Originally published June 18 2008
NSI Synergy Multivitamins Earn Coveted "Editor's Choice" Award for Making Quality Nutrition Affordable
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) As the editor of NaturalNews.com, I'm responsible for reviewing nutritional products for more than one million readers who trust our independent, objective product recommendations. NaturalNews readers are always looking for the best quality (and best value) they can find in high-quality nutritional supplements that help them experience real results, and one of the most common questions I'm asked is, "Which multivitamin product provides the best nutrition for my dollar?"
This article will help answer that question, and below, you'll find specific recommendations of leading multivitamins I've found to provide the best combination of affordability and quality. Remember, I've personally tested and reviewed more than five hundred nutritional products from countless formulators and manufacturers, and I've seen the whole spectrum of nutritional products, from high-end (but high-priced) supplements to low-quality "junk" vitamins sold to unsuspecting consumers at big-box retail stores. This has helped me refine my thinking on what makes a "good" multivitamin product, and I'll share that with you here.
First off, let's define a "multivitamin." Traditionally, a multivitamin was a supplement product that provided a combination of essential vitamins and minerals, but lately, pioneering formulators have been adding phytonutrients, superfood concentrates, antioxidants and even natural absorption enhancers (like piperine, an extract from black pepper). So today's "multivitamins" are far superior to those available just three years ago.
Multivitamins are offered in both tablet and capsule formats. I strongly prefer capsules, since tablets are virtually indigestible for many people. Capsules dissolve easily, allowing the nutrient powders to be quickly absorbed and assimilated into the body. All the multivitamins I recommend in this article are capsules, not tablets. Where possible, I prefer veggie caps, but gelatin caps are far more affordable, and Kosher gelatin is preferred by many consumers for precisely this reason.
How many multivitamins should you take each day?
Finally, multivitamins come in various serving sizes. Some multivitamins try to cover all the nutritional bases in a single capsule per day. Others require 3 capsules, 6 capsules or even 12 capsules per day. What's the difference in these serving sizes? Simply put, a one-a-day capsule cannot possibly provide you with sufficient quantities of important macro minerals (like calcium and magnesium), nor can it fit in all the extras like veggie concentrates, superfood powders, herbal extracts and other desirable nutritional elements.
So my advice in choosing a multivitamin is to first decide the maximum number of capsules you're willing to take each day, and then decide from there which brand of multivitamins gives you the best value for your dollar while conforming to your quantity decision.
Some people can only reliably take one multivitamin capsule per day, and if that's their limit, then there's a multivitamin supplement available today that packs as much as possible into a single capsule. More mainstream health consumers, however, are taking at least three capsules a day, and I personally take anywhere from six to twelve multivitamin capsules per day, depending on the day.
The point is to select the formulation that's right for the quantity of capsules you plan to take, because if I were to take twelve capsules from a one-a-day formula, I'd be getting way too many B vitamins for that day. Instead, I should be taking twelve capsules of a 12-a-day formula that spreads out daily the B vitamins across those twelve capsules.
Finally, once you know how many capsules you want to take, it's important to find a brand that offers you the best combination of affordability vs. quality that fits into whatever budget you've allocated for nutritional supplements.
I always say, of course, that investing in your health is the best investment you can make, and given how much money people spend on things like Starbucks coffee, houses, cars, clothing, vacations and jewelry, I think people should allocate a much larger percentage of their budget to health and nutrition. But that's your choice. In my life, health and nutrition are at the top of my list of things to spend money on. In fact, I can't imagine anything more important to spend money on!
But hey, for some people, jewelry comes first, fashion comes second and then vitamins come third. And wherever that person is at with their maturity about health and nutrition, it's fine for the moment. They can start where they are right now and then step up to a healthier life in the future whenever they're ready!
The Three Steps for Choosing a Multivitamin
So here are the three steps for choosing a multivitamin:
Step 1: Decide how many capsules you wish to take each day.
Step 2: Find a trusted formulation that's designed around that daily quantity of capsules.
Step 3: Buy the multivitamins and take them each day, always with food, and always spread out throughout the day.
Now, let's talk about affordability vs. quality in multivitamins.
Affordability vs. Quality
In the natural health marketplace, affordability and quality are often at odds in a particular multivitamin supplement. The more affordable a supplement is, the lower the quality typically is. At the same time, an extremely high-quality multivitamin supplement is usually not very affordable, thanks to the high cost of the premium ingredients.
So what's right for you? Some people insist that high quality is the only thing that matters; that everybody should buy the most expensive multivitamins available today, and anything less than the extreme very best is not acceptable. While I would love to think that folks are prioritizing their nutrition in that way, I also know that in the real world, consumers are looking for the best value for their dollar. The want something that's based on quality while being readily affordable. And most people are not willing to pay twice as much, for example, just to get a 10% improvement in the quality of the ingredients.
