Centrum Performance Review – Any Boost Feels Like A Joke?

|  Marketing  |  Nutrients  |  Additions  |  Additives  |  Reviews  |  Pricing  |  Overall  |

Within this Centrum Performance review, it will be about learning everything that this supplement can do (or all that I believe it can’t as well).

To make that happen, dissecting marketing aspects will be our first undertaking. Then, we’ll move into the core ingredients and additives. And, of course, we’ll make it about customer reviews and pricing as well.

Supplement For Active Lifestyle & More Marketing To Review

According to the manufacturer, Centrum Performance is a “high-quality daily multivitamin with Ginseng to help support the physical demands of an active lifestyle” Per their words, “this unique multivitamin contains 21 essential nutrients plus Ginkgo Biloba which helps maintain an active mind and Ginseng to support the physical demands of an active lifestyle.” And there are other very similar statements there as well [R].

I mean, they’re kind of regurgitating it over and over again. It feels as if they’ve nothing else to say. Which is typically not a mark of a well-built product page.

I mean, we’ll not find the approach even remotely similar to supplements like Dr. Mercola Multivitamin (review) or Solgar Male Multiple (review).

So, sure, Centrum Performance kind of takes no rocket scientist to figure out that the product is about that active lifestyle. But that’s kind of it. It’s a page disgustingly scarce.

As for marketing tactics used, this page is so much unlike other Centrum pages like that for Silver Men 50 Plus (review) and Women (review). Meaning, not a single sales tactic on the page, except a statement appealing by how long they’ve been around (“backed by over 35 years of nutritional expertise”). Which doesn’t exactly mean much [R].

As for the promised benefits, I guess we all get it by now. Active lifestyle (support physical performance). But in addition to that, it also mentions stuff like an active mind, maintenance of normal bones, more energy.

Apart from that, the Performance of Centrum is said to be Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free, and Lactose-Free. So, will it truly boost the performance as promised?

This Centrum Doesn’t Bring Many Quality Nutrients, Quite The Opposite

From the beneficial ingredient standpoint, personally, I doubt that. Sure, what we got here can help to some extent. But I just don’t think going by the percentage Daily Values (%NRV) can truly make, what they promise, happen.

So, there are various different nutrient standards out there. Centrum Performance goes by this idea that what we need is either equal to 100% or reasonably above that. And to that extent, it does a rather decent job. What it doesn’t do, however, a decent job with at all are the nutrient forms.

Nutrient forms like Cholecalciferol (for vitamin D) or Methylcobalamin (for vitamin B12) are important because they pretty much solely determine how easy to absorb for our bodies the vitamin or mineral is. With bad forms, the absorption is often very limited. With good forms, it’s not the case at all [R, R, R].

But I feel the Centrum Performance downplays the role of that. Because nowhere on their page did I manage to find the full ingredient list (which great manufacturers typically never do). I had to do some digging to find the full list. And, now, I kind of get why they don’t want to be upfront about it. It’s not good [R, R, R].

With vitamin A, it’s both the Beta Carotene and a form of retinoids (Retinyl Acetate). Which is what we want. That said, it will probably not make without an additional standalone vitamin A supplement because the label does not distinguish Beta Carotene versus Retinyl Acetate amount within those combined 800 micrograms of vitamin A [R, R, R, R, R, R].

We also got Thiamine Mononitrate for B1, Riboflavin for B2, Nicotinamide for B3, Calcium D-Pantothenate for B5, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride for B6, D-Biotin for B7, Pteroylmonoglutamic Acid for B9, Cyanocobalamin for B12, L-Ascorbic Acid for vitamin C, Cholecalciferol for vitamin D, DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate for vitamin E, and Phylloquinone for vitamin K.

Of these, at least half vitamins I would consider terrible (vitamin E and K) or average (vitamin B1, B3, B6, and B12) options. But exceptions to that would be the okay ones (vitamin C, B2, and B9) and the great ones (vitamin B5, B7, and D). That said, the minerals look even worse. It’s an absolute mess [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

We’ve got Ferrous Fumarate for Iron, Manganese Sulphate for Manganese, Zinc Oxide for Zinc, Cupric Sulphate for Copper, Chromium Chloride for Chromium, Sodium Molybdate for Molybdenum, Potassium Iodide for Iodine, and Sodium Selenate for Selenium. All of which are bad or terrible forms, except the one for Iodine [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

But there’s more. The full ingredient list lists a couple more minerals (Potassium Chloride for Potassium and Chloride, Calcium Carbonate and Dicalcium Phosphate for Calcium, Magnesium Oxide for Magnesium) that we don’t have any indications for the amounts they come in on the label.

