BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb How do we know about the potency of vitamins?

I have been wondering if the vitamins we are taking really have the potency to be beneficial?
I have seen Dr.'s, like Andrew Weil, recommend vitamins, and he says he has no financial interest,but how do we really know?

Has anyone seen a study?

Thank You,

Pam

Personally, I won't buy anything off the shelf in a supermarket. You don't know if they do Quality Control, and they're usually full of fillers. I almost exclusively use Nature's Sunshine. http://www.naturessunshine.com They have stringent Quality Control and testing.

Great question, I've always wondered this myself. I buy the generic brand from the supermarket. I used to buy the expensive women's multi-vitamins from the GNC, but it's just not in the budget anymore. I thought these would be better than nothing. I wish there was a reasonably priced multi that was good quality. Is that too much to ask?

MyHands, you are exactly right. It is most critical that you get SOME vitamins into you every day, even if they're generic supermarket ones. It is far better to do that than to put it off because the "super" ones are outside your budget.

All vitamins have fillers to give them bulk. But if they say then have 1000IU of Vitamin E in them, they do. So if you compare two different vitamins to each other that both have 1000IU of E, they both have that same amount. One might be bigger or smaller or sweeter or greener because of the filler/mix but that doesn't change the base levels of Vitamin E.

The thing that DOES have an affect is what type of vitamin E it is - i.e. the source. Some studies show that natural vitamin E is twice as likely to be absorbed into your system vs synthetic vitamin E. But for many other vitamins there are no difference at all. And in my book, getting 500IU of Vitamin E for under half the price is better than getting none <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I wrote an article on vitamins here -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16409.asp

Definitely look into 'higher class' vitamins if you can afford it, so you get more of the vitamin into you. But even with generic vitamins, your body is absorbing them. It's not like you take a vitamin saying "1000 IU Vitamin C" and you don't get any vitamin C when you take it. And in many cases, you get exactly the same absorption end results as you would buying 1000 IU Vitamin C from the most expensive vendor you could find.

I'll definitely report back if I find any studies on exact brand differences but it looks like they are just now starting to do that sort of thing. Up until now they were barely figuring out what all the vitamins are <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> It's hard for them to know "how effective" one vitamin is vs the other. How can they judge how much your body absorbs of it, when they barely are figuring out what vitamins actually do? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Just look at how new all the "essential oil" information is, and those are essentials <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I did more research and I found that there are really only 3 vitamins that it might make a difference with - vitamin A, vitamin E and calcium. And in fact, when we were in the store I found that many vitamins labelled "nature's vitamins" were made with the BAD ingredients. So never go just by the brand name. Always actually check the ingredients to see which one is healthy. here is the information -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16451.asp

Just because it has the name "nature" doesn't really mean anything.

Nature's Sunshine brand, though, I have utmost confidence in. I've been taking herbs and vitamins since I was 19. I've studied herbology and such, too. While it may not make a difference for most vitamins, it certainly does for herbs. (For example, if raw materials are harvested from Eastern Europe, they can be contaminated from radiation from Chernobyl's disaster).

Here is a listing of Nature's Sushine Quality Control:

Acid Insoluble testing
Ash testing
Bacteria testing
E. coli testing
Foreign Organic/Inorganic Matter
Gas Chromatography/Mass
Spectrometry (GC/MS)
Heavy Metals testing
High Performance Liquid
Chromatography (HPLC)
Inductively Coupled Plasma
Spectrometer (ICP)
Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)
Microscopy
Moisture testing
Mold and Yeast testing
Organoleptic ID testing
Particle Size
pH testing
Potency testing
Salmonella testing
Tablet Disintegration/Dissolution
Thin Layer Chromatography
(TLC)
Total Bacteria testing
Viscosity testing
Volatile Oil

Do you think department store brands do that kind of QC?

Here's a link with more information on the types of tests and why they're necessary. http://www.sunshine-center.com/AboutNSPCompany.html

You cannot buy these vitamins and herbs in a department store. You must buy them from an herb shop or be a distrubutor yourself. (In which case, you save loads of money.)

I agree it's better to take higher quality vitamins if you can afford them <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> But for people who have tight budgets, taking a store brand is definitely better than taking none at all. It's scary to think that there are people who take no vitamins at all, when we know what serious diseases are caused by vitamin deficiencies.

Unfortunately, though, I think some of the cheaper brands of vitamins may not be easily absorbed by the body depending on how they're formulated. In that case, the body is just producing some pretty expensive pee. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Hmmm well I'm still researching, and so far I've found that there used to be a problem in years past with vitamins not disintegrating and the pee-problem happening. So the FDA stepped in and mandated that all vitamins thoroughly dissolve within 45 minutes, so that it was guaranteed to get into your blood.

The next problem would then be if cheaper vitamins used a version of the vitamin that wasn't well absorbed. But so far in my researching I can only find 3 vitamins that come in "flavors" - these are Vitamin A, Vitamin E and Calcium. That's what I wrote about here -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16451.asp

so yes if you get a non-beta carotene Vitamin A, or you get a synthetic (DL-) Vitamin E, or you a non-calcium-citrate for calcium, it won't absorb well. You should definitely avoid those three items if you can. But if you for example get a natural Vitamin E capsule, then it should get into your system just as well whether it's from Brand A or Brand B. Because in all of those cases it would be the same thing (natural vitamin E) that your body is absorbing.

So definitely for Vitamin A, Vitamin E and Calcium, it's important to check the ingredient list to see what version you're getting, so it absorbs well. Have you found any other vitamins that there are "flavors" of? I'd love to update my notes!

You've done a great job, because A, Ca, and E are the ones I usually think of with absorbability. What about C, though? Isn't some forms more absorbable than others? When I think "vitamins", I admit that I throw minerals and herbs in there, too.

Some vitamins are more absorbable in liquid suspension if I'm not mistaken, and must be combined with other vitamins to be absorbed. (Mag with Ca, if I'm not mistaken.)

Mineral wise, I found this on the web: Of the three forms of mineral supplementation available, metallic and chelated minerals have a low to moderate absorbability. But the third type plant derived hydrophilic minerals, which originally came from the earth through the root of a plant, have a 100% absorbability.

For example, we take echinacea with golden seal root when we get sick, but we opt for the liquid version rather than the pill version because it's more absorbable.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head. Keep up the good work!