GNC has lowered the price of its Mega Men multivitamin recently, but you may be shocked to discover they have also changed the formula by adding a host of dangerous and poisonous chemicals into their Mega Men and Women’s Ultra Mega multivitamins.
They have now added in a fake flavoring, “natural” vanilla mint flavor; dangerous colorings, including caramel coloring (this is only chemicals, no caramel in it), and worse, they have added an artificial sweetener, Stevia! That is right, your Mega Men multivitamin now has added artificial sweeteners. In a multivitamin.
While stevia is technically a plant, the stevia that you find added into your products as a sweetener is no longer sufficient to call it a plant extract. In fact, in order for stevia to be legally sold in the U.S., it has to be heavily processed which includes a host of chemical and corrosive agents designed to extract a little bit of the stevia extract form the plant. In the end, it is no longer a “natural” sweetener at all but essentially a heavily processed artificial chemical concoction.
Check out this article for more info on why Stevia is not really the stevia plant because it’s heavily processed by harmful chemicals: The Toxic Truth About Stevia | Jane’s Healthy Kitchen
This label is directly from the website, and it’s possible there are even more added ingredients now.
While it is true that Mega Man has had a notorious aftertaste, this did not happen years ago with the original formula. However, adding artificial colors and artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners into it is the worst possible thing you can do to a multivitamin. You are taking a vitamin to get more healthy, not to get sick from poisonous additives.
Not only that, but I have noticed increasingly that GNC products are no longer all Pharmaceutical Grade. For example, I could not find the <USP> certification indicating that their Glutamine Powder was pharmaceutical grade. Because it is not. And yet, it is more expensive than a competitor glutamine sold in the same store. So I bought the competitor (neither was <USP> but the competitor was cheaper).
Back when I worked at GNC out of high school and early college, GNC was known for its highest-quality ingredients. However, now GNC has also fired its famous three nutrition scientists within the past couple of years, and now its products are degrading. I didn’t actually know about the scientists, and couldn’t find a Google article, but a current employee told me about this today and said it was a big deal inside the company because those three nutrition scientists were famous for keeping the highest quality ingredients in GNC products, but now GNC has gotten rid of them. No wonder their product quality is degrading.
After seeing these additives, I went home and checked my previous bottle of Mega Men, and it did not have those artificial colors, artificial flavors, and artificial sweeteners like the new formula does. I wonder what else they have changed? It doesn’t really matter though, because I will never buy a GNC multivitamin until these dangerous chemical poisons are removed.
I have spent the last few years slowly eliminating everything containing any artificial colors, artificial flavors, and artificial sweeteners. It means I have to avoid more than 99% of the things in the grocery store. I had to stop buying all protein powder because they all now have added artificial colors, artificial flavors, and artificial sweeteners, most popularly Acesulfame Potassium (aka Ace K), Sucralose (aka Splenda), Aspartame (the worst of the bunch), and heavily processed Stevia “extract”.
The protein powder I now get is the GNC Natural Unflavored which is the best out there for a reasonable price, but now I am concerned this may change too. I will continue to buy this powder until they change in in which case I’ll have to go look for another protein powder, which is much like searching for a needle in a barn full of hay.
It’s not 100% perfect, but it’s pretty close – probably as close as you’re going to get without paying a ridiculous price. At least there are no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners.
I was very shocked that GNC has decided to ruin their most important product, the GNC multivitamin. Over the years I have personally converted literally tens of thousands of people over to GNC multivitamin (including my employment years), and regularly said that GNC was better than the same-formula Vitamin Shoppe “Ultimate Man” and exact same Vitamin World “Ultra Man”. However, this is no longer the case.
Now, GNC is the worst of the three. I just looked at the label for Ultra Man from Vitamin World, and it does not have those additive that GNC’s Mega Man has. On the other hand, Vitamin Shoppe’s Ultimate Man now also has artificial flavors (“natural” vanilla flavoring, an artificial flavor), as well as soy which is also horrible, although all three contain soy ingredients.
I would now recommend, of the three competitors, that Ultra Man from Vitamin World is the only remaining choice of the three. So if you are looking for a Mega Men replacement, the only choice is Ultra Man from Vitamin World. It has the exact same ingredients as the previous Mega Men from GNC.
However, right now Ultra Man is out of stock, and this probably has something to do with people switching over from Mega Men. It looks more expensive, but it’s cheaper if you get it on sale.
With GNC multivitamins now corrupted, Vitamin World’s Ultra Man and Ultra Woman are the best you’re going to get in a daily multivitamin.
But what about you, women? What about your Women’s Ultra Mega? Unfortunately, Women’s Ultra Mega from GNC has the same artificial colors, artificial flavors, and artificial sweeteners as the Mega Men.
Same with Vitamin Shoppe’s Ultimate Woman, which likewise contains artificial vanilla flavors (“natural” = artificial), as well as soy. But it is not as bad as the GNC version now.
Don’t even take GNC’s Mega Men or Women’s Ultra Mega, or Vitamin Shoppe’s Ultimate Man or Ultimate Woman even if it was given to you for free.
GNC better get their act together, or they are going to be losing some significant market share to their competitors. GNC was always known for having the best quality, but not anymore. In fact, not only has GNC’s prices gone through the roof leaving me to head to online competitors like Swanson Vitamins and Supplement Superstore for most of my vitamins, but now I can no longer get my multivitamins from GNC either.
At least I can still get good-ish multivitamins from from Vitamin World in the form of Ultra Man, containing the same formula as the previous better Mega Men. The downside is that Vitamin World’s multivitamin is not pharmaceutical grade. But at least I’m not getting poisoned.
