Feel Multivitamins is a popular, unique multivitamin supplement from the UK.
With its attractive packaging, comprehensive vitamin and mineral profile, use of interesting botanical ingredients, and 100% plant-based formulation, you may be wondering whether this supplement is right for you as a vegan.
As a vegan registered dietitian, I’m here to help! In this Feel Multivitamin review, I’ll share my thoughts on this supplement’s formulation and explain whether I’d recommend it for vegans looking to fill potential nutrient gaps.
Feel multivitamins: a brief overview
Feel is a UK-based wellness brand with a wide-ranging supplement line that includes products for menopause, hair loss, digestion, immunity, and reproductive health. They also have multiple vegan pro-collagen supplements for bone and skin health and even offer skincare products.
According to their website, they place a high value on transparency, evidence-based formulations, and the avoidance of artificial ingredients and fillers.
Their multivitamin is vegan-friendly, PETA-approved, gluten-free, halal, Kosher, non-GMO, and free from all major allergens, making them safe for many dietary needs and preferences. I love that it’s tested by a UKAS-accredited lab for purity and it also has a decent price point, being relatively affordable for a supplement at £1.20 (about $1.55) per daily serving.
(Note that if you’re in the US, like me, shipping is expensive at about $15).
The vitamin B12, vitamin D, and iodine content could be helpful for vegans as these nutrients need extra consideration when following a plant-based diet.
Still, I prefer targeted supplements with vitamins or minerals that you know your diet is low in or that you have a diagnosed deficiency in rather than wasting money on ingredients you’re already getting enough of.
Feel Multivitamin review: formulation & ingredients
Let’s go into more detail about this multivitamin’s formulation.
Positives
Good source of vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is essential for cognition and nerve function, but it’s naturally absent from plant-based foods. To get enough, vegans need to regularly consume fortified foods or take a supplement.
Each serving has 60 micrograms of vitamin B12, an adequate dose for meeting your daily requirements.
Bioactive form of vitamin D
It’s easy for many people (including omnivores) to become deficient in vitamin D. Low sun exposure, genetics, and higher amounts of melanin in the skin can all contribute to lower vitamin D levels.
Fortunately, Feel Multivitamins contain a vegan-friendly form of vitamin D3 made from algae instead of lanolin. Vitamin D3 is more bioavailable than D2, the type most commonly found in vegan supplements, meaning it raises vitamin D levels in the blood more effectively.
Good source of iodine
Iodine can be a tricky nutrient; it’s present in a few foods like seaweed, but not in consistent amounts.
Vegans can get enough iodine by cooking with at least a half teaspoon of iodized salt every day, but those who eat out frequently or who rely on processed foods may not get enough since iodized salt isn’t always used by restaurants and food manufacturers.
Each serving of Feel Multivitamins provides 100% of your daily iodine needs, making it easy to get enough if you don’t cook at home with iodized salt.
You may need to limit your intake of raw kelp or kombu, however, as these types of seaweed can provide excessively high, toxic amounts of iodine.
You can read more here: Vegan Sources of Iodine
May be better absorbed
Feel Multivitamins contain chelated minerals which may be better absorbed than non-chelated forms.
Chelated minerals are minerals attached to an amino acid or other organic compound that prevent other compounds, like dietary fiber, from interfering with the absorption of that mineral in the GI tract.
Keep in mind, though, that most studies showing better absorption are limited to animal studies. Animals’ digestive systems don’t always work the same way as ours, so it isn’t yet clear whether chelated minerals are better absorbed in humans.
Negatives
Not well-tailored to a vegan diet
Unfortunately, most vegans will end up paying for a bunch of vitamins and minerals they don’t actually need with this multivitamin. It contains 100% or more of the daily requirements for:
- Selenium
- Manganese
- Vitamin E
- Chromium
- Vitamin A
- Zinc
These high amounts are unnecessary for most vegans. Research doesn’t show an increased risk of manganese, vitamin E, chromium, or vitamin A deficiency on a vegan diet since these nutrients are found in a wide variety of plant-based foods.
Even with selenium and zinc, two minerals that can be a little trickier to get enough of, vegans wouldn’t need 100% of their needs from a supplement.
RELATED: The Best Vegan Sources of Selenium
Don’t forget that you can have too much of a good thing. Unlike the water-soluble B vitamins, excess vitamins E and A are stored in your fat tissue rather than being removed from the body through urine.
Consistently getting more of these nutrients than you need from supplements on top of your normal diet can lead to toxicity symptoms like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, muscle weakness, and even liver damage if severe enough.
RELATED: The 14 Best Vegan Vitamin E Sources
Ineffective doses of some ingredients
This product is unique among multivitamins for its inclusion of reishi mushrooms, spirulina, turmeric extract, and alpha-lipoic acid, but it may not actually contain enough of them to provide much benefit.
Studies showing benefits for chronic fatigue, immune function, and oxidative stress with reishi mushroom extract typically use doses between 1.5 to 9 grams per day1. A two-capsule serving of Feel Multivitamins only contains 30 milligrams.
Similarly, typical doses of spirulina used in research studies fall between 1 to 10 grams per day2. Feel Multivitamins provide only 15 milligrams.
Considering research hasn’t yet proven that spirulina is effective for reducing inflammation, having antiviral benefits, or lowering blood pressure, it’s unlikely that the amount in these multivitamins will significantly improve your health.
