I am new to BB. I am a "die-hard" Shaklee vitamin user, and am "brain-washed" regarding the process in which they mfg. their vitamins. I.e. no fillers, from crop to production, to vitamin. I am paranoid about taking other vitamins b/c of this. My husband and I are doing the Slim n 6 together, and would like to take some of the BB vitamins, but first, want to know if there are fillers/ by products etc., in the vitamins, what the procedure is as to how they make them, and then 2nd - want to know which are the best vitamins for us to take.

Thanks, Claire

I wish I could help you. But I'm kind of like you. I'm all about vitamins/supplements from Nutrilite. All organic. They invented the multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplement, etc.

You're probably fine if you stick with what you already know. The main point is just to get those nutrients in your body.

Umm, sounds like both of you are being fed a bunch of multi-level marketing hocus pocus to me.

Terms like "organic" mean very little in vitamin production since they is little accountability process. There are different manufacturing processes and the word organic isn't much different than the difference between "natural flavor" and "artificial flavor". In fact, the way the rules can be interpreted there is more room to fudge under the term natural than artificial. "Organic" holds an even looser standard in vitamin production.

When you are talking about "organic" foods there can be a huge difference between what you get because a food source that is grown will have a different vitamin/mineral content depending on the soil its grown in, fertalizers used, etc. So this term has meaning (although some manufacturers do try and cheat this rule). However, vitamins are what is stated on the label--or supposed to be. So "organic" has no real relevance. Also, studies don't show any difference between synthetic vitamins and those that come from natural sources, so the term organic is this sense is trickled down to mean little. Besides, I do not believe it's even held to the standard of organic foods, meaning that a plant or animal needn't be raised organic in order to get "organic" vitamins. And even if they are, it's unlikely the FDA has the bandwidth to police this process anyway.

What is important in vitamin production is lab testing for individual product to confirm what is in the supplement matches what is stated on the bottle. This is a huge problem and the FDA doesn't yet have the ability to control this, much less "organic" claims. Companies like Consumerlab.com do this, and it's expenive. Having an outside source test your vitamins is the best way to ensure their validity.

We have been pushing to have ours tested and if we can't get our lab in a competitive survey (like consumerlab), then we will eventually do it ourselves. What we have done is paid an outside source to audit our lab and its procedures (I was present). This is also a very expensive procedure and our lab scored extremely well. Our auditors--who have no reason to give us good news since we're paying them to find bad news if present--to us that we should "have every reason in the world to be confident that our lab produces what it states".

As for Shaklee, they are a huge and diverse company and I would bet they have an outside source make their vitamins. This isn't all that hard to track down but I don't have the time to do it. You may be able to. Start on their web site (though they do not have to state this info). Consumerlab may also have info on both them and Nutralite.

One red flag about their claims is "i.e. no fillers, from crop to production, to vitamin". What does this mean? The process of making a vitamin (whether capsul or tablet) requires these fillers (inert substances labeled under "other ingredients"). So unless you are taking a powder, you are being duped, most likely using the words "from crop to production".

As for the claim that Nutrilite "invented the multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplement, etc", gimme a break. This is complete hogwash. On what level did they do this? Their site says something about inventing vitamins in 1934, yet the process began far before that and came from many different sources in many different countries. This is a ridiculous claim and if they bother to validate it at all it's probably because they have someone involved that was involved with something that was involved with something that may have had something to do with the first vitamins sold (sold and invented are not the same thing) in the US. It's such a far out statement that I might not purchase vitamins from a company stating this on principle alone. If you don't believe me, take 5 minutes and do an internet search on the subject and you will see many different stories on the history of vitamins, none of which mention anything about a company called Nutralite except from people who sell Nutralite. So unless they have ties to some Europeans trying to find a way to stop sailors from getting survey in the 18th century, I think this claim is more tangential that Al Gore saying he invented the Internet. The difference being that Al Gore never said that, it was made up by a jouralist using interpretive editing, an example that you can't believe everything you read.