To better visualize all this, I've created a two-axis chart that plots affordability vs. quality for multivitamin supplements. You can click the thumbnail below to see the full-sized version of this chart yourself.
I've plotted four multivitamin supplement companies here for comparison. They are:
• Centrum (medium affordability, low quality)
• NSI Synergy from Vitacost (high affordability, high quality)
• Wellness Resources (medium affordability, extremely high quality)
• LEF / Life Extension Foundation (low-to-medium affordability, high quality)
What this chart shows you is that Centrum, the popular retail store brand of multivitamins (which I believe is owned by a drug company subsidiary) is not a very good choice for discerning consumers. The quality of the supplement is very low, even though the price might make it seem somewhat affordable. For the same amount of money, you can do much better...
Wellness Resources (www.WellnessResources.com), at the opposite end of the spectrum, offers extremely high-quality, high-potency multivitamins. This is great for those consumers who have the necessary funds available to purchase these products, and I've openly recommended Wellness Resources formulations for many years. They are among the very highest quality in the industry, and they're made with veggie caps, not gelatin. They're not the most affordable, nor do they try to be. Byron Richards doesn't try to compete on price, because when you're using high-quality ingredients, you can never out-price somebody like Centrum who's using much lower-quality ingredients.
The Life Extension Foundation (www.LEF.org) is known for providing high-potency multivitamin supplements, but I've found their prices to be quite high in many cases. And some of the ingredients are still not the best they could be (such as the form of Vitamin B12 they use, which is still partially cyanocobalamin). That's why LEF earns a lower quality rating than Wellness Resources, and a lower affordability rating than NSI Synergy.
NSI Synergy makes quality vitamins affordable
Now let's talk about NSI Synergy, because this is the brand that the rest of this article is all about. NSI Synergy is a line of 35 different multivitamin products. Some are formulated for men, some are for women, and some are even formulated for combating high cholesterol! They're available in 1-a-day, 6-a-day, 8-a-day and even 12-a-day formulations, making them relatively easy to fit into the daily supplement habits of anyone interested in being healthier though the power of good nutrition.
What's remarkable about NSI Synergy, however, is the price: This line of supplements is priced at a level that might make you think they're made with lower quality ingredients, but in reality, they're packed with many of the top forms of vitamins, minerals, superfood concentrates and other bioactive elements. This brand of multivitamins -- which is sold by Vitacost.com -- offers the best affordability I've seen yet in a quality multivitamin product. So for those on a tight budget who want to get the most nutrition for their dollar, this product line turns out to be a solid solution.
The NSI Synergy product line even uses top-grade ingredients like the methylcobalamin form of vitamin B12 and the dicalcium malate form of calcium. My only nutrition-based complaint about this line of multivitamins, in fact, is that the form of magnesium they use is magnesium oxide, which is not the very best form (magnesium malate is way better), but given the solid value and quality of all the other ingredients used in this formula, the magnesium oxide is a minor consideration. The other thing to consider is that these supplements are not 100% vegan, given the Kosher gelatin capsules they're made with. I prefer veggie caps like those used by Wellness Resources, but NSI Synergy uses gelatin capsules. These are the two main reasons why I didn't rate this line of supplements even higher on the "quality" axis of the chart.
Looking at the cost and value of NSI Synergy multivitamins
What's really remarkable about the NSI Synergy line is just how much nutrition they provide for your dollar. For example, a bottle of NSI Synergy Supreme Multi-Vitamin, version 3 is offered at only $60 for 360 capsules. That's about 16.5 cents per capsule. At 12 capsules per day, it comes to just two bucks a day to be really well nourished with a product that's loaded with vitamins, minerals, superfoods, plant extracts and a whole lot more (see below for a more complete analysis).
In comparison, the Life Extension Mix Caps costs $105 for 490 capsules, which is 21.5 cents per capsule, or $2.57 cents a day if you take twelve (the recommended dosage is actually 14). Yes, you can get a Life Extension member discount, but you have to pay $75 a year to become a member. The NSI Synergy brand, meanwhile, requires no membership, and you can get an additional 10% off the entire NSI Synergy line right now simply by being a NaturalNews reader.
How? We've negotiated yet another generous discount on your behalf! It's part of what we do here at NaturalNews to help you get top-line nutritional products available at really competitive prices. Use coupon code NatNews1 to get 10% off any NSI Synergy multivitamin product for the next seven days only. Here's the page of the products covered in this review: http://www.vitacost.com/Natural-News-Synergy-Products
And here's a page showing the entire NSI Synergy product line: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI/Ntt-synergy
(The 10% discount applies to the entire NSI Synergy product line.)
