Vitamins & Minerals

Multivitamin and multivitamin & mineral products are collectively the most popular type of supplement in the UK, and are taken by 40% of the population on a regular basis. It is important to recognise that some products are multivitamins and provide no minerals, whilst multivitamin & mineral products provide both nutrient groups.

 

BUYING TIP - If the value for money of a multivitamin & mineral product is virtually the same as a multivitamin only product then you are getting the minerals for next to nothing!

The intended benefit of multivitamin and multivitamin & mineral supplements is to help maintain overall health and well-being, with this broad spectrum function arising from the multiple nutrients which are included in these products. There is also accumulating evidence that people taking a multivitamin supplement on a regular basis are at reduced risk of developing many chronic diseases in later life such as cardiovascular disease.

Many authorities maintain that vitamin and mineral supplements are not necessary if a good balanced diet is consumed. In principle this is correct but opponents of this view contend that few people do actually have a regular diet which provides even the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals.

 

Evidence for this comes from the information about the United Kingdom average diet which indicates that for instance the average calcium, vitamin D, folic acid and vitamin B12 intake is below RDA levels for many age groups, particularly the over 50’s.

 

In addition to this, many nutritional and clinical experts believe that the RDA standard represents in many cases the minimum level of that nutrient which is necessary to prevent deficiency, and that this is not necessarily the optimum level which may in fact be considerably greater. An example of this is vitamin D where the RDA level is set at 5ug per day which is sufficient to prevent rickets.

 

However, many other health benefits attributable to vitamin D are now being recognised, and it may require up to 5 times the RDA level of vitamin D to deliver these benefits. This is particularly true in temperate climates, such as the UK, where sunlight which stimulates the synthesis by our bodies of vitamin D is often in short supply!

 

As such, multivitamin and mineral supplements whilst not providing an alternative to an adequate diet do provide an ‘insurance’ that sufficient intake of these essential nutrients is obtained.

Multivitamin and mineral supplements have been assessed by Supplements Compared using the following criteria:

 

1) Does it deliver the intended benefits in the short and long term?

 

To deliver the intended benefits it is important that a multivitamin or multivitamin & mineral provides all of the vitamins / minerals at a minimum of 100% RDA level unless there is a valid reason for not doing so. (One such reason could be that the provision of 100% RDA of vitamin A during pregnancy may be undesirable).

 

If the product provides 100% of the RDA for all, or nearly all of the vitamins and minerals it is likely to be able to provide the benefits associated with the increased intake of these nutrients - particularly over the longer term.

 

Many nutritional experts believe that products which provide more than 100% RDA levels are more likely to provide benefits over the shorter term and may also provide additional benefits, although this is disputed by some authorities. 

 

2) Is long term compliance with taking the product likely to be a factor?

 

Long term compliance with taking a supplement can be the biggest obstacle in achieving benefits in that many people simply stop taking the product.

 

Therefore it is important that a product is easy to take over the long term. For instance, if three large tablets have to be taken every day to reach the required dose, compliance will almost invariably be very poor compared to taking one tablet per day.

 

3) Value

 

Supplements Compared has assessed value on the basis of the price paid to deliver 100% of the RDA of all 12 essential vitamins.

It was found that in many cases products omitted one or two vitamins and these were included and assessed in the same way but account was taken of these deficiencies in the overall assessment.

   

Some very credible nutritional experts believe that optimum levels of many vitamins and some minerals lie significantly above the RDA values. For instance there is a good supporting evidence that the consumption of the Department of Health guideline of five portions of fruit and vegetables every day actually provides between 200-500mg of vitamin C and so would imply that the optimum level of vitamin C intake is within this range or even higher, rather than the RDA of 60mg.

Similarly, there is very strong evidence that in countries with limited sunlight, the optimum intake of vitamin D should be raised to about 25mcg per day (current RDA 5mcg/day) to produce equivalent levels of blood vitamin D as is found in people from more sunny climates.    

 

This has resulted in very high potency multivitamin and mineral products being available, where levels per daily dose of vitamins can be between 2 and 100 times the RDA, depending on the vitamin.

 

These products may well provide increased levels of benefits especially in the short term, and particularly if the person believes they may have a requirement for higher levels of these nutrients. One comforting point is that these products are extremely unlikely to have any negative or harmful effects. It’s simply that the debate is still raging about whether they will actually produce any additional benefits over and above a more basic multivitamin and mineral, or are you literally flushing money down the toilet!

 

These products tend to be expensive to buy, but because they are highly concentrated, the amount that is being paid per unit of vitamin is actually reasonable.