Multi-Vitamin Reccomendations

**Gypsy Jazz** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 5:40pm

I searched around the forums and found nothing. I'm well aware that a multi-vitamin is a supplement, not a replacement.

I just got back from the pharmacy and damn there were a lot of different brands, but just about every one of them put me off in some way. Many of them had insane amounts of C, D and E, all of which I seem to recall having been shown to lead to a reduced life expetency if too much is taken. It seemed to me that these vitamins were for people who just wanted to a take a pill and not ingest anything else the rest of the day.

My nutrtional knowledge is pretty limited, and I've only recently started really focusing on keeping a healthy diet (which I'm still not doing so great on). What are some multi-vitamins you nutritional skeptics and know-it-alls reccomend?

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 5:48pm

I use either Centrum or the generic one (Kirkland) sold at Costco. In addition to that, sometimes, I supplement with additional zinc (on top of what's provided with the multis). Also, I always take a lot more B-complex and C than what's in the multis, always.

Centrum, Kirkland or anything similar in their content should be fine for mosts IMO.

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 6:02pm

Vitamin C:
-Water-soluble (it won't build up in your liver)
-Current FDA upper limit is 2 grams/day
-If you're getting a lot of it, it'll cause diarrhea (which will protect you from acute toxicity)
-It has been linked to oxalate buildup and kidney stones in some studies (see this), but again, we're talking about lots of the stuff

Vitamin D
-Fat-soluble, so your liver will store it
-Current FDA upper limit is 50 micrograms/day, but your body can degrade it to avoid overdose readily

Vitamin E
-Fat-soluble
-Current FDA RDI is 15 mg/day, and the UL is 1000mg/day, so you've got a hundredfold margin of error
-Not much in the way of overdose risk except in edge cases

You sure you're not thinking of Vitamin A? That one can get nasty - because it's fat-soluble, your liver will store excess vitamin A for a long time, but once it can't store any more, you'll start showing signs of toxicity. This is compounded by the fact that the upper limit is only about 3 or 4 times the RDI, although I've heard that the carotenoids don't count towards said UL.

Edit: And yeah, I take the generic Costco ones too.

**Gypsy Jazz** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 6:52pm

Originally Posted by TheRuss

Valuable Info

Interesting stuff. Much thanks.

I just looked up centrum though and it appears to have 100% RDA of Iron, which I thought was not advised for men due to risk of heart trouble.

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 6:57pm

RDA on iron is 8mg, UL is 45mg - and they're not kidding about that upper limit, either. Apparently the body has some difficulty getting rid of iron and a surplus can become toxic. To make things more complicated, the bioavailability of different iron-containing molecules varies greatly.

**red.line** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 7:06pm

Animal Pak, end of thread, and just drink your water.

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 7:58pm

Originally Posted by red.line

Animal Pak, end of thread, and just drink your water.

Bodybuilding.com puts 7.5 servings of Animal Pak at $11 without shipping or tax. That's a lot of money to spend on vitamins.

**red.line** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 9:00pm

Its only ~30 shipped for 44 servings, that's over a 1 months supply, so less that 1 dollar a day, you can find that on the street in quarters if you need too. Multivitamin is a pretty important staple in supplements, a lot of people cheap out on it when vitamins help with every bodily process imaginable. I'd say before you go buying stuff like Methoxy, NO, Creatine etc., get a good protein like American Whey, 160 servings for only ~60 bucks, and Animal PAK. When it comes to buying supplements there are a lot of scam items, overprices products etc., but you shouldn't cheap put on your multivitamin!

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 8/14/2008 10:53pm

Originally Posted by red.line

Its only ~30 shipped for 44 servings, that's over a 1 months supply

44 paks. That's 22 servings. Look at the top of the left sidebar.

Originally Posted by red.line

Multivitamin is a pretty important staple in supplements, a lot of people cheap out on it when vitamins help with every bodily process imaginable.

Animal Pak is not, strictly speaking, a multivitamin. Look at the nutritional information.

From Vitamin A to pantothenic acid are vitamins, calcium to potassium are minerals, lysine to arginine are amino acids... the "Performance Optimizers" section is a hodgepodge of different things (herbs, a few more amino acids including a miniscule amount of colostrum, some glucosamine in the form of shark cartilage), the "Essential Fatty Acid Complex" includes an omega-6 fatty acid and an omega-9 fatty acid but no omega-3, and a few digestive enzymes.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 8/15/2008 12:22pm

-- red.line

Animal Pak is good if you are, like, 200+lbs, eating a shitload and lifting a shitload -that is, you are really weightlifting a shitload 5-6 days a week for training, and not just recreationally or as a complement to your MA training (and certainly more so if you are supplementing with steroids - you need all that **** to feed the huge amounts of muscles developed in the process.)

Average lifter or MA practitioner does not need that. I used Animal Pak for about half a year on 98, and then again on 2000. I was never able to take the whole serving (two packs as Russ pointed out, not one) for several days straight. And I was lifting heavy, running several miles every day and eating like a cow. I wasn't neither huge (I'm just 5'6") nor had the sufficient muscle mass to really need all that. My pee glowed in the dark. And God forbid if you take them without sufficient food.

It's good stuff, but not for the casual lifter.

-- TheRuss:

I take an additional 50g of zinc two-three times a week, in addition to ZMA. I'm aware of the potential side effects (interference with copper/iron absorbtion, lingering toxicity, etc). So far it's been a decade that I've been doing this w/o any side effects. Never shows at all in my blood tests, and it does wonders to the acne I have on my triceps ;)

As for vitamin C, Charles Poliquin suggested something to the nature of ingesting an additional 300 to 500mg of vitamin C a couple of hours before training. Right now that I'm not lifting nor rolling with sweaty men, I only take what's on my Costco multis plus 300mg every other day. When I'm physically active, I take up to 1,200mg. No side effects on the pooping department, but it does make a difference in my recovery time.

As for vitamin B6 (in a B complex, never by itself) and B12, I juggle them around. B6 can't recall how much mcg right now, but B12 (cyanocobalamin) about 1000mcg (16667% DV) when I'm physically active (or when I wasn't sleeping for **** in my previous job.)

Vitamin A, D and E, that's **** not to be messed with. Just go with what's on the multis.