Are Your Vitamins Vegan? The Shocking Truth Behind Supplements
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more.
I was three years vegan before I found out my vitamin D was made from sheep’s wool. It was sitting in my cupboard the whole time.
The supplement aisle is one of the last places most of us think to check, and it’s one of the worst offenders. Here’s what’s actually in there.
💊 1. Not All Vitamins Are Created Equal
Four ingredients account for almost every non-vegan supplement on the shelf. Once you know them, you can check a bottle in about five seconds.
- Gelatin: boiled skin, bone and connective tissue. It’s in nearly every softgel and almost every gummy vitamin. If the capsule is shiny and squishy, assume gelatin until the label says otherwise.
- Lanolin: the grease from sheep’s wool, and the default source of vitamin D3. This is the one that catches the most people out, because nothing on the front of the bottle hints at it.
- Carmine: red colouring made from crushed cochineal insects. Anything pink or red is worth a look. It hides under E120 and cochineal extract too.
- Fish oil: still the default omega-3 source in mainstream brands, even though algae based versions exist and work identically.
You can read every label in your fridge and still be undone by a bottle you bought once and never looked at again.
🥦 2. “Plant-Based” Doesn’t Always Mean Vegan
Plant-based is not a regulated term on supplements. A brand can put it on the front while the capsule itself is gelatin.
Look for a certified vegan mark instead, and read the line labelled other ingredients. That’s where gelatin, beeswax and lactose based binders live, underneath the bit everyone reads.
💊 3. Watch Out For Vitamin D3
This is the one worth singling out, because most vegans are taking D3 and most D3 is lanolin. There’s also D2, which is vegan by default but your body uses less efficiently, so swapping down isn’t a great answer. Look for a lichen sourced D3 instead.
Lichen D3 is chemically the same molecule and works exactly as well. The bottle will say lichen or vegan D3 on it, and if it doesn’t say either, it’s sheep.
🌱 4. Omega-3s Don’t Have To Come From Fish
Fish don’t make omega-3s. They eat algae that does, and it accumulates up the food chain. So fish oil is algae oil with extra steps and a worse aftertaste.
Going straight to algae gets you the same EPA and DHA with none of the mercury or ocean sourcing questions. This matters more than most vegan supplements, because flax and chia give you ALA and your body converts very little of it into the forms you actually need.
💊 5. How To Choose A Truly Vegan Supplement
This is the checklist I run through in the shop, and it takes about half a minute.
- ✅ Certified vegan label
- ✅ No gelatin or animal-sourced ingredients
- ✅ Algae-based omega-3s and lichen D3
- ✅ Capsules made from plant cellulose or pullulan
- ✅ The brand names its actual sources, not just its values
Garden of Life mykind Organics, DEVA and Complement are the ones I’ve found reliable. Formulas do get reformulated though, so check the bottle in your hand rather than trusting a brand you checked two years ago.
🌱 6. What I Take (And Why)
I’m not a doctor, and this is what works for me rather than a prescription. Daily B12, which is the only genuinely non-negotiable one for vegans. Lichen D3 through the winter. Algae omega-3 most days. I skip iron entirely because I get plenty from lentils and my bloodwork says so, and I’d rather not take iron I don’t need. If you live somewhere with no iodised salt and no seaweed, iodine is worth a look, and zinc and calcium are the other two that come up often.
✅ The Bottom Line
It’s a frustrating blind spot. You do the hard part, read every food label for years, and the thing undoing it is a bottle you bought on autopilot.
Check the four ingredients above, buy certified where you can, and you’re done. Go and look at what’s in your cupboard right now. I’d bet on the vitamin D.
🛒 The Vegan Supplements I Actually Take
Checked, certified, and boring. That is what you want from a supplement.
- A B12 supplement: daily, non-negotiable, no reliable plant source exists.
- DEVA B12 lozenges: sublingual, vegan certified, and cheap.
- Lichen vitamin D3: same molecule as the sheep’s wool version, none of the sheep.
- Algae omega-3: straight to the source the fish were getting it from.
- Garden of Life mykind Organics: if you want one multivitamin rather than four bottles.
- Iodine drops: worth checking if you have no iodised salt and eat no seaweed.
📚 More To Read:
- Best Vegan Swaps for Everyday Cooking (Milk, Eggs, Butter & More)
- Easy Vegan Meals for Beginners (No Weird Ingredients)
- How to Get Enough Iron on a Vegan Diet
