Nutritional Supplements- Get Informed and Make Good Choices

Here are Some
Possible Reasons to Use Nutritional
Supplements:

Targeted nutritional or herbal therapy for a
desired wellness outcome such as doing a cleanse, taking a turmeric
supplement to support managing inflammation or using an amino acid supplement
to support muscle recovery. With this type of supplementation, it is helpful
to know that there is some clinical evidence behind the efficacy of the
supplement you are seeking for support. Many companies are racing to come out
with “the new best thing” in nutritional supplements. I’d be
careful jumping into any product that hasn’t been extensively studied in
credible trials for both efficacy and safety.
Filling in individual missing nutrient gaps in
one’s diet such as taking a good source of vitamin B12 if you are vegan, or supplementing
with vitamin D because your blood work showed low levels. It is obvious that
you wouldn’t want to go very long being deficient in a specific essential
nutrient, so supplementing when you are deficient- when there isn’t any way
to make it up in your diet- is sometimes necessary. I wouldn’t assume that
because your friend said, “that sounds like a symptom of vitamin D
deficiency” that you should run out and buy some vitamin D.
Supplementing with an unneeded nutrient, especially if the quality or source
of the nutrient is substandard, can sometimes cause more harm than good to
your body. Ask your doctor, nutritionist, or trusted wellness professional
whether or not you need to supplement for specific nutrient deficiencies
before going out and wasting your money.
Ensuring you are getting enough key nutrient-rich foods
in order to supplement the Standard American
Diet (SAD). If you consume processed foods, fast food, frozen
dinners, and-or pretty much partake in the SAD diet, you may want to consider
supplementing with foods or nutritional supplements that are otherwise
greatly missing in this diet. An example of this would be supplementing with
a daily protein-meal replacement or superfoods shake, a multivitamin
& mineral supplement, or a fiber supplement (most Americans don’t get
enough fiber in the their standard diet of processed foods). A lot of people
probably already are supplementing in this way by taking a multivitamin or
something along those lines, but many or most of these products on the store
shelf are nutritionally inferior, therefore becoming useless in their
intended purpose.

So, once you think you have a good reason to supplement, here are
some things to know about what you are buying:

Understanding the Varying Kinds of Nutritional
Supplements

Nutritional supplements come in varying forms, and knowing how to
identify the difference, along with some of their therapeutic actions, and
nutritional complexity can make a big impact on your results.

Whole food– According to many
leaders in the field of holistic nutrition and supplementation, this is the
best kind. Nutrients come from the complete food, intact with all its fiber,
macronutrients, micronutrients, and other compounds. To clarify, the real
food is actually the best, but there are many supplements that are forms of
whole foods that have been processed in a way that allows them to retain all
their whole food components, like low heat dehydration and-or other methods
of concentrating the food so that it retains its nutritional
complexity.
Herbal– This is like a whole food supplement,
but made from plants that fall into the herbal classification, like chamomile
or valerian root. Herbs have a different function. Whereas food supplements
provide the materials for your body to make energy, resist disease, and
perform many functions for your body to thrive and rebuild itself; herbs
are bioactive plant materials known to alter the level or nature of certain
biological activities that can affect both the structure and especially the
function of the body. The quality, cultivation, and formulation of herbs is
crucial, as many herbs at the store are adulterated and therefore unable to
perform their bioactive function when ingested by the body.
Isolated– When the desired nutrient
is extracted from the food using a chemical or water process (like whey
protein isolate or pea protein isolate). If you drink a protein shake made
from protein isolates, you need to know that you are not getting a complete
meal, just the protein and possibly some synthetic vitamins added in. So it
would be a good idea to add some real food to your shake, like spinach,
apples, berries, and healthy fats. This kind of shake would be better
utilized as only a protein supplement for exercise recovery, for
example.
Synthetic- When nutrients are
synthesized in a laboratory and delivered in their singular form, without the
synergistic support found in their natural food or botanical counterpart.
Someone who lives on the Standard American Diet and then supplements with a
synthetic multivitamin, is sadly still missing the key quality nutrition that
would otherwise be made available in a healthier diet or a supplement
formulated with whole foods. A synthetic vitamin tricks your body into
thinking it is receiving the vitamin, but is not well utilized by your body.
And some studies have shown it actually can do harm. That is because our
bodies are genetically designed to receive vitamins in their natural food
state, along with all the other nutrients and compounds that work
synergistically with the vitamin.
Food Based– In a food based
supplement, a food is used as a base (like corn starch and-or rice or pea
protein) and then isolated and synthesized nutrients are added in. There are
many products that have words like “whole food” or
“natural” on the front of their label, but when you turn the
product around and look at the actual nutrition facts, you will discover that
they are actually only food based and that they contain many unnatural
additives, flavors, and synthesized nutrients.

How Do You Know
Your Nutritional Supplements Are Best?

