I thought I'd try some short sharp posts dans le style de Cro Magnon. This is the first.
I recently went into Boots for some multi-vitamins. My wife of 27 years started me on them not all that long after we were married. I've been taking them ever since. We've been separated nearly 30 years.
Boot's usually have vitamins etc on 3 for 2 offers (cheapest one free). I only wanted one (multi-vitamins) and nothing else. However 3 for 2 is a good offer given their £9 price tag. So I bought 3. When I got them home I realised that, given their size, I couldn't get them all in my medicine drawer. So I emptied the second and third into the first container. How ridiculous is that? Three bottles' contents easily fitted into one. The tin of soup gives you the size of the bottles. So I now have 540 days' supply of the tablets.
What a waste of space and plastic.
I did the same with my Vitamin D tablets from Holland & Barratt. I bought them when we were in Guernsey last year as they were on a special offer but couldn't fit both plastic containers into my flight bag. I decanted one into the other and there was still some left over. Ridiculous isn't it.
ReplyDeleteJayCee, we obviously feel the same on this one.
DeletePerhaps I should start on them. Kitzyme smell good.
ReplyDeleteTasker, Kitzyme probably does just as much good too.
DeleteHere's to your health!
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know why the company over-sizes the bottles of their product. Maybe price breaks on sizes.
Interesting point, Maywyn. However the company (Boots is a huge manufacturing pharmacy with shops) has dozens of sizes of containers for its medication. I suspect it is a marketing ploy to make you feel you are getting a lot of bang for your buck.
DeleteI was thinking similar only the other day re some vitamins I had, Graham...and I put added one container of the same vitamin into the other container. It is a waste, that is for sure...and I can see no reason why this practice goes on.
ReplyDeleteLee, I hadn't thought about it before but I've just explained my thoughts to Maywyn above.
DeleteYes that is true but not only that our doctor recons they are a waste of money too.
ReplyDeleteDiane, if one has a good diet your doctor is probably correct. When I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a few years ago the nutritionalist told me that my diet was just about perfect and that she could suggest no alterations. However she also said that if one had a good diet supplements were unnecessary with one exception - especially in the winter up here in the Dark North - vitamin D. That won't be a problem for you!
DeleteI am always being told that I should take a mix of Vitamin D and Zinc. Maybe I'll scour the shelves at Boots this winter.
ReplyDeleteCro, as I have just said to Diane, vitamin D (especially in winter) was the one supplement that the nutritionalist suggested I take. I'm not sure what zinc is for. Must look it up.
DeleteI do regularly take something we have here called Executive Stress Vitamin B which helps tremendously when I feel exhausted due to menopause, I'd rather go natural than take any medications from the doctor. I hope you can recycle the empty bottles leftover from yours.
ReplyDeleteAmy, we can recycle the bottles so it's not as bad as it would have been pre-recycling days.
DeleteSame as Diane, my doctor sees extra vitamins as a waste of money with no added health benefit, too. He says that, as long as we have reasonably healthy eating habits (no need to go into detail as we all know what it should be), there is no need for supplements. Of course it is a different matter when someone has certain conditions such as diabetes, other long-term illnesses or is in a particular risk group. What I do take every winter to boost my immune system is a combination of zinc and vitamin C. Last winter, I guess I would not have caught a cold anyway, as I was hardly ever using public transport and not meeting many people. The Covid restrictions have helped enormously in reducing the number of regular colds, I have read the other day.
ReplyDeleteThe over-sized containers are something worth writing about, I guess. To the company, I mean. They will probably reason that the size is easier to handle during production and packaging, and having different sizes would make it more complicated and expensive. But in this day and age when we all know that there is way too much plastic on the planet anyway, this should not go on.
Why would you take Vitamin C? It's easy to come by in its natural form - why ships, in the olden days and voyages going on forever, took citrus fruit on board, by the ton, to avoid the dreaded scurvy. My doctor prescribes me Vitamin D as the body can only manufacture Vitamin D via sunshine. And no, I am not wearing a head to toe Burka but sunshine is, for me, hard to come by.
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Meike, interestingly Cro mentioned Zinc and Vitamin C as well. Ironically Vitamin C is the one vitamin that the body just flushes away when it has had its daily quota which, given what I know of your diet, you almost certainly fulfil. Thanks for telling me what zinc is for. As for the different sizes Boots different health pills (of which there are dozens and dozens) come in a large range of different sizes. I suspect it is a marketing ploy to do with perceived value for money.
DeleteVitamin D also comes via some foods, e.g. eggs.
DeleteThank you, Rachel, although I didn't know that. Given that I eat a lot of eggs I'm probably getting a good bit of my quota naturally.
DeleteYou've hit on a fairly common gripe it seems. Same here with the Boots Calcium tablets, and I would love to find ways to buying less of anything that simply goes straight to waste.
