I want to know of some health supplement brands that I can trust.

For instance, in the big box stores, can I trust some of the brands that are there? I try to look for where they are distributed from. One says the US, Canada and Argentina. I don't know where to start in Google, since many times I see affiliate pages or sales pages.

When I am interested in a supplement, I go to iherb, amazon and maybe vitacost to read reviews. Sometimes I read valuable comments about sourcing and dosage in these reviews. For one year I subscribed to consumer lab and found that very informative.

In a few cases the brand does not matter much. For example, all ubiquinol is made by Kaneka and all the different brands we see are just private labeled.

There are a few different ways to see if a supplement is of high quality.

1) If the company has been around for a while than it's a less risky choice.
2) If you don't see a companies website address, phone number or address on the package than stay clear.
3) If the claims are too good to be true than it's a warning sign.
4) If the packaging is in a foreign language than it's best steer clear.
5) If the products air tight seal is broken than don't buy it.
6) Recommendations from organization like USP or ConsumerLabs is good. The bad news is they have to pay a lot of money for it and it rises the price of the product.

Hope this helps.

Some brands I often use are NOW, Country Life, Source Naturals, Natural Factors, etc. I go for the lower priced brands that still seem to have some quality control. I refuse to buy things like fish oil softgels from the big box store brands. Many times they are in clear softgels and clear plastic bottles...so in my mind, even if they had any quality to begin with, it's lost in storage, as some of these items are light and heat sensitive.

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

looking at some of the supplements I have here on my desk, I see spring valley and naturemade. Any thoughts on those?

MegaFoods and NOW are a couple of my favorites

I rarely bought Spring Valley, just because it was sold at Walmart, I don't buy a lot of Sam's Club or Costco vitamins either, unless it's a familiar brand, I just suspect they are inferior. I did buy a bottle of Alpha Lipoic Acid (Spring Valley), but would prefer some other brands.

I think NatureMade might be a bit better, but that's just an impression. Here's a listing of some multi's that are rated, I think the list may be valid, as some products like Source Naturals has a high rating, of course they have a high price too. https://www.multivitaminguide.org/Spr...s-reviews.html

a good indication of quality is price, I do believe you get what you pay for

*chuckle*.... *giggle* .... *chuckle* TROJAN!!!!

Sorry dude... Someone had to say it, it was just sitting right there

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, it is very true you get what you pay for, but you don't necessarily need to spend big bucks for quality either. You need to definitely compare and shop around. For example, there are some things you would only want to buy at GNC (Magnesium for example) but most other things (Vitamin C) pretty much are the same any brand you get.

Spring Valley and NatureMade are fairly similar in my experience. However, I will say one thing that is a constant across ALL BRANDS. If you buy in bulk you need to watch it because one, it might not be a deal, or two, because it is being sold in bulk sometimes the expiry dates on them are shorter, and you wind up with not so efficient supplements by the end.. I have also noticed that the ones sold in bulk are often not quite as good as the ones sold in regular packaging.. I'm not sure why that would be... Better seals maybe...

Why?

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I'd rather meander for the prevention than race for the cure.

I don't know... I guess because it's a larger brand.. But playing devil's advocate one could argue that the bigger brand does not necessarily mean that it is better. Hell, for all we know the bigger brands could be the ones that have fingers and toenails get crushed up into their vitamin C more often as they are mass produced, and as things are mass produced there are inevitably more accidents, and of course then you have the added assumption that quality control would be better, but if there are 1000's of bottles going out daily, one or two are bound to be missed and have a dead rat in them...

Do you feel lucky?

Not sure what you are implying by your first sentence. I am certainly NOT affiliated with any of the mentioned brands. My question is sincere. I do not have any health food stores nearby nor do I have a GNC. A big box store (aka wally world) is my major source of anything sold commercially. Yeah, it's a shame.

I am here to seek a more natural, healthy life and it is natural for one to seek advice from others that want the same thing - hence the reason why I posted. I wanted to know what is out there that is safe to buy and not just some generic stuff that won't actually help you.

Dude... Chill out... You were asking what the best brand was... So in my first sentence I say "Trojan".. You know, like the condom? Sorry, you were asking about best brand and I was just in a joking mood and so brand went to condom for some reason.

Sorry, it was a joke... Chill

I've been to GNC stores many years ago, and found them to be overpriced at best. I never thought of them as being superior to other brands that were available in health/vitamin stores, and therefore never spent my money or time there.

True, they are one of the most expensive stores out there. I guess that's why many might jump to the conclusion that they are the best. But then of course, that is something you want to take into consideration as well.

While the most expensive isn't necessarily always the best, you do need to realize there is a certain truth to "you get what you pay for" as well.