Which is a very confusing thing to me. Because this does not happen typically.

But either way, there is one more thing regarding Iron. Meaning, supplementation of Iron is only recommended for menstruating women due to the iron loss during menstruation [R, R, R].

As for everyone else, we are more than just likely to acquire the amounts needed through food. Whereas, constant amount of excess Iron (which may occur if an iron supplement is used long-term) within the body may cause heart disease, liver damage, diabetes, and other very serious health issues [R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

Therefore, Iron in the supplement long-term can and will cause more harm than good. So, if you’re not in that group of people, who should use it, don’t.

These Additions Can Add To The Performance, Not Too Promising Still

Centrum Performance provides two additional beneficial substances alongside all the vitamins and minerals. It brings Ginkgo Biloba and Ginseng.

Ginkgo Biloba is a very, very cool herb. It is oftentimes marketed as a memory improvement herb, however, some very large highest standard studies have proven that in healthy people it is not the case [R, R, R, R, R].

Nonetheless, Ginkgo Biloba is proven to have truly great antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capabilities, to inhibit anxiety, to improve mood, to help restore vision, to prevent fatigue and infections, and provide with other awesome benefits [R, R, R, R, R].

As for Ginseng, it is one of the most popular herbs in the world. It’s very widely used as a medicine. Ginseng improves blood sugar levels, brain function, mood, reduces stress, improves lung function, prevents cancer, boosts the immune system. It also increases energy levels [R, R, R, R, R].

So, two pretty cool additions to have. Still, I’m not sure, I’m actually a bit skeptical as to how useful they will actually be. Here’s why.

If we look at the standalone Ginkgo Biloba supplements, they typically provide 120 milligrams of the herb per serving (though there are also some that offer only 60 milligrams). So, it’s typically twice less with Centrum Performance. Whereas if we look at Ginseng, it’s typically 5-10 times per serving with the standalone ones. Namely, it’s 250-500 milligrams instead of just 50. [R, R].

Thus, will these additions actually matter? Probably yes. Should we expect the full range of benefits? Very likely not.

Additives Are The Messiest Thing Since Dull Guillotines

Many people don’t pay any attention to additives. For them, those are just ingredients that do not matter at all. But what if I said that they do? What if I said that most side effects of medicine come due to the added additives aka “glue ingredients”? What if you’d realize that the same additives that medicine often uses, also supplements do? Would they matter then [R]?

In the past, the additive list of Centrum Performance has been a bit messier. They’ve managed to clean up some aspects of it. But it is still very, very far from acceptable. I mean, the product contains 16 different ones. A number we won’t find with supplements like Optimum Nutrition Women (review) or MegaFood Men’s One Daily (review).

So, here’s the good news. They’ve removed ingredients like Maltodextrin, Lactose (from milk), artificial colors, and supposedly even Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (the last one of which, however, I do suspect might still being a part of the supplement, just under the ingredient “Palm Oil”). So, here’s a bit more in-depth as to what we’re, luckily, missing out on now.

They Have Managed To Remove Three At Least Really Nasty “Glue Ingredients”

Maltodextrin. It is essentially sugar that has quite a number of ways, in which it can be used as an additive (binding agent, preservative, filler, etc.). But it does mess with our blood sugar levels more than the regular sugar [R, R, R, R, R].

As it’s essentially a sugar, it has the same bad side effects as sugar does: it causes obesity, eating disorders, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, aggressive behavior, depression, learning difficulties, hyperactivity and a whole lot more of adverse effects [R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

In fact, Maltodextrin is likely to cause also sudden headache, itching, difficulty breathing, bloating, diarrhea, rash, improves our susceptibility to diseases in a bad way and has other harmful effects [R, R, R, R, R]. Other than that, Maltodextrin supposedly can also be used as a cover-up additive masking many much more hazardous additives within the supplement [R, R, R, R].

Lactose (from milk). It is one of the two most widely spread hidden allergens that lead to brain problems. The majority of people have a hidden allergy to dairy products [R].

