Biohacking Kompakt

Podcast episode 99 (in German)

Micronutrient concentrates – nine out of ten for evidence, and still a no

October 7, 2026

In July, a juice costing 100 euros per liter won a consumer award that nobody wants to win. But the award is not the interesting part — rather, that this product class is among the best studied ever discussed here.

What it is about

Liquid micronutrient concentrates consist of fruit juice concentrate with vegetable and herb extracts; the vitamin amounts on the label come from isolated, added pure substances. So the question is not how many ingredients are listed, but whether a multivitamin does anything for a healthy person — and that question has been answered. The episode goes through the large analyses, names the one honest plus point found in the data, and then looks at what the manufacturers’ evidence actually consists of. Added to this is the distinction that matters here: for the mixture, the data say no benefit, not harm. At the end comes a warning that is rarely given.

Key points

  • 21 randomized studies with 91,000 people over an average of 3.5 years give 0.98 for all-cause mortality, confidence interval 0.94 to 1.02 — in other words, nothing.
  • 3 US cohorts with 390,000 adults and up to 27 years of follow-up likewise find no mortality benefit.
  • The only robust plus point: in 3 COSMOS substudies, cognitive performance was better by 0.07 standard deviations — a secondary endpoint, and in 14,000 physicians the same finding was 0.
  • The market leader’s evidence base consists of 1 study with 159 participants, spread across 6 publications: 48 lab values measured, 20 published, 3 favored the product.
  • What has been shown to cause harm is single substances at high doses: 29,000 smokers with 18 percent more lung cancer under beta-carotene, 35,000 men with 17 percent more prostate cancer under vitamin E.
  • One product in the class delivers 100 micrograms of vitamin B12 per daily serving, against a requirement of 4 to 5.5 micrograms — 20 times as much.
  • Monthly costs range from 21 to over 125 euros; the most expensive bottle costs as much as 6 weeks of fruit and vegetables.

Where the data stop

Here the boundary runs differently than usual: it is not the data that are missing, but the benefit. The US Preventive Services Task Force evaluated 84 studies with 740,000 people and, for multivitamins, arrives at the most cautious sentence an agency can say — the evidence is insufficient to weigh benefit and harm against each other. That is not proof of efficacy and does not contradict the large studies, but rates them more strictly. The advertised better absorption also remains open: studies of liquid versus solid measure blood levels over 6 hours in fasting people; there is no randomized study with a health outcome on this.

One warning, on the other hand, applies very concretely. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment sees a measurable effect on blood clotting from 150 micrograms of vitamin K1 and from 45 micrograms of K2. Anyone taking Marcumar or warfarin discusses every product containing vitamin K with a physician beforehand; the problem is less the amount than the jump.

Listen (in German)

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Published on October 7, 2026.

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Information only, not medical advice and not a usage or dosage recommendation. Prescription-only and unapproved substances belong in the hands of a physician. Last updated: 2026-09-19.