Thursday, December 24, 2009

Are My Vitamins Good Ones?

I was wondering if you might know anything about spring valley vitamins and how effective they are? I buy them at walmart, so I'm wondering about the quality of them. I've been taking a vitamin B complex and seem to have much more energy, even with less sleep. but i still want to make sure I'm buying good vitamins that will really benefit my body. thank you, Amanda H.

Dear Amanda,

While the number of supplements available are too numerous to keep up with brand specifics, I do know that the FDA regulates supplements to be sure they contain what they say they do and that there are no false claims made about what they can do. So I would feel comfortable saying that vitamins sold at Walmart are as good as those sold in health food stores which may be more expensive.


What B vitamin pills do is supplement your diet. Few people have B vitamin deficiencies since they are plentiful in carbohydrates (breads, cereals, rice, etc) and many are fortified. Some reasons that a person may have a deficiency would be from excessive alcohol intake or eating mostly non-enriched sources of refined starches (for example, large amounts of sugary soft drinks and candy).

The feeling that you have more energy is more likely coming from your mind than your body. While B vitamins help your body use the energy (calories) you get from eating carbohydrate foods, they don't actually give you the feeling of having more energy as in being energetic or more awake.

The best supplements provide about 100% of the daily value and not a lot more. If your supplements provide 500 or 600% of the RDA for these vitamins watch for bright yellow urine--this is just your body's way of flushing out all the extra that is not being used!

1 comment:

  1. Great post! I was searching for this topic and was so glad i found the answer. Thanks!

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