HoneyLine: Everything You Need to Know About Vitamins

I have friends that look at me sideways when my one-year-old drops some sort of food on the floor, picks it up and then eats it. If I'm at home I just let that move roll (we're not at the public train station or gas stop bathroom). These are the same friends that don't think twice about going to a drive-through window for a burger (that may or may not have been dropped on the floor or better yet - sneezed on by some hormonal seventeen year old). I compare this kind of thinking to the individuals who won't blink when some white coat gives them a pill for some ailment or a little extra stress but would NEVER take a vitamin. Too risky. I mean after all your meds could lead to three other pills to deal with your new side effects or your impulse to
gamble or bloody urine. Makes sense to me.

I can see how vitamins are confusing, an added expense, and a pain in the butt. However, none of us are getting the 39 essential vitamins and minerals we need in our food so, in my mind, they're something we should rotate in and out of our diets. You can run down to Costco or to GNC when they are having a sale and go grab a bottle. Sorry, it's not quite that easy.

What are the things you should consider when buying and taking vitamins?

First of all, keep it simple. If you are taking twenty-three pills three times a day, eighteen minutes after you eat, but not forty five minutes before bed it is not going to happening. On the functional side, you have to get a quick understanding about the differences between the kinds of vitamins, how they absorb in your body, and who is making them.

1. Vitamin Absorption

Better to buy a whole food vitamin since it's a food already. There are tons of studies showing that the body can absorb these vitamins 20x greater then synthesized vitamins. So yes, the buy in bulk vitamin is cheaper, but you may be only get 1% of the nutrients if any at all. Talk about a waste of dough!

2. Vitamin Quality

Not that it would matter to me but the FDA does not regulate the vitamin supplement industry (probably not enough money in it). You want to buy from a company that self regulates and holds it's products to high standards. Check to see if they display USP-DSVP stamp (US Pharmacopoeia Dietary Supplement Verification Program).

3. Natural Vitamins

Given that the vitamin is produced by a solid company, a natural vitamin is easier to absorb. Be mindful that they don't often taste great, won't be cheap, and will have an expiration date.

4. Liquid Vitamins

The good news about the liquid supplement is they have about a 98% absorption rate. The inconvenient part is that they need to be refrigerated so not good for on-the-go or traveling supplementation.

5. Don't Take a Vitamin Instead of Food

It's not a good idea to rely on vitamins as a source of nutrition, hence the word "supplement".
Take a strong multivitamin that contains all 39 essential vitamins and minerals. A few solid brands are Rainbow Light, Solgar, KAL, and Nutrilite. Look to sites like Dr. Mercola's website, Dr. Al Sears website, Drugnatural.com, and naturalhealthconcepts.com. These are great places to start.

Like anything we ingest, it is smart to do one or two months on and then take a week off. Our bodies get use to anything so, in order to continue to get the benefits, it's imperative to bring them in and out of your diet.

I realize it seems a little voodoo voodoo, but I am a real believer in vitamins helping us defend our health, sleep better, process stress, and just better over all body function. If you want to get crazy I'm all for natural Chinese herbs and teas.

Whoa, easy there, are you sure you don't just want a Prozac? I mean tea can seem pretty scary, and it has been around for thousands of years. What do they
know?

In all seriousness, here is to your good health.

Comments

[Joshua Sophy]

Good advice Gabi. Here is information on 34 dangerous dietary supplements recalled because they contain an undeclared drug: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5740#more-5740

[DavidPloski]

Been taking supplement "silymarin" daily for ten years because I drink everyday (alcohol).
Last check liver function tests normal.
Will always take this.
Also load up on fish oil and Glocosamine - Chondroitan because I run.
It may all be bonk but have no negative effects thus far.

[avraamjack]

Thanks for the reminder, I forgot to take vitamins today.

Is not mint also supposed to be good for you?

.

[euthman]

Almost every recommendation in this article is without substantiation. The bottom line is that vitamins and other supplements are unregulated, so anyone can make any claim about them and face no consequences. Many of these claims sound very technical and scientific, but ultimately they are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The vitamin industry is not forced by the FDA to substantiate its claims using good old-fashioned scientific method, so they don't bother.

