12 Min Read

The Best Multivitamins For Pregnancy

This time, our expert reviewers analyse the UK’s 5 best selling multivitamin supplements.
You’ll want to read on. Whilst one is outstanding, they discovered one of them has no more nutrition than a bowl of breakfast cereal with a glass of orange juice, and two of them - almost unbelievably - contain additives that can cause cancer.  

Do I Need a Multivitamin for my Sex and Age Group?

You really don’t need a multivitamin that’s labelled “for women,” “for men,” or “50+.” These kinds of formulas might sound like they’ve been carefully designed for specific needs, but most of the time, the differences are minor and mostly for marketing.

Sure, there are a few variations in nutrient needs - like more iron for menstruating women, or a bit more vitamin D or B12 as we age - but those are usually better handled through targeted supplements or food, not by switching your whole multivitamin. The truth is, most adults need the same core vitamins and minerals, and the best multivitamin for you is one that covers the basics well, not one that’s packed with gimmicks. And if you do have specific needs, it makes way more sense to address those individually, rather than relying on a multivitamin that’s pretending to be personalised when it really isn’t.

Magnesium Complex Zinc + D3
by Bettervits

Choose

✔️ The complete selection of vitamins and minerals

A good multivitamin should have all 13 essential vitamins, and 13 of the 16 essential minerals (some minerals, like sodium, are essential but don’t need supplementing).

There are variations in the molecular structure of nutrients. Look for activated or methylated vitamins, and chelated minerals, which are the best absorbed.

✔️ Well absorbed forms of nutrients

✔️ Pharmaceutical manufacturing

Look for a statement of GMP Certification and reassurance that your multivitamin is made in the UK under our strict standards of hygiene and controls. Third-party laboratory testing of ingredients is another reassurance of purity and safety.

Avoid

❌ Dangerous additives

Vitamins need some additives to make them stay together as tablets, but some products use harmful, unnecessary or even carcinogenic ingredients. Nobody should eat toxic supplements every day.

A good multivitamin should have all 13 essential vitamins, and 13 of the 16 essential minerals (some minerals, like sodium, are essential but don’t need supplementing).

❌ Essential nutrients missing from the formula

❌ Low doses below the minimum daily requirement

The Nutrient Reference Value (NRV) is the minimum amount you need so you can avoid getting a deficiency disease. A multivitamin with less than this amount of ANY nutrient is not doing its job.

Swallow Daily Multivitamin

by Swallow

✅ Contains all 13 essential vitamins
✅ Contains all 13 essential supplement minerals
✅ All nutrients at or over the required minimum amount (NRV)
✅ Includes a full daily dose of Coenzyme Q10
✅ Includes Lutein, important for eye health
✅ Tablets are slimline making them easy to swallow
✅ B Vitamins are methylated, making them more effective for all genetic profiles
✅ All vitamins are in their activated, body-ready forms
✅ All minerals are in chelated forms for maximum absorption
✅ Vegan
✅ 6 month money-back guarantee
✅ Made in UK, pharmaceutical standard, GMP certified facilities
✅ Ingredients are third-party lab tested for purity

PROS

CONS

❌ Only available in a 1-month bottle
❌ Daily dose is 2 tablets, not 1

VitaBright Multivitamins & Minerals

by VitaBright

✅ Contains all 13 essential vitamins and supplement minerals
✅ All nutrients at or over the required minimum amount (NRV)
✅ Exceptional value, with 400 doses in a bottle
✅ Includes Lutein, important for eye health
✅ Tablets are slimline making them easy to swallow
✅ No harmful additives
✅ Full dosage from just one tablet a day
✅ Vegan
✅ 35-day money-back guarantee
✅ Made in UK, pharmaceutical standard, GMP certified facilities
✅ Ingredients are third-party lab tested for purity

PROS

CONS

❌ Contains magnesium oxide and zinc oxide which are less well-absorbed
❌ Vitamins are not methylated/activated
❌ No CoQ10

