Which? investigates multivitamin benefits you need to know to help you live your best every day life.
Knowing how many multivitamins to take can be confusing, as well as which have the best benefits. In this podcast episode, Which? discusses the best multivitamins, as well as breaking down what they do. From A-Z to iron supplements, we explore the best multivitamins for men, women, kids and over 50s to help you make the best choice.
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What are multivitamins and do you really need to take them? Well, with insights and analysis from two industry experts, we’ll answer those questions and many more on this podcast from which Hello, I’m James Row and welcome to this a brand new series of our health and well-being podcast where we give you expert advice and recommendations to help you live your best life every day. Now, this series is exclusively focused on vitamins and supplements. And today we’re focusing on multivitamins. So, let’s introduce our guests for today and for the full series, I’m pleased to say. First of all, public health nutritionist here at Witch, Shafali Loth, how are you? I’m good, thank you. Thanks for coming back. And coming back as well. Uh, you were joined us on one episode of the first series, Sophie Medlin, founder of City Dieticians. How are you? I’m very well, thanks for having me. I think this series is going to be quite interesting because I feel like sort of over the last few months and last couple of years, vitamins and supplements have really boomed, haven’t they? And there’s a lot of sort of misinformation out there as well. Do you kind of agree with that as well? Yeah, I think it’s really hard for people to sort through fact and fiction when it comes to supplements. The marketing is very clever. People are very good at selling you things that actually there’s no real research around. And I think it’s become, you know, I work in the supplements industry as well and it really is the wild west in terms of who can formulate what they can put in them. Any anything goes and it’s a we need a revolution in the supplements industry really to try and make things more more robust and safer for people. And Shafali, I feel like social media has really just driven this, hasn’t it? It’s it’s skyrocketed and there you almost don’t know who to trust anymore, do you? Well, that’s exactly it. Anybody can set up an account on social media and promote products without any kind of scientific nutritional background. Um, and as Sophie says, there’s just a range of products out there on the market that aren’t backed by science, but are making really, really big claims. Well, thankfully we’ve got you two here to put the put the story right, and we’ll we’ll keep us on the right track. We’re going to focus on multivitamins today. Can we start with the with the very basic question of what are multivitamins? What are they? What do they do? Right. So, I guess a multivitamin is any supplement that contains a range of nutrients. So, um when we looked at multivitamins for our research project, you could get a multivitamin that contain just the full range of vitamins. But then also there are things like A to Z multivitamins and these those contain a range of vitamins but also minerals. So, for example, you’d have your vitamins A, C, D, and E, and your B vitamins in that product, but also a range of really important um minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, and and more. And what we should try and stress here is, I guess, what they’re actually for, because I guess with all supplements, they’re not a replacement for anything, are they? No. No. And it’s really important to say that any vitamin supplement isn’t a replacement for diet. We need to it should be like the icing on the cake of a diet as opposed to the cake itself. So when we think about multivitamins, I guess they’re really targeted for everybody, which makes it quite difficult to judge what’s good and what’s not so good because some people need more iron or more magnesium or more calcium than other people. But I think really if we think about an A to Z multivitamin specifically, we’re talking about something that’s there to pick up dietary shortfalls. So, if you’re somebody who bounces from breakfast to lunch and you’re picking things up on the go and you’re not guaranteeing that you’re getting all your leafy greens and all the extra bits and pieces that you know you need, it is a useful safety net if you like to help to pick up any shortfalls in your diet. And it shouldn’t be considered a negative thing that you have to or choose to take uh something like this. You know, as you say, if you’re somebody who’s busy and you really struggle to cook the right meals, it might just give you that little extra boost of something you might need. Totally. I think that, you know, I work with patients all every day, every week, and everybody, regardless of their socio economic status, regardless of their education level, everybody struggles to be super reliable with what they’re eating every single day. And I think it’s just, as you say, a safety net is something that people can pick up when they need it. But it’s not something that anyone should feel worried about or ashamed of or feel like they’re doing something wrong because they take one. I take a multivitamin. Do you take a multivitamin? I don’t. Doesn’t. they’ll be having stirring words after perhaps. So I guess they are good for you, but can there be times when they might not be good for you as well? Yeah, I guess the main thing is as Sophie said, they can’t replace a healthy, balanced, varied diet. So, you know, you can’t eat terribly but then expect to be healthy because you take a multivitamin at the end of the day. Um, there