This intense competition has led multivitamin manufacturers in some cases to look toward label-stretching lists of ingredients and huge dosages for some of the less expensive components. It has in some ways seemed like a game of one-upmanship: If you’ve got 50 ingredients, I’ll launch a product with 75; if you’ve got 150% of the RDA, I’ll go for 200% and so forth.
Dr Low Dog, who spoke with NutraIngredients-USA at the Expo West trade show in Anaheim, CA, said the new line was never about just making something that was different, but rather was informed by recent research she did for a book titled Fortify Your Life. In preparing for the writing of the book, Dr Low Dog said she was shocked at some of the nutrient deficiencies that came to light. By the same token, she said she observed potential overconsumption of some nutrients.
“Even though I have been working in this area of dietary supplements for a long time I was shocked at the deficiencies that are so prevalent. In the United States we’ve got both ends of the spectrum. We’ve got severe deficiencies but we also saw that we’ve got excess, like in men, with borderline high iron. What we tried to do was craft multivitamins that really meet the needs of Americans living today, eating the types of diets that they do, that will really give them what they need but not too much of anything that might get them in trouble,” Low Dog said.
Dr Low Dog said she's a strong supporter of Megafood's whole food approach to multivitamin manufacturer. She said the new line also addresses what she saw as holes in market as well in deficiencies in the diet.
“I was disturbed when looking at vitamins for nursing mothers that I could find any that contained choline,” she said.