Vitamin supplements of the future!

Hi folks,

Did you take a vitamin tablet today? If so was it because you’re not eating a balanced nutrition for whatever reason or maybe you are but you take them as ‘back-up’? Many nutritionists believe that our 5-a-day, recommended daily allowance (RDA), & guideline daily amounts (GDA), are too low compared to what the body actually needs to combat inflammation & disease. Apparently due to centuries of intense farming our soils are so nutrient poor that we can no longer get substantial vitamins from the crop. So perhaps the reason that these figures continued to be quoted are to make the best of a bad situation. Now I’m not into scaremongering but we are increasingly learning more about our bodies & this may be a possibility as population expands.

So, what might the vitamin tablet of the future look like? Well, the latest research has discovered that we can only get the most out of vitamins when they are digested in certain combinations. In the gut some vitamins prevent others form being absorbed & some are needed to help others absorb. The correct combinations are found in the foods we eat, not through chance but by our bodies evolving to use them this way. So you see, our bodies have not evolved a gut that can make use of all the vitamins at once, only in various combinations. Imagine receiving a letter where all the words where jumbled up – useless! Therefore the pill of the future is most likely to be one that releases vitamin combinations into the gut at different stages (remember Willy Wonka’s ‘3 course meal’ chewing gum!).

But for the time-being my advice is to have a well rounded nutrition & undergo vitamin / mineral deficiency testing to discover if you are lacking in any. More on this testing in future blogs! Add a comment below to share your vitamin habits & opinions.

James