Can you be vegan without supplements? The 4 that matter, compared

No, not for B12: NIH says vegans have a higher risk of deficiency, and supplements or fortified foods cut that risk. Iodine is next, because NIH lists vegans among those who may fall short. Vitamin D and an algae omega-3 are worth checking too. Our pick for all four in one daily dose is Complement Essential.

Iodine is where the advice goes wrong, sometimes on the bottle that sells it. Future Kind’s iodine drops come with the line that if you don’t eat seafood or processed food with iodized salt, you might not be getting enough. NIH says food manufacturers almost always use non-iodized salt in processed foods. So the salt in packaged bread and crackers is almost never the iodized kind, and the salt that counts is the one you add at home, at 45 mcg of iodine per gram by the US label. A vegan multivitamin can leave the same gap from the other side: Deva’s iron-free multi, registered with the Vegan Society, carries 75 mcg, half the adult RDA. B12 is the settled part, and our roundup of vegan B12 supplements covers which bottle in detail. This page is about the whole shelf.

What a vegan diet leaves short

NIH puts vegans in the higher-risk group for B12 deficiency, and says fortified foods such as fortified nutritional yeast, or B12 supplements, can substantially reduce that risk. The adult RDA is 2.4 mcg a day. The Vegan Society turns that into three patterns to choose from: fortified foods two or three times a day for at least 3 mcg, one daily supplement of at least 10 mcg, or one weekly supplement of at least 2,000 mcg.

For iodine, NIH lists vegans among the people who might not get enough, because seafood, eggs and dairy are among the richest sources. The adult RDA is 150 mcg a day, rising to 220 mcg in pregnancy, and the upper limit is 1,100 mcg. Seaweed is not a reliable fix: NIH gives commercial seaweeds a range of 16 to 2,984 mcg of iodine per gram, which is why no kelp tablet made this list.

Vitamin D is the third. NIH says diets low in vitamin D are more common among people who follow a vegan diet, that fortified foods provide most of the vitamin D in American diets, and that plant milks are often fortified with similar amounts to cow’s milk. The adult RDA is 15 mcg (600 IU) up to age 70 and 20 mcg (800 IU) after, with an upper limit of 100 mcg (4,000 IU). NIH says D3 is typically made from lanolin from sheep’s wool, and notes an animal-free D3 made from lichen. Our article on whether vitamin D3 is vegan goes through the labels.

Omega-3 is the open question. There is no US intake recommendation for EPA or DHA, and the adult adequate intakes NIH lists are for ALA, the omega-3 in flax and walnuts: 1.6 g a day for men and 1.1 g for women. NIH puts conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA at under 15%, and EFSA treats 250 mg a day of EPA plus DHA as an adequate intake. Our article on whether vegans need an algae omega-3 found nothing that says a vegan must take one, so it sits on this list as a choice, not a rule.

Seven supplements compared

Each entry is checked on the maker’s own page in October 2026. Prices are the makers’ own and change; per-day figures are our arithmetic.

Supplement	B12	Vitamin D	Iodine	EPA + DHA	Price on the maker’s site
Complement Essential (3 capsules)	300 mcg	50 mcg D3, lichen	150 mcg	470 mg	$49 for 30 days
Vegan Society VEG 1 (1 tablet)	25 mcg	20 mcg D3	150 mcg	none	£13.90 for 6 months
Deva Vegan Tiny Tablets Multivitamin, iron-free (1 tablet)	6 mcg	20 mcg D2	75 mcg	none	not listed
Deva Vegan Vitamin B-12 lozenge, 1,000 mcg	1,000 mcg	none	none	none	not listed
Deva Vegan Vitamin D3, 1,000 IU	none	25 mcg D3, lichen	none	none	not listed
Future Kind Vegan Omega-3 (1 softgel)	none	none	none	250 mg	$29 for 60 softgels
Future Kind Vegan Iodine drops (10 drops)	none	none	150 mcg	none	$24 for about 60 servings

Complement Essential

The only product here that covers all four in one daily dose. Three capsules give 300 mcg of B12, 50 mcg (2,000 IU) of vitamin D3 from lichen, 150 mcg of iodine and 470 mg of DHA and EPA, along with vitamin K2, zinc, selenium and magnesium. Complement describes itself as a vegan brand.

At $49 for a 30-day pouch, or $89 for 60 days, it costs about $1.48 to $1.63 a day (our arithmetic), the highest daily cost of the prices we found. The 50 mcg of D is more than three times the adult RDA and half NIH’s upper limit, so skip the separate D3 bottle if you take this. And it is three capsules, every day, with a meal. If two of them would end up in the drawer, the cheaper single tablet below does most of the job.

Vegan Society VEG 1

The Vegan Society built VEG 1 around what it calls “the most common weak points in a varied vegan diet”: one tablet gives 25 mcg of B12, 150 mcg of iodine, 20 mcg of vitamin D3 and 60 mcg of selenium, plus folic acid, B2 and B6. A 6-month supply costs £13.90, about 8p a day (our arithmetic) and the lowest daily cost of the prices we found.

