Does brand matters? - Vitamins & Supplements Message Board

C-blue · 07-30-2002, 11:57 AM

I used to take this vitamins that came with a product I was using a while ago, and since I have never taken any other vitamins I was wondering if any vitamin is as good as any other one.
Or can anyone please recomend me a good kind of multivitamins!!
thank you

tc128 · 07-30-2002, 02:24 PM

I think the source material for some of the micronutrients may come from different sources, less stable and reliable sources, if you go for a generic no name brand. The quality control may not be as rigorous as a name brand.

I have noticed that a name brand also manufactures for a store brand, but the store brand was much cheaper. The store brand also had a "premium store brand" and a "standard store brand" all manufactured by the same name brand company, and all sold at the same store all at different prices for the exact same supplement. Now, one must wonder if everything is exactly the same in all outward appearances except the label, why is one more expensive than the others?????? Could it be the quality control of the product????? I would treat no name or store brand supplements exactly the same as no name or store brand grocery products. Would you buy that over a name brand grocery product?? Use the same rationale in buying supplements. IE Do what you feel comforatable with. Me, I buy both store/no name and brand name products.

mlgable · 07-30-2002, 08:42 PM

You would almost have to know someone who worked at a vitamin plant to know which cheaper vitamins were comparable to it's well known brand. An example would be my brother working for Ripon Foods which manufactures Rippin Good Cookies. They also have many other accounts that they make cookies for but put the other accounts labels on those cookies. Without someone who knows where the vitamins are made and how they are made it is hard to judge if the cheaper ones will work as well as a more expensive brand. The best judge should be in how you feel when you take the vitamins. If you don't feel better than you have felt in a long time when taking a particular brand of vitamins then they aren't doing the job.

tc128 · 07-31-2002, 10:30 AM

mlgable: good point. Another similar story to yours: I have a friend of mine who worked for a motor oil bottling company that fills up the bottles of oil. There was one time when a tanker of oil was delivered by rail and the oil bottling company had a contract to bottle for many major motor oil brands. They filled 30 different brands of oil with those same tankers of oil. All they did was change the bottles and slap on a different label when they were filling for another oil brand. Brands included Penzoil, which is supposed to be a premium brand of motor oil, compared to a department store brand. Sometimes you just don't know what you are getting. But you should be happy to know that if it says it has 3000IU of this or 300mg of that, it should have that amount in there. That should not be in question. TC

tc128 · 07-31-2002, 10:53 AM

Update: I just contacted a pharmaceutical company that produces their own brand of supplements, AND has contracts to supply major drug store brands as well. They told me that you have to read the product carefully, some have slightly different concentrations in certain vitamins and supplements. If it is a single item supplement, then make sure it is ***exactly*** the same. The manufacturing process, the source material is all the same. The difference in price is purely marketing, plain and simple. I asked him that point blank, on two separate occasions in the conversation and he confirmed it twice, and even told me to buy the cheaper store brand name if they are exactly the same.

He also said that DIN numbers may be part of the vitamin and supplement industry in the future and that is a good way to make sure you are comparing apples with apples, etc...

One other thing, a major drug company that produces a very popular acetominophen cleary states on their packaging that they do not manufacture and sell to store brands.

Confession: I have bought store brands over name brands and have done so for pain relievers and one a day vitamins for myself, even thought there is enough anecdotal evidence and heresay to suggest that they are not as good and at the same time just as good. But then again, as mlgable says, you have to be working inside the manufacturing plant to really know the difference.