You might have it, and you might not even know it. This is because symptoms of having the allergy may develop at any time in the time frame of 3 days after consuming a dairy product [R].

Ultimately, not only it causes inflammation and toxic effects, but also it can lead to everything starting to form a simple brain fog to depression, ADHD, dementia, and autism [R]. Therefore, this is not something that I would advise having in your everyday supplement.

Sunset Yellow (E110) & Allura Red AC (E129). Or artificial colors, which as additives are extremely bad for your health. Artificial coloring is known not only to cause unpleasant behavior patterns in children but also are the root reason for hyperactivity, irritability, and a large number of different cancers [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

Hydrogenated vegetable oil. Or, in other words, trans fat. It’s just a different name invented to hide these incredibly harmful fats so that people wouldn’t recognize them as easily [R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

Stay away from these kinds of substances like the plague. Trans fat not only damages your cells (that includes scarring arteries), they are very likely to cause inflammation, obesity, ADHD, diabetes, and damages normal brain function. Furthermore, there is a whole list of other possible adverse effects [R, R, R, R, R, R]. In fact, hydrogenated oils are among the most harmful additives there is to any food. Period [R, R].

All in all, I feel this might create the wrong impression. Meaning, sure, they’ve removed some potentially harmful stuff. It does not, however, mean that all that was left is okay. Or that anything else that was added to make up for those missing bits is okay either.

Here Are The Ones We Still Do Have In The Centrum Performance, A Disaster

E460 and E464. Both are types of cellulose, which are some of the safest additives out there. No health concern here [R, R, R, R, R].

Gelatin. It is a substance produced out of animal (pig’s, cow’s lamb’s, chicken’s, fish’s) ligaments, skin, tendons, tissue, and bones. But exactly because of this fact it provides a lot of various amino acids once consumed, all of which are beneficial [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

As for side effects, Gelatin can cause an unpleasant taste in the mouth, bloating, heartburn, belching, as well as heaviness in the stomach [R].

Crospovidone (E1202). It is the insoluble form of polyvinylpyrrolidone. Although, this is not something I’m 100% certain of, supposedly, this substance is an insoluble one. This basically means that it is likely all excreted from the body and, therefore, safe for long-term use [R, R, R].

Starch (probably similar to other Centrum vitamins, out of corn). In low amounts, it probably won’t affect us that much. However, when you consume it, inside of one’s stomach it becomes almost rock solid. The more you consume the worse it gets. And we have a lot of it in our daily foods already [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

Ultimately, it causes insane digestive problems, along with which can possibly come serious side effects like malnutrition [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

Modified Starch (most probable corn). It is essentially that same starch only chemically altered and modified [R, R, R]. Therefore, the possible adverse effects are likely the same [R, R, R]. Furthermore, taking into account that that’s the chemically altered and modified version, probably there are some other as well.

Silica or Silicon Dioxide (E551). It is one of the safest additives there is. It is found in essentially everything in nature and also safety-wise in long-term studies have proven to be harmless [R, R, R, R].

Magnesium Stearate (E470b) & no more Stearic Acid (E570). They are pretty similar in the sense that the internet along with quite a few specialists has deemed them harmful and avoidable [R, R, R, R, R, R].

However, the reasons behind this are very poorly founded and can be easily refutable when dissected. Ultimately, both Magnesium Stearate and Stearic Acid are very safe for consumption [R, R, R, R, R].

Polysorbate (E433). It is a synthetic compound used in foods, supplements, medicine, and vaccines. In supplements supposedly it’s used to improve the consistency of capsules, as well as to help pills disperse in the stomach. There are quite numerous side effects associated with E433 like coughing, stomach pain, irritation. It can also (quite likely) cause extremely severe allergic reactions, which may come in a number of very unpleasant ways. There are also other serious concerns [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

All in all, definitely avoid the E433 as it has way too many potential health risks that are, in my opinion, extremely likely to occur, if this substance is used regularly. Do also avoid E432 and E434–E436, because these are very similar to the E433.

