Nature's best supplements review: is it worth it for lifters?

Why this review is a method, the three trade-offs of buying direct from a vitamin catalogue, and the lifter's list laid against a generalist range

A long-established UK vitamin company that sells direct, by catalogue and online rather than through retail shelves, is a company this site can teach a lifter to review but will not review for them, because a generalist range of this kind reformulates products, reprices them, rotates introductory offers and changes pack sizes, and a verdict written today describes a page that may read differently next month; the review that stays true is the method, applied by the reader to the product in the basket on the day. The method starts with the channel, because buying direct from a vitamin company has three trade-offs that a retail purchase does not. The first is the absent retail margin: a company selling its own products to the buyer keeps the margin a shop would take, which can appear as a lower price, as a bigger pack, or as a catalogue and a customer service line, and the buyer finds out which by running the pence per day against a benchmark rather than by assuming. The second is the absent retail shelf: in a shop, a magnesium sits beside four others and the elemental doses can be compared in a glance, while on a company's own site every product is the company's and the comparison has to be brought in from outside, which is what this guide's benchmark is for. The third is the catalogue's language: a direct seller writes its own product descriptions at length, often with a house tone of evidence and expertise, and every sentence of it is a listing to be read against the authorised claims register like any other, since a claim is lawful or not whatever the typeface. None of the three is a mark against buying direct; each is a thing to know before the basket is filled.

The lifter's list is then laid against what a generalist vitamin catalogue usually carries, and the fit is partial in a way that is useful to see. A lifter's cupboard, honestly stocked, holds seven things at most. Four of them a generalist range usually carries: a magnesium, whose form and elemental dose must be read off the label since a catalogue's magnesium may be an oxide at a high nominal milligram or a citrate or glycinate at a lower elemental one, and the elemental number against the 375mg NRV is the only one that matters; a vitamin D, at a stated dose in micrograms or international units, which a lifter in the UK takes through the winter and which a generalist range almost always stocks well; a fish oil, where EPA and DHA per capsule must be read rather than the total oil, since a 1000mg capsule may carry 300mg of the two or 600mg; and a multivitamin, which a lifter eating a varied diet rarely needs and which a generalist catalogue is usually built around. Three things a lifter buys the generalist range usually does not carry, or carries as an afterthought: creatine monohydrate as a plain powder with a purity statement, the one supplement with a long mark on the lean-mass ruler; a protein powder sold by the gram of protein per serving against the high protein nutrition claim's threshold, which is a sports nutrition product rather than a vitamin company's; and anything a tested athlete needs batch-certified under a recognised banned-substance programme, which a vitamin catalogue rarely enrols its products in because its customers are rarely tested. A lifter who understands that split buys the vitamin and mineral part of the cupboard from a generalist and the rest elsewhere, without disappointment in either direction.

The five reads applied to whatever is in the basket, the magnesium read with the benchmark beside it, the cancellation right as the safety net, and the verdict for a lifter

Whatever the basket holds on the day, five reads review it, and they take two minutes per product. Read one is the elemental dose against the NRV: for a mineral, the milligrams of the element itself rather than of the compound, read against the nutrient reference value and stated as a percentage, so that a magnesium label saying 375mg has to be checked for whether that is elemental, which is 100% NRV, or the compound, which at 20% for a glycinate would be 75mg elemental. Read two is the form: oxide, citrate, glycinate or malate for magnesium, cholecalciferol for vitamin D, triglyceride or ethyl ester for fish oil, each with a known absorption profile and a known reason to prefer it, and a catalogue's description of a form as superior is a claim to be read against the literature rather than taken. Read three is pence per day at the labelled serving, the price divided by the days the pack lasts at the dose on the label rather than at one capsule, since a two-a-day product at a lower pack price can cost more per day than a one-a-day at a higher one. Read four is the testing offered: whether the company states its products are batch tested, for what, and whether a certificate for the batch number on the tub is sent on request, which is one message and a working day. Read five is the claims on the page against the register: each health claim in the catalogue copy is either on the authorised list in substantially those words or it is not, and a generalist company with a long history usually knows the register well, which is one of the things a long history is for.

