If you take vitamins, where do you buy them from?

[Heated]

I need to start taking some supplements (and poss also order some omega oils for the dcs) but the first company I looked at, the vitamins had extra ingredients like aspartame which would prefer to avoid.

So can any MNers recommend somewhere reputable, preferably online?

dh gets his through Holland and Barrett

I sometimes use this one for my DS as it seems more natural than others;
eskimo
For yourself I would recommend floradix or biocare. Google them and you will find a few online stores selling them.

Thank you both , especially for the online ones Margobambino, I hadn't heard of any of them before - off to browse now.

I take (not every day) multivits with iron, evening primrose/cod liver oil, Omega 3-6-9 & Vit C.

I used to get them all from Boots but they seem to have stopped doing the big bottles at ½ price or 3 for 2. I currently have Omega 3-6-9 from Tesco (I think) but they don't have as much in. Vit C 500mg you can get from almost anywhere at reasonable prices, eg Superdrug or Asda; ditto evening primrose/cod liver oil.

I will just go & look at the labels & see what is & isn't included...

Local health kind of shop. I would recommend over boots/Holland Barrett etc.

They will talk with you about what you want need etc and help advise you. Once you are on a regime you can maybe buy online cheaper

Sorry that sounds horrible. I don't go and get their advice and then buy online, but you could do if there was a huge price difference lol

That's really helpful Ponders, thank you, as I need to take cod liver oil & evening primrose and poss also B6.

The omega oils are for the children preferably in capsule form, but I can't believe how many of them list aspartame as one of the ingredients; it's seems bizarre.

I take EVERYDAY:

Pregnancy vit usually a multivitamin when not preg)

Spoonfull of kiki superfood in some water

Omega 3 and 6 fish oils (sometimes not if I have eaten quite a bit of fish that week)

OCCASIONALLY:

Liquid B vits in water if feeling depressed/anxious

You need to try and get them in a bioavailable form if possible

You're speaking to a complete novice here , what's 'bioavailable form' Sherby?

OK, atm my evening primrose/cod liver oil capsules are from Boots, expiry Aug 09 (I told you I don't take them every day ) - they have 500mg of both plus extra Vitamin A, D & E & a few other bits (but no aspartame)

Actually the A,D & E thing is a bit of a bugger, because when you take multi-vits they already have 100% of those & then the extra supplements have more & they are all oil-based which means the body stores them, unlike Vit C which is water-based & flushes out.

Tesco omega 3-6-9 also includes linseed oil, sesame oil, rice bran oil, evening primrose (again), sunflower seed oil, soya lecithin & rosemary oil. The 3-6-9 are 263mg, 128mg & 26mg respectively. No aspartame.

I also have in the cupboard Tesco evening primrose (no cod liver oil) which just has 500mg evening primrose plus 10mg Vit E.

I think Tesco (a big store) would be a good place to look

Wow, thank you Ponders for such a comprehensive reply, that's really useful information.

bioavailablility is how much of the vitamin your body can use

when they are bound to amino acids and enzymens the bio avalibility goes right up

I've never heard of this before! I've been doing some reading tonight on the t'internet (thanks to all the helpful links) and never come across this phrase, so I take it this bioavailability doesn't apply to all vitamins available on the market? I don't suppose you happen to know of a company that sells vitamins in bio-available form?

I use biocare

'readily available form' is the same thing as bio available afaik

this is the one my DH takes but his diet is rubbish

So liquid, then? Does putting it in capsule form inhibit effectiveness?

Reminds me of the days of yore when they were made of sterner stuff and lined up for cod liver oil after breakfast. Hmm, ok I'm partially convinced. I guess it will have a shorter shelf life and be a bit more expensive this way. Will have another look at Biocare, thanks Sherby.

his are capsules, but some like my VitBs are in liquid form