Let's just start with a basic question - Do I need to take a vitamin? Well, stage of life or health issues aside, the answers here don't add up either. For example, LiveStrong.com has an article on it's site dated September 8, 2015 stating "Healthy individuals can usually get sufficient vitamins from a healthy diet, but some people may require more."
On September 11, 2015 the Council for Responsible Nutrition cited a doctor working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on a newly released report outlining the vitamin deficiency issue in most Americans. She had this to say,"This mantra that Americans get all the nutrients they need from food is simply not true and the data demonstrates it is false. It is much harder than you think to get the nutrients you need from food alone.” The report goes further to state "Dr. Low Dog illustrated this point by outlining what the average person would need to eat in order to get the minimum recommended amount of many individual nutrients. For example, in order to get the recommended 18 milligrams of iron per day through food, you’d need to eat four cups of raisins, 15 cups of broccoli, three cups of cooked spinach, 10 ounces of beef liver, or 45 ounces of chicken breast. She noted that meeting the minimum amount of nutrition is especially difficult for low-income Americans who can use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance to purchase candy and soda, but not multivitamins."
If that's true, I think it's safe to say that many of us would benefit from the vitamins received in a supplemental vitamin. On to the next question.
It seems like taking any vitamin is a great start to boasting your daily nutritional intake but with a huge market to pick from it's hard to know what is best. Again, this appears to be an area that is evolving as new research is being completed. One big difference is deciding whether to take the standard synthetic vitamin that has been gracing the store shelves for decades or to instead take a whole food (or food-based) vitamin. Again, it's tricky to find a concrete answer on this issue as many people seem to side with just taking a vitamin, any vitamin is better than not. However, if we examine what the difference is between these two types of vitamin supplements, it may help you decide.
So, what is the difference between synthetic and whole food vitamins?
- Synthetic vitamins are produced in a laboratory to be as close as possible to naturally occurring vitamins while whole food vitamins are derived from food sources. This method leaves the entire vitamin complex intact.
- Synthetic vitamins provide an isolated vitamin but whole food vitamins provide nature's intended complex structure of the vitamin, mineral, enzyme, coenzyme, antioxidant...you get the picture. This is an important distinction because your body cannot process the intended vitamin without the rest of the structure in place. Taking a synthetic requires your body to use existing resources to process it and if it cannot, it is eliminated.
- Since whole food vitamins are derived from food sources, the process to manufacture them is more costly than the laboratory based counterparts. Therefore, whole food vitamins generally cost more than synthetics.
- Beware of fillers! Many synthetics have artificial colors, preservatives and other binders, and may even contain allergens. It's important to be mindful of these issues with whole food vitamins as well; however, in general they do not contain allergens. Many are gluten free. For more information on labeling and things to look for, see this article.
- For a discussion on synthetic vs whole food sources of specific vitamins, see this article.
In conclusion, it's nice that there is a choice to make. The supplemental industry is growing and evolving. From a personal perspective, I have chosen to consume a whole food vitamin to complement my mostly whole food diet. I can honestly say that I can notice the impact they have on my body and my energy specifically. I think another essential component is the addition of a high-quality Omega supplement as well, but that's another topic entirely!
