LEF is an overpriced Jarrow, lol. I'm a CPhT and have been using mostly NOW Foods and Jarrow products.

insider 411: LEF and Jarrow get their raw materials from the same source for most if not all supps.

I do not appreciate the implied "China" bashing because all of these brands (including LEF) use raw materials from China. A lot of great labs and pharms come from China. They all undergo the same testing. Demand a CoA if you want more confidence in the products you buy. If they do not provide one, that's a red flag, although I can vouch for Jarrow. The most popular brands on iHerb are Jarrow and NOW because of the quality items they provide at a low price.

I agree with the previous commenter about iHerb, I've been a customer for 6 years over there and they have the cheapest prices ever, even cheaper than if you buy it at your local health store: http://www.iherb.com

In any case, look for products with a GMP certification (Like NOW, Swanson).

In summary, the following are the brands I personally trust the most:

NOW Foods (personal favorite), Jarrow, Swanson, LEF

Did you read the article in Consumer Reports about the metals in protein powders? The cheap stuff contains chocolate and a proprietary vitamin blend from China. Optimum Nutrition had the lowest amount of lead. Solgar vitamins are put together in the US. So are the Apex Nutrition products....www.myapex.com

I have a strong WAP background and part of that has always been a trust of this company: http://www.greenpasture.org/community/

I still use their fermented cod liver oil now that im paleo. In fact, that and Natural Calm are the only two supps i take at all.

I used to take Organ Delight from Dr. Ron Schmidt, too. Now that i eat some heart, liver, etc routinely i stopped that. Though i do indeed trust his company.

The absolute best online source for most of these brands is iHerb.com. They have fantastic prices -- often half off retail -- customer ratings, and super-fast shipping.

I'm going to buck the trend and ask why supplement? In fact, I'm going to hopefully provoke a little debate and question the need for supplementation altogether.

After all, Grok wouldn't even recognize supplements as edible.

[insert standard disclaimer about being way out along the re-enactment end of the Paleo spectrum] but I'm of the view that in principle if you're doing Paleo right you shouldn't need supplements.

When looking for highest-quality fish oil via the IFOS website i found Life Extension (lef.com) and figured since they are one of the very few companies actually manufacturing good fish oil, I stuck with them. They offer loads of other stuff that I deem completely unnecessary, but each to his own. I also purchased their Vitamin D supplement once but revert to go out in the sun more, now. Their fish oil is one of the more affordable of the "IFOS 5-star-rated".

Check out www.consumerlab.com. They are an independant lab that test herbal and supplemental products. Cheap to join but once you do you will have the skinny on which products have what they say and which are contaminated. If you are going to supplement don't take anyone's word who is selling you something.

i guess i'll try to dig up consumer reports ratings.

I use kirkland (Costco) brand fish oil...Robb Wolf recommends it and has done some limited research into it I think. It never stinks and I never burp fish even after taking 20 caps at a time so those are good indicators of quality.

For a workout recovery drink I use OPT Refuel (Optimum Performance Training), James Fitzgerald's company out of Canada. He is big on the Crossfit and Paleo scene and insist on very high quality, as paleo as possible, components in his products. In the US you can buy them from Catalyst Athletics...they are a little pricey but you pay more for high quality.

I generally default to Thorne and Jarrow products, mostly on the recommendation of a paleo-minded naturopath who swears by them. I've never had any cause for complaint with either.

Carlson's, Jarrows, & NOW Foods

Fish oil supplements to AVOID:

CVS/pharmacy, Nature Made, Rite Aid, GNC, Solgar, Twinlab, Now Health, Omega Protein and Pharmavite.

All these brands had excessive levels of PCB, a toxin and carcinogen.

Thoreau, jarrow and Now are all companies i trust. A smaller tip of the hat to Alacer, NewChapter, and Solaray.

I really like NewChapter's research style, but worry about their use of soy in many things... But at least it is well fermented soy that makes smaller amounts of many vitas bioavailable.

Xtend-life and Wellness Resources tend to produce high quality products though Xtend-life can be a little pricey depending on the product. I stumbled across these once when I was trying to find a high quality mutlivitamin after hearing about how ineffective store bought ones usually are due to using cheap filler and forms of vitamins and minerals that are less bio-available but cheaper. As far as I know, these companies do not do that and attempt to design their supplements for most bio-availability in the gut. Anyway, you can check them out and see for yourself. I've mostly been using Wellness Resources for Vitamin D and Fish Oil since they have better prices than Xtend-life (though I did use them once for their Total Balance multi-vitamin) and have not had any trouble.

Anybody use Prograde?