If you visit a health store or chemist, you will usually find aisles and aisles of supplements. It can be very confusing to know which ones to take (and which are safe to combine) and of course some are not safe to take with medication.
Others are not a replacement for eating well. Many contain animal ingredients and cheap fillers, and nearly all are sold in plastic packaging, and often very expensive.
Obviously start with healthy eating, and check with your doctor before taking supplements if pregnant/nursing, if you have a medical condition or are taking other medication or supplements.
Common interactions are Warfarin (vitamin K), Levothyroxine (iron) and Fluorouracil and folate. Some ingredients must be carefully considered (say reishi mushroom, which could affect low blood pressure.
But here are some better brands. Most you subscribe to online for big savings. All are vegan, nutritionally-dense, and sold in sustainable packaging (usually with refills).
Feel Supplements
This is a super brand of quality supplements, all sold in zero waste packaging. The flagship Feel Multivitamin includes 32 high-quality and well-absorbed ingredients including 13 vitamins, 10 minerals, 7 phytonutrients,, plus Alpha Lipoic Acid and L-Glutamine. With results noticeable in 90 days.
Use code partner20 for 20% discount (not bundles or subscriptions). If you subscribe, sign up for an account to earn discount rewards.
Just take 2 capsules daily with food (one bottle lasts a month). You can also open these capsules to sprinkle on food and drink if wished, but not to hot liquids, as the heat could damage the nutrients.
There are no artificial bulking agents, and everything is included at optimal doses, for best effects:
- Vitamin B12, iron & zinc help are good for concentration & memory.
- Calcium, vitamin D3 (plant-based) and vitamin K are good for bone and muscle health.
- Vitamin B6, pantothenic acid and iodine are good for regulating hormones.
- Riboflavin and niacin (B vitamins) and magnesium help your nervous system.
- B complex vitamins help to prevent fatigue.
- Vitamin C and D3 (plant-based), selenium, folate and copper are all for your immune system.
- Biotin and zinc help healthy hair, with copper helping hair pigmentation (helps prevent early greying).
- Vitamins A and C (plus zinc and iodine) help skin through natural collagen production.
- Vitamins B1 and K15 (along with iron, grape seed and reishi mushroom) help heart health.
- Vitamins C and E (plus grape seed extract and spirulina) give antioxidants.
- Chromium, biotin and zinc help healthy metabolism. Chromium can also help to balance blood glucose levels.
How Long to Feel the Benefits?
- 27% of users felt benefits within 2 weeks.
- 78% of users felt benefits within 4 weeks.
- 49% of people reported benefits to energy & mood
- 45% of users noticed skin benefits within 1 month.
- 44% of users noticed nail benefits within 1 month.
- 38% of users noticed hair benefits within 1 month.
- 30% of users noticed immune benefits within 1 month.
- 26% of users noticed better sleep within 1 month.
Reviews for Feel Multivitamin
These are genuine customer reviews from the company website:
Best multi-vitamins I’ve ever taken. Environmentally-friendly packaging too.
My hair and nails are stronger, skin is clearer and more energy (feel less sluggish).
The only multivitamin I’ve found where I actually feel the difference.
A Glass Jar (to safely Store Supplements)
Feel’s Vitamin Jar is ideal to safely store your vegan multivitamins (don’t store different supplements together).
Made from blue glass, the matte design can protect supplements against light, humidity and temperature changes. And features a silicone air-tight seal to ensure vitamins are safely stored.
It’s important to store vitamins correctly, as too much heat, light or moisture can render the benefits ineffective. So even if you don’t buy a jar like this, always follow the instructions to keep the vitamins out of heat and light, to ensure you avoid a wasted purchase.
Dr Vegan’s Supplements (in metal tins)
Dr Vegan is an award-winning brand of natural health supplements. Not just vegan-friendly, but first orders are sold in attractive metal tins, then you just order refills in sustainable pouches, after that.
