I am often asked for product recommendations and how to choose the best multivitamin for athletes. In general, I typically don’t recommend athletes take a multivitamin until after I’m able to assess their diet. If the athlete is able to consume a well-balanced diet with a wide variety of foods, a multivitamin may not be necessary. Instead, I will advise supplementing with individual micronutrients, for example, vitamin D or B12, as needed and educate on whole food sources.
However, for some athletes, multivitamins are a quick and inexpensive way to minimize deficiency risk, without worrying about purchasing several individual micronutrients. And with so many on the market, my intern Dana and I started to search for the most effective, affordable, and highest quality multivitamin for athletes. If you are considering a multivitamin, make sure to work with your sports dietitian to ensure that a multivitamin is the best option for you.
The FDA does not regulate supplements so you must always use caution when using them. Athletes should only use products that go through a third party certification, such as NSF certified for sport or Informed-Sport. Required for athletes to ensure they aren’t consuming any illegal substances; this certification assures what’s listed on the package is what’s actually in the product and that the product contains no banned substances. Five out of the 12 total multivitamins in this review are NSF Certified for Sport.
This review is not sponsored. I was not paid by these brands or compensated in any way for this review.
We started by identifying the nutrients that athletes should be looking for in an effective multivitamin. We put together this graphic that highlights the nutrients and their recommended daily intake that are most applicable to athletes. Health professionals wanting a more in depth breakdown for each of the reviewed multivitamins, click here for a comparison chart.
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