aren’t really any other examples, especially with multivitamins that are pretty general. The doses are at, you know, average levels. So, there’s no real risk of taking too much of something. I suppose the exceptions are if you’re pregnant or trying to conceive, then actually you should be taking a targeted pregnancy supplement and not a general multivitamin. But actually the products we looked at in our analysis were suitable for children over 12 and adults. And we’ll be getting into some of that research a little bit later on. That’ll be for our members. And we’ll be talking about what you did, how you looked into them, and revealing our best buys as well, which is always very exciting. But should we talk about who should be taking a multivitamin? Crucially, something you just touched on, uh, some people who might not be suitable for multivitamins. So should we first of all talk about people who we would maybe advise should at least consider taking a multivitamin. Yeah. So I think anybody who has an erratic eating pattern or maybe excludes certain food groups from their diet because of allergies or also preferences. So for example, if you don’t eat red meat then actually you might find it quite hard to get enough iron in your diet. So you might want to consider an iron supplement or even a multivitamin. Similarly, if you have a dairy allergy and find it hard to um have plant, you know, fortified plant alternatives, then you may be a bit low on calcium. So you might want to think about taking a supplement as well. Um so there are lots of reasons and as Sophie said, actually if you’re not sure about your diet is meeting all your nutritional needs, then you can have it as a bit of a safety net as well. And then on the flip side of the coin, people who shouldn’t be taking multivitamins because there’s a few groups of people where you should almost come to this with a bit more caution than than other people, right? Yeah. So, Shafali has mentioned about people who are pregnant. So, we need to be careful with people who are pregnant because some types of multivitamin supplements contain a form of vitamin A which is not suitable for pregnancy. But also with pregnancy, you want to be really thinking about folic acid or folate. And that’s not always in the correct dose or the right dose if you are somebody who’s trying to get pregnant in a multivitamin. So you want to use a pregnancy specific product. Always when I’m working with patients or I’m recommending in general, I would always say if you’re taking any prescription medications of any kind or you’re you have a diagnosed medical condition, always check with a dietitian, a doctor or a pharmacist before you start any multivitamin product or any vitamin product for that matter just because there are certain things that you shouldn’t take too much of things that can affect absorption of that medication in some multivitamin product. So you just want to have for our safety and for everyone’s safety have a blanket sort of recommendation around that. This is where it almost feels like it’s really confusing though, isn’t it? Would you agree that this kind of world is a bit confusing to sort of the the general public? You’re both nodding at me because I feel like you’ve seen this before, right? Yeah. And it’s confusing for us as well, you know. Um, as Sophie said, we’ve worked for a long time in the nutrition and dietetics field, but actually there are so many products out there and the science to back up all the ingredients isn’t necessarily there. So it is confusing for us, let alone the general public. Do you to ever find yourself sort of in the supermarket or in a pharmacy and look at the shelves and you see all these tubs or whatever of vitamins and supplements and think, “Oh my goodness, there’s so much here.” And I’m almost a bit worried about what people are picking up because they think they might just need it. Absolutely. And I worry specifically about people going into some of the bigarmacies, going into some of the sort of health food stores on the high street and and saying, “Oh, I’m struggling with menopausal symptoms or I’m struggling with this.” and being sold a basket full of things with no evidence behind them with all those extra fillers and bulking agents and things like that that people don’t really need and that that concerns me. And I will say in my clinics every week somebody tells me about a supplement they’re taking that I’ve never heard of. Really? Absolutely. And I work in the supplements industry. I’ve been a dietitian for 20 years. There is so much new stuff on the market. There’s so many wild things going on in the space that there is always something that someone says, “Oh, I’m taking this funny thing. what do you think about that? And I think, well, I’m going to do a bit research about that before I advise you on it. And usually it’s something that’s fairly inert, something that’s not really going to do them any harm, but doesn’t have any evidence. And sometimes it’s something that I think, you know, really with your medical conditions, that’s not something you should be taking. It’s not safe. Yeah. And the other thing is if you are taking a cocktail of supplements, you know, there’s a real risk there that you could be overdosing or taking too much of certain nutrients, especially if you find a certain vitamin or mineral is in several of the supplements that you’re taking collectively and cumulatively. You could be taking too much and there are risks there as well. So let’s say for example, you know, you’re taking five or six or seven multivitamins and they’ve all got I’m just going to pick vitamin D for example. They’ve all got vitamin D in. you could then be overdosing on vitamin D. Is that is that what you’re trying to