The catch is the address. The Vegan Society sells it from its own UK webshop and eBay UK, ships to the rest of the world by Royal Mail, and lists no US stockist. There is no omega-3 in it; the Society says omega-3 oil doesn’t combine easily with a tablet and that diet can improve the balance. If you want to buy it from a US store, there isn’t one listed.

Deva Vegan Tiny Tablets Multivitamin & Mineral, iron-free

It is registered with the Vegan Society and every ingredient is from non-animal sources, per Deva. Read the panel, though. The B12 is 6 mcg of cyanocobalamin, under the 10 mcg the Vegan Society gives for a daily B12 supplement. The iodine is 75 mcg, half the adult RDA. The vitamin D is 20 mcg of D2, and NIH says D3 raises blood levels more, and keeps them higher for longer, than D2.

Deva lists no price on its own site. As a general multi in a small, iron-free tablet it does what it says. Don’t buy it as your only source of B12 or iodine.

Deva Vegan Vitamin B-12 Fast Dissolve Lozenges, 1,000 mcg

If you take nothing else, take B12. Deva’s lozenge gives 1,000 mcg of B12 as methylcobalamin, with B6 and folic acid, and is meant to dissolve in the mouth; Deva says it is registered with the Vegan Society. One a day covers the Vegan Society’s daily pattern many times over. It is the pick in our B12 roundup, and the form question (methyl against cyano) is settled there. Deva lists no price. Pass on it if you already take Complement or VEG 1, which carry B12 already.

Deva Vegan Vitamin D3, 1,000 IU

A plain tablet of 25 mcg (1,000 IU) of vitamin D3 from lichen, with Deva noting that all its ingredients are from non-animal sources. That is above the 15 mcg adult RDA and well under the upper limit. It suits someone who has B12 and iodine sorted and wants D on its own, and it is the plain D3 pick in our D3 article. Deva lists no price on its site. If your plant milk is fortified and you drink it daily, check that label before adding a tablet, since NIH counts fortified foods as most of the vitamin D Americans get.

Future Kind Vegan Omega-3

Algae oil in tapioca softgels rather than gelatin, at 250 mg of EPA and DHA per softgel by Future Kind’s own count. One softgel matches the 250 mg a day EFSA treats as adequate; Future Kind suggests two. A bottle of 60 costs $29, about 48 cents a softgel (our arithmetic).

The product page also says it “Supports mood & joint health”. We read nothing for this article that backs that, and a supplement’s own page is not where we’d look for it. Skip this if you take Complement Essential, which already gives 470 mg.

Future Kind Vegan Iodine drops

The one to buy if iodine is your only gap. Ten drops give 150 mcg, which Future Kind says is 100% of the US recommended daily intake, and the bottle holds about 60 servings for $24, roughly 40 cents a day (our arithmetic). Future Kind calls it a clean vegan formula with no animal derivatives.

It is also the product whose page carries the processed-food line that NIH contradicts. Don’t stack it on Complement or VEG 1 without counting: each already gives 150 mcg, and the adult upper limit is 1,100 mcg. If you cook with iodized salt every day, read the next section before buying either.

Calcium, iron and zinc: food first, then a test

Calcium is the one NIH is plainest about. People who avoid dairy, vegans included, have a higher risk of inadequate intake and typically need fortified foods or supplements to reach the RDA, which is 1,000 mg a day for adults up to 50. A cup of calcium-fortified soymilk gives 299 mg. The Vegan Society left calcium out of VEG 1 because it can be readily addressed by diet.

Iron works differently. NIH says the iron requirement is 1.8 times higher for people on vegetarian diets, since plant iron is less bioavailable, and that needs should be met mainly through diet, including fortified foods. The adult upper limit is 45 mg. None of the three combination products here contains iron. Ask your doctor for a blood test before you add an iron tablet.

Zinc absorption is lower from vegetarian diets because the phytates in legumes and whole grains bind it, and NIH says vegetarians usually have lower intakes and blood levels. Complement includes 8 mg; VEG 1 leaves zinc out, saying a varied, mostly whole-food vegan diet is considered sufficient.

If you are pregnant, the numbers move: NIH raises the iodine RDA to 220 mcg and the iron RDA to 27 mg. Check the prenatal vitamin too, because NIH reports that only 34 of 59 best-selling prenatal multivitamins on sale in 2016 and 2017 contained any iodine. NIH’s omega-3 fact sheet tells pregnant vegans to ask a health care provider about EPA and DHA. Set those with your doctor or a registered dietitian rather than from this page, and do the same for anything you buy for a child.

If you buy one thing, make it B12. If you buy two, make the second iodine, as drops or as iodized salt you actually use at home, and read the iodine line on any multivitamin before you trust it to cover the gap.

If protein is the worry rather than vitamins, our roundup of vegan protein powders ranks them on lead first.