The ‘doctor’ is actually a team of experts (a bit like Mr Kipling, ‘Dr Vegan’ does not actually exist!
The range is extensive and includes a daily multi-vitamin (with 24 essential nutrients) and a pregnancy supplement alongside:
- GutWorks is good for digestive issues like IBS.
- Men’s ProMulti contains nutrients for prostate and testosterone health, and healthy heart, eyes and brain.
- Omega-3 supplements contain the optimal dose of DHA and EPA per serving for brain, heart, skin and eye health. Ethically sourced from algae (one ton is the same as 60 tonnes of wild-caught fish).
- Vegan Nights is an advanced nootropic to help your mind and body relax for better sleep, and awake refreshed.
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An Award-Winning Hair Loss Supplement
Hair Saviour is an award-winning formula to fuel healthy hair growth, and help thinning, dull, dry and brittle hair.
This is not for male pattern baldness or alopecia. Do not use for pregnancy/nursing, women or have had or at risk of hormone-related cancers or conditions that may affect iron loss.
- In 4 weeks, expect hair loss to decrease by a third.
- In 6 to 8 weeks, see a difference in hair growth (also less brittle hair and nails).
- In 12 weeks, expect smoother, thicker and glossier hair and nails.
This is a unique formula of botanicals, minerals and vitamins to fuel healthy hair growth and strong thick hair. Ingredients include Saw Palmetto, Silica, Alfafa and Biotin, along with AnaGain™, a clinically proven helpers, made from organic pea sprouts.
Vegums (chewable fruity Supplements)
Vegums is a company that was founded by two pharmacists, who knew that healthy supplements did not have to taste chalky, contain animal ingredients or be packed in plastic. They are now shaking up the industry, with their popular supplements range.
You can subscribe online for savings, and pause or cancel your order at any time. Free shipping is included (or simply order one-off orders, if preferred).
Chewable Strawberry Vegan Multivitamins
Vegums Multivitamins for Vegans are made from natural ingredients, in a tasty strawberry chewable gummy. Some of the ingredients include:
- Plant-based vitamin D3 (not from sheep lanolin) for bone health
- Vitamins B6 and B12 for energy (the last one very important for vegans, as it’s not found in most plant foods)
- Iodine (for healthy thyroid), an alternative to fish
- Selenium & folic acid for heart health
- Just chew 2 tasty strawberry gummies each day. That’s it!
- For children age 3 to 12, chew one gummy.
Who’s Deficient in Vitamin B12?
It’s perfectly possible for vegans to eat healthy, but due to modern life and lack of grocery choice, often it’s best to cover your bases. Vitamin B12 can kind of be found, but only in a few obscure or fortified foods (or if you’re eating the organic soil along with your carrot!)
It’s thought that around 86% of vegans are deficient in vitamin B12, so it’s good to take a supplement (other people are also lacking, not just vegans).
If you feel tired all the time as a vegan, it may well be deficiency in this vitamin (not necessary iron as you may think). And combined with vitamin D3 for good immunity, you’ll be thriving!
Easy to and not too sweet.
The gummies are incredibly tasty, I have them with my evening meal.
Vegums Sugar-Free Multivitamins
Vegums Sugar-Free Multivitamins are also available, sweetened with maltitol syrup. These are raspberry-flavoured instead of strawberry.
Chewable Lemon Vitamin C Supplements
Vegums Vitamin C are made from natural ingredients, in a tasty lemon chewable gummy. Buy one tin, then order refills in cellulose bags (cut up and compost).
It contains just whole-baked fruit, take 2 tasty gummies each day. This supplement can:
- Promote collagen for healthy skin
- Help to reduce fatigue
- Help promote a healthy immune system
Symptoms of vitamin C deficiency include:
- Feeling tired and run-down
- Skin issues (breakouts, dryness)
- Getting skin more often than usual
Chewable Blackberry Iron Supplements
Vegums Super Iron Gummies are made from natural ingredients, in a tasty blackberry chewable supplement. Buy one tin, then order refills in cellulose bags (cut up and compost).