say? Exactly. Yeah. Easily. And vitamin D is one of those common things that everyone puts in everything. And so then you end up with um you know vitamin D from this that the other all your supplements and then maybe from some fortified food that you’re having or from your protein shake or from something else that you’ve not even considered. Gosh, it is a confusing world, isn’t it? Um we’re talking about um consulting with the right people before you take any multivitamins. Can we just try and reiterate who you should be speaking to? you know, would your GP be able to advise on that? Would you speak to a dietitian? Who would you be looking for? Yeah, great question. Look, I think specifically for people who are taking prescription medications, you want to speak to your GP primarily um or a pharmacist. They should be able to answer those questions. If you’re someone who’s looking for general advice on whether you might need a multivitamin, then go and see a dietitian. And there’s loads of us in private practice, but you can also get referred by your GP. And what about men versus women? I think feel like we often hear about certain supplements. If you’re a man, you might want to take them. If you’re a woman, you might not, and vice versa. For multivitamins, what would you have to say to that? I, you know, our nutritional requirements in terms of these sorts of things between men and women, the differences is pretty small. So, actually, for a multivitamin product, I wouldn’t worry whether someone was a man or a woman taking it. Men need slightly more of some things than women do, and women may want more of iron, for example, because of the menstrual cycle. But ultimately, if it’s just your safety net, we don’t need to worry too much about the difference between men and women in this space. And we are going to get into all of our reviews in just a moment. But for some general advice for people going out there into that supermarket and they see everything on the shelves, what kind of things can they look for? What can they sort of pick out where it might give them a bit of a sign that this is something is good and something isn’t necessarily sort of hitting the the right standards. So, I guess if I were going into a supermarket or a chemist to look for a multivitamin supplement, I would look at the back the label on the back basically to see what nutrients it actually contains. Um, because actually in our analysis, we found some supplements that were really good on paper, but actually when we delved a bit deeper, they were missing key ingredients. And so, that in our analysis ruled them out of being a best buy, for example. So, you know, I would expect to see calcium and iron in a multivitamin and some of them didn’t contain those ingredients or nutrients. Um, I’d also look at where it’s gives you the percentage of your NRV and the NRV is your nutrient reference intake. So, basically that’s the amount that an adult or a child over 12 needs to take every day. And it’s the amount that will basically for most healthy adults prevent a deficiency. So, if something’s containing only 10% of your NRV, then it’s not a great product because it’s not giving you enough. Now, if it’s containing 80, 90%, 100%, that’s really what you should be looking for. You know, you are going to be getting some of those nutrients from the food that you eat, but actually, you want if you’re paying for a supplement, you want it to contain what you need. That’s really interesting actually because I thought when you saying oh it’s going to get up to 80 90 100% that might even be a bit too much if you’re getting it from sort of other sources like you know your diet or that sort of thing but that’s not necessarily the case. No, not really. I think you know when you’re getting to those upper level limits they are a lot higher than your NRV. So you don’t really need to worry about that. Um but you don’t want a supplement on the other side that contains a th000% of your NRV. you know that is concerning. So really it’s about looking at what ingredients it has, what nutrients it has, but then also how much of your daily needs it provides. And are there some of those on the market where they contain well over 100%? Have you seen them before? Absolutely. Yeah, lots of them. And for some nutrients you really don’t need to worry about that. So B vitamins, for example, you excrete them really easily and actually having a higher dose of B vitamins might make you feel a bit better and resolve things easier. On the other hand, there are other nutrients that you really don’t want to have, you know, even 200% of really. And I think that that expecting the general public to to be able to differentiate between water soluble and fat soluble vitamins and which are safe and which are not is is beyond the scope of what we can expect of people. So really, it’s about having a basic understanding before you go shopping about what you might need for your diet. Even if that’s, you know, using AI to say what sort of things might I need to look for and then you can go and say, okay, I definitely need something that has calcium or I definitely need something that has iron. and that might just help to guide you a little bit with that. Well, I think this is a very good time for us to reveal some of the very best multivitamins on the market, including our coveted Witch Best Buys. Now, this is exclusively available to our Witch members. So, if you are a member already, there is a link in the show notes for you to click and you can head straight there. If you’re not a member already, you can get 50% off your first year of a membership by going to witch.co.uk/mpodcast offer. But for now, Shafali Sophie, thanks very much. Thank you for having me. Thank you. [Music]
