Why I Switched to Sports Research Vitamin D3 + K2

I took a plain vitamin D pill for years and never thought twice about it. That is the honest version. I would buy whatever bottle was on the shelf, take one with breakfast, and get on with my day. When I retired from the school cafeteria in June 2023, I told myself I would finally start paying attention to what was actually in the bottles on my counter. It took me until April 2024 to actually do it.

When I finally did, I sat down at the kitchen table with the bottle I had been taking and read the whole label out loud to my husband Gene. It said vitamin D. That was it. No K2, no coconut oil, nothing else. I am not a nurse or a dietitian, so I am not going to explain the science to you like I am one. What I can tell you is what I read, what I bought, and what has happened since.

That is how I ended up with Sports Research Vegan Vitamin D3 + K2. I found it on Amazon, read the listing twice, and ordered the 30 count jar of plantgels. What got my attention was the pairing. Each softgel has 125 mcg (5000 IU) of vitamin D3 and 100 mcg of K2 as MK-7. The D3 comes from lichen, the K2 comes from fermented chickpeas, and the softgel has coconut oil in it. The listing also says gluten free, and the title says vegan.

I want to be clear about something before I go any further. I am not a medical professional. I am a retired school cafeteria manager in Knoxville who reads labels before she buys. Before I added the Sports Research plantgel to the counter, I showed my pharmacist the full list of what I take, back in January 2025, and asked her to look it over. That is the only reason I am comfortable telling you what is on my counter. Whatever you take, ask your own doctor or pharmacist about it first, especially if you are on any medication.

I am not going to tell you the plain D3 was a bad product. It was the same bottle I had bought for years and it did exactly what the front of it said. It just did not have K2 in it. Once I read that the two are commonly sold together, keeping a bottle that only had one of them stopped making sense to me. So I finished what I had and switched. That was April 2024.

I had been taking half of a pair for years and never once noticed.

The routine barely changed, which is part of why it stuck. At 7:30 in the morning, with breakfast, I take my Centrum, one Sports Research plantgel, and two Nordic Naturals softgels. The jar sits on the kitchen counter by the coffee maker, next to the multivitamin. I have never used a pill organizer. I have not run out, and I have not missed a stretch of days. By my count that is 31 months now.

What I noticed is not a story I can dress up for you. Nothing dramatic happened. I did not have a before and after, and I would be lying if I told you I did. I take it because it fills a gap in a normal diet and because I spend most of the winter indoors here in east Tennessee. That is the whole reason the D matters to me in the first place. The change is that the bottle on my counter now has both vitamins in it instead of one.

Thirty one months is a long time to keep any habit, and the honest reason this one has held is that it takes me about four seconds. I do not have to think about it. My one complaint is the jar size. Thirty plantgels means I am reordering roughly every month, and it goes on the list more often than anything else on the counter. That is a small thing. It is also the only thing I would change.

The plantgel itself is easy for me to swallow and it has no flavor that I can detect. I take it with food, always at breakfast, the same as the multivitamin. That is a preference of mine and not a rule I read anywhere, so do not take it as instructions. I also keep every bottle in its original container, which is how I have always done it, and I still read the label when a new jar comes in.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were sitting at my kitchen table, here is what I would tell you. Turn the bottle around and read the back before you buy anything new. That is the whole thing. I spent years taking half of what I thought I was taking, and the only reason I know that is because I finally looked. If your bottle turns out to be D3 by itself and you want the pair together, Sports Research is the one I landed on: a 30 count jar of plantgels with 125 mcg of D3 and 100 mcg of K2, gluten free and vegan. Do not expect it to feel like anything. Expect it to be one less thing to think about at 7:30 in the morning. And talk to your own doctor or pharmacist before you change your routine, because I am a retired cafeteria manager, not a medical professional.