Titanium Dioxide (E171) used to be a quite harmless additive. But nowadays, not too much, because of the nanoparticles, which is the second most-produced nanomaterial on the Planet. A supplement will most likely contain these nanoparticles [R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

The problem with nanoparticles is their size. Yeah, it’s more pleasing for the food industry as regards to the color visually, but these particles are too small for the digestive system to filter [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

And this results in those particles being able to move freely across the body and cause inflammation. Which can lead to a lot of serious problems, for example, brain damage, lung damage, liver damage, you name it [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

Lastly, Sucrose and Glycose Syrup. The former is “a crystalline disaccharide, C₁₂ H₂₂ O₁₁, the sugar obtained from the sugarcane, the sugar beet, and sorghum, and forming the greater part of maple sugar” or, simply put, sugar. Whereas the latter is arguably the worst sugar form out there. And processed sugar is bad (as evident by what we went over with Maltodextrin) [R, R].

So, exactly as I mentioned earlier, not really ideal.

Do The Customer Reviews Matter? Is That Success Rate Legit?

But despite all the potentially hazardous stuff that the Centrum Performance contains, it has still somehow managed to be of solid success rate. Which I believe is the biggest danger of customer reviews.

So, the original product page holds no such relevant section. They just don’t use that marketing tool. Granted, those sections on the manufacturer’s page are typically useless as we’ve seen with so many, including Olly Women Multivitamin (review) and New Chapter Perfect Prenatal (review). So, it’s not like it’s a big loss.

In any case, we still need to do some research and properly assess to get to the real success rate values. Which is exactly what I did.

Searching through all third-party sellers and retailers showed that there is a total of 538 Centrum Performance reviews.

Of these, I would care to expect that at least 20-40% are bad. Because, generally, even the worst of supplements get around 60-80% success rate. But as surprising as it was, that was not the case.

Instead, out of those 538 reviews, only 43 were negative. Whereas 495 were positive. Which leaves us at a 92.0% success rate.

And that I believe is a dangerously deceiving success percentage.

I mean, it’s so easy to just look at the reviews for this Centrum Performance thing and assume that the product is great and hence, buy one. Judging by its raw constituents though, you could be gravely wrong.

Other than that, I believe it’s easy to explain the incredibly high positivity towards it. It’s probably because people feel the benefit of the added extra substances which leads them to conclude that this works. Which it does to an extent but it does, for sure, bring a pretty decently likely harmful baggage. Which is just bad.

They Say It’s Cheap & Good But Is The Product Truly?

I’ve seen a ton of Centrum Performance reviews that absolutely praise its pricing. They practically can’t stop bragging about what a bargain this supplement is. And thus, some even go as far as to say that this is the best multivitamin supplement out there (I mean, some best-of lists even dare to list it as their number one).

But does that hold up objectively?

As far as the best multivitamin, that’s certainly not true, the way I see it. There are plenty of supplements on the best-of list for men and for women. There are also plenty of them on the very best-of list (a multivitamin best-of list using a more sophisticated nutrient standard). But Centrum Performance isn’t one of them.

In fact, it is a supplement that I have listed as one of the worst multivitamins out there. Whereas the price doesn’t really matter.

So what that it is typically $12.15 per month’s supply (but I have to say that the price fluctuates quite a bit)? So what that it costs $0.42 per tablet, namely, $0.42 a day?

It’s garbage additives and mostly poor and very cheap forms of nutrients. I would even go as far as to say that for what it contains, it’s expensive. Which I believe the following illustrates perfectly.

Rainbow Light Men’s One Multivitamin (review) is a supplement I would pick over the Centrum Performance every day of the week. And it’s $0.37 per tablet instead of $0.42. So, not only is it cheaper, but it’s also practically infinite times better.

So, much for all that praise when it comes to pricing.

I Don’t Like It, Neither Should You, Avoid It

I don’t mean to be too harsh on the Centrum Performance. But I genuinely believe it is one of the worst multis we can ever buy.

I mean, it’s not enough that the nutrients are absolutely cheap most of the time.

It’s not enough that among additives we have some of the absolute worst substances to ever consume.

It’s also pretty darn expensive to top it all off. Especially, for the kind of value (or rather lack thereof) it provides.

Plus, there are no third-party certifications, no third-party testing. The best we get in terms of quality is that they’ve been around for 40 years. Which doesn’t really objectively mean anything.

Overall, (out of avoid it, consider it, shortlist it, buy it) this, for sure, is a supplement to avoid. Zero doubts about it.

Above all, I hope this Centrum Performance review helped you find the information you were looking for. Have you ever tried it? Would you ever try it? What, in your opinion, is its worst characteristic? Let me know below.