Do You Need to Change Your Supplements?

For anyone new here, I eat a vegan diet and I’m gluten intolerant. It will be seven years this summer since I stopped eating animal products, and after seven years, you think you have pretty much everything covered. This post isn’t about pushing a new supplement on you, but more about asking you to reflect upon your needs every once in a while, do you need to change your supplements? Because I just changed my supplements for the first time in six years. And it was probably long overdue.  

I’ve done two blog posts prior to this one about how I supplement my vegan diet. One is very old at this point, but the more recent one contained four supplements, some taken daily and others intermittently. 

Suggested Post: How I Supplement My Vegan Diet

Supplementation History 

When I first switched to a vegan diet, I only took B12, then I switched to a B vitamin complex simply because that was cheaper than the B12 alone, then after about 5/6 months on a vegan diet, I started taking the Holland & Barrett vegan multivitamin, and that’s the main supplement I’ve been taking for the last S-I-X years. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that multivitamin, and I thought I’d probably take it…forever. But I decided to try something else in December, and I wanted to wait until I’d been taking it for a while before I mentioned it.  

For about 6/7 weeks, I’ve been taking the Boots Vegan Multivitamin with Omega 3 daily*, and while I haven’t noticed any huge differences to my health or the way my body feels, this superstar vitamin seems to do it all.  

*Daily actually means roughly 5 or 6 days a week because I’m guaranteed to forget at least once in a seven-day period.  

I only take my multi as a boost, I try to make sure my diet is balanced and fairy healthy. I pay attention to the nutritional value of my food and look for any potential gaps if I’ve been neglecting foods containing a certain vitamin or mineral for a little while and try to adjust my intake to fix it. My supplementation is by no means an alternative to getting my nutrients from food, so I would hope not to see a huge difference when I change my supplements.  

But, let’s talk about this multi for a second.  

Vitamins Compared

The H&B Vegan multi contains the following vitamins and minerals. You get 60 in a bottle for £5.99, working out at 10p/ day. And I thought this was adequate.  

However, the Boots Vegan multivitamin contains the following.

You can get packs of the multivitamin alone, or get it with the Omega 3 as a separate capsule. The multi is £8 per 60 tablets (13.3p/ day) and the one with the omega is £11 per 30 tablets (36.7p/ day). Quite a bit more expensive, but vegan Omega 3 capsules purchased alone are £9.99 for 30 from H&B or £26.99 for 90 from My Vegan, so still fairly good value for money on balance.

It’s worth pointing out that Boots also sell an Omega 3 capsule alone, but that one uses Flaxseed oil and the one in the multi uses algae oil and studies typically show that algae is the best plant based source of omega 3 in terms of how well the body absorbs it.  

Why I switched my multivitamins 

I’ve mentioned before that I used to force myself to try to eat a brazil nut daily. That’s because of their selenium content. I say force because brazil nuts are quite possibly the most disgusting food on earth in my humble opinion.  

Another key ingredient here is iodine. I see iodine mentioned quite often as a potential deficiency in western diets in general, not exclusively plant based people but it’s only really found in iodized salts, and basically impossible to track your intake using a regular nutrition tracker like Cronometer.  

I’ve never taken an omega 3, ever. And I’ve never had an omega 3 rich diet. I always hated oily fish and had never had chia or flaxseed prior to adopting a vegan diet. And although I do consume chia and flax regularly now, I’m aware that very little of that is converted and absorbed in the body. Now, because I didn’t have any in my diet at all prior to that, the fact I wasn’t getting the recommended amount wasn’t my highest concern, but if that’s easily fixed then I probably should.  

If I could ditch my brazil nuts, get a micronutrient that I know my diet is likely lacking, and another that’s hard to track intake of, it sounds like the Boots option is the obvious choice.  

My Health & Body Since Switching 

There are no real changes to note in terms of skin or digestion or energy levels or any other area that people look for changes in when they switch their supplements. I think my hair might be growing a little faster since changing them, but it’s a bit too soon to tell definitively.  

The outcome 

For now, I’m sticking with the Boots ones as I think they actually contain the things my diet could be lacking (iodine, selenium, extra omega 3).  

If I’m being brutally honest, the majority of things in a multivitamin aren’t things you’re likely low in. It’s very easy to get iron on a plant based diet, and B vitamins (B12 aside) are abundant in greens, grains, and legumes. The vast majority of the ingredients are merely a security blanket if your diet is relatively healthy, which is why I recommend everyone tracks a little more closely every once in a while, and looks for potential gaps and adjust as necessary – whether that’s a dietary change or a supplement change. 

Do you take any multivitamins? And when was the last time you checked if yours were right for you?

Until next time,

Sophie

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