Healthy Simplified

Candy or Care? The Truth About Kids’ Vitamins — And What You’re Really Giving Your Child

• Mark Bennett

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Speaker 1:

Well, welcome back to the podcast, everyone. This is another episode of Healthy Simplified, where we break down complex health topics into bite-size, actionable advice. Today's topic you know we're calling candy or care the truth about kids' vitamins and what you're really giving your child. Because, let's be honest, when it comes to your health, nothing matters more. Because, let's be honest, when it comes to your health, nothing matters more. Let's talk about what no one is telling parents though those cute colorful bottles of gummy vitamins you're giving your children each morning. They're not vitamins, they're candy dressed up in lab coats and cartoon characters. And here's the real issue While we're trying to give our kids an edge in life, we may actually be robbing them of what they need most to grow, thrive and succeed. So today we're pulling the curtain all the way back on the children's supplement industry and giving you the truth that every parent deserves to hear. Because if you're a mom, a dad or anyone raising a child in this chaotic world, this episode isn't just for you, it's for everyone that you know and care about, it's for the future you're building one chewable tablet at a time. So let's jump in.

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Let's start with this cold hard truth the number one selling kids vitamin in the world only contains 11 nutrients, and most of those are synthetic, poorly absorbed and surrounded by artificial dyes, fake sweeteners, chemical preservatives and sugar. If you're not buying health, you're buying a pacifier, a bribe, a nutrient-soaked sugar bomb. And the real kicker. These vitamins do nothing for your child's development. In fact, they can disrupt gut health, increase hyperactivity and create long-term inflammation in their growing bodies. In fact, multiple studies, including one from the Lancet, have linked artificial food dyes to behavioral issues and attention problems in children. Let me say that again. The vitamin that's supposed to help your kids focus might be making it harder for them to learn. Let that sink in for a second. Now look, kids today are against a tidal wave of challenges, from processed food to screen time to environmental toxins that we never had to deal with, and their nutritional foundation is weaker than ever. What's really happening behind the scenes when kids don't get the vitamins and minerals they need? What's really happening is first, brain development suffers. Your child's brain goes through a massive growth between ages 2 and 12. Goes through a massive growth between ages 2 and 12.

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Nutrients like omega-3s, b12, magnesium and zinc are critical for memory, focus, behavior and neurological wiring. Without them, you're setting the stage for underperformance. Their bones don't build properly. Calcium, vitamin D3, magnesium these are non-negotiables for bone density. Deficiencies during childhood can mean fractures today and osteoporosis tomorrow.

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Let's talk about muscles and, most importantly, metabolism, because vitamins like B6, b9, b12, and cofactors like choline and inositol help form healthy muscles, regulate energy and fuel metabolism. Deficiencies here don't just lead to fatigue. They can lead to lifelong metabolic issues. We're not raising kids, we're building future adults. So ask yourself what kind of foundation are we laying? So here's where the science gets even more real. Even if you're doing everything right okay, what I mean by that is you know you're providing them healthy meals, clean snacks and daily vitamins your child's genetics might still be working against them. So take a gene like MTHFR. You know up to 40 to 50% of the population carries a variant that prevents them from converting synthetic folic acid into methylfolate. I've oversimplified that, obviously, but don't just stick with that for now.

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That unusable form of B9 is basically what we're talking about. That's not just a fun science fact. It impacts how their brains develop, how their blood forms and how they detoxify or don't detoxify. Same goes for B12. The most commonly used form, cyanocobalamin, is basically useless in a child who can't convert it properly. So when we say ideal life, kids nutrition uses methylated B9 and B12, we're not just flexing, we're giving your child the nutrients they can actually use. And no, that's not common. It's almost unheard of in kids vitamin aisle. In fact, I I would challenge you to go to the store and find another kid's vitamin that is actually using the methylated forms of b9 and b12, because most of them do not even want to consider going to the expense.

