supplements form & function
Whole and healthy
Country Life Realfood Organics Women’s Daily Nutrition.
Contains more than two dozen dehydrated foods, plus good amounts of some vitamins (A, D, B3, folic acid).
Garden of Life Kind Organics.
This brand new line, which includes daily, prenatal, and over-40 multis for men and women, utilizes more than
30 certifi ed organic, non-GMO fruits and vegetables.
MegaFood One Daily. A non-GMO, gluten-free, well-formulated multi that blends vitamins, minerals, and dehydrated foods.
Counterpoint
Other practitioners disagree. “T e small doses often used in whole-food supplements are unlikely to confer signifi cant benefi ts, given how easy it is for the body to rapidly use up micronutrients as a result of exercise, insuffi cient diet, stress, disease, environmental toxins, and genetic weaknesses,” says Jonathan E. Prousky, ND, chief naturopathic medical offi cer at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. And despite the allure, arguments in
favor of whole-food supplements don’t always add up. A gram of dehydrated food might contain trace amounts of naturally occurring nutrients. But you’d get far larger amounts of vitamins and minerals in a meal of salmon and organic vegetables (though, to be fair, a 2012 study found that only about 2 percent of Americans get adequate nutrients from food). Does the presence of dehydrated foods in the pill itself enhance vitamin and mineral absorption? Maybe. But you would achieve the same absorption, if not better, by taking most single-nutrient supple- ments with food.
What’s natural?
All supplements—natural or synthetic— involve quite a bit of technology to get measurable amounts of vitamins and minerals into a capsule or tablet, so the terms “whole food” and “natural” remain pretty vague. Most vitamin supplements have been derived from sources that can be considered either natural or synthetic, depending on your perspective. For example, vitamin C is synthesized from
corn sugar, while B vitamins and coenzyme Q10 are obtained through the fermentation of bacteria or yeast. Most whole-food supplements do
contain so-called synthetic vitamins. Read the list of ingredients on whole-food labels and there’s a good chance you’ll see that vitamins A and D and the B vitamins have been added. True, they could be yeast-derived, which counts as a natural process; others would say that isolating those vitamins requires a synthetic, industrial process.
Your choice
None of this means whole-food supple- ments are a waste. Choosing between low-potency whole-food supplements and higher-potency, regular supplements depends on your eating habits, your health, and why you want to take them. Whole- food supplements might be right for you if you’re in good health and really do eat a real-food, mostly organic diet—and desire a multi to serve as a foundation for your supplement regimen. Or, if you’re in the 2 percent of people who eat a nutritionally adequate diet, you might be able to skip supplementing completely for now. But if your eating habits aren’t always
perfect and you do have some minor or serious health problems—which sounds like a lot of us—you might benefi t from higher potency supplements under the guidance of a nutritionally oriented physician.
It’s a good idea to talk to your health care provider before starting a new supplement.
july 2014 |
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