This is my review of the Future Kind Essential Multivitamin. I’m going to lay out 5 reasons why these are the best vegan multivitamins for vegans, hands down.
I only found Future Kind multivitamins in the last two years, but for all the reasons I’m about to lay out, I’m absolutely enthusiastic about this product.
I also have a discount code for 10% off Future Kind—skip to the end of the post for that.
1. The 3 Nutrients Most Needed by Vegans.
When I saw what nutrients were included in this multivitamin—vitamin D, vitamin B12, and omega 3—I literally said, “Whoa, it’s perfect.”
I was already supplementing with these 3 nutrients separately. They are the only 3 nutrients that Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org specifically recommends vegans to take in supplement form.
Here’s why each of these nutrients is so important and beneficial for vegans:
- Vitamin B12 is a crucial nutrient for vegans to supplement. All long-term vegans need it. There are no natural vegan food sources of B12. In past eras, people got it from eating dirty plants (B12 is made by bacteria in dirt)—but today only animal products have it (because the animals eat dirty plants). Luckily, B12 supplements are vegan. So please: Avoid megaloblastic anemia, and get your B12.
- Vitamin D is needed for bone health, immune health, and more. Many people are low in it, and vegans worse than others. Your body can make vitamin D from sunlight, but that can be unreliable, especially in winter. Some mushrooms and fortified plant milks have vitamin D, but most authorities recommend supplements. Vegan D3 made from lichen is the best source, as D3 has more evidence behind it compared to D2.
- Omega-3 fatty acids play a major role in brain health, and they may help with heart health, lowering inflammation, and more. Most people get their omega-3 from fish or fish oil. Vegans can get some omega-3s from food—like flaxseed, chia seed, and walnuts—but those foods only have precursors to the forms you really want (EPA and DHA). Since the body’s conversion rates can be low, it’s best to supplement with vegan EPA/DHA made from algae.
The dosages for each of these in Future Kind are on point, too. Which is important—particularly with something fat-soluble like vitamin D!
(Fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin D can potentially build up in your body’s fat stores if you take too much. Excess water-soluble vitamins like B12 just get peed out.)
2. Nothing Extra.
I really appreciate that Future Kind only has those key nutrients I want. Not a list of 100+ additional ones. Because here’s something not everyone knows: There are healthy nutrients that are bad to take as supplements.
For example, this study found that supplementing with 20-30 mg of beta carotene actually increased the risk of lung cancer and stomach cancer in at-risk populations.
There’s also research showing calcium supplements can lead to a higher risk of kidney stones (source).
And even with vitamin C, which is water-soluble and generally safe in high doses, it can still lead to digestive issues, iron overload, or kidney stones for some people. (source)
I hate when I buy a specific supplement, and then I realize it has 5 other “complementary” nutrients, too. I’m sure most of these formulations are safe. But unless it was prescribed to me by a doctor, I don’t want to assume that and run into problems later.
Most of your nutrients should come from real food.
Nature packaged most of the good nutrients in fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, and seeds. And vegans already get more nutrients fortified in plant milks and nutritional yeast. So I try to only take supplements for specific nutrients I need beyond that.
3. Supporting an Ethical Vegan Company.
If you’re vegan for ethical reasons, you can probably relate to the satisfaction in supporting an actual vegan company.
Don’t get me wrong, I buy vegan products from bigger corporations, too. But I love when my money is actually going to a company that’s committed to being all-vegan.
That’s why I love going to all-vegan restaurants way more than just places with “vegan options.”
Future Kind donates a portion of all its sales to an animal sanctuary (Where Pigs Fly), which provides a loving home for rescued farm animals.
A few days after my first order, I got an email with this subject line: “You’ve just adopted a lamb.” I was a little worried for a second. I can’t care for a lamb, I live in an apartment!
But the email was referring to a lamb at the sanctuary that my order is helping take care of. It included a name, photo, certificate of adoption, and a story about how that lamb is great friends with a piglet at the shelter.
I mean, maybe all of that is a bit unnecessary—but it was cute, and it was a reminder that I’m supporting a vegan company. Not just a big faceless corporation.
The packaging the product comes in is great, too. It’s recycled, eco-friendly, and affixed with a big vegan graphic. Great for an Instagram pic. Much cooler than what you’d get from some random corporation.
4. Cheaper and More Convenient Than Separate Vitamins.
At certain times in the past, I’ve had over 5 separate supplements I’d carry to the dinner table to take with my meals. And part of that was because I took my vitamin D, omega 3, and vitamin B12 separately.
When you take all your supplements individually, it’s a hassle in multiple ways: It’s more expensive, it’s more work to order them all, it’s more bottles to open and close each day, and traveling with all those pill bottles is especially inconvenient.
Yes, I was familiar with the idea of multivitamins… But as I explained above, I hadn’t found a multivitamin formula I trusted.
Other “vegan multivitamins” had way too much extra, unnecessary stuff included.
Future Kind has saved me money and made it way more convenient to supplement the nutrients I actually need.
5. They’re Small and They Smell Good (Unlike Some Multivitamins).
Some of you may not know what I’m talking about here, but oh my god—some multivitamins smell horrible.
When I first went vegan 14 years ago, I got a “vegan multivitamin” to make sure I was covering my bases. And I only tolerated that horrible pill for maybe a month or two before I could no longer stand it.
First, that old multivitamin was huge. Sometimes it would even hurt to swallow it. But I only realized the real problem a few days later: “Hmm, the odor coming from this pill jar is kinda bad.”
A few weeks later, my girlfriend and I couldn’t stand them stinking up our whole food cabinet, so we put the vitamins in a sealed bag in a separate drawer. Guess what? The smell still escaped. It was still stinking up our kitchen.
Based on the bad experience, I stopped taking any supplements for a while. Then I just bought the individual ones I knew I actually needed, like B12.
Future Kind is not like that horrible vegan multivitamin from my past. The pills are smaller, and you just take two of them to get a full serving of the nutrients. And they smell good—like oranges.
There’s actually a little citrus-scented tab included in the pill bottle, so it keeps the orange scent. I could sniff it all day. Thank god, these pills do not stink!
Now Do You Understand?
I hope this post has communicated how much I actually believe in the value of this vitamin. This isn’t just a random product I found in two seconds of searching online and recommended willy-nilly.
If you buy through my affiliate link below, yes, I get a small commission. But with how much I’ve written above, hopefully you can tell: This is a strong recommendation coming from an actual vegan who knows vegan nutrition.
The only other supplement I regularly take nowadays is zinc. (Since I have acne-prone skin, zinc provides additional benefits for me.) I’m so glad that now I just have two pill bottles to open each day—Future Kind + zinc—not four bottles or more, like I used to have!
Check out the Future Kind multivitamin here. Use coupon code BEKIND to get 10% off your order.