For twenty-six years I read ingredient labels for a living. One elementary school cafeteria in Conway, Arkansas, about 400 lunches a day, and the same three questions every morning: what is in it, how much, and what else is in there. I retired in June 2024 and I read supplement labels exactly the same way now. So when I asked Dr. Alvarez which basics made sense at my age and vitamin D came up, I read the label before anything else. I read five label pages and picked the one that answered all three of my questions.
Sports Research Vegan Vitamin D3 + K2 is the one I picked, and it is the one still sitting on my second pantry shelf beside the coffee. Sixty plantgels, one a day, taken at breakfast at 7:30 alongside the other three bottles I started that same Monday, March 2, 2026. Eight months in, here is my honest report and the ten reasons this is the bottle I keep reaching for. I am not a doctor, a nurse or a dietitian. I am a label reader with a routine, so check with your own doctor or pharmacist before you copy any of it.
The label answers the question most D3 bottles dodge
60 plantgels, one a day. 125 mcg (5000 IU) of D3 from lichen and 100 mcg of K2 as MK-7, in coconut oil. Vegan, gluten free, unflavored.
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The whole reason I went looking for a combined product is that I did not want to juggle a D3 and a K2 separately and guess at amounts. This label puts both in the same softgel: 125 mcg (5000 IU) of D3 and 100 mcg of K2. One bottle, one softgel, one decision at 7:30 in the morning. At my age, fewer moving parts is the difference between something that becomes a routine and something that becomes a half-used bottle in a drawer.
5000 IU is a high dose, and mine was okayed before I opened the bottle
125 mcg is 5000 IU, and that is not a small number. I printed the label page at home and brought the paper to my yearly physical in late February 2026, and Dr. Alvarez read it and okayed that dose for me specifically. That is the only reason I am comfortable with it. Please do the same, because what fits a 58-year-old woman who takes no prescription medication is not automatically what fits you.
The D3 comes from lichen, which is why the bottle says vegan
Most D3 on the shelf starts somewhere I would rather not think about. This one is cholecalciferol sourced from lichen, and the label states it plainly instead of making you hunt. I am not vegan, so that was not the deciding factor for me. What decided it was that the source was named at all. A label that tells you where the vitamin came from is a label that expects to be read.
100 mcg of K2 as MK-7, with the form spelled out
Plenty of K2 labels just say vitamin K2 and stop there. This one names MK-7 from fermented chickpeas and describes it as the most bioavailable form of K2. I cannot verify that in my kitchen and I am not going to pretend I can. What I can tell you is that the amount and the form are both printed in the supplement facts, which is more than several bottles I picked up, read and put back down.
The coconut oil is inside the softgel, not a step on your counter
Some vitamin D products ask you to take them with a fatty meal so the vitamin has something to travel with. This one carries coconut oil in the softgel itself. My breakfast is oatmeal and a slice of toast, every single day, and has been for years, so I am not rearranging a meal around a capsule. It goes down with the oatmeal and that is the end of it.
Eight months and five bottles in, I feel absolutely nothing from it. For a bone and calcium basic, that is not a disappointment. That is the point.
K2 is the half I would have skipped on my own
If I had bought plain D3, I would have bought it because a label said D3 and stopped reading. The reason I wanted the two together is the pairing. The listing says D3 and K2 work together to support strong bones, immune health and normal calcium metabolism, and that is the wording I am comfortable repeating. It supports normal function. It does not treat anything, and I would not trust a bottle that claimed it did.
One softgel at 7:30, next to the oatmeal bowl
My breakfast is at 7:30 and there are four bottles involved. The Sports Research softgel is the first one I take, easy to swallow and unflavored, so it adds nothing to the taste of the meal. Then it goes back on the second pantry shelf beside the coffee, where all five of my bottles live. That is the entire ritual. The best routine is the one you can do half asleep, and this one qualifies.
Sixty plantgels is a two-month bottle, and the bottle is small
Sixty plantgels at one a day is two months, which means I am not reordering every few weeks. The bottle measures 2 by 2 by 3.65 inches and weighs about 1.1 ounces, so it takes up almost no room on that pantry shelf. I am on my fifth bottle now, which is how I know the count is honest. I have never opened one and found it short.
Gluten free and unflavored, two boxes I did not have to check twice
I read the allergen line the way I used to read an ingredient line on a cafeteria order form. This one says gluten free, and the softgel is unflavored, so there is nothing to taste and nothing to weigh against a restriction. It also lists as vegan, which matters to some people and not to others. I like that all three answers sit on the label instead of in a footnote somewhere.
It is the bottle I can say the least about, and that is the honest review
Eight months in, I feel nothing from this one. No burst of anything, no change I could point to and describe. I am not going to invent a feeling to make a better story. The Sports Research bottle is the bone and calcium basic among my five, the one Dr. Alvarez okayed, and the one I keep buying. Some things you take because the label makes sense and your doctor agrees, not because you can feel them working.
What I'd Skip
I would skip buying a 5000 IU dose on a friend's recommendation. It is a high dose, and the only reason it is in my kitchen is that Dr. Alvarez looked at the printed label page and said it fit me. If you take a blood thinner, K2 is a conversation to have with your doctor or pharmacist before you order anything, not after the bottle arrives. Dana at my pharmacy counter read these same printed pages before I ordered, and that is the order I do things in: doctor first, pharmacist second, add to cart third.
I would also skip D3 on its own if the pairing is the whole reason you are shopping. I have never bought a D3 without K2, so I cannot compare the two from experience, only from reading labels in the aisle. And I would skip any bottle that promises to fix a condition. The Sports Research label says it supports normal bone and immune function, and that is the entire claim. Anything louder than that is selling, not labeling.
The label I read first is the one still on my shelf
One softgel with breakfast. 60 plantgels, 125 mcg (5000 IU) of D3 from lichen, 100 mcg of K2 as MK-7, vegan and gluten free. Ask your doctor about the dose before you start.
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