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Vista Magazine is a great source for many alternative medicine info and I always pick up the latest magazine when I am near a health food store. I read through the latest copy and found a great article that talks about the importance of multivitamins.

As you know from some of my past posts I am a firm believer in multivitamins although I do not think that they are in any way a replacement for good healthy whole food.

Ensuring that your family’s nutritional needs are met can be a pot and pan-noisy event. Add to that the challenge of guiding your family through the piles of nutritional information available and you may feel overwhelmed.

Quiet the noise and feel sure that your family’s requirements are satisfied by discovering what there is to know about multivitamins.

We all know that multivitamins are a combination of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) that are essential for general health and well-being.

The body is a symphony of chemical reactions, each requiring particular nutrients to occur properly.

By ensuring that all of these nutrients are present, the body can function optimally, resulting in feelings of energy, vitality and health.

Are All Multivitamins The Same?

No. There are more than a dozen multivitamins sold in Canadian stores. Investigate the differences to decide which one is best for you.

There are two main groups: synthetic and whole food multivitamins. Synthetic multivitamins are formed by creating all of the essential vitamins and minerals in a laboratory and combining them into a capsule or tablet.

Whole food multivitamins also contain all of the essential vitamins and minerals, but because they are made from concentrates of whole fruits and vegetables, they also contain additional nutrients.

Many of these additional nutrients are necessary for the body to be able to absorb the essential vitamins and minerals.

For example, vitamin C is more efficiently absorbed in the presence of bioflavonoids, which are naturally present in oranges and other whole foods. By using whole fruit and vegetable concentrates, whole food multivitamins offer a more complete nutritional source, and are more bioavailable (better absorbed by the body).

Some multivitamins contain more than just vitamins and minerals. Today, multivitamins may contain green foods, mushrooms, essential fatty acids and amino acids.

All of these nutrients play a part in ensuring that the symphony of reactions in the body is functioning optimally.

Who Needs A Multivitamin?

Nutrients are essential to every reaction in our body. However, there are some age groups that have greater nutritional needs than others.

Multivitamin needs for Kids and teenagers
Growing bodies are working hard to create new cells while still maintaining energy and health in existing cells. As a result, they are in great need of essential vitamins and minerals.

Children, teenagers, athletes and pregnant women’s bodies face these growing nutritional challenges. A multivitamin can offer all of the vitamins and minerals needed to promote healthy growth.

Another area of the body that experiences rapid growth is the immune system. During the invasion of an infectious microbe, the ability of white blood cells to rapidly multiply is drastically affected by nutritional status.

Multivitamins have been shown to enhance many aspects of the immune response (Nutrition, Oct. 2001).

Multivitamin needs for Adults
Adults also need multivitamins. In your 20s, ensuring your diet contains lots of vitamins and minerals can correct any nutritional deficiencies you have developed in your teens and reduce your risk of developing long term deficiencies such as osteoporosis.

In your 30s, running after the kids and trying to manage a career can cause you to reach for convenience foods which lack essential nutrients. A multivitamin can help address the potential nutrient deficiencies. In your 40s, fine lines start to appear and a desire to focus on anti-aging emerges.

The antioxidant power available in a multivitamin can help prevent the aging damage caused by free radicals in the body.

In your 40s, fine lines start to appear and a desire to focus on anti-aging emerges. The antioxidant power available in a multivitamin can help prevent the aging damage caused by free radicals in the body.

Multivitamin needs for the elderly
As you age, the body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients decreases. This can lead to nutritional deficiencies. The risk of malnutrition increases the risk of infection.

Studies have found that multivitamins can reduce the mean annual number of days spent with infection in the elderly (BMJ, July 2005). Daily multivitamin use in the elderly has been recommended by scientific reviews (Clin. Infect. Dis., Dec. 2001).

Studies have found that multivitamins can reduce the mean annual number of days spent with infection in the elderly (BMJ, July 2005). Daily multivitamin use in the elderly has been recommended by scientific reviews (Clin. Infect. Dis., Dec. 2001).

