Children supplements, complementary for a balanced diet. Get the facts and know how to choose the correct formula

Nature has given us everything, though lifestyle has changed and so children supplements start to make sense to complete their nutrition, if we want to invest in their future.

Get today's picture:

+ A world with high stress and seriously contaminated (including soils).

+ Meals on the run and diets poor in nutrients.

+ Foods processed or high in chemicals like: pesticides and herbicides.

+ Cooking and Storage techniques that deplete nutritional value of foods.

+ A sedentary life is more common.

+ Kids and teens extended TV or video games time.

+ A market loaded with soft drinks, snacks and high fat or high sugar foods.

+ Schools don't offer healthy choices and now more schools have vending machines.

+ The presence of a pandemic worldwide problem: Obesity.

While kids and teens begin to understand the basics of healthy eating, they don't make the grade when it comes to understanding what is a real "good nutrition", here are some examples as expressed in the Comparative Guide to Children's Nutritionals:

+ In the United States kids consume 20% of their calories from: Fats, Oils and Sweets. Mexico is not far behind, as well as other occidental countries.

+ There are studies that reveal that consumption of fruit declines with age.

+ 75% of all children eat at least one vegetable. The favourite is: potatoes (as french fries or as potato chips).

+ Less than 16% of the kids eat corn or legumes.

+ Non citrus fruit juices raised 280% from 1988 to 1998 (imagine the number now).

+ 75% of teenage boys and girls drink an average of 3 cans of soda/day. Mexico is 1st worldwide soda drinks consumer.

+ Fast food restaurants are the most frequent venue for adolescents when eating away from home.

+ Today's teenage girls meet less than 86% of the daily requirements for calcium, magnesium, zinc and vitamin E.

So, what is the message we send to our youth with school hallways and cafeteria offering only junk food and parents walking the family off to a fast food restaurant. I think is time to make something.

Facts about soil and the resultant foods

The unexpected picture again:

+ Today, most commercial farms have relied on chemical fertilizers (which had a boom after II World War) to grow their crops. The result is: Crops grow fine but without essential micronutrients.

+ Commercial processing of these nutrient defficient foods, takes off more of their nutritional value. That's why we see more often foods with labels such as: Additioned with Vitamin A, D, etc.

+ Mass production processes of storing, drying, cooking, freeze-drying, extracting and hydrogenating takes more nutrients of the already marginal amounts. Example: The process of cereal production depletes magnesium content by 80%.

It pays to take supplements, so how to choose

In addition to providing your children with the most nutritious meals possible, you can give them a high quality, broad spectrum nutritional supplement containing a balanced blend of the required vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to protect and enhance their health.

The American Medical Association has completely reversed its antivitamin stance and now encourages all people to get supplements, not only to complete our diets but also as a prudent preventive measure against chronic disease.

Dr. Robert Fletcher and Dr. Kathleen Fairfield from Harvard documented a landmark review of scientific evidence of several nutrients, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2002. Here, they comment that the current Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) do not fullfil the vitamins and minerals necessary to achieve optimal health.

Choosing correctly

The market has so many nutritional supplements brands, terminologies, metric measures, comparisons etc. That it can be confusing for most of us to choose. How can we make informed choices?

If you go to the supermarket and get a little curious, step on the pharmacy and watch people try to buy a specific product. What you see is usually people trying to compare between products but deciding (if they get to that point), for one obvious reason: Price. Was that a smart or informed choice?

Fortunately scientists have already made the job of accurate comparison between children supplements, to avoid confusion and provide clear, detailed information.

The work made by Lyle MacWilliam and co-authors is called: Comparative Guide to Children's Supplements. In this guide, you will find over 160 nutritionals compared. Find a summary here.

To set a standard among products, they gave them a certain rating according to the following criteria:

1) Completeness.

2) Potency.

3) Bioavailability.

4) Bioactivity of vitamin E.

5) Antioxidant triad.

6) Gluthatione support.

7) Metabolic support.

8) Cardiac health triad.

9) Homocysteine reduction triad.

10)Bone health support.

11)Bioflavonoid profile.

12)Phenolic Compound profile.

13)Lipotropic factors.

14)Potential toxicities.

If you want to know more about this criteria, and some other cautionary notes on toxicity, go to Supplements page by clicking the link below.

Go to supplements related articles

Best rated products according to the standard

1) Usana Health Sciences USANIMALS (***** stars).

2) Douglas Laboratories VITA BIG KIDS (***** stars).

3) Douglas Laboratories BASIC PREVENTIVE JUNIOR (****).

4) SISU MINI VITS (****).

5) Pro Thera VITA TAB CHEWABLE (****).

6) SuperNutrition PERFECT KIDS (****).

7) Douglas Laboratories CHILDREN'S ESSENTIALS (****).

8) Pharmanex JUNGAMALS (****).

9) Source Naturals MEGA KID MULTIPLE (****).

10)Da Vinci Laboratories OMNI JR. (****).

Products with HIGH toxicity problems in vitamin A and/or Iron:

+ Bayer Bugs Bunny Complete and/or Flinstones Complete

+ Carter Home Corp. Infantol

+ Centrum Junior Complete

+ Club Vitamin Best

+ Equate Complete

+ Essaim Multivitamines à Croquer pour Enfants

+ Flora/Salus Kindervital Multivitamin for Children

+ GNC Kids Children's Multiple Vitamins Plus Minerals

+ Goldshield Elite Herbal Supplements Kid's Stuff

+ Jamieson Arthur Iron fortified formula

+ Kaire Essentials Children's Chewables

+ Kal Dietary Supplements StegoVites

+ Kid Bear Vegetarian Multivitamin and Mineral

+ Kirkland Signature Children's Chewable Multivitamin

+ Life for Kids Only

+ Li'l Critters Gummy Vites

+ London Drugs Children's Chewables Multivitamin Regular

+ Mr. Tumee Gelatin Free Multivitamin Supplement Gumee

+ Natural Factors Big Friends

+ Natural Source Kids Chewable

+ Nutrilite Kids Chewable Multivitamin/Iron

+ Nutrition Now Rhino Chewy Vites

+ Personnelle Multivitamines à Croquer Enfants Formule Complète

+ Plante International Children's Choice Gummi Bear

+ Quest Kids

+ Safeway Select Chewable Complete w/Calcium and Iron

+ Solaray Chewable

+ Sunkist Sunkids

+ Swiss Natural Sources Choice Iron Free

+ Trophic Chewable Multivitamin

+ Truly Health Chewable multivitamins with Iron

+ Watkins Watkin Jr.

+ Western Family Chewable

Go from Children Supplements to Supplements articles

Go back to Fitness Nutrition Homepage

New! Comments