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Possibly the most misunderstood part of evaluating daily vitamin supplements is how they enter your bloodstream. Or if they do at all. As bulk creatine ethyl ester malate consumer, you might know which ingredients to look for on the label and their optimal dosages. But, tell me, what good is knowing that if your supplement is ravaged by stomach acid? If nutrients reach your small intestine damaged and unable to be absorbed, who cares what they are?

This article will take you beyond the label where crazy claims are often made. Be warned, most supplement companies won't like you digging this deep. Adding these 3 evaluating criteria to your arsenal will make you a supplement consumer to be feared.

(1) Disintegration & Dissolution - Does Your Supplement Even Break Apart?

Generally, after you swallow a supplement, you forget about it. You just assume it will somehow break up into tiny pieces, dissolve into your blood, and make you healthier. With cheap, mass-produced supplements, this is hardly the case.

Some supplements disintegrate too slowly and are dissolved in the wrong place. Some never break up at all and pass through you intact. Professional-grade supplements, however, disintegrate in 20-30 minutes in the small intestine.

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and British Pharmacopeia (BP) set disintegration and dissolution guidelines for daily vitamin supplements and pharmaceutical drugs. Unfortunately, they're only guidelines, not laws. Reputable supplement companies voluntarily manufacture in accordance with USP and BP standards.

If your supplement meets these standards, you can be sure that it was formulated with cutting edge technology---and that it represents the best of today's science.

(2) Excipients - Those Things Listed Way Down on the Label

Excipients are non-active ingredients. They give a supplement tablet form and consistency; they hold everything together. The type and number of them affects a supplement's ability to disintegrate and be absorbed.

Natural ones are best:

• gelatin
• magnesium stearate
• (colloidal) silicon dioxide
• silica
• titanium dioxide
• microcrystalline cellulose
• (di) calcium phosphate
• calcium sulphate
• potassium aspartate
• pregelatinized starch
• sodium starch glycolate
• croscarmellose sodium
• sodium citrate
• ascorbyl palmitate
• stearic acid
• carob
• acacia gum
• guar gum
• vanilla
• beeswax
• lecithin
• tapioca flour
• purified water
• vegetable acetoglyceride
• hydroxypropyl methylcellulose
• rice/flour/bran powders
• modified corn starch
• sodium chloride
• shellac
• soap
• maltose
• sucrose
• fructose
• mannitol
• sorbitol
• stevia
• glycerine
• maltodextrin
• dextrose

Beware of artificial ones:

• colorings
• sweeteners (including sucralose/Splenda)
• sodium benzoate
• propylene glycol
• aluminum silicate
• wheat, corn, yeast, dairy, soy (allergenic substances)

Professional-grade daily vitamin supplements contain about 5-10 excipients. Any more than that is a red flag.

(3) Passing Through Stomach Acid Safely - With Enteric Coating

As mentioned above, stomach acid damages and destroys many nutrients---like pancreatic enzymes, vegetable enzymes, and highly potent ingredients (l-glutathione, alpha lipoic acid, herbal extracts).

Pharmaceutical companies developed enteric coating to solve this problem; this is why their drugs work so well and so fast. Enteric coating provides a protective layer as the supplement passes through the stomach. Once it reaches the small intestine, it peels away and nutrients are released.

This is the key to absorption.

Without enteric coating, a great supplement becomes mediocre at best. But...many companies don't use it because of cost or lack of expertise. They'll only include vitamins and minerals in their supplement, because they're cheap and unaffected by stomach acid. But that's no way to formulate a quality supplement.

Okay, so now you've become a much sharper consumer. You've learned the 3 things it takes to get the nutrients in a supplement absorbed into your body:

1. Proper disintegration and dissolution
2. A few safe, natural excipients
3. Enteric coating

By applying these criteria, you'll save money and time. Do you really want to take a supplement for years and then one day discover that it's not being absorbed? Or that is was formulated by a sales team, not a biochemist? Or that the ingredients are synthetic?

What a waste!

Daily vitamin supplements are long-term investments in your health - be smart from the start.

Zach Zufall is the author of the free 6-Day Mini-Course, "The Consumers' Guide to Choosing a Supplement That'll Slow Your Aging Process". Drop by Dietary Supplements Guide for your free copy.