With this NaturalNews discount code, you can get a bottle of 360 capsules for less than $54, which comes to just $1.80 per day for twelve capsules. That's a truly remarkable value, especially when you learn what's in these capsules (see below).
So keep reading, and when you're done learning about what's in this NSI Synergy line of multivitamins, use the NaturalNews discount code ("NatNews1") to get an additional 10% off the already-low price offered at Vitacost.com.
All the "daily cost" numbers shown below include the 10% discount, by the way. If you're reading this article after June 26, 2008, then this discount code has probably already expired, and you should check more recent NaturalNews articles to see if new discount codes have been published. (We cannot guarantee this discount will be repeated. That's up to Vitacost.)
Review of NSI Synergy Once Daily Capsules (One a Day) (30 cents a day)
This once-a-day multivitamin packs quite a nutritional punch for such a small format. For just 30 cents a day, it provides healthy levels of the B vitamins plus several trace minerals like chromium, manganese, selenium and zinc. Remarkably, it also provides healthy levels of CoQ10, green tea extract, resveratrol, red wine extract, quercetin and grape seed extract.
Something else that's truly noteworthy is the inclusion of 2000 IUs of Vitamin D3 (the good form of Vitamin D). Given the widespread Vitamin D deficiency across North America -- and the ability of Vitamin D to halt nearly 4 out of 5 cancers of all types -- the Vitamin D levels provided by this formula will produce significant health benefits to nearly everyone taking this formula: Increased bone health, heart health, liver health and brain health, and the routine prevention of cancer.
What it lacks are the macro minerals like calcium and magnesium. There's simply not enough room in a one-a-day capsule to include those minerals. Nor does it offer veggie concentrates, superfood extracts or other goodies you'll find in the following formulas, but for a basic one-a-day formula, this NSI Synergy multivitamin is an exceptional value that's easy for just about anybody to take. (It's also good for traveling since the form is so compact.)
See the complete list of ingredients here: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Synergy-Once-Daily-Multi-Vitamin-Version-3-60-Capsules#IngredientFacts
Review of NSI Synergy 3000 Multivitamin (Six a Day) (90 cents a day)
Building on the one-a-day formula, above, the NSI Synergy 3000 Multivitamin adds some really nice vegetable extracts and superfood concentrates, including broccoli sprouts (with powerful anti-cancer effects), a high-ORAC berry extract combination (blueberries, blackberries, pomegranates, etc.) some Ginkgo Biloba, Milk Thistle (great for liver protection) and a mushroom defense blend that includes Cordyceps, Shiitake, Maitake, Reishi and several others. (I love this mushroom blend!)
It also contains smaller amounts of resveratrol, lutein, black pepper extract for accelerated absorption of nutrients, zeaxanthin, and even 2000 IUs of Vitamin D. This inclusion of the D3 form of Vitamin D is really great to see. It means a person can get a healthy dose of bioavailable Vitamin D from this supplement, even if they can't get sunshine on a daily basis. This Vitamin D is so crucial for good health that I can't believe it's not included in higher amounts in other multivitamins.
What this lacks, as mentioned above, is sufficient quantities of calcium and magnesium. There's some included here (300mg of calcium and 200mg of magnesium), but it doesn't cover daily needs. Hopefully, you're eating lots of other plants containing calcium and magnesium in the mean time. (Broccoli and chocolate, yum!)
In any case, for under a buck a day, this NSI Synergy 3000 Multivitamin delivers an impressive assortment of vitamins, minerals, superfood concentrates and bioactive phytonutrients. It's a fantastic deal, and I think it's one of the best values in the supplement industry.
Read the full ingredients at: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Synergy-3000-Multi-Vitamin-Version-11-30-Servings#IngredientFacts
Review of NSI Synergy Women's Multivitamin (Eight a Day) ($1.20 a day)
In addition to covering all the vitamins mentioned in the one-a-day formula, above, this women's multivitamin adds calcium (the good forms, as citrate and malate) and magnesium oxide. It also includes glucosamine sulfate for joint health support, pomegranate extract (which is great for breast health and heart health), Alpha Lipoic Acid for liver support, iodine for thyroid and breast health, pine bark extract, turmeric (strong anti-cancer root), soy isoflavones (also anti-cancer), lutein, zeaxanthin and two strains of probiotics.
It's a well-balanced, high-value supplement that's perfect for women who want to get their supplemental nutrition in 8 capsules a day for just over a dollar a day.