ReplyDeleteTigger, I think yours and other comments have spurred me on at least to write to Boots about it.
DeleteThere may be a reason why the containers are large. And you do know, don't you that you can buy vitamin concoctions in glass bottles - not plastic. Though, maybe, not in Boots. Try a health food shop.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would strongly advise against opening all those three-for-two at once, decanting them into one. The longer each batch is vacuum packed the longer their potency (staying "fresh" as it were).
The Vitamin D my doctor prescribes me (yes, really) comes in those flat what's its non plastic thingies where you pop out one pill at a time.
You could go the route of the Angel (my son) if you were truly committed to getting to not contributing to plastic landfill. He has got one of those Nutri Bullet extractors. Every morning he feeds this piece of one of physics' wonders with greenery (spinach, kale and the like), adds tons of god knows what (peanut butter, SEEDS of all sorts, NUTS, fresh ginger, blueberries, pineapple, oranges, oh yes, and banana) and blitzes. A smoothie. Nutritionally (of which I know quite a bit) it's dynamite. He probably drinks a pint of it for breakfast. He also hands me a dainty glass (I find the mixture quite filling) which is rather touching since, no doubt, he is prolonging my life to infinity and beyond.
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Yes, Ursula, of course I know and both glass and plastic bottle are recyclable. There are no health food shops on Lewis. The best before date is well past the end of the period for the opened and decanted pills (which have less air in the container because the container is full of pills).
DeleteI buy my own Vitamin D in prescription blister packs.
I have no intention whatsoever of using a Nutri Bullet.
I find that even a lot of prescription medicines seem to come in oversize containers, and I always wonder why. Years ago I had to take a special course of traditional Chinese medicine and they came in small bottles that were filled to the top. Glass too, not plastic. Sometimes I think our culture can be very wasteful of resources.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, our culture is, undoubtedly, exceptionally wasteful unfortunately. Hopefully we will improve.
DeleteAll I can say is that I have always thought I get all the vitamins I require for a healthy life from the food that I eat and have never taken a vitamin pill in my life. I eat a balanced diet and I think that covers my needs. Each to their own of course. It makes me wonder if some of these pills could be overdosing on certain things and can do the body more harm than good. I seem to remember reading something along these lines during the peak of Covid here when suddenly a lot of people started taking Vitamin D when they probably didn't need it and the body cannot dispel an overload.
ReplyDeleteRachel, as I explained in answer to Diane the nutritionalist told me that my diet provided almost everything I needed too - except Vitamin D although I eat more eggs now than I used to eat. Having said that Vitamin D can contribute to excess calcium in the blood if taken in excessive quantities. I have regular three-monthly blood tests for various things besides my cancer including my diabetes and, so far, they have always been very satisfactory. However, too little Vitamin D can also, as I know you will be aware, also have serious consequences.
DeleteI didn't read the other comments before I commented and only looked through them backwards after I had published. If I had read them first I would have probably said very little as it had mostly already been said. As for your final point here, having always assumed my balanced diet gives me all I want I have never been aware of any serios consequences about too little Vitamin D. My first reaction on reading your post was that your ex wife has probably been poisoning you slowly for the past 50 odd years!
DeleteOversize containers seem to be the norm in so many instances. It was once explained to me that a single production run of the largest size is more economical than changing the line to run several sizes. Even if that's true it is a poor excuse for dumping more plastic into the countryside and the oceans. And perhaps they should be working on alternatives to plastic anyway.
ReplyDeleteDavid, the single production run argument doesn't stand up in this case because Boots already use a huge range of plastic containers from tiny to this one just for it's vitamins and food supplements. The person who finds a commercial and less harmful alternative to plastic should be made a saint.
DeleteThe many different kinds of packages and bottles for various pills is indeed a mystery. On second thought - not just for pills, but just about Everything. My own most recent pet peeve is plastic tubes of the kind that you can't get more than half the content out of by squeezing (toothpaste, skin cream, whatever).
ReplyDeleteMonica, I hadn't thought about tubes but you are absolutely correct.
DeleteWhen I was in hospital recently I was asked several times what supplements I took in additional to my prescribed medications. When I answered none, I was cross examined as the doctors insisted that everyone takes something. That's beside the point, it's the waste that's the issue. It's a marketing crime. I also share Monica's pet peeve, hate that waste.
ReplyDeleteYes, Pauline, I agree, it was the waste that I was really getting at in the post.
DeleteSorry I am late (again), there really are not enough hours in any given day š. Himself and I take a couple of supplements each day and I agree with you, the packaging is usually ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteJayne, I'm even later. I've just been looking back over recent posts and was horrified at some of the comments I've failed to acknowledge. Thank you.
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