Does anyone know about things like vitamins and food supplements. My wife tells me that she can't get what she wants here from shops, so we will have to order them. If no-one knows, that's OK. I'll find out one way or another, then I'll let you know.
I'll be interested in the answer too. Currently I buy mine from the US (i-herb.com and vitacost.com) due to the high prices here. I haven't actually found anywhere here that sells a wide choice of supplements either. Incidentally I still find ordering from the US cheaper than from the UK due to the postage. And a word of warning, you need to keep the weight of your parcels down otherwise you get wopped for more import payments when the parcels arrive. This is something I do not understand at all - just that some of my parcels get extra fees charged and some don't. very confusing!
I ordered vitamins and minerals from Puritan.ch but they actually arrived from the US via Puritan.com. I did not know them before but apparently these guys are big in the US.
Anyway, I ordered from them because they have a buy one get one free at the moment, and I got about 20 bottles of vits/mins for 110 CHF, including expensive vits, including shipping from the US. So it was very cheap compared to here, even one bottle of Spirulina would have cost me 30-50 chf here .
Even though the total amount was high for a parcel, I was not slapped with taxes, but I presume this is because I ordered from a .ch site, and Puritan may have put on something saying the recipient was not liable.
Anyway, check out www.puritan.ch for the offer if you want to order from the US and without a tax charge . PS. I am just a user, no link to them at all.
Vitamins and food supplement are available from a number of places, depending on what you're looking for.
"Natural" products can be bought at the health food shops, called Reformhaus, like the huge and fabulous Müller Reform in Rennweg.
Slightly less natural things like high potency vitamins and digestive enzymes can be bought at the chemist.
Very unnatural (let's call it sports nutrition) products such as creatine and amino acids are available at www.triplexfitness.ch (Selnaustr 1, Zürich). There's a limited supply of sports nutrition in sports departments of Jelmoli and Manor.
www.vitaminexpress.ch is an online shop mostly for sports nutrition but also some wellness products. The site is also available in English.
Yes, I found that a lot of reformhauses and some chemists have a lot of obscure teas, herbal teas that is. They also have stashes of mainstream herbs like chamomile etc. With the more unusual, hard to find herbal medicines, it could save you ordering online . Lastly, they have almost every medicinal plant as a tincture too.
Yeah, but they sell exactly the same as the US site. The logos are identical too, so I found it easiest to check the US site, write down what you want, then the German surfing/selecting is much quicker.
My Puritan bottles seem brand new. However, I am still looking for a good supply of distilled fish oil, both normal Omega 3 and Cod Liver Oil. The distilled versions are PCB, dioxin free unlike the normal oils.
Two brands are good in this respect, Nordic Naturals and Solgar but for the life of me I cannot find a supply at a normal price in Europe. (There is one site in the UK which lists them for 33 Euro but they are only 21-26 U$.
The only US companies I found charge about 40 U$ for shipping which is insane. Has anyone found a US supplier of vitamins in general that uses USPS with reasonable fees?
Hi Hat, thanks for the link. I checked them out, they have lots of stuff, which is good. However, you won't know the shipping charge until you have ordered, I never like that kind of policy . By the way, how much did you usually end up paying in custom charges? Or did it vary every time?
I pay US$200 for the materials, and US$20 for the actual postage.
I ordered like 4 times in the last 3 years, and I never had to pay any tax because it is less than 300chf per package?
Anyway, it was written as food supplements, and I did not have to pay tax.
Tha value was also stated on the package.
As I said before 2 times, this site is very friendly and they only charge the actual postage costs, not a fixed fee. If you want to know the actual transport cost, I suggest you email them directly, they do answer.
Hope you will try it.
HAT
BTW: I do not earn anything from this site by recommending....
Have any of you vitamin-minded people found flax seed oil in Switzerland? I've been searching in stores and on Puritans Pride and VitaminExpress for both flax seed oil and the German name for it - Leinsamen (or so leo.org tells me that's the name), but nothing is coming up. I bought some when I was in the UK a couple of weeks ago, but it won't last all that long and I'd like to find a good Switzerland or Germany based supplier (that won't cost an arm or a leg!).
When I decided to start buying vitamins and supplements online because the local health stores just did not carry the same strength that I was used to buying in the States (plus they are pretty expensive here), I came across this UK site from which I have now been buying from for the last 2 yrs and their prices are pretty good. If you have a question simply ask them. Their customer service is pretty friendly and prompt in answering your questions. Okay.. prompt means within 24 hours, not within minutes.
www.worldwideshoppingmall.co.uk sells 100 -1250mg capsules of Flaxseed oil for 15 GBP plus 2.50 GBP shipping to CH. Not sure if that is a good price or not but at least it is a source for you to get them
I believe I have seen it at the Bioladen Egli downstairs at the Zürich Hbf...or perhaps at Müller on Rennweg. Here is an online source for leinsamenoel .
They have bottles at Manor, in the oil section next to the olive oils. Maybe 5-10 CHF for 500ml? Just take a teaspoon; I found the taste is a lot better if you let the oil on the spoon heat up a little and take a large spoon of yoghurt afterwards. (The bottle needs to be wrapped in alu foil and refrigerated to keep the oil from becoming rancid).
Oh, and I just ordered Cod liver oil from www.healthspan.co.uk . Shipping is 2 pounds. I ordered from them because they use the first oil layer that comes off during production, not the second, which has lmuch ess vitamin A and D.