Here's how to check if it is worth taking a multivitamin

When navigating the dietary supplement market, it might be tricky to really know that you’re getting good value out of your go-to multivitamin. There are lots of factors to consider, after all: Do I need all of these ingredients, and are they doing their job to support my health? Are there any ingredients I don’t recognize on the label? What role does my diet play? What’s the brand’s environmental footprint?

If you’re pondering any (or all) of these things, then you’re already on the right track. Here, Ritual digs into the items to look for in a quality multivitamin.

The multivitamin takes a “less is more” approach to ingredients.

Ideally, a healthy diet should do most of the heavy-lifting—if you’re eating a nutritious diet most of the time, then you may be meeting a lot of your nutrient needs already. But since some nutrients can be harder to get enough of through diet alone than others, the point of a quality daily multivitamin should be to help fill nutrient gaps. That’s not even to mention that when people overdo it on one nutrient, it can actually impact the way they use others. In other words: More isn’t always better.

Want a couple of examples? Vitamin C is definitely important where your health is concerned—it’s an antioxidant, and helps to support collagen and normal immune function. But the vast majority of people are getting enough vitamin C through the foods they eat, so they may not need it in a multivitamin.

Then there’s calcium. You’d probably assume that getting extra of this bone health superhero couldn’t hurt, right? Well, the truth is that many of us can meet our calcium needs with a balanced diet, and emerging research suggests that overdoing it on calcium could ultimately do more harm than good. The bottom line: Instead of supplementing with extra calcium, you may want to focus on calcium-helper nutrients like vitamin D3, vitamin K2, magnesium and boron, which all lend extra support when it comes to bone health.

(That includes artificial colorants.)

Ingredients like artificial colorants, sugar, and major allergens have no place in a multivitamin.

Nutrients are in absorbable forms.

Your best bet is to choose a formula with nutrients that the body can use—that may sound obvious, but it’s not always a given.

Take folate as an example. This B-vitamin is involved in many processes, including DNA methylation and energy-yielding metabolism. But folic acid (the synthetic version of folate) gets a lot of airtime in vitamins and supplements. The caveat is that up to one-third of women have a genetic variation called MTHFR, which can make it difficult to efficiently utilize folic acid. That’s why methylated folate is used in some multivitamins—it’s ideal for the body to utilize, even if you have that MTHFR genetic variation.

Better yet, they’re backed by clinical studies. 

Conducted independently by Auburn University, Ritual’s clinical trial of 94 adult females found that Essential for Women raised vitamin D levels 43% over a 12-week period, significantly greater than placebo. Meanwhile, Omega-3 levels were raised 41% (again, significantly greater than placebo). And that’s just the beginning of a clinically-backed future.

The capsule is designed to support absorption (and less stomach irritation).

Vitamin burps got you down? Know that the right capsule may make a difference. Burps or stomach irritation can happen when your vitamin dissolves too early, which can leave the nutrients subject to harsh stomach acids. Delayed-release capsules are formulated to dissolve later on, which means ideal absorption and less annoying stomach irritation.

Flavor tabs can also help with any ocean-y flavor from, say, an omega-3 DHA—and make your multivitamins more enjoyable to take.

Multivitamins that evolve through different life stages.

Nutrient needs evolve throughout life—it only makes sense that someone who’s expecting a baby needs a different kind of support than someone who just transitioned through menopause. With that in mind, chances are that a single multivitamin won’t be tailor-made to last you a lifetime. Instead, you’ll want to seek out formulas designed for whatever stage you’re in. 

This story was produced by Ritual and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.