What's in your Multi?

I just came out of an amazing weekend of learning around the ingredients used in different supplements, the 2 primary Doctors I had the pleasure of hanging out with are: http://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/faculty/hackman.html
and
http://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/faculty/keen.html

2 astoundingly smart men.

So now on the meat of this post.... what is in you multi vitamin?
All multi vits are not created equal.
thing to look out for in your multi to ensure that you are putting the highest quality, most absorbable and potent nutrients into you body:

Vitamin E - the highest quality and bio active form is d-alpha tocopheryl succinate, ensure it is NOT "dl-alpha..." which is the synthetic form, or is not tocopherly nicotinate, acetate or anything else.

Magnesium - look for Magnesium as amino acid chelate or some other chelated form, citrate is the second best form, all other forms are not as good.

Calcium - again as amino acid chelate or some chelated for. Carbonate is the least well absorbed, citrate is a little better and then there are a couple of other forms somewhere in the middle of the ladder.

These 3 will give you a general idea of the quality of your multi vitamin.
remember that cheaper forms of micro-nutrients simply won't be absorbed and therefore will pass out of your body as they came in or worse, they will build up and cause toxicity in your body!

enjoy the summer! and make sure that if you are out in the heat, you are taking enough potassium or eating some bananas :)