Short on time? Skip ahead to the highlights here.
Multivitamins are a great “nutritional insurance plan”, allowing you to top off your body’s stores of key vitamins and minerals. But they’re not all made the same. We tested dozens of brands to figure out the best on the market.
In a perfect world everyone would get all of their required daily vitamins and minerals from their diet of natural, organic foods. And that should be something to strive for.
But…
We don’t live in a perfect world. And often, especially when you’re traveling or your normal routine is otherwise interrupted, it can be easy to miss out on some of the elements that your body needs to perform at it’s optimal levels.
It’s easy to not even realize that this is happening, and it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing an issue even if it’s obviously noticeable
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can cause a host of issues in the body if they go on for too long – everything from fatigue, to depression, to temporary nerve damage. Yes, temporary nerve damage.
Story time. Feel free to skip ahead.
A few years ago I started experiencing numbness in my pinky finger and the right side of my ring finger on my right hand. I initially assumed it would go away on it’s own, but after a few weeks of this I started to get nervous and did some WebMD searching (always a bad idea).
First potential cause I saw was called alcoholic neuropathy – essentially permanent nerve damage caused by prolonged exposure to alcohol. I was in my early twenties and drinking a decent amount so I figured that was it. I decided to stop drinking alcohol altogether for the rest of my life so the problem wouldn’t spread.
I had resigned myself to my sad sober fate when, fortunately, I stumbled across an article about a magic little vitamin called B12…
Turns out vitamin B12 deficiency can cause temporary nerve numbness, typically starting in your Ulnar nerve (the one connected to your pinky and outside ring finger). And you know what flushes a ton of B12 out of your system? Drinking alcohol.
What’s more, some people have a hard time absorbing B12 from food through their digestive system.
Lucky for me there was an easy fix – B12 lozenges. Specifically in the form of these 5000mcg Methyl-B12 lozenges which contain B12 in the form of methylcobalamin, the only form which easily crosses the blood-brain barrier.
These little guys dissolve in your mouth and absorb directly through your gums straight into your blood and to your brain. All I had to do was leave a lozenge to dissolve under my tongue twice a day and in a week my nerve damage was gone.
That might seem like a random story but my point in telling it is to explain the potential side effects that seemingly harmless vitamin deficiencies can cause.
That’s where multivitamins come in.
A lot of people make the argument that multivitamins are useless because you end up peeing most of them out as excess that your body can’t process. And half of that argument is right – you do end up peeing a decent amount out.
But…your body still absorbs what it needs of each element before shedding the rest. And that’s why we consider multi’s to be your body’s insurance plan – they effectively “top off” your stores of each vitamin.
The excess get’s flushed out, sure, but personally I’d rather pee out some vitamins and know I have adequate levels of everything I need versus simply hoping for the best. Especially if my diet isn’t quite on point for whatever reason.
We recommend everyone take a multi to make sure they’re body’s stores are kept full, and fortunately for you we’ve compiled our top three favorite multivitamin products of 2021 below.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Best Organic Option
mykind Organic
Organic Ingredients
Prostate Supplement
Methylcobalamin B12
TOP PICK
Best Overall
Pure Encapsulations
Ideal Dose of Ingredients
Reputable Supplier
Rhonda Patrick Approved
Best Budget Option
OptiMen
Low Price Per Serving
High Potency
Amino Acid Blend
The Top 3 Best Multivitamin Brands of 2021
Full Breakdown
Best Overall – Pure Encapsulations ONE
- Ideal dosing of essential vitamins and minerals
- Antioxidant and cognitive support
- Trusted non-GMO supplier
- Fair price
- Recommended by Rhonda Patrick
Serving Size: 1 capsule
Servings: 60
Price Per Serving: $0.62
If you’ve read our post on the Rhonda Patrick’s daily vitamins and supplements then you’re familiar with our favorite multivitamin product: Pure Encapsulations O.N.E.
We actually started using this multi a few years back after seeing the recommendation from Rhonda, and we’ve had no complaints ever since. The company somehow manages to combine a staggering amount of essential vitamins and minerals into a single capsule serving, which is honestly impressive but also makes for real ease of use.
They’ve included the usual suspects like Vitamin’s A, C, D and E in highly bioavailable forms, as well as ingredients that you don’t often see in multivitamins like CoQ10 and antioxidant folate complex Metafolin.
There’s a full spectrum of B vitamins but what we really appreciate is the B12 included in the form of methylcobalamin. If you read the nerve damage story above you’ll know that methylcobalamin B12 is the most bioavailable form available, and also the most effective at passing through the blood-brain barrier. And the dose of 500mcg is a great daily goal.
In short, Pure Encapsulations O.N.E. offers a great blend of vitamins and minerals from one of the most reputable supplement companies on the market – and at a price per serving that’s hard to beat.
We do recommend taking it with a meal as taking any multivitamin on an empty stomach can cause nausea
Best Organic Option – mykind Organics Men’s Multi
- Good balance of effective ingredients
- Sourced primarily from organic food blends
- Low price per serving
Serving Size: 1 tablet
Servings: 60
Price Per Serving: $0.61
If you’re looking for an organic and primarily plant based multivitamin option then your best bet are the men’s once daily tablets from mykind Organic.
As you’ll see in the fairly unique nutrition facts image below, they source the bulk of their vitamin and mineral compounds from what they term their ‘Organic Food Blend’. And they package all of it into a single-tablet serving with a solid dose of daily vitamins and minerals.
They’ve included selenium for prostate health, B vitamins for energy and heart health, and D3 which they actually derive from lichen. Their B12 comes in the form of methylcobalamin here as well which we love to see.
The dosing isn’t nearly as high as Pure Encapsulations, but considering that the compounds are all organic and derived from plant sources it’s still impressive that they are able to achieve the dosage levels they do.
Best Budget Option – Optimum Nutrition Opti-Men
- Low price per serving
- Strong dosing of ingredients
- Energy and immune support
Serving Size: 3 tablets
Servings: 80
Price Per Serving: $0.51
Rounding out the list is our best budget option multivitamin: Opti-Men tablets from Optimum Nutrition.
The three-tablet serving from Optimum offers a heavy dose of vitamins and minerals for immune support and energy boosting, but what’s interesting is that they also include a few other proprietary blends as well
First of these is their amino acid blend which offers Glutamine, Threonine, Arginine, and others. Unfortunately although they provide the total volume of 1 gram, the ingredients are bunched together and we can’t see the dosing of each one individually.
They also include what they term their ‘Phyto Blend’, which given the low total dose of 100mg probably won’t have that much of an impact, but it’s made up of a number of different fruits and vegetables in powdered form.
OptiMen isn’t our first choice for a multi since the vitamins are a bit over-dosed (leading to excess waste), and the proprietary blends mean we can’t get accurate dosing, but it’s still a fair option if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative.
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