History of multivitamins
Supplements like multivitamins are being used by more and more people with time. They first emerged on the scene during the second world war when it sort of became a national duty to provide the best nutrition to the population to get through the war, and to provide soldiers with everything the government could to perform their duty. Fast forward to the 1980s, taking some sort of vitamin had become a norm for most men and women by the end of the decade.
What started as an effort to provide fortified nutrition to the American population became a part of a wellness regime for the masses. Taking multivitamins and supplements translated into taking care of your mind and body. While the recommended dosage for essential nutrients and vitamins was released during the second world war, and it was a really important step because people do need these essential vitamins for optimal health, it also became important to weigh the benefits of consuming multivitamins and other supplements against their negative effects. As time progressed, people wanted to find out whether all these supplements were really making a difference to their health in a positive way.
Today, supplements or wellness essentials are a multi-billion dollar industry. You can find a myriad of products, specifically made for men, women, teens, and for kids. Deciding which option is the best one for you is at best an educated ad calculated guess. However, considerable research has been performed to find out the efficacy of taking multivitamins for every age group.
Are multivitamins the real deal?
Research performed by scientists at Harvard shows that multivitamins do not make any significant difference to the health of an adult with a healthy, well-balanced diet. Moreover, it shows that if you indeed take a well-balanced diet daily, you don’t really need to take multivitamins. The questions and answers about your health are crucial. If you want know for sure whether you really need to take supplements, the most prudent way to go about it is by visiting a doctor and getting your bloodwork done.
In all the information discussed above, the catchphrase is “a well-balanced diet on a daily basis”. Do any of us really take a well-balanced diet on a daily basis? Do most of us drink the recommended amount of water every day?
The answer is obviously no and that’s where these supplements and multivitamins play an important role. We do need 13 essential vitamins for our body to function perfectly and to prevent us from catching weird diseases like scurvy (caused by deficiency of Vitamin C), rickets (caused by A vitamin D deficiency), and pellagra (caused by deficiency of vitamin B3).
In addition to a general lack of a well-balanced diet, our modern lifestyle doesn’t leave us much time to focus on our health (mind and body wise) as we should. Considering all these facts, taking multivitamins is a safety net you must have to protect the health of your family and yourself.
Choosing the right multivitamins for yourself:
Determining which supplements to take and which ones suit your bodily needs best should not be a guessing game. It shouldn’t be a decision that you take lightly based on clever marketing or on a whim.
The best way to choose which multivitamins to take is by consulting a doctor. Once you know which vitamins you need to take, you can make your choice from the myriad of products available on the market.
Multivitamins made traditionally (based on 50 years old research) are full of sugar, artificial flavors, and additives your body doesn’t need and, in fact, actively needs to avoid. The concept of supplements being vegan, gluten-free and HMO-free also didn’t exist five decades ago. All you need is to look at the ingredient list on your supplement’s bottle and you will find out how much actual benefit they are providing to your health.
Alice Li, the founder of First Day, started by asking this question and more to fill the gap we saw in the wellness essentials industry. How are supplements made? What do they contain? How do they work to make our health better?
She found out that supplements are being made based on research that is decades old and are full of harmful ingredients like too much sugar and artificial flavors to make them taste better. They were doing more harm than good, especially to children’s health. Therefore, she started by teaming up with scientists to figure out what an ideal supplement for kids should be like. They found out that most of the supplements are based on dosage for an adult and end up being up to 1000% more than what a child requires. Moreover, different vitamins have different levels of absorption and interact uniquely with the body depending on what you or a child consumes in a day or what your lifestyle is like.
Armed with all this information, they set out to create a healthier, tastier, and natural multivitamin alternative for your child and the whole family. Their supplements contain only 2g of sugar per gummy, 80% less sugar than you find in most multivitamins. They claim to use only fruit and veggies to make them taste great and they contain only those vitamins that your child needs, based on comprehensive research.
First Day vitamins for children contain the following nine ingredients for a healthier body and mind:
Vitamins A
Vitamin C
Vitamin D3
Vitamin K
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Folate
The supplements are vegan, gluten-free, HMO-free, free of any artificial flavors, or additives, and free of the most common allergens.
Bottomline
Multivitamins are a safety net for a healthy you, especially in the times we live in today. They are not harmful at all if taken according to the recommended dosage and do wonders for your health. The choice is up to you whether you want to incorporate supplements into your daily routine or not. If you choose to do it, make sure you are choosing a healthy, wholesome supplement free of harmful ingredients that make the whole point of taking vitamins moot.
