Vitamin D Supplements
Finding the right Vitamin D supplement can be very difficult. Shopping for supplements is like finding your way through the jungle. Hasn’t that been your experience so far? And on top of that you end up with a headache from information overload by the time you get to the checkout counter.
If you are like me, you are one of those people who goes to the health food store hoping to get help in finding the right supplement. Alas, you run into the “supplement guy” who starts telling you all about every supplement there is and why you should take them all. So you end up even more confused than when you set foot in the store. Because of your confusion you end up buying all the things that were recommended for you, but don’t really know why you were buying these. They all sounded really important. So you also have a nasty guilt feeling from spending far too much money as well as information overload!
Why does all of this happen? The answer is simple and you probably know it already – there are too many choices. There is nothing wrong with choice as long as you can make an educated decision. To make an educated decision you need knowledge and information.
So now I am going to give you the knowledge and information you need to make best choices. I will share five key elements you should look for when buying supplements. If you stick to these 5 elements you will always make the best decision for you and your health (even if the supplement guy tells you differently).
Element number 1:
First of all, natural ingredients are best for our bodies. Ideally we should all just eat organic wholesome foods, lots of clear spring water, lots of veggies and fruit, good oils, good proteins, and whole grains. Unfortunately even the organic food that we can buy doesn’t contain nearly as many vital nutrients as it did even 50 years ago. To give you an idea, today you’d have to eat 50 apples to get the vital nutrients that 1 apple would have had 50 years ago. Why is this so? We use monoculture agricultural practices which deplete the soil and air and water pollution do the rest.
So to come back to my point, when you look for supplements make sure they are concentrated natural or nature identical ingredients so that they will have a high absorption rate. Supplements should have an absorption rate of 95-100% which means they will have a bioavailability of 95-100%. Good supplements will tell you their “bio availability” or “absorption rate”.
Synthetically manufactured supplements not only contain less of the good stuff but our body cannot properly absorb the ingredients. Let me explain. Some synthetically manufactured supplements will say 50% absorpation rate. Let’s say you are looking at 500 mg Vitamin D. Fifty percent absorption of 500 mg means that your body would only absorb 250 mg. Most people think that you would simply need to double the dose to absorb the full 500 mg. The real problem is that the 50% that is not absorbed becomes debris floating around our body choking up our system.
Element number 2:
Don’t buy a supplement that is an isolated mineral or vitamin. Vitamins or minerals do not exist in isolation in nature. Vitamins, minerals and trace elements have a synergistic effect where they need each other to be absorbed by our body. I generally recommend that people take a product that includes Vitamin D and is synergistically formulated, and not a purely Vitamin D supplement.
Element number 3:
Your supplements should be pharmaceutical grade. This means is that it is free of herbicides, fughicides, pesticides, heavy metal and other solvents. “Organic” is not good enough. Organic produce can be grown next to a freeway and contain a lot for heavy metal. You need a supplement which has been tested at the beginning (i.e. the raw materials) and end, on the finished product. Companies that follow these standards will label their products “pharmaceutical grade”.
Element number 4:
Make sure that the product you buy is sugar free. Sugar is the number one item that weakens the immune system. If you do buy products that need to be sweetened look for those which are sweetened with agave or stevia.
Element number 5:
Make sure that the company who markets and distributes the products manufactures them in the US ,Europe or Australia. Many companies manufacture their products cheaply in China and as you are probably aware there is a lot of concern with imported anything from China.
So to recap our list:
Generally when buying supplements these are the key points you should keep in mind:
- 95-100 % Bioavailability
- Synergistically formulated
- 100% herbicide, fungicide, pesticide, heavy metal, solvent and spores free
- Sugar-free
- Manufactured by the company who markets and distributes in the US, Europe or Australia. Don’t buy anything manufactured in China.
One last word specifically on buying Vitamin D supplements.
Make sure that you get your daily Vitamin D amount using a mix of a multivitamin and fishoil product. Don’t just use a multivitamin product. If your mulitvitamin has 400 mg of Vitamin D so you decide to 3 doses to get to your suggested minimum of 1200mg of Vitamin D per day, you would overdose on the other vitamins in the multivitamin product. Similarly, you shouldn’t just take a fish oil products because you need the synergy of many vitamins to get the full benefit.
This tip was given to me by Dr. Michael Holick one of the worlds leading experts on Vitamin D. I conducted an interview with him earlier this year. To get the interview and a list of supplements that the team and I have found that fulfill all of the above criteria click here. Listening to his interview and reviewing our list will save you time and money.
To your health!
Carolin
