What's in your vitamins?

www.flickr.com, photo by Shannon Kringen

A little while back, I posted about our need for iron. It was actually through my search to find children's multi vitamins that actually included iron that I started looking more closely at the ingredient labels on vitamins. I've been frustrated to find that some of the vitamins we take to enhance our health also contain ingredients which tear it down.

Would you like some aspartame in your kids' multivitamins? How about artificial dyes, made from petroleum, or added sugar or high fructose corn syrup?

What about your vitamin? When the manufacturer claims it's specially designed to enhance your energy, how would you like to find out that the only difference between the "high energy" vitamin, and the regular, is that the "high energy" vitamin contains caffeine?

Just like we read the ingredient labels on the food we buy, we must also carefully read the ingredient labels on our vitamins. I sincerely hope that when you pull your vitamins out of the cabinet and check the label, that you breathe a sigh of relief because you don't find any controversial ingredients in them. If not, however, be encouraged that it is fairly easy to find reasonably priced vitamins that don't contain a bunch of junk.

Check out the Vitamins page on www.foodfacts.com for lists of ingredients in over 356 kinds of vitamins. You can also go to your local health food or alternative health store to read ingredients and compare prices. Personally, we love to shop at The Vitamin Shoppe. Their prices are competitive, the employees are helpful, and they constantly offer coupons. We even get gift certificates from time to time to use toward future purchases. If you don't have a Vitamin Shoppe near you, you can also check their website. They offer free shipping on all orders over $25, which is a great bonus. Even though we have a Vitamin Shoppe nearby, sometimes we still order things online, simply for the convenience (translated: sometimes we're lazy!).

I am a huge cheapskate, though, and so I always compare the prices at Vitamin Shoppe with other online retailers, such as Amazon. Once I know what I want, I order from the retailer with the best deal. Always. We have saved a ton of money by shopping around and comparing prices. We do buy the bulk of our vitamins and supplements online, because the deals we get are SO much cheaper.

For example, I found a 25-count bottle of the vitamins I wanted at a local retailer for $25. Gulp! There's no way I can afford that! So, I shopped around and found the EXACT same vitamins, in a 75-count bottle, for $18 online. I bought 2 bottles and got free shipping.

Buying better vitamins for your family doesn't have to cost a bundle. Just read the ingredients and shop around for the best deals. And by "shop around," I mostly mean check online retailers, which only takes a few minutes.