Spin the bottle: how to pick a multivitamin

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Bonnie Liebman

RELATED ARTICLE: Look for Knock-Offs.

Centrum, Central-Vite, Sentury-Vite. It's no coincidence that those names sound alike. Stores like Wal-Mart, Kmart, and major supermarket and pharmacy chains sell multivitamins that are formulated to match Centrum, One A Day, Theragran, and other top brands. You can simplify your vitamin search (and maybe save some dough) by looking for these "knock-offs." Here are some we found (check the label to make sure that the knock-off matches the brand it's imitating):

* Centrum. Centrum missed our Best Bite cutoff because it's got only 20 mcg of selenium and 60 mg of vitamin C. Its knock-offs include Central-Vite, Century, Sentury-Vite, and some alphabet names (A to Z, ABC, Alphabet, etc.). Central-Vite Select, Century Senior, and ABC Plus Senior are a few Centrum Silver knock-offs.

* One A Day. One A Day 50 Plus is a Best Bite for men and postmenopausal women. All the knock-offs we found have "One Daily 50 " or "Daily Multiple 50 Plus" in their names.

* Theragran-M. Knock-offs of this Best Bite include Therapeutic M and Thera Plus.

The information for this article was compiled by Tamar Genger.