Hi there, I've recently joined the forum as I'm about to start Atkins again (Sunday). I've bought loads of the correct food and have been searching for recipes so that I give myself more variety than I did last time when I got bored of bacon and eggs and cheese.

Today I want to get in my vitamins but am looking for suggestions because I've always had difficulty swallowing H&B's huge tablets. Can anyone in the UK where they usually source their vitamins and what they usually choose?

Many thanks

I get some from superdrugs when they are on 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 offers:
Vitamins without iron
Vit C without sugar
Calcium + vit D

and others from Lidl:
High strength cod liver oil
Evening Primrose Oil

The only one I buy from H&B is their calcium/zinc/magnesium one and I wait till they are offering a BOGOF

It may take around 10 days but I find IHERB to be the cheapest source.
I live about 25 miles from the nearest town with an H&B so it's in fact cheaper to have vitamins posted from the USA than drive a 50ml round trip with petrol at 1.20 a litre. Apart from price I also think the quality and variety of choice is better at IHERB than H&B or Healthspan, Zipvit or Simply Supplements our main online suppliers.

Here is a typical example
Country Life, Vitamin C, with Rose Hips, 1000 mg, 250 Tablets $18.36 that's about £11.94

Holland & Barrett - Timed Release Vitamin C with Bioflavonoids (1000mg) 250 £19.99

So you save money even after the shipping at $4 = £2.60

Use IHERB Introductory Discount code ~~~~~~~ to save an initial $5 then spread your code amongst friends/neighbours/relatives for more discounts on your next order.

Always keep your order value below £18 as UK customs will then at VAT and our POST OFFICE add an extra £8 ransom as a handling charge for collecting the £3.50 tax (I don't know if Ireland has the same import tax threshold or not) I always put the price before shipping into a Currency converter and because Customs don't necessarily use the same exchange rate as online I tend to leave a margin for error.
Customs use the rate that is in force on the day the item is in their hands, so the date you ordered it, the date it was posted and the date you receive it are irrelevant.
The only exchange rate they use is the one current on the day the parcel is in their office, so allowing a 50p margin for error saves a bad temper and trip to the post office.

Thank you Hutchinson I completely forgot about iHerb.
I ordered some vitamin D over the net some time ago but couldn't remember where I got it from and I had deleted the order emails from my inbox. I believe it was iHerb I bought it from.

I'll have a look at their site again.

See Women who take a daily multivitamin pill to ward off illness may actually be increasing their risk of breast cancer,” reported the Daily Mail You are better off taking only the specific vitamins you are likely to be short of rather than a multivitamin that contains stuff that may not be in an effective form or may countact with some of the other ingredients.

The half life of vitamin C once absorbed into the body is measured in minutes. So a 1000mg vitamin C is worth 500mg 30mins after you take it, 250mg at 60mins, 125 at 90mins 62.5 at 2hrs and 31.7mg5mg at 2hrs 30mins. Using a TIME RELEASE, slow release, sustained release or words to that effect is much more effective because you don't send the best part of the vitamin c down the loo on your next visit for a pee.
If the vit c is only available in small amount gradually over 8hrs your body has a better chance to benefit from it. Taking a time release vitamin c twice daily ensures your body always has a steady supply of vit c through the day.

The amount of Vitamin D in these mixes is a sick joke. Spend 10~20mins laying near naked in full sun at midday and your skin generates 10,000~20,000iu vitamin D3. That is the kind of amounts your body evolved to deal with, not the trivial insignificant amounts in a Calcium and vitamin D TABLET. And vitamin D is a FAT SOLUBLE vitamin so if it's dissolved in oil and taken with a meal your body will stand a better chance of absorbing it and dealing with it effectively. When your Vitamin D level is over 42ng/ml 105nmol/l your body will absorb maximum amounts of Calcium from your diet. Diet NOT SUPPLEMENTS is the best source of calcium, yoghurt, milk, cheese, green veggies, peas, beens, lentils, chick peas nuts fish are all good calcium sources.

Not a good idea if you want your vitamin D to work properly. Far better to take a concentrated OMEGA 3 FISH OIL and avoid the excess Vitamin A that blocks the Vitamin D receptor and prevents it working.
Evening Primrose Oil
If you look at the label you will see these contain
Ingredients: Calcium Carbonate, Magnesium Oxide, Bulking
Agent (Microcrystalline Cellulose), Zinc Gluconate, Sodium
Carboxymethylcellulose, Maltodextrin, Emulsifiers (Acacia
Gum, Polysorbate 80), Glazing Agents (Hydroxypropyl
Methylcellulose, Triacetin), Anti-Caking Agents (Magnesium
Stearate, Stearic Acid), Colour (Titanium Dioxide), Magnesium
Gluconate, Calcium Gluconate, Zinc Citrate.
As this is the second item on the ingredients list it is the MAIN source of magnesium. BUT magensium oxide is the LEAST BIOAVAILABLE FORM. only 4% is absorbed, the rest goes straight down the loo.
You are far far better off NOT taking calcium at all (but get it from real foods as that way it is used better) and take a separate magnesium supplement in a form your body is able to deal with. Krispin has some good ideas on magnesium These are Albion patent magnesium chelates or you could consider Magnesium malate

Thanks for that info Hutch!!

I am constantly amazed at the knowledge our members are able to supply on so many different aspects of nutrition!

I buy multivitamins and vitamin C from Lidl. They are big tablets that produce a fizzy drink when you drop them into water. Tesco's have a similar range. So being a drink no tablets to swallow!

But being dissolved in water and all the vitamin c available instantly how much of that vitamin C will be absorbed immediately and how much will be passed immediately to the bladder then and given the half life of around 30minutes how much Vitamin C will be left after 6hrs or 12 half lives have each reduced that intake by 50% every 30mins.

Here in a section from [url=http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-buch/ascorbate-(online)/55277]Ascorbate by Steve Hickey, Hilary Roberts That explains the issue in greater detail.

Imagine if you put £1000 in the bank and every 30mins it halved in value .
12hrs later there would be such a trivial amount remaining in the account, it wouldn't be worth collecting.

When you take one 1000mg vitamin c dissolved in water not all of that will be absorbed and so by 12 hrs later, after depleting at the rate of 50% every 30mins, your body is totally unprotected because what remains of that instant availability water soluble tablet is so minimal it's not worth considering.

When we obtain vitamin C from plant sources it takes time to absorb so our bodies are not presented with a sudden flush of vitamin C. In the same way a timed release or slow release tablet will provide a steady amount over a period of time 6~8hrs. So 1g slow release tablets every 12hrs produces higher plasma level over the whole 24hrs than 1g effervescent every 12hrs.

If you could manage to remember to take it, a 500mg time release vitamin C taken every 6 hours would be even better.