ABC-Z Multivits and Minerals

by Holland & Barrett

✅ Comes in a choice of bottle sizes from 30 to 240
✅ Just one tablet a day
✅ Contains all 13 essential vitamins
✅ Nutrients are at or over the required minimum amount (NRV)
✅ Contains most essential minerals
✅ 30-day money-back guarantee

PROS

CONS

❌ Contains talc, a suspected cause of cancer (Source: World Health Organisation)
❌ Doesn’t contain all 13 essential supplement minerals
❌ Tablets are bulky, making them harder to swallow
❌ Contains magnesium oxide and zinc oxide which are less well-absorbed
❌ Vitamins are not methylated/activated

Magnesium Comp. with Zinc + D3

by Bettervits

✅ Easily absorbed with 3 types of chelated magnesium
✅ Added zinc and vitamin D3 to increase absorption

PROS

CONS

❌ Less than the NHS recommended magnesium dose (225 mg)
❌ Contains some additives including bulking agent

Advance Adults

by Centrum

✅ Contains all all 13 essential vitamins
✅ Contains most essential minerals
✅ Free from common allergens including gluten, lactose and nuts

PROS

CONS

❌ Very low amount of Vitamin K, below recommended dose
❌ Doesn’t contain all 13 essential supplement minerals
❌ Excessive use of additives (No less than 9 E numbers)
❌ Artificial colouring E132 which can trigger asthma in sensitive individuals
❌ Contains controversial preservative E321
❌ Contains whitener Titanium Dioxide (E171) no longer considered safe by EFSA because it is genotoxic and banned in the EU since 2022
❌ Not vegan or vegetarian
❌ No money-back guarantee

Adult Multivitamins

by Bassetts

✅ Nice tasting gummies that are easy to chew and swallow
✅ Made in Britain
✅ Avoids toxic additives
✅ The vitamins that are included are all dosed at 100% of the daily requirement (NRV)

PROS

CONS

❌ Only comes in a one-month pack
❌ Doesn’t contain all 13 essential vitamins
❌ No minerals at all
❌ Vitamins are not methylated/activated
❌ Not vegan or vegetarian
❌ No Lutein
❌ No CoQ10
❌ Contains sugar
❌ Contains a range of additives including colourings and flavourings

Magnesium Complex Zinc + D3
by Bettervits

ADVERTISING DISCLAIMER: This website is funded by its audience. The content provided is neither a news article nor an independent review but is a sponsored comparison by theswallowco & vitabright. See                                     

ADVERTISING DISCLAIMER: This website is funded by its audience. The content provided is neither a news article nor an independent review.
This comparison and ranking are sponsored by theswallowco & vitabright. For further details, please refer to our                                    

The Nutrients Your Multivitamin SHOULD Contain

There are 13 essential vitamins and 16 essential minerals which we need from our diets [1]. Any good multivitamins should contain all the vitamins, and 13 of the minerals: the essential minerals list includes salt, for example, which is why you don’t need to supplement all of them!

How much do we need? Nutritional Reference Value (NRV) is the bare minimum amount of any nutrient that you need to avoid getting ill. A multivitamin supplement should contain at least 100% of the NRV of every vitamin and trace mineral. The macrominerals - like calcium and magnesium - are too bulky to fit into a one-a-day multivitamin, so they always contain less than 100% of these minerals.

Beware of Toxic Additives in Multivitamins!

Any tablet needs some additives to make the active ingredients stick together. Nowadays there’s a wide choice of additives proven to be safe and effective.

Meanwhile, there’s Titanium Dioxide (E 171), made illegal in the EU as a food additive in 2022 due to concerns over genotoxicity, or the potential to damage DNA [2]. The consequences of gene damage include cancer and birth defects in babies. Why is the world’s best selling brand of multivitamins still using it?

Talc is now classified as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ [3] by the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Once sprinkled on babies’ bottoms, there’s currently a UK lawsuit against talc manufacturers. Yet it’s still used by a leading UK supplement brand as an additive in their multivitamin, sold on high streets throughout the country.

Another dangerous additive we found in one of the products we reviewed include Butylated Hydroxyanisole (E 321), a synthetic antioxidant preservative classified as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC Group 2B) and banned in some countries.