Comparison of Mutil Vits Chewables

I am looking for a new chewble multi-vitamin since I have to quit my liquid multi I loved os much (B6 too high - not good).

I am not picky about taste so I am really looking for value for my money.  I like the Building Blocks samples we got at the OH and the Bariatric Advantage are ok also.  Centrum has a new orange chewable that is advertised on Wal Mart's site for $9.95 for 90 so I thought I would compare the three.  The Centrum specs are for one tablet while the other two brands are for two, so I halved the BB abd BA so the comparisons woudl be the same.  Here are the results:

Vitamin	Centrum Chewables	BB Chewables	BA Chewables
A	3500	5000	3750
C	60	75	60
D	400	400	500
E	30	30	15
K	10	15	0
Thiamine	1.5	6	3
Riboflavin	1.7	7	1.7
Niacin	20	20	25
B6	2	8	2
Folic Acid	400	400	400
B12	6	125	50
Biotin	45	300	300
Panth Acid	10	10	10
Calcium	108		100
Iron	18		0
Phos	50	22	0
Iodine	150	37	0
Magnes	40	100	25
Zinc	15	7	11
Selenium		35	100
Copper	2	1	0.75
Mangan	1	1	1
Chrom	20	120	75
Molyb	20	37	55
N-Acetyl-L-cysteine		50
Choline			1.5
Favonoids			9
Inositol			3.7
Vanadium			19
Cost per bottle	10	19	17
Tables per bottle	90	60	60
Cost per tablet	0.11	0.32	0.28

I think I will try the Centrum's as they are a third the cost of the others.   Biotin is cheap and I take it separately about once a week.  I also do the B-12 sublinguals.  Those were the things that stood out to me with the "bariatric" vitamins.

Thank you for breaking the cost on these down. I think I would go with the Centrum as well. PLUS there are always coupons, so they will probably be even cheaper.

I will say this for the BA iron. When I was at the Hematologist (my iron is VERY low) she looked at the bottle of BA iron, and just said "I think someone is making money off of this", but it is good that it had the C with it. So, I think what is more important is the proper combination, not so much the brand. That is just my opinion.

I have been using this iron and finally got my iron stores up after losing ground a bit (I was low before I even had surgery):















I get it from Vitamin Shoppe.  The form of iron is amino acid chelate and it has 27 mg with 100 mg of vitamin C.  The chelate form is supposed to be more absorbable, but unfortunately there aren't many studies on it.  I am just going with my own results.  The bottle is about $10 for 90 tablets.

My serum iron went form 57 to 91 in the year I took it and I didn't take it every day - mostly during the week when I had an alarm set on my Outlook calendar to remind me :-)  My ferritin (76) and iron binding capacity (322) remained about the same - not sure what the different iron tests mean.

I think I will pick some up this weekend. The BA chewables are not sitting so well. As for the #s. I know the ferritin is supposed to be in the 30s, and mine was a 2. Not sure about the other numbers.

John takes the Centrum and has always had good labs. I don't have him on extra biotin but he does take an extra B12 every day. Walgreen also does the buy 1 get 1 on them so we stock up when that happens.

OH! And I heard that the chelated iron is supposed to be a bit easier on the system, and better absorbed.

Michelle,

Does he use the chewable Centrum or regular?

Andrea, I always have taken the chewable Centrums, I got some non chewables on sale at walgreens this go around, their men's complete and want to see how they are.

I use Walmart's cheap version of Centrim and my labs have always been perfect-just had em done 3 weeks ago.  I don't buy into the hype of higher price=higher quality.

I don't either, Stephanie and thank-you for sharing your personal experiences to reassure those of us looking for equivalent but cheaper vitamins.  Down the road when we retire to Arkansas I won't be able to afford expensive vitamins, but there is a Walmart in Ash Flat that I can buy from.