Opinion by Jake Crossman
If you’ve ever wondered why you should never take vitamin tablets, after reading this article, you’ll never want to buy another vitamin tablet again.
According to Brittany Loriquet, a dietetic intern at Tufts Frances Stern Nutrition Center, most vitamin tablets are made from synthetic vitamins, which are cheaper and easier to use than those from natural foods. For some reason, the medical community claims “there is no difference in the chemical structure between the synthetic form and naturally derived forms” which means you should have no concern for your health when taking synthetic vitamin tablets!
Let’s discuss why that claim doesn’t make sense from a nutritional standpoint and why, beyond the synthetic nature of most vitamin tablets, they’re up to 90% less effective than a vitamin capsule.
Why You Should Never Take Vitamin Tablets
How Vitamin Tablets Are Made
Vitamin tablets and vitamin capsules both start off relatively the same way – they can be derived from a plant or animal product or be produced synthetically in a laboratory. While there is no chemical difference between the vitamins derived from plant or animal sources and those produced synthetically, your body can absolutely tell the difference between something synthetic and something natural, which we’ll talk about more in the bioavailability section of this article. First, let’s discuss how vitamin tablets are made and why they’re up to 90% less effective than a vitamin capsule.
“In order to make a vitamin powder, whether natural or synthetic, and create a vitamin tablet out of it, an incredible amount of heat and pressure is needed.”
In order to make a vitamin powder, whether natural or synthetic, and create a vitamin tablet out of it, an incredible amount of heat and pressure is needed. Everyone can agree that heat and pressure are never good for chemical bonds. In fact, heat and pressure destroy chemical bonds, breaking down the element that’s being modified and rendering it useless. That means, while vitamin capsules are typically very easy for your body to absorb, vitamin tablets have agreed upon very poor disintegration in the GI tract, which means your body can’t even absorb most of the vitamin! You end up excreating the majority of the unabsorbed vitamin out and, quite literally peeing money down the toilet.
Bioavailability: Vitamin Tablets vs Vitamin Capsules
The word “bioavailability” refers to “the proportion of a drug or other substance which enters the circulation when introduced into the body and so is able to have an active effect.” That means bioavailability is the measure of how much of a substance your body is able to absorb before excreting the rest.
When researching for this article, I came across a list of industry-recognized advantages and disadvantages of vitamin tablets vs vitamin capsules, and the biggest “advantage” of vitamin tablets, which made me laugh, is: “Vitamin Tablets are widely accepted and elegant.”
Just to be clear – the #1 advantage of vitamin tablets, according to industry-recognized data, is that vitamin tablets are… elegant. Not safer, not more effective, and not better quality, but… more elegant. The vitamin and supplement industry is clearly a joke run by clowns, but I’m here to actually provide some real information on the topic and, hopefully, get you to stop trusting in these criminal clowns.
Let’s discuss the difference between the “chemically identical” synthetic vitamins typically used in vitamin tablets and the plant or animal-derived vitamins used in vitamin capsules.
Synthetic Vitamin Tablets vs Organic Vitamin Capsules
Before we get into the science, if I offered you a glass of organic orange juice and a glass of synthetic orange juice, which would you prefer? What if I told you the synthetic orange juice was chemically identical to the organic orange juice… would that change your mind?
Let’s not beat around the bush here – humans have this incredible 6th sense called intuition, and intuition can’t be mathematically quantified, but it’s the thing inside you that tells you you should probably take the organic orange juice over the synthetic orange juice.
“If I offered you a glass of organic orange juice and a glass of synthetic orange juice, which would you prefer?”
Synthetic vitamins are chemically identical to organic vitamins, but let’s take USA Medical organic Ashwagandha as an example: there currently is a synthetic version of ashwagandha, called Triethylene Glycol. Even though all current medical literature says, “Ashwagandha’s active somatogenic components (the understanding of why a specific compound is effective) remain unidentified” it’s assumed that giving patients with insomnia Triethylene Glycol can improve their REM sleep and, thus improve their overall sleep health.
“Commercially available triethylene glycol also increased non-rapid eye movement sleep in mice in a dose-dependent (10–30 mg/mouse) manner. These results clearly demonstrated that triethylene glycol is an active sleep-inducing component of Ashwagandha leaves and could potentially be useful for insomnia therapy.”
Kaushik MK, Kaul SC, Wadhwa R, Yanagisawa M, Urade Y (2017) Triethylene glycol, an active component of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) leaves, is responsible for sleep induction. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0172508. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172508
But, organic Ashwagandha does the same thing! So, the question that I pose (and never seem to get an answer to) is why are researchers so interested in creating synthetic versions of herbs and plants that grow abundantly and naturally? Oh – wait, the answer is simple: it’s very hard for the pharmaceutical industry to charge exorbitant amounts of money for plants, but they can definitely charge for a prescription of Triethylene Glycol.
Why You Should Never Take Vitamin Tablets: Final Thoughts
My health matters to me, and your health should matter to you. Taking supplements and vitamins should already be the last resort if you can’t get enough of the vitamins and minerals through your diet, as the bioavailability of vitamins in food is always higher than the bioavailability of a powder. The least you can do is ensure the vitamins and supplements you take are as organic and healthy as possible – which means you need to ditch all your vitamin tablets.
The heat and pressure required to create vitmain tablets causes irreversible damage to the chemical bonds of the vitamin and renders a large majority of the vitamin useless to your body, and you end up simply peeing money down the toilet.
Here at USA Medical, every vitamin and supplement we sell is in capsule form and comes from GMO-free, organic sources. I personally take all the vitamins that I sell, so the only person I’d be hurting is myself if I didn’t do my due diligence in sourcing the best, most potent, highest quality vitamins and supplements available. As long as I am the one sourcing vitamins for USA Medical, I can guarantee they are the best quality from the best sources, and I’ve put my personal health on the line to prove my sincerity.
Ashwagandha | For Anti-Stress & Hormone Support
$19.99
Ashwagandha is an evergreen shrub that grows in Asia and Africa, used to reduce stress, calm the mind, and improve reproductive health. USA Medical Ashwagandha capsules are made with pure, potent, and GMO-free Ashwagandha root extract – packed with a potent dose of 1,300mg Ashwagandha per serving.
Made in a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility in the USA, USA Medical vitamins go through rigorous testing for potency, purity, and integrity.
- Powerful Stress Reduction
- Natural Hormone Balance
- Support Reproductive Health
Size: 60 Capsules
Servings Per Container: 30 Servings
Recommended Use: Take 2 capsules daily with food, followed by a full glass of water.
PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA
Platinum Turmeric | For Immune, Heart, & Mood Balance
$19.99
USA Medical organic turmeric with Bioperine provides powerful antioxidant & anti-inflammatory support to improve joint and muscle health, fight inflammation, promote healthier skin, and support your immune system.
Made in a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility in the USA, USA Medical vitamins go through rigorous testing for potency, purity, and integrity.
- Powerful Antioxidant Boost
- Reduce Inflammation
- Promote Healthy Skin
Size: 60 Capsules
Servings Per Container: 30 Servings
Recommended Use: Take 2 capsules daily with food, followed by a full glass of water.
PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA
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