enough calcium from their diet. Calcium is necessary for strong bones and teeth. Women, in particular, start losing bone density earlier than men. To combat this, it’s recommended to get enough calcium from the get-go with a diet full of fortified cereals, milk, cheese, yogurt, salty fish, kale, nut butter, and lentils. The recommended amount of calcium per day is 1,000 milligrams for most adults, and while you probably don’t need to get all of your calcium from a multivitamin, you do want there to be some included in it.
Iron
While iron should definitely be in your multivitamin, not everyone needs the same amount of iron. Iron will lead to increased energy, better brain function, and healthy red blood cells. Those, who eat red meats, typically get enough iron, but certain circumstances – like menstrual cycles, puberty, and pregnancy – might add to the amount of iron you need. Vegetarians and vegans also want to make sure their multivitamin has iron, especially if they’re not supplementing meat with other iron-rich foods. Look for a multi with around 18 milligrams of ferrous sulfate, ferrous gluconate, ferric citrate, or ferric sulfate!
Apartment living is all about a maintenance-free lifestyle. At Augusta Commons Apartments in Marietta, Georgia, we go above and beyond to ensure that you have a completely stress-free day-to-day routine.