People take vitamin supplements for all kinds of reasons and whatever your health concern you’ll find supplements to help with menopause, gut health and supplements for healthier hair, skin, nails and joints. Some take a whole host of pills and powders to optimise their wellbeing, but for others, taking ten or more capsules a day can be confusing and time consuming. This is where multivitamins come in.
When the body is lacking essential vitamins and minerals, either due to diet and lifestyle or a health issue, it can significantly affect all aspects of your health, from cognitive function to how often you’re likely to get sick. Multivitamins present a clever way of combining all the elements of varying supplement types in one capsule and most people take them to hit their recommended daily allowance of vital nutrients.
Multivitamins can help to improve energy levels, immunity, brain health and bone strength. They can also be great for people with dietary restrictions and genetic or hormonal deficiencies and for kids and teens, giving their growing bodies and brains the extra nutrients they need to thrive.
Whether you’re seeking to boost your energy, enhance immunity, support the journey through menopause or puberty or fill nutritional gaps, a high-quality multivitamin can make a big difference. However, there are a few things to consider before you go out and buy one.
Specialist menopause nutritionist Emma Bardwell says, “I will often recommend a multivitamin for a prescribed duration, particularly if a person is time-poor and doesn’t have the bandwidth to remember to take a regime of targeted nutrients. With a multivitamin, you get everything in one go.”
If you’re wondering how to add a multivitamin into your daily routine, nutritionist Maz Packham advises that, “it’s usually best to take a multivitamin with food, so getting into the habit of having it with your breakfast can be a good way to remember. If your meal contains some fat (think avocado, eggs or nuts) it will optimise absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.”
Though there are plenty of multivitamins to choose from, they’re not all created equal. You want to ensure you’re investing in a supplement with the right amounts of balanced high-quality nutrients that will impact the body in the best way.
We sought the advice of Maz Packham and Emma Bardwell to find out which multivitamin products they’d personally recommend, how to take them and which might be best suited to differing diets and lifestyles. Read on for our guide to the best multivitamin capsules and powders to boost wellbeing, approved and recommended by expert nutritionists.