I take mostly individual supplements. The closest thing to a multi that I take is a B complex from Puritan's Pride. I believe I first heard of PP in Prevention magazine many years ago - back when they were still a good source for health information, while Robert Rodale was still alive. I think PP was bought out by GNC several years ago, and I see from the chart in one of your previous articles that the Carlyle Group now owns them. Through the years, I've been generally happy with their products, and I haven't noticed any difference in quality as a result of the changes in ownership, although I'm in no position to perform a qualitative analysis.
Since I'm now a retired old gummer, I'm relying more on supplements to make sure I'm getting all of the nutrients necessary to stay healthy. I no longer have the appetite to eat ten+ helpings of vegetables and a pound of meat everyday, so the quality of the supplements that I take is becoming more of a priority for me. Do you have an opinion of PP products that you're willing to share?
Thanks for every word that you write. I enjoy your articles.
Where I used to live, many of my in-person clients were using PP supplements. I found out they trusted the brand because it was advertised on a popular local Sunday morning religious show. They thought it must be a trustworthy product since it was advertised on a god-loving show. When I suggested a different product, I had some clients who refused to use anything other than PP for this very reason! Wow, now that is excellent marketing.
PP was purchased via Nestle in 2021 when they saw profits to be made in the supplement market after c-19.
I took a quick look at one of their multivitamin/mineral products, and I would not recommend it to my clients due to the forms of some of the ingredients.
Sometimes, when a product is bought by a huge company such as Nestle, they will change the ingredients to create a cheaper product and, hence, a more significant profit. That is not always the case, however.
Thanks for a prompt and thoughtful reply. The main reason I don't use multi supplements is that I want to decide what, how much and in what forms the nutrients are. For minerals I look for chelated forms and I hope that is the best form to use.
One product that I use which might be considered to be a multi is Key Greens from NutriKey, which is a blend of extracts from vegetables, fruits and berries, with very little in the way of "other" ingredients. I can't upload a picture of the label, but you can see the list of ingredients on the website.
They carry quite a few supplements, but I haven't really looked at them very closely. What led me to this company was searching for a product called Thyrotain, which was recommended to my daughter by her primary care physician. My daughter had low thyroid hormone levels and didn't want to take synthetic hormones so her doctor suggested this, and it brought her hormone levels back to the normal range quite quickly. For this product you can see a picture of the label on the website.
Sometimes skipping the multi and taking what you know you may need is better. Also, for sensitive individuals, if you react to an ingredient, with a multi it is challenging to know what you are reacting to.
Green powders are good. Fruits are good too but I think we consume too much fruit and not enough vegetables.
What do you think about Pure Encapsulations brand Pure Genomics Multivitamin? It's not organic, but is GMO. I was thinking a few weeks ago about switching from Pure Genomics to the Global Healing multivitamin. Generally speaking, I like Ed Group and his products. What do you think?
Nestle also owns PE. PE is a GMP-certified product line. Some ingredients are sourced from outside the US, including from China (but this is not different than many other supplements on the market). This product has fewer added ingredients than some other mixtures that I have been looking at. They have a strict policy on fillers. I also like that it said benfothiamine (B1) and a chelated mineral. It has vitamin D in the D2 form, and I do not see magnesium on the list of ingredients.
I also like Ed Group because I align with his health message and philosophy. He seems honest and trustworthy when I watch videos with him- but who knows! I hope Fullscript will coordinate with them to get the GH multi on their site so I can offer discounts on the product.
Thank you for sharing that. Your supplement like all the others that I have been looking at has added ingredients. I assume there is a reason that they all had the same additives. As far as the nutrients go they all are in forms that have greater utlization except for the magnesium which is in oxide form in this supplement.
Iherb is a good consumer site. I use only Fullscript and other professional sites but my son is in Thailand so he used Iherb as they have a Thai site thankfully.
What about a liquid vitamin and getting minerals separately?
Quicksilver scientific has a nanoformulated liquid vitamin that I also like and forgot to mention in my post but it does not have the minerals.
Thank you for sharing these two differing opinions. There is much to consider and learn from! I read the Ray Peat article and am familiar with Dr. Levy, but I looked into his view of calcium. When I switched from healthcare to nutrition, I thought everything would be straightforward and based on science. I have realized that much of science is biased and based on who funds the study, but honest researchers exist!
After reading the Peat article, I understood his recommendation to consume more calcium, not from supplements but dairy. However, Levy advises against dairy and calcium supplements, claiming that we do not need as much as we think. What a dilemma!
My stance is to get all, and if not, most of your calcium from food. I believe that we consume too much calcium in the form of cheap supplements. I keep returning to the paleo diet as one of the healthier diets that does not include dairy. Others state we should not consume dairy b/c animals only drink milk briefly in the animal kingdom. But we are not animals and live longer, so is that true for humans? I honestly do not know. Peat did not discuss the quality of dairy, and I am hesitant to advise people to drink conventional milk and eat cheese and yogurt sourced from CAFO animals. Still, many people cannot access organic/grass-fed or raw dairy. Peat and Levy differ on the CVD risk of calcium, and I have been more aligned with Levy on this topic due to research I have read. I need to look into Peat more and his research and nutrition beliefs.
Thank you for sharing the link. I will look at it when I have some time. My school of thought is that we supplement with too much calcium in isolation which can increase CVD risk. Calcium is better sourced from food or if in supplment form in a balanced form with other key nutrients. Many people take 1500 mg of calcium daily on top of what they are getting in the diet and this has been shown to be too much.
But I will look at the article as I am not sure what the thought is in that article and I try my best to be open minded and continue to learn.
