Well, maybe not exactly in a nutshell. I’m not really sure what vitamins one would find in a nutshell…

But seriously… the vitamin shelf can be a baffling mystery to even some of the most health-conscious individuals. Here’s the scoop (according to me, anyway!).

In an ideal world, we would receive all the nutrients we need from a healthy diet rich in plant matter. But starting in the late ’30s and early ’40s, the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the general shift in American production to a quantity over quality philosophy led to substantial declines in the health of soils nationwide, which also translates to poorer nutritional content in the produce coming out of those soils. Tomatoes for instance, in 1977, were found to have 13 mg of calcium, as opposed to 71 mg in the ’40s. Magnesium dropped even more dramatically from 109 mg to 14. Over thirty years have passed since that study, and irresponsible and unsustainable farming practices have skyrocketed in that time.

So, until we as a culture stop listening to the corporate agribusiness propaganda that everything is just fine, that organic agriculture is unproductive, and all the rest of the lies put forth for the sole purpose of making money, then we will have to supplement our diets with vitamins and minerals.

So which ones are best? One way to discriminate between vitamins is by their bioavailability. From least to most absorbed and assimilated…

Synthetic

Most vitamins on the market today fall under the “synthetic” category, which basically means they are produced in a lab. Most of these stand alone isolates are of dubious nutritional value. The lines between our bodies and the food we eat become thinner, or, to put it more bluntly, we become more what we eat, when we see vitamins in food as part of a matrix of interrelated nutritional elements that rely on each other in order to be fully utilized by our system. By following the directions to take these supplements “with food” we can trick the body into thinking they are from food sources, but studies have shown that only 10-12% of nutrients in that artificial form are available to us, 3-5% for people over 40 years old.

Food-based

Some vitamin companies mix the vitamins with food substance for you and this supposedly helps with assimilation and absorption. But percentages of “food-based”ness varies, so read the labels and call the companies if it is unclear what they mean by “food-based.”

Food-grown

Often labeled as “100% Whole Food,” in this case USP-grade vitamins are added to nutritional yeast cultures, where the vitamins “grow” into a matrix most similar to a real whole food. While studies vary as to the claims these companies make, the theory makes sense to me, as it does to a lot of customers to whom I explain it. The best way to get our vitamins is from food, and when the food is lacking, a whole food vitamin approach seems the best way to go. These vitamins are considerably more expensive, but in this case it appears you get what you pay for.

Liquid Vitamins

Vitamins in liquid form appear to have comparable bioavailability rates to whole food vitamins, approaching 98% in 15-30 minutes according to some reports.