My vitamins arrived yesterday afternoon!  I was so super excited for them to get here.  I order all of my vitamins from Vegan Essentials because I love their selection, their pricing is pretty reasonable, and delivery is always fast (they shipped out the same day that I placed my order!).  Normally, I order a multi-vitamin for Emma, a prenatal multi for me (no, I’m not pregnant, but I’ve been taking these since I was pregnant with Emma and I just like them), and an extra calcium for me.  Calcium takes up a lot of space in a vitamin and, if you look at your multi-vitamin, you may be surprised to see that it’s actually very low in calcium.  I take an extra just as a precaution, even though I’m fairly certain that I get enough from my diet.  I also ordered an extra calcium for Emma, but she didn’t like it.  I tasted some of it and I agree that the taste and texture are a little weird.  I’m going to keep giving them to her in the hope that she’ll take to it.  If she doesn’t, don’t be surprised if they end up as part of a giveaway one day. 

This delivery was a special one because I’ve decided to start taking a DHA & EPA supplement and I wanted to get a liquid one to sneak into Emma’s juice.  Flax seeds and flax oil (which we eat a lot of) are high in ALA, but not in DHA or EPA (all of which are Omega-3s):

“DHA plus EPA are absent from plant food sources rich in ALA (such as flax, canola oil, and walnuts). Since the metabolic conversion of ALA to DHA/EPA (combined) by metabolism is very limited in humans, the most direct way of providing DHA plus EPA for the body is via their direct consumption.”  source.

I bet you’re thinking to yourself that this means I have to start taking fish oil, but you’re wrong!  Fish don’t produce Omega-3s, they obtain it from their diet of algae.  So, it makes the most sense (particularly if you are concerned about mercury and, well, the environment) to take a supplement made from the algae instead of one made from the fish.  I opted for the Optimized Omega-3 DHA / EPA Supplement by Pure One for myself, which is ex-pen-sive but packs a whopping 600mg of DHA and 20mg of EPA per dose (2 capsules).  For Emma, I went with the O-Mega-Zen3 Liquid Vegan DHA Supplement by NuTru.  It was also expensive, but will last quite a while.

When I order my vitamins, I like to order them so that I run out of each at roughly the same time.  For example, if one bottle will last me 30 days, but another will last 90, I’ll order 3 of the 30-day.  This does get expensive (as in I spent over $100 just on my DHA supplement), but it saves me time and money in the long run.  And I always, always order some vegan white chocolate from Vegan Essentials with every order I place.  I have never seen it in any store, which makes me sad.  For the record, I do not like the taste of white chocolate at all, but I do find it handy for cake stuff sometimes.

Tip:  Sign up for the Vegan Essentials mailing list to receive coupon codes!  With this order, I saved over $30 just by ordering when they were offering 15% off an order of $175 or more (and 10% off an order of $70 or more, or 5% off any order).