Multivitamins for Women: Everything You Need to Know
Most Americans regularly take some comprehensive supplement to boost their daily nutritional intake. There are a lot of reasons for this; the depletion of much of the world's arable land has occurred as the mega food supply chain struggles to keep up with the demands of feeding almost eight billion mouths. Advancements like whole food preservation and certain preservatives that can extend shelf life often do so at the expense of compromising the nutritional profile. While most people are fully aware of the need to supplement their nutrition due to the modern realities of a global food supply chain, identifying which supplements to take and which will potentially meet your unique needs can be a challenging and daunting process.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate the contents or claims of businesses that sell supplements. This means that your level of responsibility in verifying the integrity of both the claims and contents of what you’re buying increases significantly. This decision can be even more daunting if you are an American female. Women's health needs in modern society differ greatly according to age and lifestyle. For example, a healthy 25-year-old woman would need to take a completely different set of supplements if she was trying to get pregnant versus if she was already pregnant. Older women may need different nutritional supplements than younger women due to changes in hormones. A lot of women end up needing supplements to promote bone health. The best multivitamins for women are those that are tailored specifically for women whether in the form of gummy multivitamins, non-GMO, allergen-free, vegan, with or without sweeteners, gluten-free, or with probiotics.
What Is a Daily Multivitamin?
There’s no exact definition for what comprises the contents of a multivitamin for women aside from that it contains more than one nutrient, and usually quite a few more than that. Other than this, the particulars of a multivitamin vary greatly, so it is essential to know exactly what kind of nutrients and vitamins are present in the supplement you're evaluating. Multivitamins are generally marketed as providing comprehensive supplemental levels of nutrition that are difficult to find in the everyday diet. Some of them may be marketed to particular groups like men over fifty-five or women below twenty-five, and will usually contain general nutrients that are thought to be needed by the average members of these broad demographic groups. However, it is always important to consult your physician, nutritionist, or dietitian, and if it is financially possible for you to do so, taking a micronutrient test can also be beneficial to know exactly what nutrients you may be in need of.
Different Supplements For Different Times of Life
Women’s nutritional needs are very different from those of their male counterparts. Also, the nutritional profile of what is essential for women fluctuates greatly with life changes and the passage of time. For every new chapter, every woman needs a multivitamin specifically for women of their age group. We have broken down some basic dietary needs of women by broad age group. Please keep in mind this does not hold for every member of the below group, especially in consideration of medical conditions and different lifestyles. Your optimal nutrition profile may vary widely based on individual characteristics and behaviors. Please be conscious of this before using this information to select any multivitamin supplements. Always consult your physician before adding a supplement to your routine.- Girls in their childhood years and early teens generally need to beef up on certain nutrients to be able to properly build their skeletal structure and to prepare for puberty when their nutritional needs again dramatically change. Most experts recommend that calcium should be taken by girls aged 9 to 19 for this reason. Calcium can help prevent deficiencies that may lead to problems later. Another essential nutrient for girls this age is iron, as women can lose a large amount of iron during the menstruation process
- Nutrition for pregnant women or for women who wish to become pregnant varies significantly from those who do not, which is why specific prenatal vitamins exist. Folic acid is a commonly found ingredient in prenatal supplements; it is a form of vitamin B that can help mitigate the risks of congenital disabilities. Most women need to supplement their dietary sources of folic acid even though commonly eaten items like leafy greens and grains are abundant in the compound. Complete multivitamins also tend to have other vitamins from the B-complex, including vitamin B12. B12 is also commonly included in the prenatal vitamin as it is essential for a healthy nervous system. Omega-3s and Vitamin D are also commonly found because they help to provide the fetus with the nutrition it needs to develop and grow properly. The iron and calcium supplements that we mentioned in the previous section are also generally included in prenatal regimens.
- Women also tend to need a variety of different nutrients as they enter their golden years. After the process of menopause, women's bodies and their nutritional needs dramatically change. Calcium is recommended for women of all ages, but it is particularly crucial for seniors. While some bone loss will be inevitable, supplementing calcium can help in protecting bone health. Another issue is that the body's ability to absorb specific essential vitamins and nutrients may begin to decline with age. This may also mean that the number of particular nutrients you take should change as time passes. For example, the body's ability to absorb B12 significantly declines over time. In addition to a healthy diet rich in vitamin B12, many senior women may wish to add additional B12 supplements as well.