The bottom line is that if a healthy person eats a balanced diet, he or she will get enough vitamins. There are two _possible_ exceptions. First, women in their reproductive years may wish to take a daily supplement of folate to prevent neural tube defects in their fetus, should they get pregnant. This is probably wearing suspenders and a belt, as a large study has shown that most women get enough folate in their diet. (Folate has been widely added to processed foods since 1998.) Second, vitamin D deficiency may be more widespread than previously thought, so some supplementation may be useful there. (This is all very provisionsal. More study needs to be done.)

Ed Uthman, MD

[rini]

There have been many studies that all show the same thing.

Most vitamins don't work. (Vitamin D, calcium and iron are the only one's worth taking, and, then, only if you are in a certain risk group or have certain medical diagnoses.­)

There are many studies that demonstrate the benefits of a diet rich in vegetables, fruit and whole grain.

Don't be brain washed by the vitamin industry. They are even less regulated than the pharmaceutical industry and don't care about you either.

[Grasse7]

Sure, rini, you're absolutely right about about the benefits of a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains--presuming those are all fresh, organically raised foods that haven't been sitting on the shelf a long time. The sad fact is, the foods most of us are getting these days are nutrient-poor, raised often on depleted soils, and sometimes irradiated--thus canceling out most of the vitamin and enzyme benefits they might have. (I won't even go into the long-term effect that pesticides and various toxins have on one's body, in terms of draining your existing reserves of nutrients, simply in order to metabolize and process those poisons.)

To rail against supplements in some sort of broad brush fashion is being overly idealistic, and simplistic. Many out there don't have the luxury, financially, of eating only the finest, freshest produce--in which case a GOOD quality vitamin is not only helpful, it may be essential.

[Tatiana999]

I work at medical practice where we test some patients for metabolites in their bodies that accumulate when you don't have enough vitamins ( especially group B). We didn't see one person who had enough of vitamin B's unless they take them as supplements in doses much high then FDA recomended.

[JePense]

Sorry, Doc. BTW - nothing in your post is substantiated - including the MD (Maryland?).

What folks don't realize when they swallow and propagate anti-vitamin myth:
- Americans fill up on so much processed food they don't eat a "balanced diet." Read the labels; notice the ingredients list sounds like a pharmacy..­.FDA and USDA
- In Iowa the topsoil is 20 feet deep and crops are rotated, but the international market includes foods from soils that are over-farmed, over-fertilized and over-protected by pesticides and they don't contain the same level of minerals that our grandparents enjoyed. USDA
- vitamins were discovered less than 100 years ago; it's likely the research is still unfolding new knowledge about their importance to our health. ACS
- when one considers the assault on our health from air, pollutants, preservatives, excess sugars, artificial fats and ingredients, there is probably little harm in relying on Grandma and Grandpa's sure-fired recipes for autoimmune enhancement -- teas, and herbs, and modern day supplements.

Lord KNOWS the hospitals are killing us with the opportunistic infections and drug-resistant bacteria that prey upon those with weakened immune systems. CMS

Basically, med schools have brayed about the uselessness of supplements while promoting the myth of the balanced diet for 70 years. The really, really smart docs? They're receiving grant money to study the way that pomogranate juice dissolves lung tumors in mice. U of Michigan

People who live in unsubstantiated posts shouldn't throw myths :-)

[JustMe133]

I've always wondered if what they say is true concerning taking Coral Calcium and Shark Cartilage to prevent or fight cancer? I knew someone who was in stage 4, (too late for anything) and he was told to go for calcium drips. Wonder if this would've helped if it had been caught earlier? Also heard someone who had terminal cancer and they went somewhere in Europe for some treatment and came back with a clean bill of health!! Anyone know anything concerning any of this?

[rini]

Shark cartilage has been proven NOT to work for cancer and is probably not helpful for any human condition.

It is depleting the shark population, though.

