By Previnex®
Children’s vitamins have slowly evolved from chalky, tasteless chewables or liquid drops into tasty gummy vitamins. The problem with this shift is that making vitamins taste great often comes at a cost. Many children’s vitamins on the market now contain ingredients that have no business being consumed by children, let alone in nutritional supplements in general.
Here we will look at the 5 ingredients to steer clear of when choosing a multvitamin for your kiddos.
Prohibit preservatives
Most parents are well aware that preservatives are not something that we want in our kid’s diets. They wreak havoc on our children’s growing systems and can even have real health consequences. Good quality vitamins do not need to include preservatives in order to have a solid shelf life. In fact some studies suggest that preservatives might impact our bodies abilities to absorb our vitamins. Pay attention to the ingredient label and opt for a vitamin without preservatives.
Say no to artificial ingredients
Many health experts have suggested that when it comes to ingredient labels, if you can’t read it – don’t eat it. This is because most artificial ingredients are chemicals with complicated, hard to pronounce names. If we skip these ingredients, then we can easily steer clear of potentially dangerous things in our diet. So why are so many of the ingredients on our vitamin labels impossible to read? This might be due to the addition of artificial colors, flavors, additive and preservatives. Stay away from kid’s vitamins that contain artificial ingredients.
Gluten free is key
Gluten is quickly rising to the top of many people’s “do not eat” list. While studies have shown that completely eliminating gluten from our diet is unnecessary, it is not something that should be in everything we consume. With everything from serious food allergies to the impact of gluten on attention deficits, many parents are saying no to gluten. Since so many of us see gluten as something we should eat in limited doses, why would we want it in our kids vitamins?
Skip the soy
Another top food allergy is soy. While many kids are fortunate enough to outgrow the allergy, it is one experienced by many youngsters. What is surprising is that despite the commonality of this allergy, many kids vitamins have some amount of soy in their ingredient list. This begs the questions, why? Soy hasn’t been noted as adding anything healthful to our multivitamins. Because it is a potential trouble ingredient for many kids, it’s better to choose a vitamin that says no to soy.
Dodge dairy
Dairy is one of the most common food allergies among otherwise healthy children. With symptoms ranging from hives and itching to severe anaphylaxis, a dairy allergy can be serious. Surprisingly, many mass produced kids vitamins still contain some level of dairy. Because multivitamins do not need to include dairy for any health benefits, they are not necessary in kid’s multivitamins.
Finding a vitamin that does not include these five ingredients is key. By finding a healthy vitamin to round out your child’s diet, you can boost their health while keeping out unwanted ingredients at the same time.