Turmeric extract (curcumin longa) is known for its powerful anti-inflammatory benefits, but the dose in this supplement is relatively low. Most studies have used clinically effective doses ranging from 300 to 4,000 milligrams, while there are only 50 milligrams in each serving of Feel Multivitamins.
If you’re hoping to see better weight loss results from the addition of alpha lipoic acid, you may be disappointed. Doses ranging from 300-1800 milligrams3 have been shown to improve weight loss, but there are only 10 milligrams in this supplement.
High iron content may cause stomach upset
Feel Multivitamins are surprisingly high in iron for a multivitamin with 14 milligrams. This is about 75% of the daily requirements for menstruating women and almost twice the daily requirement for men.
This is a lot of iron to take at once and could cause stomach cramping in some people. It’s also more than most vegans actually need, considering the variety of iron-rich vegan foods available.
Each serving is 2 capsules
A two-capsule serving isn’t the end of the world, but I know that some people have trouble swallowing multiple pills at a time. If this is you, you might consider supplements with a one-capsule dose.
Do the health claims hold up?
On their website, Feel claims that their multivitamins “promote comprehensive health and wellbeing.” They specifically point to its benefits for hair, skin, nails, and energy levels and provide a one-year timeline outlining when you can expect to see improvements in energy levels, cognitive function, hair growth, and immunity.
In my opinion, these claims should be taken with a grain of salt. The scientific research listed on the Feel website does show the health benefits of their ingredients, but we already know that these nutrients are essential for good health. The supplement itself as a whole, however, hasn’t been tested.
In general, the scientific evidence to date doesn’t support the widespread use of multivitamins among people eating balanced diets. Supplements can be helpful for people with nutrient deficiencies or those whose diets are low in certain nutrients, but they’re less helpful when you’re already getting enough from your diet.
This means, for example, that the biotin in Feel might not make a difference in hair growth if you’re already eating enough vegan foods high in biotin.
Lots of people report feeling better when taking multivitamins, and it could be that they weren’t getting enough of a few nutrients from their diets. For others, however, it could just be the placebo effect.
Supporting this, a 2020 study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open4 found that multivitamin users reported 30% improved overall health compared to non-users. However, the researchers didn’t find any measurable improvements backing these claims up when looking at clinically measurable health outcomes like chronic diseases and health conditions or psychological distress.
I do think these multivitamins could be useful in improving energy levels for vegans who don’t eat enough nutrient-dense foods, as they might not be getting enough B-vitamins (needed for energy metabolism), polyphenols for gut health, or antioxidants to fight oxidative stress.
However, vegans can get more of these valuable compounds by eating a balanced plant-based diet with plenty of beans, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and soy.
(If you’re looking for ways to improve hair growth, check out my tips in Hair Loss On a Vegan Diet – What You Need to Know)
Do vegans really need multivitamins?
While I can’t speak to the unique needs of every individual in one blog post, I can explain which nutrients vegans in general are more likely to need from a supplement. Based on what a balanced plant-based diet is able to provide, multivitamins aren’t necessary for most vegans.
This is because a plant-based diet can provide enough of most of the vitamins and minerals included in multivitamin supplements, and getting more than your daily requirements isn’t necessary for good health.
For a multivitamin that’s better tailored to vegans, check out my recommendation for The Best Multivitamin for Vegan Diets. It only contains a few key nutrients that vegans may need to get from a supplement if they aren’t getting enough from foods, fortified foods, or, in the case of vitamin D, safe levels of sun exposure.
Of course, there are some circumstances under which a more comprehensive multivitamin like Feel could be beneficial for vegans. A few examples include:
- Medical conditions that reduce nutrient absorption
- Poor appetite resulting from health problems or older age
- Vegans who consistently struggle to eat a varied diet due to frequent travel, limited cooking ability, or food insecurity (inability to afford a varied, nutrient-dense diet)
Summary
Feel Multivitamins are a high-quality, lab-tested supplement that could help fill nutrient gaps in the diets of vegans with health or financial issues that make it difficult to eat a varied, balanced plant-based diet.
While Feel Multivitamins could be beneficial for vegans with health or financial issues that make it difficult to eat a varied, balanced plant-based diet, most of the vitamins and minerals this supplement contains are easily obtained from a vegan diet.
Because of this, I don’t think Feel Multivitamins are well-tailored to the needs of most vegans. It’s also probably too low in turmeric extract, reishi mushrooms, spirulina, and alpha lipoic acid for you to get their full benefits.
It would be better to see which individual nutrients you might not be eating enough of by tracking your intake with an app, consulting a registered dietitian, or getting bloodwork done. This way, you can focus on the individual nutrients you’ll actually benefit from.
The scientific information in this article was accurate at the time of publishing but may change over time as new research becomes available.
References
- WebMD. Health benefits of reishi mushrooms. WebMD website. Accessed 11/20/24.
- Spirulina. Drugs.com website. Accessed 11/20/24.
- Kucukgoncu S, Zhou E, Lucas KB, Tek C. Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) as a supplementation for weight loss: results from a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Obes Rev. 2017;18(5):594-601. doi:10.1111/obr.12528
- Paranjpe MD, Chin AC, Paranjpe I, et al. Self-reported health without clinically measurable benefits among adult users of multivitamin and multimineral supplements: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open. 2020;10(11):e039119. Published 2020 Nov 4. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039119
