The synthetic vs natural vitamins and nutrients debate has gone on for a number of years now, with both positives and negatives on both sides respectively, but I personally prefer my vitamins and minerals in as natural a form as possible (as do many others, and perhaps so should you), and the reasons for this are many.
So, let’s dive into why nutrients in their natural/organic and often whole food forms are the preferable form and better for you (at least healthwise, although not always pricewise).
“Natural nutrients are generally better for you, and here’s why:”
Synthetic VS Natural Vitamins (Whole Food, Raw, Organic) And Why Natural Is Better
Natural vitamins and minerals beat out synthetic ones because:
– Nutrients from their natural sources are often synergistic with each other and we’ve evolved with getting these together, as opposed to in complete isolation and in unreasonably high dosages, and thus our bodies can oftentimes absorb and/or utilize these whole food vitamins better and more efficiently.
– Synthetic vitamins and nutrients can sometimes be more or less toxic (this depends on the individual nutrient and synthetic form though) and thus cause unwanted side effects (whether you’ll clearly notice these personally or not). I notice it from a bunch of them myself, and from some specific B vitamins and minerals in particular. Tying it together with the first point, the body isn’t as used to processing many of these synthetic nutrient forms which can basically make them less effective, and some intuitive testing can help in figuring out whether a certain synthetic nutrient agrees with you or not.
– Natural and organic nutrients are the safer options, hands down, due to above mentioned reasons of how we’ve evolved with them and the potential toxicity of many synthetic ones.
– Vitamins in their synthetic forms may lack all of the naturally occurring variants of the specific nutrient, potentially creating an imbalance and lack of those or even a deficiency. Two good examples of this is synthetic vitamin E and C (ascorbic acid), where natural sources of vitamin E has many different tocopherols and tocotrienols whereas most synthetic supplements has only one, and vitamin C in nature generally comes with a lot of other components that work together with it inside our bodies, and not just the ascorbic acid part.
The one thing that synthetic vitamins and minerals do have over raw whole food ones is that they’re generally cheaper to buy, which can mean synthetic options of certain vitamins or minerals can be worth it some of the time, but in general, try to opt for the most natural form of the nutrient possible, be it from actual whole foods or whole food based supplements or from identical forms (albeit synthetically made) to those found in nature and food.
“Synthetic vitamins and minerals can be cheaper, but that’s pretty much all they got going for them.”
For example, almost all of my recommended supplements adhere by these rules and are in as natural forms as can be found from a supplement.
Taking some good and natural supplements is a great way to complement an otherwise healthy diet and for optimizing your health in general.
And with that, that’s a wrap!
So, keep it natural and have a good one,
“Keep it natural!”
/Emil
Related Reading:
The best natural kelp supplements, shilajit, trace minerals, fulvic acid supplement and beef liver supplement (great natural source of B vitamins and vitamin A) Best Whole Food Multi.
Shilajit VS Fulvic Acid – Their Similarities And Differences
How And WHY To Avoid Seed And Vegetable Oils: Bad And TOXIC
23 Best & Healthiest Superfoods To Incorporate Into Your Diet
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Organic VS Non-organic Foods, Grass-fed vs Grain-fed Meat
