By
Robin Plan
Most people are not deficient in a certain nutrient. They are deficient in a wide variety of nutrients. We are not eating the foods for good nutrition so we are nutrient deficient. This is where a whole food multivitamin helps and where the cheaply made mass marketed vitamins are not offering any long term benefit. You need food not synthetic chemicals to fill the gaps for poor diet choices.
The best multivitamin has real food sources such as vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices that still have all the nutrients in the real food - not just a blend of vitamins and minerals. But, taking whole food source vitamins is NOT the same as actually eating the vegetable or fruit. You should still try to eat as much fresh produce as possible.
The vitamin should be whole raw alive food sourced. The manufacturing facility should be a FDA-licensed and certified GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices, a certification given by two independent national nonprofit organizations so consumers are assured that what is on the label is also in the box, and that they are receiving pure supplements at accurate dosage levels.)
The ingredients chosen for a whole food multivitamin should ideally all work together to give the supplement a whole body health benefit. For example look for spices such as cloves and cinnamon for natural metabolic boosters or acidophilus and bifidus with inulin for healthy gut and digestion.
Don't pay for fiber in your whole food multi because fiber takes valuable space away from the whole food sources. Buy a fiber supplement separate if you need it.
Read the label for anything synthetic such as food coloring (made from coal tar) glucose, sucrose, starch, Polysorbate 80, sodium benzoate or nitrites. Synthetic ingredients are not going to give the same healthy benefits as the whole food ingredients. Many studies have even shown possible harm from taking the chemicals in most drug store vitamin varieties.
The ingredients will be listed in order of the greatest amount used in the product. Many vitamin labels will start out like this Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, all synthetic lab or man created chemicals.
Whole food multivitamin ingredients are very easy to read, no science degree needed. Whole food multivitamins will list most of the ingredients with the names of the real whole fruit or vegetable, like broccoli or pineapple.
For example, Vitamin C from camu-camu fruit shows that with the Vitamin C you get the other nutrients in the whole fruit. Or Vitamin A,(100% as beta carotene from Dunaliella)" meaning Dunaliella, a seaweed, is the source of Vitamin A in your multivitamin supplement.
The best whole food vitamins will have enzymes, prebiotics, probiotics, raw whole fruits, raw whole vegetables, spices and herbs.
These are a few of the 77 real food ingredients in the whole food multi I take:
Asparagus, grape seed extract, bilberry, grapefruit, kale, papain, alfalfa leaf, aloe vera gel, ginger root, and chlorella. These are ingredients that your body will readily absorb and use.
So many supplements that are called whole food vitamins are not really 100% real whole food sourced. You have to look for the artificial ingredients such as sugars and others used for binders, fillers, colors and even flavors. By the way, natural flavors are not really natural. If they were truly natural, the actually food flavor be listed instead of natural flavors.
Most people are not deficient in a certain nutrient. They are deficient in a wide variety of nutrients. We are not eating the foods for good nutrition so we are nutrient deficient. This is where a whole food multivitamin helps and where the cheaply made mass marketed vitamins are not offering any long term benefit. You need food not synthetic chemicals to fill the gaps for poor diet choices.
The best multivitamin has real food sources such as vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices that still have all the nutrients in the real food - not just a blend of vitamins and minerals. But, taking whole food source vitamins is NOT the same as actually eating the vegetable or fruit. You should still try to eat as much fresh produce as possible.
The vitamin should be whole raw alive food sourced. The manufacturing facility should be a FDA-licensed and certified GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices, a certification given by two independent national nonprofit organizations so consumers are assured that what is on the label is also in the box, and that they are receiving pure supplements at accurate dosage levels.)
The ingredients chosen for a whole food multivitamin should ideally all work together to give the supplement a whole body health benefit. For example look for spices such as cloves and cinnamon for natural metabolic boosters or acidophilus and bifidus with inulin for healthy gut and digestion.
Don't pay for fiber in your whole food multi because fiber takes valuable space away from the whole food sources. Buy a fiber supplement separate if you need it.
Read the label for anything synthetic such as food coloring (made from coal tar) glucose, sucrose, starch, Polysorbate 80, sodium benzoate or nitrites. Synthetic ingredients are not going to give the same healthy benefits as the whole food ingredients. Many studies have even shown possible harm from taking the chemicals in most drug store vitamin varieties.
The ingredients will be listed in order of the greatest amount used in the product. Many vitamin labels will start out like this Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, all synthetic lab or man created chemicals.
Whole food multivitamin ingredients are very easy to read, no science degree needed. Whole food multivitamins will list most of the ingredients with the names of the real whole fruit or vegetable, like broccoli or pineapple.
For example, Vitamin C from camu-camu fruit shows that with the Vitamin C you get the other nutrients in the whole fruit. Or Vitamin A,(100% as beta carotene from Dunaliella)" meaning Dunaliella, a seaweed, is the source of Vitamin A in your multivitamin supplement.
The best whole food vitamins will have enzymes, prebiotics, probiotics, raw whole fruits, raw whole vegetables, spices and herbs.
These are a few of the 77 real food ingredients in the whole food multi I take:
Asparagus, grape seed extract, bilberry, grapefruit, kale, papain, alfalfa leaf, aloe vera gel, ginger root, and chlorella. These are ingredients that your body will readily absorb and use.
So many supplements that are called whole food vitamins are not really 100% real whole food sourced. You have to look for the artificial ingredients such as sugars and others used for binders, fillers, colors and even flavors. By the way, natural flavors are not really natural. If they were truly natural, the actually food flavor be listed instead of natural flavors.
