Supplements suitable for vegetarians: recommendations?

Donut_2

Hi,

I'd like to find the cheapest sources for various supplements. I'm vegetarian, which means e.g. no gelatin capsules or glucosamine sulphate (shellfish-derived).

Here's a list of things I have ordered, which may be of help to someone. If anyone knows of a better/cheaper source for any of these, please post a reply here. Also, I'd appreciate it if someone could recommend a good (and cheap) multi-vitamin/mineral supplement.

• Vitamin C, 500mg timed release 500 tabs, US$7.49 from https://www.puritancatalog.com (product 002435)
• Vitamin E, 400iu+, preferably natural source. Boots used to be good for this, but recently doubled the price of their vegetarian natural source vitamin E.
• Glucosamine HCl 500mg 120 tabs, US$5.21 from https://www.puritancatalog.com (product 013787)
• Gingko Biloba 120mg extract 360 tabs, £9.95 from healthspan.co.uk. Or 60mg 480 tabs, US$10.97 from https://www.puritancatalog.com (product 007657)
• Co-enzyme Q10 30mg 60 caps, US$11.99 from vitanetonline.com
• Acidophilus capsules. Holland & Barrett shops sell 90(?) caps for £5.99, product code HB1540. This product may recently have been reformulated; the equivalent label on the https://www.puritancatalog.com site lists gelatin as one of the ingredients, but the one I bought from an H&B shop in the UK is definitely suitable for vegetarians.
• L-Tryptophan 500mg 90 caps, US$21.60 from vitanetonline.com
• St. John's Wort 300mg 240 tabs, US$15.29 from vitanetonline.com
• "Advanced Ferrochel" iron bis-glycinate 27mg 180 tabs, US$5.60 from vitanetonline.com
• Melatonin 1mg 180 tabs, US$2.21 from https://www.puritancatalog.com (product 002833)
• Melatonin 2.5 mg sublingual orange, 120 tabs, US$7.40 from vitanetonline.com
• Stevia powder 2oz, US$4.48 from https://www.puritancatalog.com (product 004035) [Stevia is a natural sweetener, can be used in place of aspartame or other artificial sweeteners.]
• Vegetarian DHA 120caps, £13.95 from healthspan.co.uk. Does any other company sell this cheaper?
• Pineapple bromelain 500mg 120 tabs, US$4.57 from https://www.puritancatalog.com (product 007412)

Holland & Barrett seem to be owned by the same company as the US sites https://www.puritan.com, https://www.puritancatalog.com and https://www.vitaminworld.com. The product labels linked to from all those sites are very similar. I found that of those three, https://www.puritancatalog.com was the cheapest. Much cheaper than buying the equivalent/identical product from a Holland & Barrett shop.

If ordering from a US site, be aware of VAT! If your order is under £18 in value, no VAT will be charged by UK Customs. However, if it's over £18, you'll have to pay VAT plus a ridiculously-excessive handling fee (over £12 for my order) when the package is delivered. Unless the sender is kind enough to mark a low value on the customs sticker/form...

Shipping cost with https://www.puritancatalog.com is okay. Many other US sites seem to charge at least $20. I have also ordered from vitanetonline.com. Shipping cost was excellent ($9.00, which was the actual postage cost, would have been $5.00 but I ordered two items).


-- M

Ted_Hutchinson

The prices do seem very good and I selected a couple of products which I wouldn't know where to find here however although they came to $6.51
the rest Standard Handling Charge: $3.95 International Postage Charge: $9.11
(International Orders ship Via Air Service. US currency only.) Total Shipping & Handling: $13.06 Coming to a Grand Total: $19.57
Which is the equivalent of £10.95

Is it worth my while adding to the order to bring the total(including shipping) to just under £18 or can I order GOODS to the value of Under £18 and have the shipping/handling extra to the item value to get the maximum value. Not bought from US before so don't know.
Edit: Thanks for the input above. Not posting a new reply as this is an aside. I note there is no Vitamin d in your shopping list. I'm sure your aware the vegetarian and moneysaving source is free sunlight but I hope you have read the thread on Free online Vitamin D calculator and the excellent link to www.cholecalciferol-council.com from shokadelika I've spent quite a bit of time reading the newsletters on that site and am impressed with the breadth of knowledge and the amount or research which supports it. It may be worth your while looking at the Tesco Solarium for winter use as the main food sources are not.

Donut_2

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

Shipping & Handling: $13.06 Coming to a Grand Total: $19.57
Which is the equivalent of £10.95

Is it worth my while adding to the order to bring the total(including shipping) to just under £18 or can I order GOODS to the value of Under £18 and have the shipping/handling extra to the item value to get the maximum value. Not bought from US before so don't know.

It's the value of the goods that matters for customs purposes, not the total including shipping. So try to get that as close to £18 as possible, to (hopefully) make the shipping cost work out less per item.


-- M