Is Your Vitamin of Value?

One of the most common questions I’m asked is, “What is a good vitamin?”  Before I share advice on this, why should you take a vitamin in the first place?  Our bodies require many building blocks and of the most important of these are vitamins and minerals.  Normally, we should get these building blocks from our diet in the form of fruits and vegetables.  Unfortunately, it is estimated that even if you are eating the recommended amount, because of mass production farming methods and excessive herbicides and pesticides, our conventional fruit/vegetable sources provide only around 40% of the nutrients that they should.  Likewise, most of our diet is made of processed food devoid of nutrients.  Similarly, chemicals such as caffeine, nicotine, excessive sugars, and most medications are known to bind to our vitamins and minerals and deplete our system of these nutrients as the chemicals are detoxified.  A good quality vitamin is critical to supplement these lost or lacking nutrients.

Unfortunately, not all vitamins are created equal.  The highest quality vitamins are usually derived from whole food sources.  Most the vitamins you find in the store are synthetics and their ingredients are incomplete parts bound together.  A whole food vitamin will be made of natural ingredients that work synergistically as nature intended.  Many of the popular vitamins have two other shortcomings.  First they focus only on vitamins and lack adequate mineral sources.  Think of minerals as the catalyst that turns the vitamins on allowing them to work.  Secondly, many vitamins do not digest or assimilate into the body effectively.  This means they are not even being absorbed and are wasting your money!  While it is impossible to know if your vitamin is completely being absorbed, at the least you should see a color change in your urine to a bright (almost fluorescent) yellow once you’ve been taking one for awhile.  If you truly want the best vitamin, you need to do some research and I assure you the popular ones will not be on the top of the list.  Look to the “Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” to learn more.