Vitamins and other Supplements – Natural & Safe

2022/3/22 Supplement

Vitamins and other Supplements – Natural & Safe

It seems the companies below are reliable with high standard quality check.

  • Naturally Plus
  • Garden of Life
  • Country Life
  • Mega Food
  • New Chapter
  • Now 

However, I don’t trust them totally – for example Country Life use some ingredients from China, they don’t release any quality check data.

Therefore, for Vitamin C and B, I purchase Naturally Plus and also Vitamin Code from Garden of Life which they confirmed no ingredients from China.

I’ve been taking below supplements:

  • Vitamin D
  • Vitamin B
  • Vitamin C
  • Calcium
  • DHA/EPA
  • Lutein (for my eyes)
  • Hydrogen Water (for overall health)

The specific products are:

  • Vitamin D3 (Gel): Country Life (Non-fish liver source)
  • Vitamin Code Raw Vitamin C (Capsules): Garden of Life (Natural Vitamins)
  • Vitamin Code Raw B-Complex (Capsules): Garden of Life (Natural Vitamins)
  • Calcium Magnesium with Vitamin D complex: Country Life
  • Krill Oil (Gel): Kirkland (DHA/EPA from Krill)
  • Super Lutein (Gel) : Naturally Plus
  • Hydrogen Water : Auter/Naturally Plus

The key points I chose these products:

  • Company has high standards
  • Ingredients are easy to absorb form
  • No source from China
  • Other Ingredients are all safe
  • Capsule or gel form

I don’t recommend Kirkland Signature Vitamin D and Lutein Supplement from Costco since they contain some chemicals you’d like to avoid.

Super Lutein

Super Lutein is one of the best Multi Carotenoid/Lutein/vitamin supplement. It’s expensive, but you can trust the quality and it really works.  Mostly from natural source. Carotenoid, DHA, EPA are all easy to oxidized, and it have to be formulated very carefully to maintain the potency.

Source of Super Lutein’s ingredients:

  • Vitamin B2
    Source：Corn
    Origin：USA
  • Vitamin B1, B6
    Synthetic
    Origin：Germany
  • β-carotene, α-carotene
    Source：Palm oil, Sunflower seed
    Origin：Malaysia, USA, Japan
  • Vitamin B12
    Source：Sugar beet, Corn
    Origin：Eurpoe
  • Vitamin E
    Source：Soy, Vegetable seeds
    Origin：USA, Japan
  • Lutein, Zeaxanthin
    Source：Marigold
    Origin：India
  • Lycopene
    Source：Tomato
    Origin：Israel

If you are interested in purchasing Super Lutein in the US, you can purchase from here.

If you’d like to purchase other than the US, please contact us. I’ll send you a link depending on your country.

Garden of Life － Vitamin B, Vitamin C

  

  

iHerb seems to have the best price overall.  They have sale throughout the year, and also they give you points for every order which can be applied for your next order.

  • iHerb Vitamin C & Vitamin B

Response from Garden of Life via Email.

Thank you for your email and interest in Garden of Life‘s products.  All of the ingredients that are included in our Vitamin Code formulas (aside from AlgaeCal RAW and Red Algae) are sourced and manufactured in the USA.  AlgaeCal RAW washes up on the pristine shores of South America and the Red Algae is sourced in Ireland.

We offer whole food supplements and do not use synthetics in our formulas.  The vitamins and mineralsincluded in our Vitamin Code formulas are delivered in a whole food form as RAW Food-Created Nutrients.  The vitamins and minerals are produced through a fermentation process prior to going through Grows process as described below.

We “grow” the vitamins via our proprietary dual cultivation process using yeast and probiotics.  This process utilizes a single isolated vitamin or mineral that is fed to the yeast or probiotic.  A specific peptide designed for that particular nutrient is then introduced in order to allow the nutrient to be metabolized (or absorbed) through the yeast’s cell wall.

This process mimics nature, just like when a plant takes an inorganic mineral salt that is naturally occurring in the soil (selenium for example), and absorbs it into its roots, the plant becomes rich in selenium.  This process is conducted with two distinct organisms – S. cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) and L. bulgaricus(probiotic culture used in traditional yogurt recipes which is non-dairy).  RAW Food-Created Nutrients are delivered “body ready“.

Garden of Life, LLC.
4200 Northcorp Parkway, Suite 200
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410
1-866-465-0051
www.gardenoflife.com

Country Life ー Vitamin B, Vitamin D3, Calcium

Country Life, Coenzyme B-Complex, Advanced

  

Country Life, Coenzyme B-Complex Caps,

 

Country Life, Vitamin D3, 1000 I.U.、2500 I.U.、5000 I.U.

