How do I choose a good supplement?

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How Do I Choose A Good Supplement?

There are three main types of dietary supplements: synthetic, synthetic with food added, and food-state (also known as "whole food"). It is vital to understand the differences between them, and to also know what to watch out for with the “other ingredients” that are listed on the nutrition facts panel.

Synthetic vitamins are created artificially in a laboratory and, while they have the exact same atomic structure as vitamins found in food, do not contain essential co-factors our bodies need to make use of them. These co-factors include enzymes, minerals, trace minerals, and other elements (some of which are still unknown). This is why the manufacturers of synthetic vitamins always instruct you to take them with food. What they do NOT tell you is what KIND of food to take them with, which is very important. If you take synthetic vitamins with food that is lacking in the above-stated co-factors-- such as processed foods-- your body will only be able to utilize a very small portion of the vitamin supplement (2%-5%) and will excrete the rest. This process can tax your liver and kidneys and may be harmful. In order for your body to utilize a synthetic, isolated vitamin taken without the proper food, it must first find the co-factors needed, if possible, from somewhere within your body. This process of “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” as it were, could leave those other parts of your body shortchanged and deficient in those nutrients.

The most common brand names for synthetic vitamins include Centrum and One-A-Day. These are very inexpensive vitamins to produce and are huge profit-makers for their manufacturers, who can thus afford to advertise them heavily and pay for prime shelf position in retail stores. Because they are so profitable, there are many generic copycat versions of these vitamins.

An upgrade to synthetic vitamins is when manufacturers add in some food. The quantity and quality of the food added varies widely, but is always hyped because now the vitamins are considered “premium” and can command a higher price. Always check the ingredient panel to see what foods have been added, and in what amounts. Some manufacturers will add only a small amount of cheap vegetable and fruit powders and claim that their vitamins are now “whole food”, while other manufacturers will truly add significant amounts of organic super-food concentrates, such as spirulina and chlorella, wheat grass and activated barley grass, as well as organic vegetable and fruit concentrates, enzymes, minerals, and herbs. Some brand names of these vitamins are Pure Essence Labs, Nature's Way Alive, and Rainbow Light. These are intended for people who are willing to spend a little more to get a “better” vitamin product, but it is a game of “buyer beware” because in many cases you are not getting much extra for your money, and you are still only getting synthetic vitamins.

The best supplements on the market are not synthetically created but are carefully extracted from raw, whole foods and then “bio-cultured” or re-grown into plant form at consistent potencies. This is accomplished with the use of a type of beneficial yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae (which is present in Baker's Yeast and Brewer's Yeast), that “absorbs” the vitamins into its living plant form, and creates the enzymes, minerals, trace elements, and co-factors that our bodies recognize in a food matrix. In essence, these vitamins are truly alive, coming from living food and being cultured into a living food matrix. These vitamins are nearly 100% bio-available to the body in a usable form, and as such have far greater ACTIVITY in the body than synthetics.

Activity is much more accurate measure of how well a vitamin “works” than potency. Potency, in the vitamin industry, refers only to weight (usually in milligrams or micrograms) and is very misleading. Just as you would not want to put dead fish into your aquarium, it does not make sense to put dead vitamins into your body, regardless of how many of them there are. Let's look at Vitamin C as an example: the synthetic form of Vitamin C is called ascorbic acid. Here is a quote from “Whole Food Vitamins: Ascorbic Acid Is Not Vitamin C” by Tim O'Shea.

Amazing as it may sound if you're hearing this for the first time, vitamins are more than the synthetic fractions we are commonly taught they are. The ascorbic acid you buy at the grocery store every few weeks, thinking you are buying Vitamin C, is just a chemical copy of naturally occurring ascorbic acid, which itself is still only a fraction of the actual Vitamin C. Real vitamin C is part of something living, and as such, can impart life. Your synthetic, fractionated chemical ascorbic acid never grew in the ground, never saw the light of day, never was alive or part of anything alive. It's a chemical, a cornstarch derivative, a sulfuric acid by-product. In your body it's just another drug. Synthetic vitamins have toxic effects from mega-doses and actually can increase the white blood cell count. Vitamins are only necessary in minute quantities on a daily basis. Whole food vitamins, by contrast, are not toxic since the vitamin is complexed in its integral working form, and requires nothing from the body, and triggers no immune response.

At the NHA, we are convinced from our own personal usage of various types of vitamins, and from customer testimonials, that live, food-state vitamins are BY FAR the best, and they are the only ones we carry. Because it is our commitment to offer these vitamins at the best prices around, you will find that making this investment in your health won't hurt your pocketbook too much, either, and will likely save you money in health care costs down the road. With synthetic vitamins, you are literally flushing your money down the toilet. Come to the NHA for the best and ONLY the best!

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