[euthman]

Indeed, eating shark cartilage is definitely bad for sharks. ;)

[hlg]

Check out this wonderful company. They have integrity and their products are wholefood/plant based and natural. They are practitioner quality, made in small batches and have helped me stay exceptionally healthy for many years. Their multi-vitamin is the best I've found, and I've researched them all! There wellness protocols are cutting edge. Their opti-blends simplify your supplement regime and make taking supplements on a regular basis a breeze. They also have extremely high quality digestive enzymes and probiotics. The company prices it's products reasonably for such high quality and standards, Give them a look for yourself. http://www.universalformulas.com/helene

Sign up and order your way to good health!!

[Kzb]

So you're saying living on reds, vitamin C, and cocaine isn't an effective strategy?

[bikerdude]

This article is a surface scratcher.­..Look for natural vitamins, easily digested and manufactured to pharmaceutical grade. There is a Utah-based company that meets all these criteria.

[ThomasPaineWeNeedYou]

Very nice being a chiropractor it's nice to see an article that's positive and well thought our about vitamins seeing as viamine means vita amines those little packets of importatnt biological material that helps our metabolic processes work better especially with the poisionous food that we are subjected to everyday that has little to no vitamins or minerals in them due to overprocessing and or chemical additives. Want to find the connection to our poor health in this nation just look at our food supply and what our government allows us to consume.

[Pavel Somov, Ph.D. - Huffpost Blogger]

What are your thoughts on Juvenon?

[bikerdude]

Are you pushing a specific product here?

[Grasse7]

What most articles on vitamins tend to overlook is the equal importance of enzymes--they not only help you digest the vitamins, but every metabolic process in your system runs with their aid, and your immune system depends on them.

Best to get a capsule enzyme rather than in pill form, and it's good to take one or two with each meal, preferably before. (I won't go into all the benefits here--you can look that up on the web easy enough--but they are legion.)

One imperfect--but useful-- analogy: if your body were your car, vitamins would be like the gas in the tank, while enzymes would be like the spark plugs. The gas won't do you a bit of good if it's not converted to energy.

p.s. yes, you get enzymes from your food--presuming you're eating fresh food that isn't irradiated, cooked, frozen, canned, or that sat on the shelf for a while. They're the living component of food, in a sense, and don't survive aging or much heat/ cold.

[zizyphus]

I took lots of vitamins for years, but only take the water soluble ones now, occasionally because I just don't have confidence in the quality of the precursor chemicals coming out of China. China is making almost all the C and B now I have been told.

I know it is far better to eat a whole orange, than take a pill of C. All the real medicine is in the cells of the orange. There unknown synergies occurring in a whole food that don't exist in a pill.

[Sona-M]

What the F? Why all the negativity from the Elitist Vitamin Squad. This was some useful basic information that some people might just well find useful. If you want more information, go seek it out using this Ms. Reece's blog as a springboard. You are in charge of your own health.

As for all you haters, try some liquid calcium/magnesium, cut way,way down on the sugar and get some more darn sleep.

Thank you Ms. Reece.

[Marklar]

Thats Mrs. Laird Hamilton to you pal ;-)

[coveark]

COOL ! ! !

[LordMoon]

When I read articles like this I'm always struck by how sophisticated people have become about vitamins and suppliments.

Judging by the comments here, that remains so. In many cases, the public, is much more knowledgable than the so called experts.

Times have changed, but it seems like the experts always make the assumption that they know more than their readers, this has become an all too common mistake.

[LADawson]

I don't know, when it comes to this particular topic, I don't think the majority of people realize that a good amount of the vitamins and supplements they put into their bodies are little more than an expensive way of changing the color of their urine. Plus, there is so little regulation in the supplementation market, that educating people on how to find the right one that fits their needs, or if they even need one at all, can be difficult. Any amount of education on the matter is better than none. Writers have to make an assumption when they start their article at who their audience is, and just because it's not someone like yourself who may already know what they're writing about, it doesn't mean there aren't plenty of people who fit the target.

[Andrew Nguyen]

Good point.

[rsaillant1]

Yeah, and we all know how pure the stuff coming out of China has been, of late.