The magnesium read is where a benchmark earns its place, because magnesium is the product in a generalist range a lifter is most likely to buy and the one whose label most often hides the number. The benchmark is {FL}: 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium with the certificate on request, UK made under GMP and BRC, four authorised claims and no others, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day. A catalogue magnesium is read beside it: the elemental milligrams and the NRV percentage, the form, the pence per day at the labelled serving, the testing stated, and the claims; a product that matches or beats the benchmark on the reads is worth buying from the catalogue, and one that states a compound weight without an elemental one, or a form without an NRV, has failed read one before the price is looked at. The safety net on any direct purchase is the law: goods bought at a distance, online or by catalogue, carry a 14-day cancellation right from delivery under the 2013 consumer contracts regulations, with sealed health products unsealed after delivery among the exceptions, so an order that arrives with a label that fails the reads goes back unopened. The verdict for a lifter is a split one, and the split is honest: worth it for the vitamin and mineral part of the cupboard, on the day's label and price, read with the five reads and compared against a benchmark brought in from outside; not worth it, because not stocked, for the part of the cupboard that moves the lean-mass ruler, creatine, protein by the gram and the batch-certified products a tested athlete needs, which a generalist vitamin catalogue was never built to carry and which a lifter buys from a sports nutrition specialist without thinking less of either.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Is Nature's Best a good supplement brand for lifters?

A long-established UK vitamin company selling direct by catalogue and online is reviewed here by method rather than verdict, because its range reformulates and reprices; applied on the day, the five reads, elemental dose against NRV, form, pence per day at the labelled serving, testing offered and claims against the register, decide each product, and the honest split is that a generalist range of this kind is worth it for the vitamin and mineral part of a lifter's cupboard, magnesium, vitamin D and fish oil read carefully, and not stocked for the part that moves the lean-mass ruler, creatine, protein by the gram and batch-certified products.

What are the downsides of buying supplements direct from a vitamin company?

Three trade-offs rather than downsides: the absent retail margin, which may appear as a lower price or may fund the catalogue, found out only by running pence per day against a benchmark; the absent retail shelf, so that a magnesium cannot be compared against four others in a glance and the comparison has to be brought in from outside; and the catalogue's own language, long product descriptions in a house tone that are listings to be read against the authorised claims register like any other; none is a reason not to buy direct, and each is a thing to know before the basket is filled.

How do I compare a catalogue magnesium with another brand?

On five reads: the elemental milligrams and the NRV percentage, since a label saying 375mg may mean the element at 100% NRV or a compound at a fifth of that; the form, oxide, citrate, glycinate or malate, each with a known absorption profile; pence per day at the labelled serving rather than per capsule; the testing stated and whether a certificate for the batch number is sent on request; and the claims in the copy against the register; a benchmark of a stated 300mg elemental at 80% NRV as a glycinate, batch tested, at 22p a day gives the reads something to land against.

Can I return supplements bought online or by catalogue?

Yes; goods bought at a distance, online or by mail order, carry a 14-day cancellation right from delivery under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, with sealed goods that have been unsealed after delivery among the exceptions for health and hygiene reasons, so a tub whose label fails the reads on arrival goes back unopened within the fortnight, and the cancellation right is the safety net that makes a direct purchase from a catalogue no riskier than a shelf purchase once the five reads are run.

Where should a lifter buy creatine and protein if a vitamin company does not stock them?

From a sports nutrition specialist, where creatine monohydrate is sold as a plain powder with a purity statement at pence a day and protein powder is sold by the gram of protein per serving against the high protein nutrition claim's threshold, with batch testing for identity against amino spiking; a tested athlete adds the requirement that the product is certified under a recognised banned-substance programme and checks the batch number in the programme's database, which a generalist vitamin catalogue rarely offers because its customers are rarely tested.

Sources

1. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013: goods bought at a distance, online or by mail order, carry a 14-day cancellation right from delivery, with sealed goods unsealed after delivery among the exceptions for health and hygiene reasons. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/contents
2. Retained Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods, and the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register
3. The supplement manufacturing standards: Good Manufacturing Practice, the BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety and ISO 22000 are the facility-level certifications a contract manufacturer holds and a brand may cite. https://www.brcgs.com/our-standards/food-safety/
4. The retained Food Information to Consumers regulation: the mandatory nutrition declaration for foods, its fixed order of energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt per 100g, and its rules on portion information, with supplements declaring nutrients per daily dose against nutrient reference values. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2011/1169/contents

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