What brands do you use & why?

[deesalie]

I'm curious to know what brand/s of natural supplements you use... ie vitamins, minerals, herbal supplements.

How much do you know about that brand? and would you continue to use it if you knew the parent company was a major pharmaceutical company such as GlaxoSmithKlein (who also make Cervarix)

[Lexie]

My vitex is always MediHerb. All my tinctures are Herb Pharm. My other herbs are of lesser importance to me, so I go with NOW Foods or Nature's Way. I also get my magnesium & calcium from NOW. I'm going to continue taking my prenatal probably forever. It's from Deva.

I'd definitely stay away from a big pharma company.

[deesalie]

Natures Way is definite big pharma.... PharmaCare to be exact.

[waiting]

Our vit/mineral supplement brand is ALLONE - which is a small firm.
I order my herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs when they have what I want or if they don't my herbs are Plum brand. I do hope you don't say anything bad about Plum Herbals...

If I knew a Pharma company was behind anything I purchased I would look at other options before I bought again. It would be worth spending a couple of extra bucks to not feed the pharma companies.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Vitamin C which I get from Megavitamin Laboratories, which is a private company based in Australia but started in NZ. I have a multi B from Megavitamin, which I occasionally take.

CAA from Health publishing in Tauranga, and I use their coQ 10.

And I have just started Moxxor. I'm one of their first New Zealand "guinea-pigs".

[deesalie]

What's Moxxor?

[LovingMama]

I was using Nature's Way Sambucol but after reading it's big pharma I will no longer buy it.
I use Healthforce Nutritionals, company out of Carlsbad, CA for their Vitamin C. Other than that I just look for the most natural, food based vitamins. I try to get my vitamins from food supplements as I have absorbtion issues and I try not to take synthetics. The prenatal I'm looking at taking is from New Chapter

[deesalie]

I don't know a lot of the US brands... except Solgar & Natures Sunshine. Last I knew Solgar was owned by Wyeth. I *think* (don't quote) Natures Sunshine is pharma free?

Natural health brands get bought & sold so often between companies it's hard to keep up...

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

What's Moxxor?

This is Moxxor (http://www.moxxor.com)

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I was using Nature's Way Sambucol but after reading it's big pharma I will no longer buy it.

Make it yourself. I grow my own elderberries, and make my own elderberry extract. it's dead easy.

[Serephina]

Interesting questions deesalie. I would avoid pharma owned brands if I knew which ones they were, however I've not really given it much thought up to now.

These are the brands I currently have in my cupboard:

Nutrition Care
Bioceuticals
Thompsons
Natures Sunshine
Herbs of Gold
Nature's Own
Brauer

[Spy]

I use mostly the supermarket variety (all be it very selected ones) of vitamins and minerals and I order my homeopathy in NZ - both for easy accessibility. The companies that make the stuff are all local smallish pharmaceuticals, some of them only make supplements, some do other stuff as well. I would be very surprised if I found out GlaxoSmithKlein parents any of them because they generally are not very good with nutritional things (remember the Ribena story? :LMAO:)

That said, if GSK decides to buy these smallish companies tomorrow and keep selling the same stuff without changing the name, I probably wouldn't know for a while. Like it wasn't immediately obvious when Nestle bought Uncle Tobys... :rolleyes:

[deesalie]

Symbion Health owns Natures Own... so pharma there...

GSK did at one stage parent Blackmores, not sure if they still do...

[deesalie]

This is Moxxor (http://www.moxxor.com)

Looks interesting. Here's hoping you don't turn into a guinea pig :giggle:

[Serephina]

Thanks Deesalie, won't be buying Natures Own anymore then. Any others we should be aware of?

[msgrizzle]

I use a lot of Rainbow Light supplements. Please don't tell me they are Big Pharma!

[3monkeys]

I buy Clinicians mostly. I also use a lot of Weleda. Please tell me these are ok.

[3monkeys]

I dont think I would stop using Weleda anyway cause I love it. Mind you I stopped using Lucas PawPaw and I loved that too.

[deesalie]

I don't know about brands outside of Oz... but it's worth questioning whoever you buy from...

