high quality vitamins / supplements

are there any semi-premium brands out there? not looking for anything very expensive but don't mind paying slightly more. I've had issues finding supplements with reasonable levels of the vitamin and without additives and toxins. the lowest percentage of zinc I saw was more than 300% the daily value which is too much. I bought the WF brand and later noticed it has 80mg of MSG but labeled as a glutamic acid. I don't need MSG with magnesium. I have the Solgar brand, which is great, but it contains titanium dioxide in the tablets.

I prefer glass jars as they secure the supplements better by reducing spoilage from heat and light.

99% of vitamins are BS however you can get a brand called DR Christopher which is very very high quality as are Healthforce nutritionals if in Europe the best you will get are pukka herbs

Another vitmain company I was surprised about were carlson labs although often seen as cheap they bloody work

My dad recently showed me a article in Consumer Reports where they tested Multi-vitamins and found that Kirkland brand (which is sold at Costco or Sam's Club, I'm not sure) were the best in cost & the vitamins that are in them.

Kirkland for the win!
Seriously, I have found nothing of the Kirkland product range to be inferior than the real things they imitate.

Costco =

musclepharm has some pretty good products at decent prices, you should def take a look at their stuff.

Whole food supplements from Standard Process or New Chapter

I gave up most vitamins/supplements, with the exception of a multi-vitamin and fish oil. As a general rule, I try to stay out of GNC and away from flashy logos.

For the multi-vitamin, I use New Chapter (deburn's suggestion). The packaging quality in New Chapter (opaque glass jar) is pretty strong, but I'm not sure if the blend is really superior to cheaper options (i.e. Kirklands). I believe this cost me around $30USD for a 60 day supply.

For fish oil, I stick with Nordic Naturals or Carlson's (also available at Whole Foods). For me, fish oil is the only supplement (besides whey protein) that has obvious results (significantly improved recovery time and post-workout sleep associated with suspected body composition improvements.) However, there is a lot of untested junk out there, and it's particularly important to buy from a quality fish oil source. Poor quality fish oil: 1) may be rancid due to improper storage, 2) can have high levels of mercury. Expect to pay around $30USD for a 1-2 month supply of oil (if you stick with the pure oil, as opposed to the tablets, you will get quite a bit more mg/$. Both the Nordic Natural and Carlson versions have been rated highly, are easily accessible, and are relatively cost effective. I would stay away from most generic options with fish oil (i.e. Kirkland's) as independent studies suggest spotty quality.

Like it was said above, most all supplements are BS. Since theyre not regulated by the FDA they can put powdered dog poop in a jug if they wanted to. So who do you trust in all of this? I trust True Protein. They are a company that owns and operates a large supplement supply factory. A lot of big companies that you see on the shelf in your local supplement shops have their product put together by these guys. The owners are known by many to be very trustworthy and guys who won't budge on moral standards. There are stories out there that you can find if you dig. They also offer the best price possible for supplements. They do this by not advertising or using big flashy labels used to attract the typical goldfish, ADD, short attention span consumer. They go completely by word of mouth. I've been buying my protein exclusively from them for about 2 years and I get my pre/intra/post blends from them as well. I even have a 5% code that can be used anytime if you just PM me.
The single con: shipping takes about a week and isn't free. They only have one warehouse out in Cali. They dont offer "free" shipping like some sites because free shipping just means that the cost is passed down onto the product price.
Remember, you can always pay less, but you'll be getting an inferior supplement.


For vitamins, I use opti-men and get the cheapest price from amazon.

a lot of things people say about vitamins/supplements is really just hear say. it's true that they're not screened by the FDA before they are marketed because they're considered food items rather than drugs. however with that being said, USP (an independent, non-governmental agency) does high standard testing for quality and purity on vitamins/supplements. manufacturers voluntarily submit their products for testing to USP and you could see a list of the manufacturers that have passed the testing here. but be aware that USP provides its "verified" certificate for a specific product line that was submitted. for example, if a manufacturer has its Vitamin D tablets verified but comes out with new Vitamin D soft gels, then the new soft gels would not be verified until the manufacturer resubmits the new soft gel product to USP. USP will also continue to do random quality testing even after they provide their verification certificate. They go around pulling the product off random store shelves to periodically assure that the company is continuing to live up to the standards.