Read the full ingredients here: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Synergy-Womens-Multi-Vitamin-Version-5#IngredientFacts
Review of NSI Synergy Men's Multivitamin (Eight a Day) ($1.20 a day)
The Men's Multivitamin formula is much like the Women's formula, above, except that it replaces some of the herbs and superfood nutrients with those intended to support healthy prostate function. These include pygeum bark, saw palmetto, lycopene and even hesperidin (a citrus flavonoid with remarkable anti-inflammatory properties).
For some reason that's not yet clear to me, this Men's formula doesn't provide much calcium at all -- only 50mg, or 5% of the daily recommended allowance. But it does contain Acetyl L-Carnitine, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Quercetin and a number of other highly-regarded nutrients. Just be sure to get your calcium from somewhere else. Vitacost also sells various calcium supplements, too, but my favorite supplier of high-grade calcium is called Calcium AEP, available at Wellness Resources: http://www.wellnessresources.com/products/calcium_aep.php
Read the full ingredients on the NSI Synergy Men's Multivitamin at: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Synergy-Mens-Multi-Vitamin-Version-2#IngredientFacts
Review of NSI Synergy Supreme Multivitamin (Twelve a Day) ($1.80 a day)
What do you get in 12 capsules a day? In addition to all the basics we've covered above (the vitamins, minerals and trace minerals), this 12-a-day formula provides high levels of glucosamine sulfate (for joint health), Acetyl L-Carnitine, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Green Tea Extract, Pomegranate Extract, Quercetin, Turmeric Extract, a "VitaVeggie" superfood concentrate mix, and "maintenance" doses of things like CoQ10, Grape Seed Extract, Ginkgo Biloba, Pine Bark Extract, Resveratrol and other plant-based nutrients.
Vitamin C is present in the mix in its full dosage (1000 mg), calcium is provided at 500mg (which is still not enough for a daily intake, but you're supposed to be getting your calcium from real food anyway). In all, this 12-a-day formula is a really nice heart, joint and brain formula that easily replaces a dozen other isolated supplements. If you're looking to get a quality combination of nutritional ingredients all in one place, this is a multivitamin product you will definitely want to consider.
See the ingredients at: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Synergy-Supreme-Multi-Vitamin-Version-3#IngredientFacts
Review of NSI Synergy Healthy Cholesterol Multivitamin (Six a Day) (90 cents a day)
For those looking to balance their cholesterol using nutrition, this is an outstanding multivitamin formula based on red yeast rice. What is red yeast rice? It's the natural substance the drug companies mimicked to isolate and synthesize their own statin drugs. Except the drug companies made their statins dangerous, of course! The natural lovastatin compounds in red yeast rice are full-spectrum and naturally safer than artificial, chemical statin compounds.
The FDA has tried to ban red yeast rice because it's so effective at lowering cholesterol that if the public learned the truth about it, nobody would buy statin drugs anymore! So the FDA has teamed up with the FTC to conduct a campaign of censorship, intimidation and market monopolization that attempts to eliminate red yeast rice supplements. Fortunately, this NSI Synergy line still manages to include it as an ingredient, and that makes it highly effective at normalizing cholesterol levels.
Still, I must emphasize that anyone suffering from imbalanced cholesterol needs to look beyond popping a pill to "treat" the condition. High cholesterol is not really a disease at all; it's just a sign of really poor dietary habits, lack of exercise and nutritional deficiencies. Nearly everyone suffering from high cholesterol could readily normalize their cholesterol levels by doing two simple things: 1) Avoid eating ALL animal products (meat, milk, cheese, etc.) and 2) Taking up regular cardiovascular exercise. In fact, if you do those things, you probably don't need cholesterol-lowering supplements at all!
That's why I'm always cautious when advocating natural cholesterol-lowering supplements or herbs: In no way do I want to give the impression that this is the entire solution to your cholesterol problems. Rather, I want you to change your diet to a plant-based diet, take up regular exercise, eat lots of superfoods and then, on top of that, you can take cholesterol-balancing supplements if you want.
Anyone treating cholesterol with drugs or herbs -- without changing their diet and taking up regular exercise -- is just fooling themselves. High cholesterol is your body's sign that it's time for you to change your life for good. While supplements like this one can help you achieve healthy cholesterol levels in the short term, nothing is going to solve your cardiovascular problems in the long term other than diet and exercise.
