Are Private Label Vitamins as Good as Branded Vitamins?
The biggest vitamin company in the U.S. may be one you’ve never heard of. Vitamins sold under private labels are the top-selling vitamins in the U.S. Private label brands include the vitamins sold by your local pharmacy or supermarket under their own name. Many well known supplement manufacturers have a thriving sideline in manufacturing and distributing private label vitamins.
Supplement Manufacturers Australia are just as precise in the formulation of the products outsourced to them as they are in the formulation of the products that bear their name.
photo/ Andrea
How Are Vitamins Made?
Though vitamins can be synthesized from a variety of both plant and animal sources, these days most vitamins sold commercially are derived from synthetic compounds. Some vitamin supplements contain active ingredients from both synthetic and natural sources. Additives like cellulose, lactose, calcium and maltose are typically added later on in the manufacturing process to make the supplements more palatable and more digestible.
Once the vitamin mixture has been formulated, it’s time to break it down into individual doses. This is done either with a tablet press or an encapsulating machine. Although this process is mostly automated, human workers do frequent quality assurance throughout. They pull vitamin capsules and tablets at random to make sure they’re the right weight, and they check the capsules frequently to make sure they’re not splitting or damaged in some other way.
Why Do People Take Vitamins?
Sales of vitamins are increasing as more and more Americans are taking charge of their own health. In 2009, the vitamin industry was a $9.2 billion industry, but today, vitamin sales exceed $37 billion a year.
The most common vitamin deficiencies among Americans today are deficiencies in vitamins C, D and B.
• Vitamin C: Vitamin C is a well known antioxidant that protects cells against damage caused by highly reactive molecules known as free radicals.
• Vitamin D: Your body needs Vitamin D in order to absorb the mineral calcium properly. Calcium is necessary for bone growth.
• Vitamin B: There are number of different B vitamins, including hiamine, riboflavin, niacin/niacinamide, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid and pantothenic acid. These compounds all boost cell metabolism, which allows your cells to process sugars into energy more effectively.
Doctors caution that taking too many vitamins can be bad for your health, so it’s probably smart to talk with your primary health care provider before you start a new health supplement regimen and to restrict your vitamin usage. While it’s perfectly okay to buy generic vitamins through a drugstore or a supermarket, make sure the outlet you’re buying from does a brisk trade in vitamins. Otherwise you might end up purchasing vitamins that have sat on the shelf for a long time and are past their expiration date.
