Supplements, Today & Tomorrow

The current vitamins/multivitamins I currently take are a couple types. (although there are several that I may switch on and off from consuming, too - it really just depends on the day) The main one I take is the 1 A Day VitaCrave Gummies. If I do not take the gummies or if I've run out, then I may take the Equate One Daily Women's Health multivitamin/multimineral supplement. Sometimes I may not take either of the supplements during some days of the week, because I may forget. I know that it's healthy of course to get the vitamins in your diet during some portion of the day. Other types I've taken within the past several months, just not regularly are Finest Natural Vitamin C w/Rose Hips: Immune System Health, and CVS Vitamin E: Circulatory and Heart. These ones I do not take as often since they taste funny and are not as appealing to me as the gummie supplements.

I normally take these supplements in the form of a soft gummie or pill. The Vitamin E are soft gel tablets which make it easier to go down but they leave a not so good after taste. I use these particular forms because they seem to be more common from what I see from those around me and even in the stores on the shelves. I know that their are other ways to get your vitamin supplements by forms of liquids as an example but it's not something I've tried before. I wouldn't be opposed to trying it out, however. I feel that the benefits may be stronger in getting your vitamin supplements in a form of a pill as opposed to liquids because it's compacted. Because I do not know anyone personally who's used other forms, I cannot compare and see which would be better in general, but to me I would think the pill is better.

I like the form of the gummies as best to take because they are easier to consume and of course more fruiter in taste. They do not leave an after taste in your mouth and also with some vitamins, you have to make sure you have a FULL sized meal before taking it - where as with the gummis you do not necessarily need to have a full meal or some type of a pre-caution to take before consuming the pill. This is another reason why I prefer the gummies over the other multivitamin pills because sometimes I may not always have access or finding the time to eat a full sized meal before taking the pill and in turn it could upset my stomach or leave a bad state in my mouth.

When going on the shopping spree, I noticed that the vitamin/multivitamin supplements seem to promote more of the gummies or soft chews as opposed to the standard pill. Especially looking at the Flinstones vitamin supplements. Back in the day, they used to be more of like a chewable tablet in different colors and they weren't so good tasting - especially the grape flavored colors. Now they seem to promote more of the gummies and I can see how children - and adults for that matter - would enjoy those more. This aisle had a wide

selection of a specific brand called Spring Valley that had specific supplement bottles such as fish oil, Vitamin D, L-Lysine, and Vitamin E. Products that I saw that were appealing for people like me were the gummies, especially where I take those now. They taste better and are soft. They are easy to swallow and as mentioned before, you do not necessarily have to have a full sized meal to take them. 

Supplements that I found unappealing just by looking at the labels of bottles - and are pretty obvious are the supplements for MEN and the ones that are for women going through menopause. Since I have not reached that point in my life and I'm definitely not a man (smiles), these stood out the most as unappealing to me. However looking at ones that I could take and still didn't like were the Caltrate soft chews in vanilla flavor. I like vanilla but not so much I can see as a chewing vitamin supplement. The taste of the chew I feel would be kind of chalky and taste a bit murky. Also the Spring Valley calcium sugar free chews didn't seem appealing as I like things with sugar in general so I feel this would taste rather bland and leave an odd after taste. 

An interesting supplement I saw in the vitamin aisle were I.Caps which were basically eye supplements for better eye health. I never knew they had such a thing. Also I saw by Centrum they had round tablets that looked like little colored marbles, as opposed to a pill, gummie or soft chew. I was curious to see if it's like a hard candy that you need to suck on for a while, or if when you bite into it, it's soft in the middle or would have liquid. I noticed they had Emergen-C powder packets that you can put in water for vitamin C or enhancing the immune system. I thought they only had Emergen-C for sicknesses and knocking out the "common cold" from your body. That's the only time that I've taken it. This is something that I could see myself consider taking, especially where I've had exposure to this particular brand before - just for a different reason to use for my body. Some of the soft chews I could perhaps see myself taking, but they would have to be fruity. I'm not particularly interested in eating the ones that are more chocolate, vanilla, strawberry type flavored but if they was more like strawberry, watermelon, mango, etc. I feel they wouldn't taste as fake I suppose. 

Also in the vitamin/supplement aisle, I saw protein shakes, bars, muscle mixtures (which men predominately use), and also Nutri-System or specific dieting-weight loss products that I have used or may consider using in the future. I particular like Slim Fast and Special K. Nutri-System I heard can help but it's very expensive, so that somewhat deters me away as I wouldn't like to spend a lot of money if there were other products just as good, yet cheaper in price.

Looking around the store to see what ways can enhance nutritional needs are a lot of things: in a therapeutic sense, there are facial moisturizers and nail products that can be ways to pamper yourself and feel good emotionally and physically on your face, hands and nails. Thinking of food consumption, a lot of vegetables and less processed foods are important to take in and digest. Fiber is important which you can get from granola bars, cereals, and nutri-grain type bars. I nice marketing tool for better health that I saw was free sampling on the Yoplait Greek yogurt. One of the store staff members were scooping samples of this product, and I tried it and actually liked it. Considering I'm not big into Greek yogurt, this is a nice way to test a product and you may think of things differently if you can actually delve into it personally and right away while you're thinking about it - good marketing. I even got a $1 off coupon for this product which is something good to hold onto and will be kind of a reminder to buy this product. 

I saw in some outside aisles they had trail mixes, a lot of salads and fruits right when you walk in the store but outside most aisles there are a lot of things that aren't so good for you like cookies, chips, and even sugar cereals - which a lot of them tend to be at a child's level because they will want the parents to buy those as opposed to a Special K or say plain Cheerios that would be better. By the fruits section also, there are a couple of small aisles that have a lot of whole grain products that may be low fat, organic, whole wheat etc. I normally wouldn't go down these aisles but I would consider it and maybe buy a couple of things here and there but not all the time because they tend to be more expensive. In general, I try to eat whole grain or whole wheat bread for instance - may not be organic - but I definitely stay away from white bread if I can help it. Even as a child, my family would only buy wheat bread. 

Some new products/ideas of receiving your nutritional supplements are as follows: Instead of taking a daily vitamin, take one that’s by the week and it wouldn't be a big pill, it would be regular size and come in any form – tablet, chews, gummies, etc. Because taking it daily you could forget but by the week it may be easier to remember. Or perhaps every two weeks or once a month, take an injection of a vitamin supplement and you wouldn't have to take it by the mouth. This may be a stretch but perhaps even at a day spa or health fitness center, the steam rooms/saunas could have an enrichment of nutrients and vitamin supplements coming from them with the steam and the heat that encompasses the room. Lastly, you could perhaps having a specific type of fruit (and not just an orange for vitamin C), but a new piece of fruit that’s never been grown or thought of yet, and it would contain all the vitamin enrichment that you would need just by consuming it - so no pill, soft chew, etc. it’s just this one piece of fruit that you could have either daily or weekly to get your nutritional needs.