A high-quality multivitamin is the first supplement I recommend out of my Foundational Five. In the time it takes to swallow the capsules, you significantly increase your total nutrition intake for the day.



As important as they are, I'm often surprised by how few people understand the importance of taking multivitamins each day.



If you still don’t understand why you need a high-quality multivitamin, start here. If you know why but don’t know which multivitamin is best, this post is for you.





If you didn’t read my blog post on how to identify a high-quality multivitamin, here are a handful of criteria to consider. In the best multivitamins, you’ll find:




The natural form of folate, not folic acid



Methylcobalamin, not cyanocobalamin



Mineral chelates (i.e. bisglycinate)



Vitamin K2, not just K1



Well-above the Daily Value (DV) for most vitamins



Other health-promoting ingredients, such as herbs, adaptogens, amino acids, etc., at efficacious dosages




It’s not enough for the label to boast 100% of the Daily Value (DV) of essential vitamins and minerals. You need the forms your body absorbs.



Low-quality, low-priced multivitamins use forms of essential nutrients you can't absorb. The label might look impressive, but if you can't use the nutrients, you just create premium-priced urine.



Other than the gummy multivitamin I recommend for kids, each of the products that made this “best” list makes an excellent multivitamin for women. Men would benefit from all of them other than the gummy and the prenatal multivitamin.



These multivitamins are professional-quality supplements. As such:




The packaging isn’t designed for retail with flashy graphics and half-naked models. These professional brands usually invest more in their medical teams and quality manufacturing than in marketing experts. I’d prefer to use the best product with mediocre packaging than use a product with the coolest packaging that does nothing for me.



None of these supplements contains artificial flavors, color, or sweeteners.



All are gluten-free but not necessarily vegan.



If you take medication or are being treated for a medical condition, always check with your doctor before introducing a new supplement to your nutrition plan.



Most of these supplements contain ingredients in addition to their vitamins and minerals. As each person is unique, if you have a subtle reaction to a multivitamin, it's often one of the botanicals or additional ingredients. Consider a different product if that occurs for you.




You'll find each of these multivitamins through my Wellevate dispensary. As always, my members and customers get 15% off all products from the more than 300 brands available through it.








Multi-Vitamin Elite by Thorne (Work & Athletic Performance)



Best for Peak Work and Athletic Performance












This is the multivitamin I've used for most of the past six years, which I recommend most often. I'm biased towards the Thorne Multi-Vitamin Elite AM PM as I helped develop this formula years ago when I worked with Thorne. I'm not an employee anymore, so I'm recommending this because I genuinely believe it's an awesome multivitamin, not because I have any ties to Thorne.



Multi-Vitamin Elite comes in a morning dose and evening dose. When you eat, just take the AM dose with your first meal and the PM dose with your last meal. Each dose is three capsules.



It contains high levels of vitamins in the most bioavailable forms, including folate as L-5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, Vitamin K split between K1 and K2, and Vitamin A coming from both Beta Carotene and Palmitate, as well as an optimal dose of Zinc to support testosterone production and immune function.*



Most of the minerals are Albion's Bisglycinate Chelates. Due to their extreme size, you'll need to take extra magnesium and possibly calcium. It wouldn't be possible to provide optimal doses of these minerals without adding 3-6 more capsules to the formula....