- Just chew 2 tasty blackberry gummies each day. That’s it!
- For children age 3 to 12, chew one gummy.
Iron is always better absorb with vitamin C. So take with a glass of orange juice (or better yet, a real orange!)
These supplements contain iron to help make red blood cells, for energy. And also help to boost immunity. They are good for vegans, vegetarians and anyone who needs extra iron.
Are You Low in Iron?
If you feel sluggish and tired, you may be low in iron. This is one of the world’s most common nutritional deficiencies, especially in vegans and women (due to menstruating each month during child-bearing age).
Iron makes red blood cells, and low levels of iron can leave you feeling worn out. Iron is also good for cognitive function, so extra iron could help with ‘brain fog’.
Other symptoms of low iron are brittle nails and thinning hair.
In severe cases, you could develop anaemia. Talk to your GP if you think you have severe iron deficiency.
An Iron Supplement in Compostable Pouch
Iron Up is a natural energy supplement, formulated by trained nutritionists. It contains iron, vitamin C, copper, vitamin A and vitamin B2. Iron is needed to make red blood cells for energy, and is the most common nutrition deficiency worldwide.
For people over 18 only.
- Take one capsule morning daily with food. Not with tea, coffee or energy drinks (these will reduce absorption).
- This supplement is sold in compostable pouches. The company recommends a one-off purchase of its amber glass jar (metal lid) so you can decant supplements, to protect from moisture and light (hand-wash and rinse before refilling).
- Sold in a 90 day supply, with a 20% discount if you subscribe. You can skip or cancel orders anytime.
Can This Supplement Help Anaemia?
Yes, but it’s important if diagnosed to speak to your GP first, to ensure it’s the correct supplement and dosage for you.
Ethical Nutrition (fairly-priced supplements)
Ethical Nutrition is a small family company that focuses on offering good vegan supplements at a fair price, simply by taking less profit. No outside investors or big-pharma, just plastic-free supplements to do good.
Ethical Multivitamin is 2 capsules a day (1 after breakfast and lunch) with 26 essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, enhanced with organic turmeric and broccoli. The vitamin C is from organic cherries. The top benefits to expect from this are:
- Complete nutrition to fill in gaps
- Better energy (due to iron and B vitamins)
- Enhanced immunity (antioxidants)
- Brain health (B vitamins)
- Blood sugar regulation (chromium)
- Healthy hair, skin Y nails (zinc)
- Strong bones (vitamins K2 and K3)
Folic Acid is supplied in its natural methylfolate state, instead of synthetic versions in most supplements, for better absorption. This supplies the recommended 400 micrograms per day in pregnancy for healthy foetal development and maternal health.
The company was co-founded by a woman whose experience of Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a teenager transformed the way she thought about nutrition, and her partner who is a qualified nutritionist (you can download his free plant-based meal plans on the site, to help different conditions). There is also a practitioner referral program for doctors, nutritionists and dietitians.
Omvits (in plastic-free pouches)
Omvits is a smashing brand of vegan supplements (including vegan collagen), all sold in plastic-free pouches (the bottles can easily be recycled) and backed by science.
All items are also sold with a 100-day happiness guarantee. If you subscribe online, you earn points with every order and make big savings.
This company began when the co-founder burst into a room, excited when he discovered that you could get omega 3 fatty acids from algae, rather than fish!
They got together to create an algae-based supplement, which has seen been joined by others. Using algae gives you omega 3 acids from where the fish get them, but without the over-fishing or mercury.
And despite using premium ingredients like lichen (vitamin D3) and Methylcobalamin (vitamin B12), the whole range if as affordable, as it is ethically produced.
This company also works with a charity to donate vegan vitamin A to children in developing countries. This vitamin is often lacking in areas of poverty and malnutrition, resulting in stunted growth, weak immune systems and sometimes blindness.