 

iHerb seems to have the best price overall.  They have sale throughout the year, and also they give you points for every order which can be applied for your next order.

  • iHerb Vitamin D3, & Vitamin B

Calcium

iHerb： ＄16.46

Response from Country Life via Email.

At Country Life, integrity is our #1 ingredient.  Every product is rigorously tested to ensure it measures up against Country Life’s 5 Integrity Standards:  1) authenticity 2) cleanliness 3) freshness 4) consistency of the formula and 5) accuracy of labeling.  We call this our Pledge of Integrity.  Our industry is constantly under scrutiny, and we wanted to take this time to reinforce our commitment to this Pledge and assure you that we will never relax our standards so that we can continue to uphold the trust that consumers have in our brands.  We take this trust very seriously.

Country Life’s approach is to build quality into our products at every step of the production and distribution process.  Our fully trained production staff works closely with the Quality group to ensure that every ingredient listed on our bottles actually meets label claim.  Oversight of the entire process is provided by our Quality group which includes scientists, chemists and quality assurance specialists, working to fulfill our Pledge to you.

Even before a new ingredient can be brought into our facilities, every ingredient must pass our thorough qualification process.  To meet our standards, each ingredient must be supported by proper documentation that may include certificates of analysis, other certifications (e.g. non-GMO, gluten free, USDA Organic), process flowcharts, ingredient specifications and test results.  The ingredient is further subjected to our own internal testing processes to verify the accuracy of the supplier data and its conformity to the various label claims on the Country Life product label.  Only after the Quality group is fully satisfied that the ingredient conforms to our high standards will the material be approved for use in production.

Every lot of raw material that enters our facility is immediately quarantined until the Quality group has carried out all required inspections and testing.  The Quality group will only release the material for use in manufacturing if it conforms to our exacting standards.  During this raw material inspection process, testing for ingredient identification/purity/potency, as well as the presence of any potentially hazardous materials such as heavy metals and pathogens is routinely carried out.

Manufacturing and packaging of our products is carried out under rigorous standard operating procedures by full qualified staff in a plant built and operated to current cGMP standards as verified by NSF and inspected by FDA.  During the entire manufacturing and packaging processes, a dedicated team of quality professionals maintains oversight.  Our quality control staff carries out analytical testing on every lot of finished product, using many different techniques depending on the material being tested.  We follow current USP (United States Pharmacopeia), FCC (Food Chemicals Codex) and AOAC (American Association of Analytical Chemists) protocols as well as internally developed scientifically sound methodologies.  These include:

  • Near-infrared spectroscopy
  • Ultra-violet-visible spectroscopy
  • Thin layer chromatography
  • High Performance/Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography
  • Chemical identification via USP
  • Infrared spectroscopy
  • ICP-OES/MS Spectroscopy

Our commitment to source the highest quality ingredients does not stop at testing.  We also require detailed ingredient-specific regulatory documents/affidavits from our suppliers.  These are frequently verified by on-site vendor audits by our Quality team.  This group is authorized to disqualify a vendor if the audit indicates failure to meet any of Country Life standards.

Prior to release of the finished product our Quality group at Country Life tests the final products to ensure they conform to product specifications and compliance with product label claims and also carries out a review of all of the data and information collected during the production process.  Even at this final step, if a product does not meet specification, it will not be released for sale.  Raw ingredients and final packaged samples are retained so that we can also do any follow up testing work, if questions arise on product potency, changes, etc.

We are proud to say that all of our current products are manufactured in the USA, the majority of which are made at our NSF-GMP certified facility on Long Island, New York.  Even when we use a third-party contractor to craft a few of our highly specialized products, we conduct a full investigation of their manufacturing facilities to ensure they continue Country Life’s high quality standards.  All of our suppliers have high standards of GMP, which are verified by audits by our internal specialized teams.

Many of the ingredients in our Coenzyme B Complex are scientifically made.

We, at Country Life, take great pride in the quality of our products, the professionalism of our staff and ‘state of the art’ manufacturing and analytical facilities.  Let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

We make every effort to purchase as many products and ingredients as possible from U.S. based suppliers. However some of the raw ingredients may have originated in countries outside of the United States.  , Regardless of where they originated,  all raw materials follow the same high level testing protocols to ensure they contain no harmful foreign materials, and that they contain exactly what is claimed.   At Country Life, we are committed to manufacturing in the United States.