Brands in Oz that are owned by pharma companies...

*Natures Own
*Bio Organics
*Herron
*Cenovis
*Natures Way
*Vitaplex/Microgenics

Thats all I can think of atm. You've got a better chance of buying a non pharma brand from a naturopath or health food store. Naturally big pharma try to capture a large slice of market share in the supermarkets & chemists.

And Weleda is fine :)

[Gitti]

I just took out of my cupboard:

Nature Made
Spring Valley
Life Extension
Source Naturals

And if I knew any of them were big pharma made, I would definitely stop buying them. Thanks for that information. I will buy my supplements more carefully from now on.

[Serephina]

Thanks for that list deesalie. I'll stick to the health food store from now on and avoid the supermarket brands.

[salsero96]

For most of my supplements, I usually get THORNE. They have a very high quality supplement. Their supplements are truely hypoallergenic. They use all pure ingredients. They don't even use any impure additives or preservatives that most supplement companies use. All of their supplements are in powder, capsule, or liquid form. They don't have any of those hard vitamins, so they are more easily absorbed.

Here is a link to their fact sheet...

http://www.thorne.com/media/SuppFacts0908.pdf

[MinorityView]

I've been buying True Botanica products for about a year now, because I know the doctors who started and run the company. They were my physicians when I lived in Chicago.

[LovingMama]

Make it yourself. I grow my own elderberries, and make my own elderberry extract. it's dead easy.
I will definitely have to try it. Elderberry extract works wonders. Thanks.

[salsero96]

I also forgot to add... Nordic Naturals... IMO is the best brand for fish oils. I always take the "Ultimate Omega", and my wife is taking the "Prenatal DHA"


-Robert

[Cobluegirl]

I have Vit c from Nature's Way.... My Vit B is MBI nurtriseutical.. I also have some stuff from Standard Process... other brands are NSI, Now, Neuro Science, herbs4kids, Noridic Naturals, Carlson's, Nutribiotic and probably more...

[LovingMama]

I have Vit c from Nature's Way.... My Vit B is MBI nurtriseutical.. I also have some stuff from Standard Process... other brands are NSI, Now, Neuro Science, herbs4kids, Noridic Naturals, Carlson's, Nutribiotic and probably more...

I saw Neuro Science on your list. Is that from https://www.neurorelief.com/ ? I'm getting ready to do their endocrine test next week.

[Cobluegirl]

yes that is the one.... not sure what I feel about them right now..LOL The tests are cool though...

[3monkeys]

Whats a good substitute for fish oil. I really struggle with the whole fish oil thing. But then I really struggle with the state of the worlds fisheries. So I dont take it.

I took flax omega for a while there. Is that an ok substitute.

[Cobluegirl]

i don't think there really is a good substitute for fish oil...

[3monkeys]

What about eating fish :) We go and catch a feed of fish about once a fortnight. Probably not enough......

I just cant bring myself to buy it in much the same way I would never buy a tin of tuna or sardines, or fish from a restaurant or fish and chip shop etc etc.

I remember reading something ages ago that fish oil is really good for people that spend a lot of time indoors over winter so was going to give it to the kids this year. Thats why I was wondering if there was an alternative.

[Cobluegirl]

flax oil is the closest I know to a alternative.. It has similar EFA properties..but I am not sure about other properties..

[Lexie]

Natures Way is definite big pharma.... PharmaCare to be exact.

Gross...thankfully, I don't currently have any Nature's Way. Only ever used it when I couldn't get anything else. This does explain why I see it everywhere though.


i don't think there really is a good substitute for fish oil...

Not even Udo's 3-6-9 Oil Blend? My naturopath recommends that I always take that, but it tastes like walnuts...which I'm not a fan of.

[Cobluegirl]

I haven't used Udo's in a long time... as long as you aren't allergic to it it is probably a pretty good close...

[3monkeys]

Does Udos have any fish omega in it? I wonder if I can get it here..........

[deesalie]

Udo's Oil sources it's Omega 3 from nut/seed sources. Here is one of his articles on why vegetarian sources of EFA's are more beneficial

http://udoerasmus.com/articles/udo/fish_oil.htm