What are Essentials?

USANA's foundation products are the ESSENTIALS™--the advanced nutritional products that everyone needs to take every day. They are designed to provide optimal nutritional support. The ESSENTIALS for adults are a combination of two products packaged as one:

• MEGA ANTIOXIDANT, a comprehensive formula of high-potency vitamins, antioxidants, and other important nutrients that every adult needs every day for efficient cellular metabolism and to counteract the damaging effects of free radicals.
• CHELATED MINERAL, a full-spectrum blend of essential minerals and trace elements in a balanced, highly bioavailable formulation. When taken together with MEGA ANTIOXIDANT, these supplements complete the nutritional foundation for every adult.

To maintain optimal health, we need a variety of vitamins, minerals, bioflavonoids, and other micronutrients. A healthy, diverse, balanced diet provides the foundation for good micronutrition. However, with today's lifestyle, it's impractical to obtain an optimal dose of all these nutrients. Furthermore, our diets are often far from balanced. As illustrated in the previous section, most people don't obtain even the minimal amounts of micronutrients needed to adequately support health, let alone the amounts needed to function at an optimal level.

USANA understands the importance of providing the right ingredients--in the correct amounts, in the right balance, and in the proper forms. USANA created the ESSENTIALS to provide the essential micronutrients that everyone needs every day.

THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS
The "essential" vitamins and minerals, as defined by government agencies and nutrition experts, are those that are needed for metabolic function, but are not manufactured by our bodies. We must obtain these ingredients from outside sources, and thus they are an "essential" part of our diets. These same experts have defined recommended Daily Values (DV) for those ingredients where a clearly defined deficiency disease or symptom has been observed.

USANA has expanded the meaning of "essential" micronutrition to include more than just those with an established DV. A variety of additional nutrients are important to maintain optimal health. The ESSENTIALS also contain trace minerals, mixed carotenoids, bioflavonoids, and other phytochemicals and antioxidants to provide a full arsenal of compounds to help protect against the daily bombardment of free radicals.

The newest ingredient in the ESSENTIALS for adults, USANA's patented Olivol™--The Heart of the Olive™-- is an extract from the fruit of the olive that contains phenolic antioxidants not found anywhere else in nature. The addition of this new, unique ingredient containing olive-specific phenolic antioxidants complements the already diverse selection of other antioxidants in the ESSENTIALS. The benefits of olive fruit and olive oil consumption are extensive, but until USANA added this extract to the ESSENTIALS, no commercial source of these phenolic antioxidants had been readily available.

THE CORRECT AMOUNTS
The established recommended Daily Values for vitamins and minerals were developed to show the minimum amount of those nutrients needed to avoid deficiency diseases. They do not tell you how much is needed to enhance your health. The ESSENTIALS are formulated to do more than just prevent deficiency diseases. The nutrients in the ESSENTIALS are set at levels to maintain optimal health and energy levels, based on the latest scientific data.

BALANCED FORMULAS
USANA reviews all the available scientific literature to ensure that the micronutrients present in our ESSENTIALS formulas are balanced to work together. While much is still not known about all the interactions that occur with nutrients in our bodies, USANA continues to keep abreast of the latest research to ensure up-to-date formulations.

THE OPTIMUM FORM
To be useful, all nutrients must be high quality and bioavailable--in other words, in a form the body can absorb and use. USANA takes the extra steps needed to obtain the highest quality ingredients with dependable levels of potency. In addition, USANA imposes rigorous quality controls at every step of the manufacturing process, following pharmaceutical GMP guidelines.