When It Comes to Multivitamin Labels, "Less Is More" May Be the Best Approach

Unread emails. Cologne. Dinner options. Sometimes, less really is more—and from our POV, that includes your multivitamins.

For example, did you know that you probably get plenty of vitamin C from your diet alone? And copper, and selenium? It’s easy to see these nutrients on a vitamin label and assume that they’re needed. After all, more of a good thing probably can’t hurt, right?

There’s a delicate balance to the way that nutrients work together in our bodies, and too much of one thing can impact another. Plus, it’s just not always necessary—and in some cases, can even be harmful. (More on that in a minute.) We’re all about a food-first approach to nutrient intake, and believe a multivitamin should only help fill the gaps in your diet. That’s why you’ll only find nine nutrients in our Essential for Women, ten in Essential for Men, and twelve in our Essential Prenatal. Hold the extras, please, including mystery ingredients and other shady additives.

But let’s dive into some specifics, shall we?

Nutrients that you won’t find in our vitamins (and why):

Calcium. US adults typically get adequate Calcium from their diets. That’s why Ritual focuses on Calcium helper-nutrients like Vitamin D3, Vitamin K2, Magnesium and Boron: Without their support, supplementing with more Calcium won’t necessarily help with bone health.*

These are all reasons why we skip Calcium in our multivitamins and prioritize the helper-nutrients we mentioned instead: to help support the Calcium you’re already getting from your diet.*

Vitamin C. Vitamin C’s great rep is well-deserved, since it helps support normal immune function. But the good news is that US adults typically get adequate amounts from their diets (citrus fruits, broccoli, spinach, and bell peppers, to name a few). It’s also worth mentioning that overdoing it on vitamin C can impact the absorption of certain other nutrients, like B12.

Two important exceptions? Kids (we include vitamin C in our Essential for Kids gummy multivitamins) and women who have recently given birth. Women who are postpartum have higher vitamin C needs, which is why we include vitamin C in our Essential Postnatal. (1)

Copper. Copper is an important supporting player, aiding iron absorption and partnering with it to form new red blood cells. But most adults get enough of it from their diets: nuts, beans, and seeds are great sources of copper.* (2)

Selenium. This mineral aids with our metabolism and thyroid, but we only need a small amount of it—which most women get easily through food sources like nuts and fish.* (3)

Shady fillers and additives have no place in multivitamins.

Nutrient overflow is one thing. Shady filler ingredients are quite another, especially since they may be difficult to discern on a multivitamin label. We skip unnecessary extras like colorants, mystery fillers, sugar, and major allergens like gluten. Instead, we focus on high-quality, vegan-friendly nutrients your body needs… without the B.S.*

Basically, we decluttered the multivitamin for you. But the nutrients we do include in our multivitamins are where we focus on the “more” in “less is more.” It wasn’t enough for us to zero in on common nutritional gaps most of us need help with (and skip the rest). We also had to cross the globe to find high-quality forms of those nutrients, and house them in a minty-tab bottle to help make taking multivitamins a much better experience. In other words, it’s doing more with less—an MO we can definitely stand behind.*

References:

1. Office of Dietary Supplements - Vitamin C. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Institutes of Health
2. Office of Dietary Supplements - Copper. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Institutes of Health
3. Office of Dietary Supplements - Selenium. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Institutes of Health