Healthy shopping: How to choose a good multivitamin

On the hunt for a high-quality multivitamin? Here’s what to look for, says Joanna Evans

A new study reveals how taking a multivitamin every day can significantly improve memory and slow cognitive aging. Here’s a quick guide to what to look for in a multivitamin, along with a sampling of product picks.

What to look for

• Bioavailable (easily absorbed) ingredient forms.
• A formula that will fit into your lifestyle. A one-a-day capsule may suit you better than a multivitamin you need to take several times daily.
• Helpful amounts of the vitamins and minerals you need.
• The purest formulas available, free of fillers, binders and other unnecessary additives (check the ingredients list).
• Strict sourcing standards, using exclusively natural, high-quality, non-GMO and science-backed ingredients.
• Transparency about the manufacturing processes.

Product picks

Thorne
Multi-Vitamin Elite, $74/£57.44 (180 capsules)
US: thorne.com, UK: uk.iherb.com

Designed for active individuals with high-performance nutritional regimens, this innovative multivitamin is actually two formulas: an AM formula to promote energy production and a PM formula to enhance recovery. Both formulas contain a broad range of vitamins and minerals in their most absorbable forms.

Pure Encapsulations
O.N.E. Multivitamin, $45.20/£45 (60 capsules)
US: pureforyou.com, UK: purebio.co.uk

Ideal if you’re someone who struggles to take multiple capsules a day, this multivitamin provides an impressive array of bioavailable vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients in a convenient once-daily formula. It’s also vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free and non-GMO.

Designs for Health
Twice Daily Multi, $31.04/£36.95 (60 capsules)
US: designsforhealth.com, UK: designsforhealth.uk

This two-a-day formula contains high-quality and bioavailable forms of 20 vitamins and minerals, in higher amounts than you often find in a multivitamin. For example, there’s 500 mg vitamin C and 1,000 IU vitamin D per serving. Glucosamine is also included for healthy joints.

Marcelle Pick
Multi Essentials+, $46 (90 capsules)
shop.marcellepick.com

This full-spectrum multivitamin contains good amounts of vital vitamins in highly bioavailable forms as well as Albion chelated minerals, a leading brand of mineral supplements structured as organic molecules to promote absorption. It’s free of dairy, gluten and GMOs and is vegetarian friendly.

What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community