I need some advice on whether it is better to buy vitamins and supplements from a health food store instead of a chain store. Are the ones at the health food store really better or is that a gimmick? Are name brands like Solaray and Mega Foods better than store brands like Nature's Bounty?
By angie from Cleveland, TN
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The FDA doesn't regulate vitamin and supplements, so read labels, compare content, most importantly ask your pharmacist which brands they consider reputable. Store brands are normally the same as national brands, but check with the pharmacist to be sure.
I buy store brand because they are just a generic label of a major brand. Always look for the milligram content for each nutrient to make sure you're getting the amount that is needed by you.
Store brands, or better yet, Costco's Kirkland ones are best.
You have to know what the source of each ingredient in the vitamins, some are just the same, but some of the cheaper brands use cheap forms of the vitamins that they list. You'd be surprised just how much many of them get away with, and your pharmacist has to have the education to know what to recommend & this kind of schooling has to b done after graduation & at their our cost.
www.naturalfnews.com is extremely helpful in telling us what products say one thing but are not that at all!
Andrew Lessman on hsn.com makes his own; and states exactly what is in them; there are no "fillers" of any kind! another great source is www.vitacost.com and www.puritan.com; all of these offer fantastic prices on quality products;
the problem in the existing set up of the usa is that the pharmacuticals work in conjuction with the "politicians" and "elected" officials; and the chemical companies and their greatest profit comes from us being ill!
I buy Walgreen's. I have been a Walgreen customer literally all my life. My Mama bought my prescriptions there. Their pharmaceuticals and health products are second to none. I am now 74 so Walgreen's and I go back a long way.
What C T said.
You have to know origin, dosages needed. Just cause something is cheaper, says it fulfills 50% of your daily need, these RDA are not necessarily current. Through a lot of hard work, I have found what I need of each mineral/vitamin. I do not take multivites as some things I need more of. So I would need 10 of it for one thing, yet 2 of it may be toxic in another ingredient. I cannot do iron or Vitamin A but do 4,000 mg Cs daily.
Same with how much calcium/magnesium/zinc is in the tablet. You can max out the zinc at 50-100mg total but the magnesium can be 500 mg (tablet having only 50 mg in) and the calcium in the same tablet NOT the kind you need to be absorbed by your body in the proper amounts shown by blood labs. AND your zinc needs to be taken in the am, the mag/cal at bedtime when the body uses it to relax the circ. system when you sleep.
Talk to your pharmacist. Cheap is not better, country of origin may have been warned of toxins by ingestion of the product.
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