Fish Oil and Multivitamins Most Popular Supplements

WHITE PLAINS, NY The most popular supplement, in order are fish oil, multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium and CoQ10according to a recent Consumerlab.com survey of more than 10,000 savvy consumers of supplements. The results of the survey, which was sent to Consumerlab.com enewsletter readers in November, showed more than two-thirds of respondents used fish oil and/or multivitamins, while about half of those polled vitamin D, calcium, and/or CoQ10.

Among the other trends highlighted in the survey, women appeared much more likely to take vitamin D, calcium, B vitamins, probiotics, and iron supplements, while men favor supplements that promise to boost energy, slow aging, lower cholesterolincluding CoQ10, resveratrol, amino acids, red yeast rice, nutrition drinks and powders, green tea, vitamin K, plant sterols, and muscle enhancersor enhance sex.

Also, results indicated the older consumers dominate supplement use58 percent of people aged 65 to 74 use vitamin D, compared to just over 50 percent for ages 45 to 54 and 31 percent for those under 35 years. Older supplement users prefer calcium, CoQ10, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, resveratrol, and vitamin K, while younger users trend towards amino acids, nutrition /protein drinks and powders, green tea, nutrition bars, weight loss supplements, muscle enhancers, and super fruits.

People who take multiple supplements are much more likely to use the supplements found most popular in the survey. Fish oil is used by 80.8% of people who took 10+ supplements per day; CoQ10 is by 76.2 percent of people who take 10+ supplements per day, but only by 9.8 percent of people using one supplement per day.

The internet is quickly becoming the preferred place to buy supplements, as the survey showed, 42.8 percent of respondents reported using online stores. In fact, among the 906 different retailers from which respondents buy supplements, Amazon is the 10th most popular, up from 13th the prior year and 16th  in 2009. Offline, health food stores followed with 29.3 percent of respondents, while warehouse clubs, mail order catalogues, supermarkets, pharmacies, and vitamin stores are the supplement sources for 20 percent of respondents.

The survey also revealed 46.7 percent of women shop for supplements online, compared to 40.2 percent of men. Users of the most number of supplements are especially likely to shop online for them, as the results showed 55.9 percent of people taking 10+ supplements purchase supplements online on a daily basis, compared to only 23.0 percent of those taking one supplement. Unsurprisingly, younger users dominate internet purchasing of supplements, as more than 55 percent of adults under 45 shop online. More than 33 percent of adults in every other age category shop online, except for those over 85 who only posted a 15-percent online shopping rate.

Consumerlab.com also gathered information from respondents on 1,551 supplement brands. The top0-rated brands are listed on the Consumerlab.com website.

 We began the annual survey several years ago to direct our product testing toward supplement categories and brands of greatest interest to ConsumerLab.com members, says Tod Cooperman, M.D., president of ConsumerLab.com. It has evolved into an excellent barometer of the nutrition marketplace.