See the complete ingredients list of this supplement at: http://www.vitacost.com/NSI-Synergy-Healthy-Cholesterol-Multi-Vitamin-version-3#IngredientFacts
Summary of NSI Synergy Multivitamins at Vitacost
In all, the NSI Synergy line of supplements at Vitacost.com delivers an extraordinary value in high-quality supplements that won't drain your wallet. Part of the reason Vitacost is able to accomplish this, of course, is because they sell these directly to consumers, so there's no middle man marking up the price. There's no shelf space to pay for, no transportation costs to local retailers, and no nationwide advertising campaign to pay for.
Instead, Vitacost simply offers an honest, high-quality line of supplements at a really impressive price, delivering solid value to its customers.
What could make the NSI Synergy line better?
In my view, the NSI Synergy multivitamins could be improved in the following ways. Note, however, that each of these would increase the price of the supplements and thereby make them less accessible to consumers on a tight budget. (It's always give and take...)
• Use magnesium malate instead of magnesium oxide. It's bulkier and more expensive, but the absorption is much better.
• Switch to veggie caps instead of Kosher gelatin capsules. This would make the vitamins 100% vegan-friendly, but it would also increase their price by a few cents per capsule.
• Increase the quantity of calcium in the supplements, and consider the possible use of fermented black vinegar (or even white vinegar) to aid in the digestion of the minerals in the formula. Vinegar also lowers the glycemic index of carbohydrates, providing a beneficial effect for diabetics.
• Include small amounts of adaptogenic herbs that fight chronic stress. Rhodiola rosea comes to mind.
• Use pre-methylated forms of the B vitamins. This would increase the cost quite a bit, but the result would be better absorption of the B vitamins.
I'm sure the NSI Synergy formulators are already aware of these possible improvements, but they decided that making the vitamins more affordable for customers meant passing on some of these higher-cost improvements. Perhaps, though, NSI Synergy will at some point come out with a "Premium" line of multivitamin supplements that incorporate all of these improvements and more! That product line would be a lot more expensive, of course, but it could give customers a way to step up to the next higher level of extreme quality ingredients if they so choose.
Remember, use coupon code NatNews1 to get 10% off the entire NSI Synergy line of nutritional supplements. It's only good for a few days. The web page featuring this line is here: http://www.vitacost.com/Natural-News-Synergy-Products
And no, NaturalNews earns nothing from this. We do not earn any money whatsoever from the sale of these products.
Vitamins vs. Food
In presenting all this information about multivitamins, I want to be very clear to communicate that food should always be the foundation of your nutrition. In other words, you can't get everything you need from vitamins alone. Raw, living foods provide superior synergies of nutrients with a living radiance that simply can't be replicated in a capsule. You should always make food your first source of nutrition, and supplements your second.
That said, supplements are absolutely crucial for good health, especially given the widespread depletion of minerals in crop soils and the loss of nutrients through milling, refining, storage and cooking. Most food eaten by most people is nutritionally worthless. Microwaving broccoli, for example, destroys up to 98% of its anti-cancer phytonutrients. And unless it was grown in organic soils, it probably lacks anti-cancer trace minerals like selenium.
Today, our national food supply is a nutritional disaster, and I've come to the conclusion that unless you're eating a diet made of 100% wildcrafted, organic foods that you harvest yourself out in the wild, which are grown in virgin soils that have never been farmed or irrigated, then you need daily nutritional supplements. And that means 99.99% of everybody living in the western world needs supplements.
I take supplements every day. I take them from lots of companies, including Wellness Resources (www.WellnessResources.com), Dragon Herbs (www.DragonHerbs.com), FruitFast (www.FruitFast.com), Integrated Health (www.IntegratedHealth.com) and, more recently, the NSI Synergy line from Vitacost (www.Vitacost.com). I know with absolutely certainty that the supplements I take have given me tremendous health benefits, improved brain function, enhanced quality of life and substantial disease prevention.
Even with all those benefits, I probably spend less than $10 / day on supplements. It's extraordinary that so many benefits can be derived at such an affordable price. Whether you want to spend $5 / day or $2 / day or even just 30 cents a day, the NSI Synergy line from Vitacost.com has a supplement that can fit your budget and dramatically improve the quality of your health at the same time.
That's why I encourage you to follow the three steps I mentioned earlier:
Step 1: Decide how many capsules you wish to take each day.
Step 2: Find a trusted formulation that's designed around that daily quantity of capsules.
Step 3: Buy the multivitamins and take them each day, always with food, and always spread out throughout the day.
And, of course, keep reading NaturalNews.com. I'll continue to investigate new, breakthrough supplements and bring you the best deals I can negotiate on your behalf. Being a NaturalNews readers is like being a member of a high-value, exclusive nutritional shopper's club, except that there's no fee to join it! Just stay on our e-mail list and you'll stay informed. You can subscribe here: http://www.naturalnews.com/readerregistration.html
Enjoy!
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