Vitamin & Mineral Supplements: What Are The Options?

Perhaps you think multivitamins are reserved for those over the age of 55 to help with joint problems from hardcore gardening.

Or maybe you just make do with whatever’s available in your local chemist.

If so, get with it, multis are an essential supplement for those who train hard and want maximum returns.

But why take a multi?

For insurance purposes, that’s why.

Even if you eat a clean diet with a variety of coloured fruits and vegetables, the likelihood is you still aren’t getting in your required vitamins and minerals.

The fact is that over the past 50 or so years, farming has changed radically.

The amount of food we consume has increased massively, and foods no longer contain the same micronutrient profile they used to.¹

This could be down to many additives and preservatives being included in most produce, but also just the fact that the turnover of soil in agriculture is so much more regular.

Or that the storage and reheating of foods is much more common in general.²

All these reasons lead to a loss of micronutrients in our daily diet.

Taking a vitamin supplement is insurance for your body – you are making sure you’ll get the required micronutrients, adding strength to your diet.

So, what vitamin supplements in the UK are available to us?

And, more importantly, what’s worth spending money on?

Basic multi

Your basic multi can be found everywhere.

Boots, Superdrug, and even most supermarkets nowadays sell a one-a-day multi for only a couple of quid.

But the fact is that basic multis just don’t get the doses right.

They might be OK for emergencies, but shit you’d have to take about five a day to realistically get in your vitamins and minerals.

And most the time they miss off a load of important ones like selenium.

A waste of money.

Avoid these if you take your diet seriously.

You’d be better off eating those Thomas the Tank Engine chewies your mum used to give you as a kid.

Bulk Powders Complete Multi

Bulk Powders offer a great multi at a great price:

http://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/complete-multivitamin-complex.html

These are three-a-day and are tailored to include a lot more essential minerals than a standard one-a-day, as well as pro-biotics and anti-oxidants.

At just over a tenner for a month’s worth, this product is a great place to start if you are new to multivitamin supplementation.

Check out our latest Bulk Powders discount codes to save even more cash on your order.

Optimum Nutrition Opti Men

Optimum Nutrition offer a very similar product to Bulk Powders called Opti Men.

However this product is available on the high street at places like GNC and Holland & Barrett.

Opti Men is again a 3-a-day multivitamin, but this time tailored directly for men – hence the name.

They are conveniently available, but obviously the downside is that they are more expensive than the Bulk Powders product, although many people do prefer the quality of Optimum Nutrition.

For women, Myprotein offer a very similar product but tailored to the female athlete.

http://www.myprotein.com/sports-nutrition/elle-active-woman/10530541.html

This is a great product, and although you may think we are massive chauvinists at GymTalk, we really would love to see more products tailored to women who actually train.

Check out our Myprotein discount codes to save, save, save!

Animal Pak

This is the stuff to take if you are serious about lifting, which is an opinion made clear in our recent review of Animal Pak.

But it comes at a price – and that’s in chucking down a whomping 11 pills per day!

Animal Pak can often be expensive too if you don’t know where to look, but I have seen it on sale at Amazon for as little as £24 for a 44 pack (44 days) tin, which, in my opinion, is well worth it.

With a combination of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, digestive enzymes and antioxidants, Animal Pak is quite simply the absolute best multivitamin for men.

Signing off

We’d love to know what you think of multi supplements.

What are your favourite multivitamins?

Ever had any bad experiences with them?

Hit us up in the comments or on Facebook with your thoughts.

References

[1] The Essential Guide to Vitamins, Minerals and Herbal Supplements, Dr Sarah Brewer, 2009, Right Way Publishing.

[2] Earl Mindell’s New Vitamin Bible, 2005, Souvenier Press.