Our modern society is quite unhealthy, with fast food and processed sugars available around every corner. As a direct result of the unhealthy environment they inhabit, many American women are struggling with their long-term health, especially when it comes to ensuring they have enough vitamins and a proper diet. It can be incredibly hard to find authoritative information pertaining to women's health, too, leading many young women to simply give up altogether.
Rather than ignoring your health, you should be taking proactive steps to bolster it, like consuming healthy supplements. Which are the best multi-vitamins for women, and how else can they remain healthy? Here's how to ensure your lifestyle is a healthy and prosperous one.
Find authoritative sources
The first thing you should do when searching for the best multi-vitamin for women is find an authoritative source that can give you valid information which you can depend upon. Many blogs exist and will tell you what supplements to take, but the truth of the matter is that these are often hosted by non-professionals who lack formal medical degrees. You should be relying strictly on valid sources of information that have science to back up their arguments. Look for websites that end in .gov, and you'll generally know you're in the clear when it comes to the medical data you're reading.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has an excellent webpage provided by the Office on Women's Health, for instance, and it should frequently be reviewed by women who want to maintain healthy lifestyles for themselves. Ensuring you have enough vitamin B9, for instance, is particularly important for pregnant women who may be deprived of valid information to rely on as they prepare for a new chapter in their lives.
Many women have a vitamin B-12 deficiency, too, which is a helpful reminder to talk to your medical professionals about what your body might need that it's naturally lacking. It's important to remember that nutritional supplements are only one source of these vitamins - many people often get enough in their regular diets, though some dietary restrictions may impede your ability to ingest enough of them in your food. When it comes to B-12 deficiencies, for instance, you can try to amend them by increasing the amount of fat-free milk, eggs, poultry, and nutritional yeast you consume on a regular basis.
Many women find themselves suffering from calcium deficiencies, and these can't always be amended by eating more food groups that are rich in calcium. Young girls who are still growing may be in particular need of calcium supplements because they can be very important when it comes to bone growth and hitting your appropriate height.
Learn about multi-vitamin trends
To find the best multi-vitamins and to determine which are popular and which are fading, it can be helpful to familiarize yourself with multi-vitamin trends across the nation. The past few years have seen a general decline in the number of multi-vitamins consumed by American adults, for instance, though it's not yet clear why people are taking fewer and fewer of them. Americans are taking more vitamin D, for instance, but overall the total amount of supplements they're taking is going down.
It's important to speak with your medical providers to ensure that you're not following national trends which may be popular but nevertheless unhealthy when your specific body is considered. Women of reproductive age in particular are taking fewer supplements, according to data made available by the CDC, though this is often impacted by the age and ethnicity of the individuals in question.
Vitamins A, C, E, and D remain some of the most popular supplements with women even in light of this decline, however. Calcium is also particularly important for developing women of a younger age. Before ingesting any supplements, ensure their sourcing is authentic and that there are no regulatory embargos on the substance you're consuming. By finding authoritative and well-regulated providers of supplements, you can bolster your health, but taking shady supplements from lackluster sources is highly inadvisable. Never be afraid to talk to your medical professional about taking certain multi-vitamins or a particular supplement you've encountered online.