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Now, you know what keeps most parents up at night. It's not grades or sports, though I've coached for 25 years in select baseball and I can tell you, for some parents it is sports. But in this particular case, I would say that the thing that keeps them up at night isn't necessarily the sports or even the social media drama that so many kids have to deal with these days. The sports or even the social media drama that so many kids have to deal with these days. No, what it really is is am I doing enough to give my child the best chance at life? I mean, as parents, that's all we want we.

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When you get down to the deep down facts, what we all really want as parents is to give our kids more than what we had more knowledge, more opportunity, more health, the best of everything. But we can't do that while we feed them synthetic garbage that undermines everything that we stand for. See, kids learn their nutrition habits at home. They watch us, they mimic us, and if they grow up thinking that health comes in the form of a gummy bear soaked in corn syrup and blue dye, number five, we've already lost. So let's flip the script a little bit.

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This is where you step in. You're not just a mom or a dad, you're a builder protector, a teacher, and you know the truth that most kids' vitamins are marketing scams. The nutrient deficiencies are real. Your child's development depends on what goes into their body every single day, and we all know that the food that is on the shelves, in the bags, boxes, jars and cans that we get in the store and through the drive-thrus, simply are not filled with great nutritional value. You have a choice. You can keep buying the hype of all these kids' vitamins with the cartoon characters, enlarge marketing budgets to you know, basically get your child's attention, or you can start giving your child a real nutritional advantage. See, that's where Ideal Life Kids Nutrition actually changes everything, because this isn't candy. This isn't marketing fluff. This is serious, science-backed based nutrition, based scientifically for growing children. That is exactly what it's made for.

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Now, how can I support that statement? How can I sayism is the sincerest form of flattery. That's great. I wish more companies would. But how can we say that so boldly that this is the best kids vitamin on the planet?

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Well, let's just go through the checklist first 24 nutrients, not 11, like the number one selling vitamin there is right now, and those 24 include all the essential vitamins and minerals growing kids need. It's everything that they could actually ask for. But you may be asking yourself okay, there's only 18 essential vitamins and minerals, so what's with the 24? Well, it also includes six biological cofactors that help those nutrients reach the organs and systems that need them. There's no dyes, no artificial sweeteners, no preservatives. You have the methylated forms of B9 and B12, because your child's genetics do, in fact, matter. It's kid-loved, parent-approved taste with a clean, mixed berry flavor that every picky eater loves.

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This isn't just about what's in it, it's about what's not, and that is the difference. It could change everything when it comes to what is actually happening in the development of that child's body. So let's peel back the label literally. Okay, let's do a little bit deeper dive, because what's inside your child's vitamin really does matter more than the mascot on the front. Most store-bought vitamins. They're what I call label paint. They look impressive, but when you actually read the supplement facts panel, it's shocking.

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Here's what you're going to find Filler nutrients that don't match what kids actually need, inferior forms of vitamins that don't get absorbed, a parade of additives like high fructose, corn syrup, sucralose, red 40, and titanium dioxide, and barely half the nutrient density your child requires on a daily basis. Now compare that to ID Life Kids Nutrition. This isn't candy, this isn't marketing fluff. This is a serious, science-based nutrition made specifically for growing children. And here's what you get okay, again, the 24 vitamins and minerals that they actually need. That includes vitamins A, c, d3, e and K1 for immune function, bones, vision and skin. The full B complex, b1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 for energy, focus, metabolism and red blood cell production. The methylated forms of B9 and B12, that's methylfolate and methylcobalamin, the active and genetically inclusive forms that your child can actually absorb and metabolize. And then, of course, calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium and molybdenum for bones, enzymes, muscle function and growth. That also includes all six of the critical cofactors, which all act as delivery drivers to help those nutrients get where they need to go inside the body. Again, no artificial dyes, no synthetic preservatives, no fake sweeteneners, just clean, bioavailable nutrition that actually does what it says it does.

