Ritual: A Simple and Balanced Vitamin
In the perfect world, you wouldn’t need to take a multivitamin. You would have all the time and resources to get in your daily fruits, vegetables, and protein, which would provide all the B12, iron, and slew of other essential nutrients found in a well balanced system. But say you aren’t Beyonce, what’s the right vitamin to take?
It’s a tough question, but Ritual has worked mercilessly for two years to find an answer. Founder and CEO, Katerina Schneider, started the company during her first pregnancy, becoming aware of everything she was putting on her skin and eating — including her vitamins.
To set the stage, you should know that by law, the FDA does not approve dietary supplements. So it shouldn’t be a shock to know that many supplements have filler ingredients and every year, Americans are spending billions on unregulated supplements and vitamins. However, the FDA does regulate both dietary supplements and dietary ingredients, and Ritual follows FDA guidelines in their material sourcing, evaluation, and testing. The Company narrowed down the number of essential ingredients to 9 (that’s a quarter of the ingredients found in most women’s multivitamins), all found in their Essential for Women pill.
The 9 ingredients: Ritual’s Essential for Women daily vitamin, contains iron, magnesium, omega-3, folate, boron, and vitamins K2, D3, B12, and E. Schneider and her team of doctors found that most of the vitamins in an average 40-50 ingredient multi were unnecessary - many vitamins like C are found in abundance in most diets. It was these 9 that were typically harder to find and ingest consistently.
The look: The pill itself is transparent, much like the company’s mission to be transparent in its methods and sources - every scientist and source is listed on their website.
In an effort to cut waste, the packaging recently changed from the instagrammable box to an eco-friendly mailer, made with 30% recycled material.
The taste: After the initial release, Ritual has since included a clear tab inside the clear plastic bottle, a food-grade insert infused with pure peppermint, which keeps the vitamins smelling minty fresh - a scent you wouldn’t know is necessary until you’ve tried vitamins that smell like fish (often resulting from algal oil).
The habit: Ritual made a bottle that you would want to keep it on your counter, not tucked away in some drawer - it’s attractive. And things that are on display are used more. So the habit forming-ness starts from the look. And of course, like all silicon valley startup brands, there’s a Facebook Messenger bot to help, aptly named Habit Helper.
Having raised $15.3 million total in VC funding in less than two years, Ritual is well on its way to finding healthy habits everywhere to make more transparent and actionable.
A few words from Ritual: “Consistently good nutrient levels = great foundational health. Ritual helps fill the gaps in your diet and keep your levels steady. Common (and awesome) side effects of Ritual include better mood and glowier skin. But it’s what’s going on beneath the surface that really gets us jazzed. Each month you take Ritual, your bones stay strong, your heart remains healthy, and much more.”
UPDATE: 6/30/2020
Ritual launches Essential for Men!
Ritual launches Essential for Men to help men fix some common diet gaps and sentiments, including:
Men’s diets score lower than women’s for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Men are falling behind women when it comes to getting enough magnesium from their diets.
Men have other common nutrient gaps, too, and genetic gaps.
Some men tend to prioritize exercise over diet.
Some men might not see the value in multivitamins.
“How well do you know magnesium? While calcium gets a lot of credit for being a bone health superhero, the truth is that it works alongside a lot of helper nutrients like magnesium, which lend important support. The problem is that even though magnesium can be found in a lot of whole foods (leafy greens, dark chocolate, and avocado, to name a few), diet isn’t always a reliable source for meeting recommended magnesium intake. That might help explain why 53% of men ages 19-50 aren’t meeting their magnesium needs through their diets. That number increases to 59% for men over 50.”
Adults everywhere are falling behind on key nutrient intake, and Ritual is helping to give a little more precision to vitamins by creating two age categories (19-50, 50+) for women and men.
