Animal Pak is a sports dietary supplement from the class of vitamin and mineral complexes produced by Universal Nutrition, USA. The company was founded in 1977, and the production of Animal Pak was launched in 1983. Universal Nutrition claims that this product is designed to provide hard-training athletes with all the necessary micronutrients for maximum physical development and maintaining health. It is especially actively promoted in the field of fitness, bodybuilding and weightlifting, for 10 years (since 2005) it has been the best multivitamin complex according to Bodybuilding.com’s Supplement Awards. At the same time, the additive raises many doubts and has some disadvantages.
Declared advantages
Optimized vitamin dosages for athletes
Promotes muscle growth and fat burning
Increase of strength indicators and endurance
Improves health
Mental concentration
Helps protein absorption
The composition of Animal Pak
Instruction manual
One serving of Animal Pak (2 sachets) contains:
Energy value: 40 kcal
Carbohydrates: 4 g, of which 2 g is dietary fiber
Proteins: 6 g
Vitamins and minerals:
The manufacturer uses large doses of vitamins of group B. There is an excess of the recommended daily norms (% DV) for the following components:
- vitamin A – 2 times
- vitamin B6 90 times
- thiamine 50 times
- riboflavin 44 times
- niacin 4 times
- ascorbic acid is 16 times
- vitamin E is 10 times.
- vitamin D is 1.7 times
- vitamin B12 is 1.8 times
- Pantothenic acid by 8 times
- Calcium by 2 times
- Phosphorus by 1.3 times
- Zinc by 2 times
- Manganese by 2.5 times
With some components of Animal Pak, iron is poorly absorbed, so it is not included in the composition and if there is a need, it should be taken separately. It should be noted that the recommended daily RDA is not a maximum or a safe range. The RDA reflects the norm for an ordinary person, with the use of which hypervitaminosis will not develop. In the article vitamins and minerals, you can get acquainted with the maximum permissible level of vitamin intake, which is considered safe. All dosages of Animal Pak are below the maximum permissible level, so fears about the development of hypervitaminosis are groundless. Despite this, the expediency of using megadoses of vitamins has not been proven and is seen by many experts only as a marketing lure.
Performance Complex
The complex for increasing productivity (efficiency, endurance) consists entirely of ingredients with unproven or questionable effectiveness:
- Uni-Liver (Dried beef liver) 4080mg
- Carnitine (carnitine)25mg (the dosage is extremely low)
- Choline (Choline) 250mg
- Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus) 1750mg
- Hawthorn (Hawthorn) 250mg
- Inositol (Inositol) 125mg
- Milk Thistle (Thistle) 500mg
- Oriental Ginseng (Ginseng) 250mg
- Para-Aminobenzoic Acid (paraaminobenzoic acid) 400mg
- Pyridoxine Α-Ketoglutarate (Pyridoxine) 200mg
