Global Courant
While it is ideal to get all your essential nutrients from natural foods, it may not be practical in today’s society and many people resort to vitamin pills to supplement their diet. Make no mistake though, vitamin supplements are big business and not all manufacturers have your best interests at heart.
There are thousands of supplements to choose from and consumers spend billions of dollars every year – many never even get a small fraction of their money.
How do you choose a vitamin supplement that won’t just go down the toilet?
There are 3 types of delivery systems for vitamin supplements. Capsules, liquid and tablets. The trick is to choose one that dissolves well and doesn’t just “go on” wasting your hard-earned money.
The liquid would be the best, but unfortunately there are not many choices on the market. Plus, they can be clumsy and taste like cough syrup. But they’re great if you can’t swallow pills and they’re good for kids, too.
Tablets are the most common form of vitamin supplement. They are made by mixing an organic or inorganic cement and pressing them into shape. To properly dissolve the pills, an organic cement must be used, but this costs more and as you can imagine many manufacturers skimp on this set. There are also coated tablets that resemble small candy-coated M&Ms. These are very commonly found in everyday cheap drugstore vitamins.
Capsules are gelatin containers that dissolve quickly and are the best choice in most cases. Because they are not compressed like the tablets, you usually need to take two to get one tablet.
One important thing with vitamin supplements is that you want to make sure you absorb as much as possible or you’ll just be wasting your money. Studies have shown that individual vitamin isolates in supplements are only absorbed at about 10%, while vitamins directly from a fresh plant source are absorbed at 77% to 93%. Minerals have an even lower absorption rate – 1% to 5%. But from plants such as raw broccoli, the minerals are 63% to 78% absorbable.
The reason for this difference in absorption is that in nature, each vitamin and mineral molecule is attached to a protein molecule. Therefore, you should take your vitamin supplements with meals – unless otherwise stated on the label. During digestion, only about 10% of the vitamin and mineral molecules, aided by enzymes, will attach to the protein molecules found in your food, allowing them to be absorbed and used by your cells. Without these accompanying proteins, the body will see the vitamin isolates as a foreign substance and filter them out. That’s why you may have noticed bright yellow urine after taking a vitamin – that’s your body’s way of getting rid of chemicals it thinks it can’t use.
When choosing a vitamin supplement, make sure it contains enough vitamins and minerals that you want. Remember that only about 10% of what is in the supplement will be absorbed. Look for the designation BP (British Pharmacopoeia) or USP (United States Pharmacopoeia) on the label. You will find the USP or BP initials next to the vitamin and this designation means that the vitamin isolates are of the highest quality and are easily dissolved in the digestion process.
If you look at the minerals section of the label, look for “chelated” or “chelated.” This indicates that the minerals have been attached to protein before being added to the supplement. This increases absorption by 400% to 800%.
Look for a supplement with a “nutritional base”. This is concentrated plant material to which vitamins and minerals have been added. Food-based supplements contain enzymes and nutrients that promote the absorption of the vitamins and minerals. This is probably the best type of vitamin you can buy, but the tablets will be larger and you may need to take more.
Dietary supplements can never take the place of nutrition and should not be used as a mainstay to supplement a poor diet. The best recipe for health is to eat a nutritious and healthy diet that can be supplemented as needed.
All vitamin supplements are not created equal
World News,Next Big Thing in Public Knowledg
#vitamin #supplements #created #equal