Now that you know who needs multivitamins I should tell you what I am taking daily and why.

I take a fairly good multivitamin (but not one of those expensive ones), a calcium for my teeth and bones (I don’t drink much milk), a B50 to supplement the B vitamins that are always short in a multivitamin, and an Omega 3-6-9 vitamin for the healthy fish oils.

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Here in Canada, we have a Senate that is quite different than some other countries. The Senate in Canada has it’s members chosen by the Prime Minister and the term is for life. Once someone becomes a Senator here they don’t have to worry about their job.

Sometimes this is good, sometimes it is bad. Today this was a good thing.

Today the Senate standing committee for Social Affairs, Science, and Technology released a large report that had a cool infographic attached (I have put it in throughout this post).

This study and report gave us information that all people interested in fitness and health in Canada, as well as the US, recognise but sometimes have to let our clients know every single day.

Here are the highlights

Senate Recommendations for Diet and Health in Canada

First some perspective. 2/3 of adults and 1/3 of Canadian children are obese – this is up double and triple since 1980. This has caused a huge increase in diet-related diseases and is the cause of 10% of premature deaths.

Even though it is hard to quantify, the study found that health care and lost productivity costs are 4.5 to 7.1 Billion dollars a year because of obesity.

As for the food. The study found that the average Canadian diet is 62% processed foods and that the average fast food meal is 20% higher in calories than a home made meal (I think that number is higher… but I am not politician)

And on the other side of the equation, only 15% of adults are getting the exercise that they should which is 2 and a half hours a week.

Recommendations – From the Senate Committee

The report included a bunch of recommendations that the government was urged to start or institute

A national campaign to combat obesity. This was done with Participaction and other health programs in the past in Canada. Why not again?

A national ban on advertising of junk food to kids. This has been done with alcohol and cigarettes so this is definitely doable.

A new tax on sugary foods. I hate this idea. taxes on food only hurt the poor. This will not stop people from buying super big gulps and ice cream.

Update the Canada Food Guide without industry influence. I joke with the kids that the egg, milk and cattle lobby have enough control in Canada to be named in the food guide. Would be interested in seeing how this goes. Good idea.

Front Of Package Labeling. Again this is a good idea. Would love to know exactly what would be listed. Many of us already read the nutrition labels. Would this be somehow different? Maybe warnings?

I know that lots of people will throw the “Nanny State” term out when they see this advice from the senate but so far we as Canadians don’t seem to be doing a very good job are we?

Really on both sides of the border, we have to start taking our food seriously. The report also talked about computer/screen time, as well as a lack of exercise, but the food is core to the obesity problems we fight.

I have written about what I would like to see in a revised Canada Food Guide before but we need more that that. What Canada and the US really need is a shaming of unhealthy foods instead of what we currently see on the Food Network, which is worse and more unhealthy foods

What Canada and the US really need is a shaming of unhealthy foods instead of what we currently see on the Food Network, and in our common news outlets which are a celebration of the worst meals and more unhealthy foods

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How many calories does it take to maintain a pound of muscle compared to a pound of fat? I have looked around for good facts on this but have had mixed results so far. Here is my take.

Conventional wisdom says that if you take a pound of your fat and a pound of your muscle it takes a lot more calories for your body to maintain the muscle.

The pound of muscle will take about 50 calories to maintain for a day while the pound of fat will take about 2 calories to maintain per day.

One thing that is important to remember about this stat is that when you have a workout your body may swell up a bit but the muscle grows over the next 48 hours as your body heals.

When you gain a pound of fat it takes nothing to keep that fat in place.

The best way to look at the maintaining muscle versus fat is this;

if you look into the future and see yourself in a years time with an extra 20 pounds of muscle, which is easily possible, you know that you will have to have a clean diet with a lot of nutrients to keep this muscle in place.

If your were to gain 20 pounds of fat in the next year, of course quite possible as well, you will have to keep your exercise down and keep a bad diet to attain that fat gain.

The choice every day is yours, do you want a better body with 20 pounds more muscle or a worse body with 20 pounds more fat.

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