I take mostly individual supplements. The closest thing to a multi that I take is a B complex from Puritan's Pride. I believe I first heard of PP in Prevention magazine many years ago - back when they were still a good source for health information, while Robert Rodale was still alive. I think PP was bought out by GNC several years ago, and I see from the chart in one of your previous articles that the Carlyle Group now owns them. Through the years, I've been generally happy with their products, and I haven't noticed any difference in quality as a result of the changes in ownership, although I'm in no position to perform a qualitative analysis.
Since I'm now a retired old gummer, I'm relying more on supplements to make sure I'm getting all of the nutrients necessary to stay healthy. I no longer have the appetite to eat ten+ helpings of vegetables and a pound of meat everyday, so the quality of the supplements that I take is becoming more of a priority for me. Do you have an opinion of PP products that you're willing to share?
Thanks for every word that you write. I enjoy your articles.
Where I used to live, many of my in-person clients were using PP supplements. I found out they trusted the brand because it was advertised on a popular local Sunday morning religious show. They thought it must be a trustworthy product since it was advertised on a god-loving show. When I suggested a different product, I had some clients who refused to use anything other than PP for this very reason! Wow, now that is excellent marketing.
PP was purchased via Nestle in 2021 when they saw profits to be made in the supplement market after c-19.
I took a quick look at one of their multivitamin/mineral products, and I would not recommend it to my clients due to the forms of some of the ingredients.
Sometimes, when a product is bought by a huge company such as Nestle, they will change the ingredients to create a cheaper product and, hence, a more significant profit. That is not always the case, however.
Thanks for a prompt and thoughtful reply. The main reason I don't use multi supplements is that I want to decide what, how much and in what forms the nutrients are. For minerals I look for chelated forms and I hope that is the best form to use.
One product that I use which might be considered to be a multi is Key Greens from NutriKey, which is a blend of extracts from vegetables, fruits and berries, with very little in the way of "other" ingredients. I can't upload a picture of the label, but you can see the list of ingredients on the website.
https://nutrikey.net/products/key-greens-fruits-canister-berry
They carry quite a few supplements, but I haven't really looked at them very closely. What led me to this company was searching for a product called Thyrotain, which was recommended to my daughter by her primary care physician. My daughter had low thyroid hormone levels and didn't want to take synthetic hormones so her doctor suggested this, and it brought her hormone levels back to the normal range quite quickly. For this product you can see a picture of the label on the website.
https://nutrikey.net/products/thyrotain-120-capsules
Sometimes skipping the multi and taking what you know you may need is better. Also, for sensitive individuals, if you react to an ingredient, with a multi it is challenging to know what you are reacting to.
Green powders are good. Fruits are good too but I think we consume too much fruit and not enough vegetables.
Glad a supplement worked for her thyroid issue!
What do you think about Pure Encapsulations brand Pure Genomics Multivitamin? It's not organic, but is GMO. I was thinking a few weeks ago about switching from Pure Genomics to the Global Healing multivitamin. Generally speaking, I like Ed Group and his products. What do you think?
Nestle also owns PE. PE is a GMP-certified product line. Some ingredients are sourced from outside the US, including from China (but this is not different than many other supplements on the market). This product has fewer added ingredients than some other mixtures that I have been looking at. They have a strict policy on fillers. I also like that it said benfothiamine (B1) and a chelated mineral. It has vitamin D in the D2 form, and I do not see magnesium on the list of ingredients.
I also like Ed Group because I align with his health message and philosophy. He seems honest and trustworthy when I watch videos with him- but who knows! I hope Fullscript will coordinate with them to get the GH multi on their site so I can offer discounts on the product.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I'm glad to know Nestle owns PE and will avoid that brand in the future.
Even though Nestle owns it, it is one of the products that does have less fillers so that is a bonus!
Thank you for sharing that. Your supplement like all the others that I have been looking at has added ingredients. I assume there is a reason that they all had the same additives. As far as the nutrients go they all are in forms that have greater utlization except for the magnesium which is in oxide form in this supplement.
Iherb is a good consumer site. I use only Fullscript and other professional sites but my son is in Thailand so he used Iherb as they have a Thai site thankfully.
What about a liquid vitamin and getting minerals separately?
Quicksilver scientific has a nanoformulated liquid vitamin that I also like and forgot to mention in my post but it does not have the minerals.
Thank you for sharing these two differing opinions. There is much to consider and learn from! I read the Ray Peat article and am familiar with Dr. Levy, but I looked into his view of calcium. When I switched from healthcare to nutrition, I thought everything would be straightforward and based on science. I have realized that much of science is biased and based on who funds the study, but honest researchers exist!
After reading the Peat article, I understood his recommendation to consume more calcium, not from supplements but dairy. However, Levy advises against dairy and calcium supplements, claiming that we do not need as much as we think. What a dilemma!
My stance is to get all, and if not, most of your calcium from food. I believe that we consume too much calcium in the form of cheap supplements. I keep returning to the paleo diet as one of the healthier diets that does not include dairy. Others state we should not consume dairy b/c animals only drink milk briefly in the animal kingdom. But we are not animals and live longer, so is that true for humans? I honestly do not know. Peat did not discuss the quality of dairy, and I am hesitant to advise people to drink conventional milk and eat cheese and yogurt sourced from CAFO animals. Still, many people cannot access organic/grass-fed or raw dairy. Peat and Levy differ on the CVD risk of calcium, and I have been more aligned with Levy on this topic due to research I have read. I need to look into Peat more and his research and nutrition beliefs.
Thank you for sharing the link. I will look at it when I have some time. My school of thought is that we supplement with too much calcium in isolation which can increase CVD risk. Calcium is better sourced from food or if in supplment form in a balanced form with other key nutrients. Many people take 1500 mg of calcium daily on top of what they are getting in the diet and this has been shown to be too much.
But I will look at the article as I am not sure what the thought is in that article and I try my best to be open minded and continue to learn.