How to spot quality vitamin supplements

Grocery stores have them. So do drug stores and health food stores. Great walls of vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements, all claiming to help restore your body to health and vitality in some way. One supplement tells you it will relieve the aches and pains in your joints. Others promise improved eyesight, mental clarity, or weight loss.

Who's telling the truth about their products? How do you know?

When evaluating vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements, it's important to know what's been put in and what's left out of these products.

Quality -- a look at ingredients

Not all ingredients are treated equal.

For starters, look for vitamin and mineral formulas that are most bioavailable -- able to be absorbed by the body. Take a look the label of a multivitamin and you might see that more than one kind of a certain mineral has been used. The label might show several types of magnesium for example: magnesium ascorbate, magnesium citrate or magnesium lysinate. Or perhaps, calcium ascorbate, calcium citrate or calcium lysinate. Each form of the mineral uses a different "transporter" designed to target the mineral to a different part of the body. A formula that uses minerals with multiple transporters will be more bioavailable than one that doesn't.

In vitamins, it is important to look for those that come from natural sources. Avoid those that are synthetic, which unfortunately includes a large number of products on the market today.

With supplements containing herbs, remember that herbs are plant life. If they've been treated with pestides, you'll be ingesting pesticides. Look for products that use organic or wildcrafted herbs, or those that have been tested and are free of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides. Your body will thank you.

The added junk

One of the most important parts of a supplement label is the part that reads: other ingredients. This is where manufacturers list items that have no active role in helping your health. These are also known as "fillers and flow agents." Fillers are just that. A manufacturer puts a certain amount of active material in a capsule and adds filler so that the capsule will look full. Flow agents are used so that the material will more easily fill a capsule. Other added ingredients are needed to help form tablets or pills. This category includes things like stearic acid, magnesium stearate, cellulose and silicon dioxide.

There is one last important ingredient in quality supplements: synergy. It's not enough to throw a bunch of stuff into a capsule or tablet. It takes research to find quality supplements that use quality ingredients, avoid unneeded fillers, and combine those ingredients in a fashion that can best be used by the body. Review company websites, call the manufacturer and ask tough questions about the ingredients they use and don't use. Ask about the experience of the people who formulate their products. By asking these questions, you'll have greater certainty that the supplements you buy will provide you with greater health and vitality.