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Now what about quality? Because you know there's a lot of companies out there that can talk quality, but idealife can actually back it up. Okay, because how a product is made matters just as much as what's in it. See Idealife Kids Nutrition is manufactured in NSF certified facilities under good manufacturing practices, using raw materials that are independently tested for purity and potency. Sourced with transparency, no sketchy supply chains. Formulated to pharmaceutical grade standards. Not the wild west of low reg supplement factories, other brands. They offer cost cuts by using low-grade ingredients from questionable sources, where what's on the label doesn't always match what's in the bottle. We don't play that game At iLife. We build every product as if our own kids will be taking it, because for many of us they are. Here's the bottom line If you're not giving your kids high-quality nutrients in the right form, you're not giving your kids high quality nutrients in the right form.

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You're wasting your money and risking their development. Idlf Kids Nutrition wasn't made to compete on a shelf. It was built to stand above it, Because, when it comes to your child's health, nothing less than the best could ever be good enough. When you start your child on ID Life Kids Nutrition, here's what you really are doing. You're helping their brain wire properly. You're protecting their future bones and immune system. You're building their energy, focus and resilience from the inside out. You're setting them on a path of health habits that will last a lifetime. You're not just giving them a vitamin, you're giving them a future. All right, so you work hard to give your child the best of everything. Okay, the best education, the safest home, the cleanest water, the right shoes, the safest car seat, the best helmet, the most advanced learning toys and everything else you've never had as a child.

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So why would you give them bottom shelf nutrition? Why settle for artificial dyes, synthetic vitamins or sugar-filled distractions disguised as health? Their brains are still wiring, their bones are still growing, their immune systems are still learning and what you feed them now sets the tone for the rest of their life. This isn't about buying vitamins. This is about defining their future, because the habits they build today, what they see, what they taste, what they learn will become the blueprint for how they take care of themselves tomorrow, because right now they're mimicking everything that we do. They're doing everything that we ask, but soon they will be making their own decisions, and how we wire them from making those decisions, how we inform them, how we educate them today, will determine the rest of their life.

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If we want to raise strong, healthy, focused, resilient kids, well, that starts by feeding them the nutrients that fuel strong, healthy, focused, resilient bodies. So here's the challenge Go read the label on what's in your pantry or on the store shelf, or what is your kid's favorite vitamin. Ask yourself if that's what your child deserves. Then ask yourself what it would look like to give them the very best, especially when it comes to their nutrition. We only get one shot at raising them right, so don't just protect them from the outside world. Protect them from their inside, for with the food that they eat, the supplements that they consume and, most importantly, what they learn actually is nutrition and what they are actually putting in their bodies.

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Because, when it comes to our kids, good enough isn't ever going to be good enough. See, you don't raise healthy kids by accident. You do it with intention, with information with action. This is your shot to give your child the head start you wish you had. Let's do it together, you know. I hope this has been beneficial to you because you know one of the great privileges we have at IDLife is giving people real information that they can take to the market and actually learn To actually dive into labels and understanding and understand that the front of the label is marketing and the back is the science, understanding what an ingredient actually is, understanding there's multiple different forms of ingredients. But, most importantly, when it comes to children, that we are providing them a guide on how to take care of themselves in the future.

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See, when you go into the doctor's office, most people the first thing they do is they take a health history and for most of us, especially my generation, you know we always thought the health history was well. You know mom and dad had this. So more than likely I'm going to end up with that as well. But see, that's the wrong mindset. What we have learned through genetic research and genetic science and all of the other scientific articles and investigations that have happened is, if we eat and live a lifestyle like our parents did, then, yes, we're going to get exactly what our parents got. We're going to have the same issues, the same diseases, the same problems, because we share genetics. However, if we change that, if we change our diet, if we change our lifestyle, if we change our nutrition, if we change our lifestyle, if we change our nutrition and we actually consume high quality nutritional foods, we can actually change what the future looks like, so that when our kids walk into their doctor and they ask for a medical history, they have a different conversation than we have.

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I really do hope that this has been helpful to you. Most importantly, thank you for listening to the Healthy, simplified podcast, where truth fuels action, science beats hype and doing better for your family starts right now, because health isn't complicated, it's just personal. So until next time. This is Mark Bennett, on behalf of ID Life. Thank you for being here. We'll talk again real soon.