Why you need to check the label on your prenatal vitamin


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Not all prenatal vitamins are created equal, and if you’re vegetarian, gluten-free, or care about GMOs, you might want to double check the ingredients in what you’re taking.

Steering clear of gluten

There has been a recent increase in cases of celiac disease and individuals identifying as having gluten-sensitivity. In response, many companies are doing everything they can to get unnecessary gluten out of their products.

Take a look at your prenatals…are they labeled gluten-free? If not, they may contain gluten, which is commonly used a binding agent, particularly in multi-vitamins. If this isn’t something you’re worried about, then don’t sweat it. Some moms do find that they develop celiac disease from pregnancy, and if that’s the case, your prenatal could contribute to your discomfort.

Keeping a vegetarian diet

Prenatals are filled with nutrients, but those nutrients have to be derived from…something, right? A number of key vitamins frequently have an animal source — here are a couple of the most common:

  • B12: Often found in fish, milk, and eggs. It’s possible to get B12 non-animal sources, typically as a byproduct of fermentation, as in with nutritional yeast.
  • DHA: This is most commonly derived from fish-oil, and packaging should make that clear. It is possible to get plant-based DHA, but it’s less common.
  • Vitamin D: There are multiple forms of vitamin D, and the type produced by your body in reaction to sunlight is vitamin D3. Recent studies have shown that vitamin D2 may be just as beneficial as D3, which is great because many vegetarian sources for D2 exist (and very few for D3).

Avoiding GMOs

There are many things that can be classified as GMO, which stands for “genetically modified organism.” Foods that get this classification typically have DNA that’s been altered with genes from an unrelated plant or animal. For instance, adding genes from a bacterium to make corn more resistant to herbicides.

The general scientific consensus is that GMO foods are perfectly safe, but that hasn’t stopped the debate about their use. In something like a prenatal vitamin, it’s particularly difficult to use entirely non-GMO ingredients.

Many of the nutrients in a multivitamin come from plants, so was every single source non-GMO? As mentioned above, animal-sources are common for multi-vitamins, so was all the feed that all those animals ate non-GMO? Often vitamins are harnessed from microbes, and sometimes those have been genetically modified, and other times not.

Looking for a complete prenatal

It’s pretty easy to look for things you don’t want in your prenatal, but it can be difficult to know if your vitamin has everything you do want. Many prenatal vitamins lack essential prenatal nutrients like iron, so you might want to move past just checking the label and think about comparing ingredients. What does your prenatal have, and what is it missing?

What you can do

Check the label. If you’re concerned about anything discussed here, you’ll want to select your prenatal carefully.

If you’re looking for a complete prenatal, consider Premama Essentials + DHA. This prenatal is gluten-free, vegetarian, completely non-GMO, and it uses fish-free, plant-based DHA. Premama Essentials + DHA is also unique because it’s a powdered prenatal, meaning you take it by mixing it with juices, smoothies, or soft foods. If you’ve had any difficulty swallowing your prenatal, Premama might be a great solution for you.

If you’d like to try Premama for yourself and learn more about its other benefits, you can order a free sample by tapping below. You’ll also receive a coupon to save $5 on your first order of Premama.

Give it a try, and see if it’s a good fit for you!


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