People always ask me what type of vitamin supplements I should take. There are thousands of different types of vitamins (grocery, pharmacy, health food store and even gas station) and supplements companies. I’ve always said that “your food should be your vitamins” but with the way food has been processed, bleached, overcooked and hyper farmed over the last 50 plus years, it’s difficult to get the proper amount of vitamins and minerals in the foods that you eat from the severely depleted soil.

Going back to the Basics of Human Health by Mary Frost stated ”To get the iron that was available in one cup of spinach in 1945, you would have to consume 65 cups today. An orange that contained 50 mg. of natural vitamin C complex in 1950 now contains 5 mg. In a study from Nutrition and Health 2003, vegetables have a 33% decreased mineral content while fruit has a 15 % reduced mineral content over the last 50 years. I also believe there are 3 reasons to take supplements and that is to improve and maintain your health and the other is increase athletic performance.

There are just your basic generic cheap quantity vitamins and then there are whole food vitamins and everything in between. I’ve characterized nutritional supplements from the Yugo to the Porsche with the Toyota/Ford in the middle. All of these supplements range in price from the lowest to the highest with the most expensive usually being the highest quality, absorbable and smelliest brand. But many people say that “at least something is better than nothing” but I beg to differ when your body doesn’t know how to use and break down something that smells good, looks colorful and absorbed less than 20% of the ingredients nutrients. What is not broken down is eliminated (sewer/septic thing) thru digestion process bathroom end (literally) result.  Research shows that the bioavailability of Natural Food Complex Nutrients are more effectively absorbed and used by the body than isolated larger nutrients. In 1988 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a comparison of the areas under the plasma ascorbate concentration-time curves showed that the natural citrus extract (containing bioflavoniods, proteins and carbohydrates) had an absorption rate 35% higher than Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) and was slower to be absorbed. Oral vitamins are subject to a complexity of a many physiological influences in order for the nutrient to be optimally used in the body which are missing many of the naturally occurring nutrients/phytonutrients or constituents. Many unknown substances and vital components in the food that contains these vitamin and minerals allow it to be processed in the cells completely without wastefulness or confusion.

The majority of known/advertised brands today contain man-made vitamins and minerals that are not from food sources while whole food vitamins are derived from food sources itself. All the natural nutrients in the food are more effective in the body because our body “innately” known’s how to digest, absorb and physiologically create, heal and thrive in cellular processes. Many whole food vitamins contain smaller quantities of nutrients and not the “mega doses, but the exact ratio that was provided by growing in the earth is what nature intended it to be without all the added unnecessary expensive urine. The choice is yours, let your vitamins come from food in a nature made ratio that will optimize cellular functions, healing, health and performance during the day, sleep or workout.