I get a lot of questions about my thoughts on multivitamin supplements.

I am not a fan.

At a basic level, I think they're unnecessary for most people and not the best way to approach the issue they're meant to address.

Multivitamin supplements usually contain 15 to 30 different ingredients. In the case of AG1 (intended to be a multivitamin supplement, there's over 70).

The chances that someone is deficient in all of these nutrients and needs to be supplementing them all simultaneously are astronomically low.

If someone is not deficient in a nutrient, or if their levels of a certain nutrient are already higher, supplementing it does not make sense. Actually, in many cases, it can cause issues.

Every nutrient in the body interacts with others. Some are dependent on each other. Some are antagonists.

There's a balance that needs to be obtained in order for things to function properly.

For example, too much zinc without copper can lead to issues with copper deficiency.

Just given the number of nutrients included in most multivitamin supplements, maintaining these delicate balances is tough since everyone is not starting from the same place.

To make matters worse, a lot of the multivitamin supplements on the market don't take the interactions between nutrients into account at all.

Using the example above, there are a lot of multivitamins that contain decent amounts of zinc without copper. Too much zinc without sufficient amounts of copper to balance it out can lead to deficiencies in copper levels.

Another example is calcium and magnesium, which are both often included in multivitamins. These two nutrients can interact with each other. Higher amounts of calcium can inhibit the absorption of magnesium.

Or the fact that many of these supplements contain higher amounts of vitamin D without vitamin K. This can lead to higher calcium absorption, and the calcium being deposited in the arteries and tissues instead of being properly utilized in bones.

Another issue I have with multivitamins is the form of the actual nutrients in them.

For example, there's a big difference between heme iron and supplemental non-heme iron.

Heme iron is found in animal foods and is more bioavailable, meaning the body can absorb and utilize it better. Supplementing with non-heme iron, especially at higher levels or over long periods, could lead to issues with unbound iron in the body.

Higher doses or long periods of supplementing iron that is less bioavailable increases the chances that iron starts to accumulate in the body. This can overwhelm the body and lead to issues like oxidative stress, cellular damage and increase the risk of chronic diseases like neurodegenerative disorders or even cancer.

But wait, there's more.

If you look at the label of a supplement, there's typically ingredients listed as "other ingredients".

These are often included to help prevent supplements from clumping, improve their absorption, preserve them, etc.

In multivitamin supplements (and other supplements too), this often includes things like silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide or carrageenan.

I wrote an email last Friday about how these ingredients can have toxic effects in the body. Ranging from damage to organs like the liver to inducing colitis.

When you combine all of these issues together (which is the case with a lot of the ones on the market), multivitamin supplements are usually not a great option.

What's a better approach in my opinion is addressing deficiencies directly with a more targeted approach.

As mentioned before, it's unlikely that someone is deficient in 30 different nutrients and that the ideal ratios between these nutrient levels in the body aligns with the ratios in a multivitamin supplement.

Instead of taking a supplement with tons of nutrients I don't need to supplement just to address a deficiency I have in a couple of supplements, I'd rather supplement with those specific nutrients and any others that have strong interactions with them directly.

This way I have way more control of dosage, ratios, etc.

That is, if it is even necessary to supplement them in the first place.

While there are some multivitamins I've found that are decent, I haven't found any that have none of the issues mentioned here.

Thorne for example has some options without toxic additives and with decent dosing/ratios, but still not at the levels that I think make most sense and with several nutrients in forms that are not ideal in my opinion.

So, for those of you who have asked, I hope this helps with understanding my thoughts on multivitamin supplements.

Eating a diverse diet of nutrient dense foods and taking a targeted approach to supplement specific nutrients in the appropriate amounts where needed is my approach.

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- Nick