How important is it to take your vitamins? Very important! Crazy schedules, eating on the run, not enough sleep, drinking coffee, frequent colds, stress.....any of this sound familiar to you? Of course it does. I think there is something on that list for everyone.
Nutrition is so important. The best way to get your nutrition is from the foods you eat. But sometimes we miss meals or maybe the meals we eat aren't the most nutritious. So supplements are the next step to getting the nutrition we need.
But beware! Not all supplements are created alike. It is very important that you choose a whole food supplement. So what's the difference between a mass-market megavitamin (such as Centrum or One a Day) and a whole food vitamin? The difference is vast.
Synthetically produced vitamin supplements were developed in the 1950's in labs where they were pressed into pills and then sent to our supermarket shelves. Because they were low in cost and convenient, they became very popular. But these synthetically engineered vitamins are inferior to whole food supplements for many reasons. These synthetic vitamins are known as “isolates.” They are chemicals designed to mimic natural vitamins. Unfortunately, your body will only absorb a small percentage of these isolates, so you won’t be getting as much of the vitamins as you might think you are. Because they are synthetically produced they are "dead" and have no enzymes. They bear little resemblance to nature's nutrients nor do they have the same effect as live, raw whole foods on our bodies. Lastly they often are full of fillers and waxes which are not digested or absorbed well.
Whole food supplements are a better choice. Organic vitamins do not contain things like additives, fillers, and dyes. Some inorganic vitamins even contain animal byproducts! Not only are these things unnecessary, they may actually be harmful for you. Some people are allergic to food dyes, for example. Organic whole food vitamin supplements use vitamins taken directly from food sources. Therefore you will absorb the vitamins much better.
If a vitamin is a whole food supplement it will say so on the label. If it doesn't say this on the label assume it is not a whole food supplement.
So take your vitamin but be sure it is a whole food vitamin. And remember the best source of nutrition is the foods we eat. So eat your veggies and fruits.
What brand do you recommend or use?
ReplyDeleteWhole Foods Market has some good ones. Right now we are using Nature's Way Alive. But really as long as it is a whole food supplement it is good. But mostly make sure you are getting a lot of your nutrition from the foods you eat.
ReplyDeleteIs one better: Liquid or pills
ReplyDeleteThe body's ability to absorb the whole food vitamin is the same for liquid or pill form unless the person suffers from a chronic digestive illness. The body deals with the whole food vitamin the same way it does real whole food and knows what to do with it. This of course is not the case for synthetic vitamins. For this reason you should not take synthetic vitamins in liquid forms unless prescribed by a doctor as it is easier to overdose on these vitamins.
ReplyDelete