Vegetarian capsules and tablets

[sister-ray]

After it was suggested on here trying flax seed oil capsules, I tryed to get some that where suitable for vegartarians, my local health store finally ordered some in, they had the others with gelatine in as did everywhere else! I have had this problem before with evening primrose oil which my Doctor prescribes me for P.M.S. I have to pierce the capsule and put the oil in a little water and doing that can be quite messy!! I always assumed that alternative products would always be vegartarian but was amazed to find how many have animal by products in them, is this the same overseas?

 

[Daniel E.]

When I tried adding flax seeds to my diet, I just bought flax seeds and added them to dishes like stir fry. I guess people like capsules since they may be more concentrated and convenient, but the gelatin-free capsules you mentioned seem about as convenient as using regular flax seeds.

I always assumed that alternative products would always be vegartarian but was amazed to find how many have animal by products in them, is this the same overseas?

Yes. Most American vegetarians, like myself, don't even think about gelatin. Strict vegans who try not to eat any animal products, including honey, often do care about gelatin, but they are a minority in a minority. So it wasn't a surprise when I saw that at least some of the flax seed capsules at drugstore.com contained gelatin.