The range includes:
- Multivitamins are (not ‘chalky – and can be snapped in half). They contain 24 nutrients including vitamin D3 (from lichen) and vitamin B12, along with magnesium and iodine.
- Omega 3 is available as capsules or liquid (orange flavour). One bottle contains the same omega-3 as 37 fish, but made from algae! Also in a strawberry version for children.
- Vitamin D3 is a highly-absorbable form, made from lichen. One tiny tablet gives you all your daily needs.
- Vitamin B12 is the ‘vitamin for vegans’ (although it’s most lacking in older meat-eating women). Essential to create red blood cells for energy and a healthy immune/nervous system, if your GP says you need this vitamin, try this brand that is more easily absorbed.
Terraseed (from Colorado, USA)
Occasionally on this site, we recommend and profile brands from abroad. Sometimes it’s good to look beyond our own shores, to be inspired by unique aspects that others are creating in business.
Terraseed is a company that is as passionate about animal welfare and plastic-free, as it is about vitamins and minerals.
It has recently starting to sell supplements in plantable seed paper. This is great, but avoid planting toxic wildflowers near animal friends. Read more on pet-friendly gardens.
The supplements industry creates 1.8 billion plastic bottles each year (70% of which end up as waste), with almost half containing animal-derived ingredients, leading the senseless killing of 24 billion creatures each year (many of them fish).
This company produces nutrient-potent supplements made with ethically-sourced ingredients, sold in biodegradable packaging, from the corn-based shrink sleeves and paper bottles to nontoxic inks.
TerraSeed was founded by a long-distance mountain runner, whose love of nature opened her eyes to the injustices that the planet and animals face daily, including in the supplement industry.
The flagship multivitamin (in cardboard tube packaging) contains:
- Plant-based vitamin D (for immunity)
- Vitamin C (for white blood cells)
- Zinc (for immunity)
- Vitamin B12 (for healthy blood cells
- Plant-based Omega 3
- Iodine (for thyroid function)
The Children’s multivitamin is cherry-orange flavour and includes healthy doses of omega fatty acids, vitamins D3 and B12. As gelatine-free gummies.
Futurekind (helps animal sanctuaries)
Future Kind is a supplement brand founded by two brothers, who are nutritionists from Australia. Like a growing number of UK brands, these are all vegan. So what’s different about this brand, in that it’s loved by thousands of customers worldwide?
Not only are all the supplements sold in recycled packaging, using carbon-offset deliveries. But it donates a portion of profits to animal sanctuaries worldwide.
And not only that, but you can use Kind Coins to redeem against future orders (or donate those Kind Coins to animal sanctuaries instead). Each customer also receives a ‘certificate of sponsorship’, showing the good their purchases are doing.
The Multivitamin covers your bases. It contains vitamin B12 (which 92% of vegans don’t get enough of – along with many other people) along with plant-based omega 3 and vitamin D.
Importantly, it is not ‘filled up’ with other nutrients that aren’t needed in supplements. There’s also a special prenatal vitamin for expecting mums.
This company makes omega-3 from algae (the same place the fish get it), sustainably-sourced lichen (for vitamin D) and produces supplements containing super-berries and zinc, to naturally produce your own collagen, for their beauty supplements.
The pouches can be home-composted and will break down in days.
And finally, although the supplements are made in the US, this company does not have ‘big offices’. Instead, it works as a remote team, with home workers around the world running the company.
Unlike our government which tried to force people back to offices after the pandemic to make rich landlords happy, FutureKind prefer people to have good life/work balance by working from home, and not have to leave family (including pets) for long commutes to offices in the city. This also reduces the number of cars on the road.
This company also makes vegan protein powders and vegan meal shakes (made with blueberries, kale, spinach and broccoli. You get a free steel shaker with your first order, then compostable pouches after that.
