A Guide to Essential Nutrients in Multivitamins

Although many brands of multivitamin supplements advertise these products as containing essential nutrients, some brands may be mislabeling their multivitamins or making false claims about their contents.

What Are Essential Nutrients?

Essential nutrients are nutrients that are required in order for the body to function normally, and that the body is unable to make on its own. These nutrients may include vitamins and minerals, as well as several food groups.

These nutrients are considered to be essential because, without them, the body is unable to grow or repair damaged cells, or complete other processes necessary for health and wellness.

How Many Essential Nutrients Are There?

There are six broad categories of essential nutrients. These categories include carbohydrates, fats, protein, water, vitamins, and minerals. Additionally, most of these categories can be broken down into smaller groups. While appropriate levels of essential carbohydrates such as fiber, starch, sugar are easy for most people to obtain through their regular diet, some other categories may require people to take dietary supplements. Fats and proteins are also essential. There are nine essential amino acids contained in proteins that are required for health and wellness, and help to build hormones, enzymes, and antibodies. Without these proteins, the body cannot successfully build muscle, bone, skin, and hair.

Although fats are often maligned by health critics, some fats are also essential. Fats help the body to absorb other essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, balance blood sugar levels, and help the brain to function.

Water is also considered an essential nutrient, as humans are unable to survive without it for more than a few days. Ingesting enough water is important for almost every function the body performs. In addition to boosting energy and mental and physical performance, water also helps to remove waste and toxins from the body.

The last two categories of essential nutrients are minerals and vitamins. While most of the other categories may be obtained through a regular diet, many people require supplements or multivitamins in order to take in enough of these essential nutrients.

Essential minerals include calcium, magnesium, chromium, selenium, and zinc. These minerals may differ in the amount required by the body, but all are necessary. Low levels of minerals, or demineralization, may lead to many chronic health problems. Magnesium helps to regulate blood pressure and control blood glucose, in addition to playing a role in several hundred enzyme systems. Calcium deficiencies may lead to weak and brittle bones, as well as brain alterations and dental problems.

The final category of essential nutrients are vitamins. There are 13 known vitamins. While the body is able to synthesize some vitamins on its own, it is not able to produce as much as it requires. There are 8 B vitamins, in addition to vitamins, A, C, D, E, and K. These nutrients are organic compounds that may be stored in the body’s tissues if they are fat soluble, or filtered out if they are water soluble. The vitamins that are unable to be stored in the body’s fat deposits need to be replenished more quickly than those that are.

It is important to get the appropriate amount of vitamins deemed necessary for health by the Institute of Medicine. Vitamin deficiencies can result in real and serious health problems. A lack of vitamin D may make it more likely for you to become sick or experience bone and hair loss. Vitamin B deficiencies may interfere with your nerve and blood cells.

Due to these potential health issues, many people rely on multivitamin supplements for their essential nutrients. However, according to some consumer reports, many supplement brands may be mislabeling their products and duping consumers into purchasing multivitamins that do not actually contain all the essential ingredients they claim.

Multivitamins Essential Nutrients List

Most multivitamins contain several vitamins and minerals that are essential for your health. However, some vitamin brands may claim to contain all essential nutrients, despite only containing some of these substances. In order to claim that these products contain all essential nutrients, they must contain all 13 vitamins, in addition to many essential minerals.

Can You Always Trust the Labeling on Multivitamins?

Unfortunately, manufacturers and retailers of multivitamins may not always be honest about what these products contain. As vitamins are classified as supplements and not as food, they are not subject to the high standards and regulations that food products are. Occasionally, supplement manufacturers will take advantage of this and mislabel their products or make false claims about their effectiveness. Under false advertising regulations, retailers are prohibited from making claims about their products that they cannot prove are factual.

According to consumers who have purchased multivitamins made by Church & Dwight, the multivitamin manufacturer may be mislabeling its Vitafusion Women’s Complete Multivitamins, Vitafusion Men’s Complete Multivitamins, and L’il Critters Multivitamins. Although the labels for these supplements claim that the vitamins are complete and contain essential nutrients, these products may only contain some of the nutrients required for health and wellness. These products allegedly do not contain vitamin K, vitamin B-1, and vitamin B-2, all three of which have been deemed essential by the FDA.

How to Respond to False Assertions Made By Multivitamin Brands

Consumers who have purchased multivitamins due to labeling indicating that the products contain all essential nutrients may be able to report these companies to the FDA or file a class action lawsuit against them if the products do not live up to these claims. According to consumers who have filed previous false advertising lawsuits, they may not have purchased these expensive supplements if it were not for the claims made regarding their essential ingredients. The FDA has filed at least 120 cases over the past ten years challenging claims made by supplement manufacturers. Consumers may also be able to speak with an experienced attorney about their legal options, and may be able to recover compensation and reimbursement through a class action false advertising lawsuit against the manufacturer or retailer.

Join a Free Vitafusion & Li’l Critters Multivitamins Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you purchased Church & Dwight’s Li’l Critters Multivitamins, Vitafusion Women’s Complete Multivitamins, or Vitafusion Men’s Complete Multivitamins and did so in reliance on claims that the products were “complete” or contained “essential” nutrients, you may qualify to join this false advertising class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.