Vitamin World

Dictionary.com defines vitamins in this way:

"Any of various fat-soluble or water-soluble organic substances essential in minute amounts for normal growth and activity of the body and obtained naturally from plant and animal foods."

Fat-soluable vitamins are those vitamins needing protein carriers in the blood. They are stored in the liver and in fatty tissues, and are not easily excreted.

Fat-soluable vitamins include vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as beta-carotene.

Water-soluable vitamins travel freely in the blood, attached to no carriers. The travel in both the blood and lymph, and ARE easily excreted, through urine. They also break down more easily during cooking or storage.

Aside from vitamin B6, water-soluable vitamins generally produce fewer toxicity symptoms (in high doses) than their fat-soluable brothers. The body also stores fewer of these vitamins, making it more critical to get them on a daily basis to ensure that the body has all it needs.

Water-soluable vitamins include the B vitamins as well as vitamin C.

Ideally, we would all eat a balanced diet full of bio-available nutrients. In this case, we could likely get all the nutrients we needed for optimal health strictly from our diets as our ancestors did. There are, however, a couple of problems:

1) Our produce has far lower nutrient levels than those our ancestors ate. Exact numbers vary based on growing conditions, how far a food traveled before being consumed, etc. But there's no question that we're getting less from our food than we used to.

2) Our world is far more toxic than it's ever been in the past. We need MORE nutrients than we used to in order to cope with the toxins that are part of everyday life. Yet we get LESS from our food.

3) Most of us DON'T eat that healthy, balanced diet.

You can control whether you eat well or not. But you can't control the first two factors above. The better you eat, the less you'll need to supplement. And you may be able to get away without supplement enzymes, probiotics, and the like.

But because of factors 1 and 2, it's important to supplement vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants on a daily basis. I'll be developing another Lens on antioxidants to help eliminate some of the fallacies around those, however.

So ideally, you're eating a lot of raw fruits and vegetables along with a variety of healthy fats. You'll get all the protein you need from these sources. (A good juicer will provide you with a LOT of nutrients from whatever you juice. But you want a quality one, and you want to drink the juice as soon as you can after juicing it. Keep in mind that even the best juices sold in stores have been pasteurized and probably preserved, they will NOT be as good a nutritional option as juicing on your own.)

In addition to the ideal, however, nutritional supplements can help to make up for whatever is lacking in your diet. At this time, I recommend those labeled "food state" or the nanotechnology supplement discussed below.

Before we get into specific vitamins, let's talk for a moment about nutrient absorption in general.

We're all familiar with the phrase, "You are what you eat." There's a certain kind of truth to this, but when we get down to it, we can ingest plenty of nutrients and really not get enough of them if we are not absorbing them properly.

This is why the supplement companies make a big deal about how absorbable their nutrients are. Often, cheaper vitamins (for instance) are not as absorbable as more expensive ones, making the expensive ones better values. (Of course marketing and other factors besides quality can drive up prices as well.)

Factors of Nutrient Absorption
Many factors can affect the body's absorption of nutrients. Supplement companies often talk about the molecular size or structure of their supplements as critical to absorption, and this is one important part of the story.

Other factors come into play as well. Some nutrients need companion nutrients to be properly absorbed. Stress reduces our ability to absorb nutrients. Structural functions of the body can have an effect -- for instance, a mis-aligned spine inhibits proper nervous system signals. I also believe that the electrical matrix of a nutrient interacts with the body, allowing for recognition ... or a lack of. This is why natural substances are ideal in health supplements.

Even timing can be an issue. Nutrients are meant to pass through the body at a particular rate. When we SPEED UP that process with diuretics (think COFFEE), the intestines have less time to absorb nutrients from food or supplements. (This isn't something you'll usually read about in the debate on the health of coffee.)

So absorption is a complex subject, which means we can't readily believe any hype about one aspect of it. Still, if we want to have all the keys to ideal nutrition, we'll want to address as many of these issues as possible. That DOES mean addressing any serious spinal issues. It DOES mean cutting back on coffee. And it DOES mean investing in quality supplements if we're going to invest at all.

Now I mentioned "natural" substances as one key to optimal use by the body. However, one of the hot words today in nutrition is "nanotechnology." This isn't the natural STRUCTURE of a substance, but it can still come from a natural or synthetic source. And I think natural is the preferred form.

MOST of the supplements claiming nano today aren't really. And some of these are playing with your health. I'll explain why after I explain what nano is all about.

Nanotechnology simply refers to something 100 nanometers or less -- FAR smaller than the cells in your body. And supplying true nano-sized nutrients helps to bypass some of the problems of absorption. First, nano will be get into the bloodstream more or less instantly, and into the cells in a matter of minutes or hours.

It does NOT go through the digestive system in any traditional way, and as a result it will still get absorbed regardless of digestive problems or stress. This is a BIG PLUS considering that most of the population deals with both problems.

But now here's the first error made by most nano substances. In the bottle, they are nano; but there is nothing to keep the nutrients from clumping together once put in the mouth. This is what they do, and it defeats the whole purpose of using nanotechnology in the first place.

Second, because nanotechnology is an altered structure, we don't know how it will act in the body, so it's ESSENTIAL that nano supplements undergo extensive safety studies. Only then can you be sure that you're safe in taking them. There's only one supplement I'm aware of that has overcome both of these problems.

Just getting started on this page. Before long, you'll be able to find information on ALL the vitamins right here, in one convenient resource!

[The information on this page is not meant to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any disease. Please consult your qualified health care professional before making any significant lifestyle changes.]