It comes down to knowing how to read the ingredient deck. You want
to look for the primary ingredients to be a list of foods described as their
known name. Such as: “quinoa sprouts,
dehydrated wheat grass juice, spirulina, maca, cordyceps
mushroom…” In this case, the nutrition facts
(the list of vitamins, minerals, fats, etc.) reflect the nutritional value of
the foods that make up the formula. This is most ideal.

In contrast, be cautious if you find a list of synthesized
vitamins: “vitamin A (as
retinyl palmitate), vitamin c (as
ascorbic acid),” and so on… followed by another list
of other ingredients: “corn starch,
pea protein isolate, guar gum, natural flavors… ” or
even more so with a list of vitamins & minerals followed by an
ingredient list of synthetics: “calcium
carbonate, dl-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinimide…”

You can learn how to read the product’s label by looking for key
words that indicate the supplement is synthetic. Words that end in
“ide” or “ate” indicate that the product contains salt
forms, which are synthetics. For instance, if you see chloride,
hydrochloride, acetate or nitrate on the list of ingredients, the
manufacturer used synthetics for the product. Additionally, the letters
“dl” that appear before the name of an ingredient indicates the
supplement is synthetic.

Common Synthetic
Vitamins in Your Medicine Cabinet:

• Vitamin A: Acetate and
Palmitate

• Vitamin B1 (Thiamine): Thiamine Mononitrate,
Thiamine Hydrochloride

• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin):
Riboflavin

• Pantothenic Acid: Calcium
D-Pantothenate

• Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine): Pyridoxine
Hydrochloride

• Vitamin B12: Cobalamin

• PABA (Para-aminobenzoic Acid): Aminobenzoic
Acid

• Folic Acid: Pteroylglutamic
Acid

• Choline: Choline Chloride, Choline
Bitartrate

• Biotin: d-Biotin

• Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid): Ascorbic
Acid

• Vitamin D: Irradiated Ergosteral,
Calciferol

• Vitamin E: dl-alpha tocopherol, dl-alpha
tocopherol acetate or succinate

NOTE: The “dl” form of any vitamin is
synthetic.

Some Examples of Different Nutritional
Supplements:

Here is an example of a completely synthetic multivitamin product.
Every single nutrient is synthetic and not providing your body with the
nutritional complexity found in whole foods:

A low-quality multivitamin is not limited to economy brands like
Centrum. Don’t be fooled by fancy marketing slogans and green washing. I have
seen some outrageously expensive multivitamins claiming to be healthy and
pure with marketing slogans like “pure, safe & beneficial,”
that were actually nothing more than a formula of mostly synthetic vitamins
and a few herbs. When a product contains mostly synthesized vitamins, you
would have to wonder if the quality of the added herbs is sufficient to make
the herbal actions helpful in any way to the formula.

Here is an example of a whole-food multivitamin product, with some
synthesized secondary ingredients. In this case, the synthesized ingredients
are probably there to complete the formula and enhance the performance and-or
quality of the formula, and not being used to replace or mimic a nutrient, as
they are in the aforementioned Centrum formula.

Here is an
example of a food-based protein-meal replacement shake with isolated
proteins, that has been fortified with synthetic nutrients. In this case,
most of the nutrients are bing “added in” in their isolated or
synthetic form, so there aren’t many nutrients coming from actual food
:

Here is an example of a protein-meal replacement shake made from
100% whole foods: Notice anything different?

And, here is a whole food shake that appears to be formulated for
supplementing nutrient-dense foods (i.e. a
“superfood”):

So you might be asking, “what do I do now?” The best
place to begin is always with the food you eat every day. You can increase the
nutrient density of your diet simply by increasing the amount of dark leafy
green and colored vegetables, whole fruit, seeds, nuts, and whole grains that
you consume each day.

After that, if you still think you want some additional support
from supplements or shakes, it is best to go to a professional. Nutritionists
and naturopathic practitioners can truly guide you in the right direction,
and have access to products that are held to a much higher standard than what
you will find at the vitamin store. Did you know that you can see a clinical
nutritionist and they can actually help you design a nutritional supplement
plan that fits your individual health profile? Seeing a professional for
supplementation can be a way to make your nutrition budget really work for
you in more meaningful ways.

At Vibrant Living Wellness Center, we provide designed
clinical nutrition and nutrition coaching, that together can
help you give your body the nutritional support it’s actually asking for. We
do this using clinically proven methods of assessing your body’s systems and
then making nutritional and herbal recommendations that will support your
body to thrive and heal. You can schedule a nutritional
assessment here, or take advantage of my complimentary
phone or video chat consultation if you have questions. We’d be
happy to help you better understand how your supplements are working for you,
so you can be more informed and empowered about the nutrition decisions you
make for yourself and your family.

References:

http://www.foodmatters.com/article/how-to-tell-if-a-vitamin-is-natural-or-synthetic

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/supplements/art-20044894

https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/assets/Sites/Longwood_Seminars/Nutrition_3_5_13.pdf

https://www.livestrong.com/article/172956-what-are-the-dangers-of-synthetic-vitamins/