What vitamins should you be taking?

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- You don't have to spend a fortune on a multitude of vitamins to get what your body needs.

A visit to any vitamin shop or grocery store aisle can easily confuse anyone on what your body really needs.

We went vitamin shopping with registered dietitian and author Monica Bearden to get the low down on which supplements are best for you.

"Some supplements make sense, others make claims that aren't necessarily supported by any science or research and the reason they can do that is that supplements are not regulated by foods so they can make any claim they want," Bearden said.

Bearden says the first thing to consider is that the government does not regulate supplements, and food companies can make any claim they want.

There are some vitamins that are growing in popularity and are all the rage right now. Bearden says vitamins such as Raspberry Ketones and Garcinia Cambogia could be beneficial, but there isn't enough research to know if they make a difference.

But there are some she recommends.

"There are four that have good scientific evidence behind them and that would benefit any healthy adult," Bearden said.

Multi-vitamin

Bearden thinks everyone should take a multi-vitamin.

"You want to look for a multi vitamin that has 100% of the daily value on the back, anything that has too high of a daily value nutrients at high levels can be dangerous and the rest the nutrients will flush out."

Vitamin D

Another vitamin she suggests is Vitamin D because research shows Americans are deficient. A vitamin D deficiency can impact heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

"When choosing a Vitamin D supplement, you can choose a vitamin D 2 or vitamin D 3, your body can use both of them, and you want to pick something that has at least 400 international units, some of them go up to 1,000 international units and that's okay."

DHA

Another vitamin on the buy list is DHA, which Bearden says is a must-have supplement for everyone.

"It's really important for brain health, for your cardiovascular system, diabetes, vision," Bearden said. "We are finding that it is a powerful nutrient that we all need."

She says there are things to specifically look for on the bottle when purchasing a DHA.

"When you are choosing your DHA, look specifically for DHA. We are not talking fish oil, I am talking DHA and try to get 200 mg or more in a supplement," Bearden said.

Probiotics

You can get plenty of probiotics in yogurt or a pill, but Bearden suggest Yakult drinks.

"This is actually one of my favorites because it has enough of the probiotics to make a difference, it actually has 8 billion CFUs, that's how we measure probiotics," Bearden said. "The gut health is so important to immune system and almost anything that happens to your body including stress and weight loss."