Vitamin Facts- There is a differenceIts interesting, in a recent article by Virginia Hopkins - Healthwatch, advises that many peolpe taking vitamin supplements show conflcting benefits. Vitamins and minerals come from various sources but can be divided into two broad groups. Nutriceutials which are vitamin and minerals which are found in forms not found in nature. Foodaceuticals - food based supplements which are in a form that we would normally derive from nature.
Where does your Calcium and Iron come from?Calcium is a nutriceutical, usually derived from rock in ablet supplement form. In its rock form, it is not acidic enough to be absorbed. Trials have esimated absorption rate of 5%. The health industry has added various acidifying substances to improve the absorption rate like citric acid. Estimated increase is 30%.Those of you who take iron tablets will note that Vitamin C is added to increase the absorption rate. Iron tablets usually comes from rock not plant sources. I am not that keen on eating rock unless it has gone through the plant process first. Humans are created by nature to obtain the daily requirement of vitamins and minerals through food not rock. Plants are natures chain that converts inorganic material to organic. These forms of vitamins and minerals are easily digested and metabolized for absorption. Less mineral is needed in this form to get a much higher absorption rate.
What goes in must come out.Heres an interesting fact, - if you do not absorb well, you don't excrete well. I don't like that thought. Apparently rock calcium has a tendancy to stick to arteries, form stones and spurs and be a building block for fibroids and cysts. Calcium is hard on the digestion and liver function in rock form. This is an example of minerals taken from rock as it is easy and cheap to produce. Taking a higher quantity is not necessarily as good for you as taken mineral calcium that has been produced from plants, gone through an animal an you consume the product, in its lower dose.Plant based supplementsThe real point is that with food based supplements, you consume less, but absorb them more readily and excrete them more effectively. Synthetic supplements require higher doses as the body is not able to process as efficiently as plant based supplements.Have you every gone to the store to buy a supplement and think this one has 1500mg of calcium, costing $10 but if you bought the plant based calcium supplement with 100mg for $15 would be better for you. The first product being from rock can mean high potency- potential toxicity as you are putting too mch in your body that it can not deal with effectively. By taking food based supplements you are reducing the amount of energy that your body needs to absorb the nutrients, providing more energy for other functions like repair and regeneration.
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