We’ve been “drinking our vitamins” for the past month, and you can too, if you win this giveaway. Ola Loa “Drink Your Vitamins” contacted me and asked if our family would like to test out their product.  We are actually perfect for three of their four choices:  I need “Energy”, my husband lifts weights and fit the “Sport” version, and Buddy Boy is a “Kid”. (The fourth is for older folks, so even though husband is grieving his 30^th birthday arriving this fall, we’re not there yet!)

I really don’t know how to review vitamins, though.  How do you tell is vitamins are “working”? I’m a terrible tester for this kind of thing, because I never know if a food or habit change actually improves my energy or whatnot.  There are so many factors to energy that change all the time; it’s hard to pinpoint.  Daughter not yet sleeping through the night and blogging hours would be two major examples!  What I can tell you is how we enjoyed the process of drinking vitamins vs. popping (or chewing) pills, and I can share info from the company about the inner workings of their product.

Our Initial Reactions

The vitamins come in a little packet that you pour into water or juice, and it has effervescence. This resulted in most of the first-impression comments:

Son:  “Oooo, it’s fizzy!”  For a boy who has only tasted soda pop a few times in his life, “fizzy” is way cool and fun to drink.

Daddy:  “It tastes like AlkaSeltzer!“  For him, this is definitely taking medicine.

Me:  “It’s not exactly juice.”  Yep.  You’re definitely taking a vitamin, but it ain’t too bad.

Everyone’s favorite flavor is tropical.  Our least favs are orange and lemon-lime.  One morning, Buddy Boy and I had our vitamins in apple juice, and that was actually pretty good.  Put them on ice if you use water alone!

Ola Loa’s Factsheet

This is from the Drink Your Vitamins website:

The vitamins in your daily multi do make a difference. In formulating Ola Loa, Dr. Richard Kunin chose its powerful combination of vitamins, minerals and amino acids based on their functional uses in the body and his 40 years of scientific research and experience giving nutrients to his patients. Nowhere else will you find a more strategic and effective collection of nutrients. The Ola Loa formula includes NAC, and Vitamin C (which strengthen antioxidant and immune function), along with six amino acids, CoQ10, and 40 mineral complexes. Ola Loa is the only vitamin formula that provides you with enough TMG to lower homocysteine and raise SAM-e.  (My comment:  homocysteine is a major factor in heart disease, so anything that lowers it is a good deal!) An advocate for safe supplementation and proper nutrition, Dr. Kunin insists on using only the most safe and effective form of nutrients. While its not widely known, not all forms of a vitamin are the same. For example, most vitamin companies use a toxic form of Vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin). Having seen dangerous consequences of cyanocobalamin supplementation, Dr. Kunin only recommends the safe, more effective form of B-12(hydroxycobalamin). Ola Loa ENERGY is recommended as a once a day multi-vitamin, great for natural energy production and anti-oxidant protection. If you are like most people, your life is a blur of constant activity, and finding enough energy to keep up isn’t easy. Ola Loa products can help, and can make the difference between going ahead with activities or giving up in the face of fatigue.

A Closer Look

I am encouraged by Ola Loa’s list of ingredients, but I am dismayed at the way my dishwasher can’t get out the film left on the glasses!

If you’ve followed Kitchen Stewardship for long, you’ll know I put my dishwasher through a lot, but it always does an amazing job.  The effervescence of the vitamins leaves a film around the glass that must be wiped out by hand.  Even this detergent doesn’t touch it.  What?!?  This does not make Katie happy…

But I’ve been reading The Schwarzbein Principle after a commenter recommended it for my mother-in-law’s recovery from heart surgery, and one of the amino acids the author recommends people take in supplement form that is NOT found in standard vitamins IS in Ola Loa.  That was a good sign to me!  I also see 600 mcg of folic acid, which is higher than the usual 400 in a vitamin, but less than the recommended 800 for pregnant women.  Folic acid is really important for moms, another plus point for Ola Loa.

Kids’ Vitamins

My son thinks drinking his vitamins is pretty cool. If your child doesn’t like chewing vitamins and you think the gummies are a little too much like candy, this might be a neat option to try.  The ingredients are fairly similar between the adult and child versions, and the adult form says children can take it, so when Buddy Boy’s 5-pack ran out, I let him have half packages of Mommy’s and Daddy’s.  He of course really liked having it in juice, a rare treat at our house!

Tablets vs. Powder

My brother, who used to work at GNC and is nicknamed “Lab Rat” by his fellow soldiers because of the vast array of supplements and powders and such that he takes, has a lot to say about generic multivitamins.  He claims they are pretty much passed through our systems without sharing their vitamins with our bodies, proof of which has been seen by folks who examine their stools and see the vitamin tablet, mostly intact (Gross, I know).  If it’s in the toilet, it’s not helping your system, right?  Based on that information, I would guess that they are assimilated better than the pill form of vitamins.  The Ola Loa website confirms this here.

Drink Your Vitamins…Makes the Grade?

Ola Loa wasn’t a great fit for our family, but I think they were really fun to test out, and *free* is a great deal! I think they are probably a super choice for some families.  We don’t drink juice with breakfast, so it was inconvenient to add to our routine.  If you’re a juice-drinking family, I think these little beauties would be just great.  Here’s a simple pro-con list for you:

The Ola Loa box claims:  “Ola Loa, Better than a Cola.”  My husband says they’re asking for it with that claim.  The bottom line is that no vitamin tastes better than pop, if you like that kind of thing! Disclosure:  Ola Loa provided my family with samples of their product, but they have not compensated me in any other way for this review. Be sure to read my sidebar disclaimer – I am not making health claims in any way, shape or form!

The Giveaway

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR VISITING!
If you’re interested in winning a 30-day supply of Ola Loa (a $34.99 value) and trying them for yourself, please leave a comment at this post and you’ll be entered in the giveaway (if you receive KS via email, you will need to click over to the site to leave a comment.)! If you’d like more chances, obtain extra entries by doing the following.  You may leave all the entries in one comment and I’ll sort them out!

1. Subscribe in a reader or via email to Kitchen Stewardship (or tell me if you already do).
2. TWO entries:  If you have a blog or website, post about this giveaway linking back to this post.
3. Tweet about it (just click the button at the top of this post).
4. Write about it on Facebook.
5. Stumble or Digg this post.
6. Email 5 friends (who don’t already read Kitchen Stewardship) about the giveaway.
7. Stumble or Digg your favorite post or recipe at Kitchen Stewardship.
8. Put the Analyzing Aluminum in August button in your sidebar.

Be sure to tell me everything you did in your comment.  There are a possible 14 entries!  If you can handle completing all 9, I’ll give you a bonus entry just for being perseverant (but tell me if you do in your comment so I’m not up counting all night). I still trust the honor system.  Just be honest about what you’ve done – giveaways should be fun!

I will use random.org’s integer generator to choose the commenters who win from my list of commenter emails.  The giveaway is only open to U.S. residents.  Entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, August 27th, and I’ll post the winners the following day.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

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