Though vitamins have a proven impact on overall nutrition, they can also affect your bottom line. Prescription and specialty vitamins can be pricey and hard to find. Electing to purchase a store brand or generic vitamin will save you money while providing similar basic nutritional values when compared with pricier counterparts. As with taking any new supplements, consult your doctor first.
Vitamin Overview
Vitamins or multivitamins comprise organic compounds that supplement your diet, along with minerals to ensure that you receive the proper nutrients whether or not you are able to consume them through the foods you eat. Vitamins do not include hormones, herbs or drugs. Vitamins do not present a risk of adverse health effects.
Generic Prescription Vitamins
Generic vitamins are slightly altered variations of prescription vitamins. Because they do not advertise and often use less flashy packaging, these variations are able to cut down on the cost of their product while offering essentially the same ingredients as the name-brand prescription counterpart.
Store Brands
Most grocery stores and supplement retailers offer their own store brand vitamins that are comparable in content to name brand over-the-counter multivitamin supplements. The reason for the lower cost of these store brands is similar to that of generic brands in that they do not advertise and often have simple, less costly packaging. Often, these store brands will indicate on their packaging which name-brand vitamins their ingredients are most similar to.
Specialty Vitaimins
Specialty vitamins are sets of vitamins and minerals formulated to address or prevent specific conditions. These varieties may or may not have less expensive generic or store brand options. Often, these blends are markedly more expensive. If saving money on vitamins is a priority, reassess your nutritional needs to determine if a specialty vitamin is still what you want. According to Consumer Reports: Health, specialty vitamin claims such as increased energy or weight loss are generally unsubstantiated. Even though the products may contain ingredients said to address these conditions, vitamins typically do not contain enough of the ingredient to affect the condition.
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