Cellular energy and longevity supplements are among the most expensive products in the category, and among the hardest to compare. Ingredient lists run long, trade names substitute for compound names, blends conceal amounts, and the surrounding copy is written to make comparison feel unnecessary.
The way through it is arithmetic. This guide sets out a method you can apply to any two products in the category, using our own NAD+ Precursor Complex as the worked example — not because it is the best product available, but because its panel has two rows and is therefore easy to follow.
Why a short ingredient list is easier to judge
The instinct when comparing supplements is that more ingredients means more value. In practice the opposite is often true, because a long list makes it hard to see whether any single ingredient is present at an amount worth having.
Our NAD+ Precursor Complex panel has two rows: 300 mg of NR as nicotinamide riboside chloride, and 300 mg of TMG as trimethylglycine. The other ingredients line names magnesium stearate and hypromellose. That is the entire composition, and you can hold it in your head.
Compare that against a competitor with fourteen rows and the question becomes concrete: does that product supply 300 mg of a precursor as well, or does it supply 50 mg alongside thirteen other things at similarly small amounts? Both products can look impressive on a shelf. Only one of those answers is worth paying for.
Step one: per capsule, per serving, per day
Every comparison starts by putting both labels onto the same basis, and the basis is the full daily serving. Find the serving size at the top of the panel, note how many capsules it is, and read every amount as belonging to that whole serving.
Ours states a one-capsule serving with sixty servings per bottle, so per capsule and per day are identical and the bottle is a two-month supply. A competitor stating a three-capsule serving in a ninety-capsule bottle is a thirty-day supply, and any amount on its panel is what all three capsules deliver together.
This is the step people skip, and skipping it produces conclusions that are precisely backwards. Write both figures down before going any further.
Step two: cost per day and cost per gram
Price per bottle is meaningless across different serving sizes. Divide the price by the number of servings and you have cost per day, which is comparable.
Our NAD+ Precursor Complex is £38.99 for sixty daily servings, which is about 65p a day. A £30 bottle that turns out to be a thirty-day supply is £1 a day and is the more expensive product despite the smaller number on the shelf edge.
For a single-ingredient comparison you can go one step further and work out cost per gram of the active. Divide the daily cost by the grams of precursor supplied per day. It is a crude measure that ignores form, quality and everything else on the label, and it is still revealing when two products are separated by a factor of three.
Step three: compare against the studies, not the copy
Once you have amount per day, you can compare it against the published research rather than against the marketing. Published human trials of NR have used a range of daily amounts, and the useful exercise is checking whether the product in front of you is anywhere near what was studied, in the same form.
This is where a lot of products come apart. A page can cite a study enthusiastically while supplying a fraction of the amount that study used, or a different compound entirely. Neither is illegal; both are worth catching.
To be explicit: we are describing how to read the literature, not recommending an amount. There is no authorised UK health claim for nicotinamide riboside and no established recommended intake, and we are not permitted to tell you what to take, nor qualified to do so for you individually. What we can do is publish exactly what is in the capsule.
Trade names, patented forms and what they signal
Branded ingredients are common in this category — a trademarked name for a specific manufactured form of a compound, often with associated research and always with a licence fee. A trade name is not a red flag. It usually indicates a defined manufacturing source and sometimes a dedicated evidence base.
What it should never do is replace the compound name. A panel that lists only a trademarked name has told you the brand of the ingredient and not what it chemically is, and you cannot compare that against anything. A well-run label gives the compound and notes the trade name if there is one.
Ours states nicotinamide riboside chloride, which is the compound name. If you are comparing it against a product listing a branded NR ingredient, you are looking at the same class of compound from a different source, and the amount is still the number that lets you compare them.
Proprietary blends in the longevity category
Proprietary blends are as common here as in the evening formula category and they do the same damage. Several ingredients are grouped under one heading with a single combined weight and listed in descending order, which tells you the ranking and nothing about the split.
