About Your Nutritional Supplements

RDA vs the New Nutrition Paradigm.

There are two approaches to food supplements. They are formulated in minimal amounts needed to prevent malnutrition, or in a balanced ratio designed to promote optimal health. The majority of commercial multi-vitamins are formulated to meet RDA minimums. They are designed to prevent malnutrition and diseases like scurvy, both of which are almost non–existent in the USA. Based on research findings over the past decade, many experts now recommend higher levels of superior source nutrients to promote and maintain good long-term health.

Reading the Supplement Label

1. Cost, Dosage and Form.
   • Like most things, you get what you pay for. Most inexpensive nutritional supplements on the market are food grade, meaning less than 98.6% pure. Cheap supplements often contain less of a costly nutrient, or may use a cheaper but less effective form of a vitamin or mineral The cheaper forms are less bioavailable and often less potent. They are designed to fit a price niche, not for optimal efficacy. Quality and bioavailability are often not the top priorities. For example, the common and cheap form of vitamin C is ascorbic acid which transits the body rapidly. A more efficient form of vitamin C is found in the mineral ascorbates: magnesium, calcium, potassium and zinc. These ascorbates are less acidic than ascorbic acid, and have a higher absorption rate. Combining mineral ascorbates with some ascorbic acid permits a natural time-release of vitamin C.
2. Bioavailability.
   • This refers to your body’s ability to absorb and utilize the nutrients supplied to it. It refers to how easily and completely the supplements dissolve in the digestive tract and are taken up by the blood cells. Studies show that some forms of a nutrient are more bioavailable than others. Vitamin E should be d–alpha tocopherol succinate. Chelated forms (aspartates, picolinates, citrates, glycinates) are better utilized and absorbed than inorganic salts such as carbonates, oxides and sulfates.
     Chelating minerals increases bioavailability. A chelated mineral is attached to an amino acid to increase its uptake by the body. Chelating minerals is an expensive and painstaking process but one which greatly enhances the percentage of minerals absorbed. Unchelated minerals pass out rapidly and their absorption rate is much lower. Moreover, the body chelates all minerals before it can use them.
3. Disintegration and Dissolution
   • The US Pharmacoepia sets standards for disintegration. Vitamin and mineral compounds should disintegrate in the intestine within about 35 minutes.
4. Completeness, balance and synergy.
   • A complete and balanced formulation of nutrients working in synergy is the most important criteria in selecting nutritional supplements. Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients need to be in the right amounts and right ratios to be effective. An excess of one element can lead to a deficiency in another. For example, vitamin C enhances iron absorption. Iron accumulates in the body. Too much iron accumulation decreases the absorption of calcium, manganese and zinc. Usually only pregnant women and people with diagnosed iron-deficiency anaemia need supplemental iron.
     A synergistic formulation is one in which certain nutrients potentiate the utilization of others. For example, Vitamin E is more efficient when combined with selenium. Vitamin D is necessary for the calcium to be effective.
5. Potency.
   • Potency refers to the strength and the freshness of the product; whether the vitamins and minerals are still biologically active and available to your body. Every vitamin product you buy should have an expiration date because potency declines over time. All labels should also have a batch number.
6. Fillers, binders, lubricants and coatings.
   • Just to make the label more impressive, some manufacturers add insignificant amounts of nutrients (fillers), or include nutrients which have no nutritional or preventive value but look impressive on the label. A particularly devious practice includes listing the natural components of a substance ... "breaking it into pieces" ... in order to make the list look longer.
     Binders, such as magnesium stearate are commonly used by mass manufacturers to press tablets because it is easy to use and cheap, but it may also reduce the solubility of the tablet. This is not always desirable. Stearic acid binds the chemical chains tightly so that they do not dissolve as readily, thereby increasing the likelihood of passing out almost intact. If a vitamin transits the body before it can completely dissolve, it cannot be absorbed. Magnesium stearate is appropriate for those nutrients which must be digested and absorbed in the small intestine, but this is not the case of multivitamins. In the latter case, natural binders such as pre–gelatinized starch and plant cellulose favour good dissolution and absorption, but increase the cost of production.
     A final word about coloured coatings. Coloured coatings on tablets often contain aluminium which is suspected to be implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.
     Supplements should NOT contain excipients, fillers, artificial flavouring, colors and artificial sweeteners.
7. Tablets or capsules?
   • Pressed tablets can contain more nutrients than the equivalent amount of capsules or soft-gels. Mineral tablets contain far more minerals than colloidal forms. A complete mineral supplement is also more balanced than the colloidal form.
8. The All Important Parenthesis!
   • Following the ingredient name should be a parenthesis giving information about the form, chelating agent or source of that nutrient. If there is no information in parentheses, the actual amount of that element is less than what is stated. What is being stated is the weight of the compound, not the amount of the nutrient! For example, a 600 mg tablet of "calcium" with no following parenthesis is in fact only about 130 mg of elemental calcium. A listing of "calcium (as calcium citrate)" means you are getting the full amount of elemental calcium listed on the label.
9. The Big–Little Exaggeration.
   • To beef up product quality, some manufacturers mix just enough of a superior source nutrient with an inferior-grade nutrient and mix it on the label too. Example: "Calcium (carbonate,citrate)". You cannot know from this how much of the superior source is used. Calcium citrate is much more absorbable than calcium carbonate and you should insist on 100% citrate compound.

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