Are cheaper vitamins as good as expensive one??

[Shootin]

Hi.
i have always gone to Holland and Barrett for my vitamins and cod liver oil capsules.
Just wondering if the cheaper ones are as good.
I was in Home Bargains yesterday and I noticed that the high strength vitamins were so much cheaper.
thank you.

You need to check the list of ingredients. A lot of the cheaper vitamins (and some of the expensive ones) are full of fillers/bulking agents.

One of the doctors on This Morning recommended the cheap vitamins you can get in Home Bargains etc and she said you don’t have to spend a lot. I am a bit sceptical myself although she should know I suppose.

When I used to take Perfectil women’s vitamins which are really expensive, I’m sure I felt the difference whereas I never have with Tesco multivitamins or any of the others I have tried.

Thank you.
Just been on Home Bargains website and it does state bulking agents in the ingredients.
Going to look at other shops like Superdrug and Boots.

vitamins, unlike medicines, are not as strictly regulated. the quality can vary from batch to batch.
more expensive vitamins tend to follow the eu Pharmacopoeia (i.e. a standardised recipe book).

'bulking' ingredients are not neccessarily a bad thing. they are there to be able to mix the ingredients together and make them into a form that can be easily taken or that taste ok.

I just wish they have size guides in the packets.

Im so sick of buying huge horse ra legs that l have to break up to swallow. And this includes expensive ones. Why do they have to be so large?

Thank you.
just been looking at Boots and Superdrug ingredients, they do contain bulking agents.
So looked at Holland and Barrett and they do too. 🤷‍♀️
so going to do a bit of research.

Tablets are made from a bulking agent which 'sticks together' blended with the active (nominal) ingredients so that a known amount of blend pressed into a tablet shape will provide a known amount of active or nominal. Then some of them are coated to make them smooth.
Capsules are (usually) made from bulking agents which don't stick together blended with the active or nominal so they can be packed into a capsule.
There are many exceptions of course but the principle is sound.
So, wherever you buy a tablet it must, by necessity, have fillers or bulking agents,
Imagine if they didn't use a blended mix with a bulking agent: you'd have a tablet with say, 1mg of vitamin D. It would be a granule rather than a tablet, and much more difficult to make accurately. A blob of smooth coating with no vitamin vs 1mg vs 2 mg would all be essentially similar to the untrained eye.

I use these two brands and have been happy

sealions.com

www.nutritiongeeks.co

I was advised by a nurse in the bone health clinic to start taking Vitamin D, but I didn't need to buy an expensive brand as the pound shop ones were just as effective.

Cheap ibuprofen and paracetamol are identical in composition to the expensive branded ones. I dare say that budget vitamins are going to be just as effective as expensive branded ones, as long as they contain the same ingredients at the same strength.

Thank you very muchTootytoot78 and ODFOx
Just been researching vitamin supplements that contain no bulking agents - the organic ones are so expensive.
NC2024 - these look fab!! Better value and quantity.
A couple of years ago I consulted a pharmacist because I had a sore at the corners of my mouth.
Thought he would give me some cream but he told me to have a blood test. Found out I was severely low in vitamin D and low thyroid.
Dr prescribed special high strength D. After I finished the course he just told me to buy them from the shops/ pharmacy.
Did not mention any particular brand.
Thank you all again.

Not necessarily. The paracetamol or ibuprofen component may be identical, but some of the branded ones may contain excipients or additional actives to get faster absorption or a higher Cmax even if the overall exposure is essentially similar.

The same thing doesn't apply to vitamins though where only the overall exposure rather than the rate is important.

But is it worth £4 instead of 40p?

The Pharmacist told me (last week) to buy the cheap ones, the expensive ones were a rip-off.

The difference with cheap ones is you will not necessarily get the most 'biologically available' version of the vitamin.
This basically means how well it is absorbed by your body. This can make a massive difference.

For example, cheap multivitamins will include Folic Acid. Your body needs to convert this to folate to make use of it.
But more expensive ones will contain folate. Many people don't realise they have a common mutation which means your body will not be able to process the folic acid to make the folate. You would need the ones with folate in. I've been advised by a nutritionist that actually taking folic acid when you can't process it makes things even worse but I can't remember the ins and outs of that sorry.
Very few doctors even know about this. When I've spoken to my GP about this they have tried to remedy this by prescribing an even higher dose of folic acid 🙈 don't expect many people to know much about it. It's a nutritionist that would know most.

Another example is Vitamin D. Cheap multivitamins may not contain vitamin D3 which is the biologically available version.

There's many examples like this.

Vitamin D3 doesn't have to be expensive though, you will find that in many places.
I think folate is a bit more expensive.

It's hard to bring yourself to spend tons on organic natural multivitamins as they can be so pricey, but knowing they are far better for you is motivating. A good way to frame it mentally is to see them as food.
Maybe people would think nothing of a couple of takeaways a month totalling £50 but wouldn't be comfortable spending that on vital vitamins.