In a category this expensive, that matters. A 1,200 mg longevity blend could be mostly an inexpensive bulk ingredient with the headline compounds present in small amounts. The label cannot distinguish that from an even split, and that ambiguity is generally the point.
Formula protection is the usual justification. In a market where the compounds are widely known and the suppliers are largely shared, it is not a persuasive one. If the amounts are not published, treat the interesting ingredients as unquantified.
Our own label has a printing error, and here it is
Since this article is about reading labels carefully, it would be poor form to leave out the fault on ours. The current bottle artwork prints the product name as NAD+ Percursor Complex — a transposition in the word precursor.
It is a typographical error in the label print. The nutritional information panel, the amounts, the forms, the other ingredients and the cautions are all unaffected and correct. A corrected label is being arranged.
We publish this because you would notice it when the bottle arrived, and finding an unannounced misprint is a worse experience than being told in advance. It is also a reasonable illustration of the general point: labels are produced by people, printing errors happen, and a company's response to being asked about one tells you a good deal. If anything on a bottle you receive from us differs from what this site says, the bottle is the reference and we would like to hear about it.
A comparison worksheet
Put two products side by side and fill in these ten lines for each. It takes about five minutes and it settles most decisions in this category.
- Serving size — how many capsules.
- Servings per bottle.
- Precursor compound name and form.
- Precursor amount per daily serving.
- Any additional actives, each with its own amount.
- Whether any amounts are hidden inside a blend.
- Other ingredients — the capsule shell and excipients.
- Price, and price per day.
- Cost per gram of the main active.
- Cautions, and whether any apply to you.
If a product page will not let you complete that list, that is your answer. Every figure in it for our formula is published on this site and on the bottle.
Frequently asked questions
What amount of NR do studies use?
Published human trials have used a range of daily amounts rather than converging on a single figure, and comparing a product against that range is a reasonable exercise. It is not a recommendation: there is no authorised UK claim and no established recommended intake for nicotinamide riboside, so what to take is a question for you and a healthcare professional, not for a product page.
What is TMG and why is it in a NAD+ product?
TMG is trimethylglycine, also called betaine, a methyl donor. It is included on the reasoning that metabolising nicotinamide compounds consumes methyl groups. Note that the authorised UK claim for betaine and homocysteine metabolism applies at 1.5 g daily, and our formula supplies 300 mg, so that claim is not made here.
Why does the same ingredient cost so differently between brands?
Amount per serving is usually the largest factor, and it is invisible until you do the per-day arithmetic. Beyond that: branded ingredient licence fees, testing regimes, packaging, order volumes and margin all contribute. Working out cost per day and cost per gram of the active strips most of that away.
Are longevity supplements regulated in the UK?
They are regulated as food supplements, which means rules on labelling, permitted ingredients, safety and health claims apply. They are not assessed for efficacy the way a medicine is, and no product in this category may carry a health claim unless it is on the authorised register. Ingredients without authorised claims should be presented as amounts and nothing more.
Before choosing a supplement
- Read the complete current label, including the active and the other ingredients.
- Compare the daily serving rather than the number printed on the front of the bottle.
- Add up every source of the same nutrient across your whole routine.
- Ask a pharmacist or qualified healthcare professional about medicines, pregnancy, breastfeeding, surgery or an existing condition.
- Remember that food supplements do not replace a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle.
Related guides on this formula
- NAD+ explained: what the research shows, and what it does not
- Healthy ageing: what supplements can and cannot say
View the NAD+ Precursor Complex label, the full ingredient panel and current purchase options.
Also useful: RevaHealth Journal · full range · Ingredients · Contact.
References and further reading
- GOV.UK: Great Britain nutrition and health claims register
- UK legislation: The Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003
- Food Standards Agency: Food supplements
This article is general educational information, not medical advice. Food supplements are not medicines and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. Always read the complete physical label before use, and speak to your GP or pharmacist if you are unsure whether a supplement is right for you.
