Last year, I was asked to be the medical professional on a podcast about the differences between multivitamin supplements (MVI) and whole foods and whole-food supplements. I quickly said sure, because the difference is obvious to me, and it felt like a piece of cake (not a whole food!). However, this was followed by a state of anxiety sprinkled with a little imposter syndrome when I realized, more than 20 years into my pharmacy career, I had no idea where and how MVIs were made. So today I’m asking, have you ever thought about WHERE your multivitamins come from?
Pop Quiz:
Q: How are most multivitamin supplements made?
- From whole food
- From digging in the garden
- In a laboratory
A: In a laboratory
Most multivitamin supplements on the market are made with synthetic, isolated nutrients in a laboratory, not from actual food. And while they might look good on a flashy label promising you’ll turn into a unicorn, live forever, and always be happy, your body doesn’t recognize them the same way it recognizes real food. Your body was designed over thousands of years ago to absorb nutrients from whole food, not manufactured chemicals. According to the National Institute of Health, “…vitamin and mineral supplements had little or no benefit in preventing cancer, CVD, and death,… MVMs do not appear to reliably reduce the risk of chronic diseases when people choose to take these products for up to a decade (or more).”
If you’ve read this far, I’m sure you’ve realized the vitamins and minerals from whole food nutrition are different. When you consume real fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and seeds, the phytonutrients (nutrients from plants) work together in a form your body recognizes and can use, the way nature intended. It can be challenging to fill your body with enough whole foods, and this is where whole food supplements come in. A note of caution, though, it’s not about taking more supplements, and they certainly aren’t all created equal. It’s about giving your body what it actually needs in a form it can absorb. This is why I choose Juice Plus whole food products, which are clinically proven bioavailable (absorbed and used by the body), support healthy skin, immune system, heart, lung, metabolic, and dental health. The capsules, gummies, and drink mix are made by harvesting fruits and vegetables at the peak of ripeness, freezing in the goodness, then pulverizing them into a consumable form.
Let’s do this!
