38 food supplements combining vitamins and minerals were rated according to an exclusive indicator. The higher the score, the more likely you are to safely meet your nutritional needs. Multivitamin supplements can help fill real or suspected deficits in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients. But which multivitamin (or mineral vitamin) supplement for adults to choose? It has updated its famous comparison of the most popular food supplements on the market. The use of Spirulina happens to be essential now.
Our evaluation criteria
In order to compare the different food supplements on the basis of objective criteria, an engineer graduated from AgroParisTech designed for LaNutrition.fr an indicator based on the analysis of the scientific literature. The indicator is in the form of a score. The higher the rating, the more the product is supposed to meet the objective of a dietary supplement, that is to say, supplement the diet to achieve the recommended nutritional intakes without providing harmful doses or unwanted nutrients.
This indicator is only valid for multivitamin / multimineral supplements containing at least 10 micronutrients.
The score increases when:
The quantity of each nutrient increases, up to a threshold fixed at ⅔ of the recommended nutritional intakes (ANC) of LaNutrition.fr (except for vitamin C, whose intakes recommended by LaNutrition.fr are quite high; the threshold for this vitamin was therefore set at 1/3 of the ANC of LaNutrition.fr). Note that the quantity of nutrients considered is that of the dosage recommended by its retailer (and not per tablet or per 100 g of product).
- The nutrients present in the supplement are not consumed enough by the French population (examples: magnesium, vitamin D).
- There are more nutrients considered to be of interest for health (in addition to vitamins and minerals, these are for example choline, carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, resveratrol).
- The number of nutrients or ingredients considered harmful (phosphates, fructose, glucose, glucose-fructose, manganese, iron, copper, maltodextrin) decreases or is zero.
- The forms of the nutrients are optimal (for example mixtures of natural carotenoids, vitamin D3, citrate or magnesium bisglycinate).
- Safety doses are not reached or exceeded (in fact, these safety doses are only very rarely exceeded).
- The nutrients present in the supplement could bring benefits from the point of view of public health (on hypertension, metabolic syndrome, immunity, cardiovascular health, cancers, etc.).
How to read this comparison?
The table below shows the 37 supplements in alphabetical order, with their positive and negative points, their target price (per day, depending on the recommended dosages) and their final score according to the criteria detailed above. By clicking on their name you will have access to their composition on the site of their manufacturer.
According to our calculations, 3 products lag behind with a score below 20, and 2 products stand out by obtaining a score above 50: Nutrition NuPower and Supersmart Daily 3. Note that the Multivitamin VM30 supplement from Nutrivi having been formulated according to ANC of LaNutrition, he necessarily obtains a high score (61). We have therefore placed it outside the category and do not include it in this ranking. We advise you to choose your complement preferably among those having obtained a score higher than 40.
