Whole Food Vitamin Supplements

Don't ever select a whole food vitamin supplements based solely on price point. There are significant reasons why one vitamin is cheaper than the other. When you decide on what is an acceptable quality, then comparison shop for that similar quality vitamin so you are comparing oranges with oranges and apples with apples. Watch out for companies with well recognized names who have purchasing power. Read the label even more.

Your body prefers to absorb vitamins and other nutrients from natural or whole foods. In other words, these are foods in their natural, unprocessed or unpolished states. Therefore, most health and wellness experts agree that whole food sources of vitamins and minerals and other nutrients are superior. Synthetic may mimic but will not be superior as good as natural. Your body will absorb and utilize the whole food vitamins more than synthetic.

The fewer additives the better and the fewer opportunities there are for allergic reactions. Remember, avoid artificial flavoring and colors. The supplement market is very competitive; the better the quality the better and more prominent the labeling stating such. Vague labels with minimal information are strong indicators of lower quality.

Find out if your vitamin is made by a company with rigorous quality control standards that are validated by a third party certification provider such as the NSF or ISO. Your vitamin needs to be NSF or ISO certified. Why would you take any dietary or whole food vitamin supplements made by a company without one of these certifications? NSF certification for example assures the consumer that the product has been tested and will continue to be tested through periodic audits. In other words, the certification of a product is continuous, not a one time process. The product should have the high quality ingredients and manufacturing process that a company claims.

Vitamins are supplements. Just as all whole food vitamin supplements, they are not cure alls for disease states. They supply what the body is missing to heal itself for perform natural physiologic functions. They are not medicines. However, if not used in an appropriate manner they can harm you. For example, if you are on a blood thinner such as coumadin for whatever reason, you would not want to take vitamin K supplementation. It will oppose the coumadin to try and thicken the blood.

It is noticeable that many multi- vitamin and mineral formulations today contain a multitude of components and ingredients. You may wonder why is this so? Before try to answer this question, let us examine how things go about in our system.

Whole food vitamin supplements and minerals, as you know that vitamins and minerals are all important components for normal growth, development and metabolism. Each of them has its specific responsible.

Although, even if they have different functions, these vitamins and minerals actually work along with enzymes, amino acids, co-factors and other nutrients for the proper regulation of cellular function. These processes are inter-connected in a very complicated network of physiological processes.

With this in mind, vitamin and mineral formulations today also have a variety of active ingredients. Nutritional now do not only contain the traditional vitamins and minerals as before.

Recent formulations may contain trace minerals, active enzymes, amino acids, co-factors, and extracts from herbs, and many others. Take the case of Xtend Life's Total Balance. It is probably among the most holistic nutritional supplements which has over 80 different active ingredients.

It is interesting to note that whole food vitamin supplements usually produce best results only when synergistically combined. This means that, nutrients have optimal function in a complex formulation since they are accessible to each other. This set-up makes the job more swift yet most efficient, thus producing the needed results. Vitamin E for example, needs a good supply of Vitamin C so it can be easily absorbed into the cells. Similarly, these nutrients work together and at the same time enhance each other's health benefits. For example, an anti-oxidant such as Alpha Lipoic Acid and green tea extract supporting each other will give way to a potent force to fight cancer. These two examples are just two of the very complicated processes that can happen when you take in multi-vitamin formulations. We will delve into more details. Suffice it to say that these complex interactions are more complicated than you can imagine. The point is that we have moved by a giant step forward from what we know as the traditional single-component formulations which you may already have been used to. These whole food vitamin supplements and mineral supplements should provide more health advantages on our part. Besides, more is always better than one.

The synergistic, combined effect provided by vitamin and mineral supplements today make them more effective than was ever possible before. This is actually great since the need for better supplements has also risen to respond to the unhealthy lifestyle that many of us now lead. Who should take whole food vitamin supplements?

The answer is most people. Most do not get enough vitamins because of a deficiency of adequate fruits and vegetables and whole foods in the diet. Look at the plate of most people eating around you. Are those plates colorful with fruits and vegetables or are do they lack color because of all the starch and meat? Use a vitamin that is from a whole food source and that is NSF or ISO certified. Choose a supplement based on quality not price.