Don't forget your placebo...I mean, vitamins!

A friend of mine made a comment on the Caveman post that has inspired today's blog.  The gist of his comment was that although he agreed with most everything I said, supplements may not be an ideal alternative to weakened produce because the body has difficulty breaking them down given their "artificial form." I agree 100% and this is something I'm surprised I hadn't thought to blog about sooner because there is a solution.

Do you take your vitamins everyday?  Maybe you swallow a handful with water when you first wake up or maybe you're a pansy like me and have to take chewables.  Or maybe you're just plain delusional and think that drinking Vitamin Water counts.  Either way I'm sure that at some point in your life you have taken vitamins.

Ready for the shocking truth?  You're only getting about 40% of what is on the label.  

When you really stop and ponder this statement it shouldn't be too surprising.  First of all there are all the binders and fillers that hold a pill together that while won't nessesarily hurt you really aren't meant to be ingested. Second of all, your body has to digest the binders and fillers and all the vitamins inside before what's left is sent to the small intestine.  Many nutrients end up being obliterated in the process.  And sometimes the pills aren't even digested all the way.  How do you think they got their nickname "bedpan bullets?"

So now what? Now that I've begun to deconstruct the world of vitamins as we know it, I have a suggestion as to what should you replace pills with.  Look for vitamins in Isotonic form.  Iso means "the same" and tonic means "pressure or tone." To give you a few examples, blood, plasma, and tears are in isotonic form as is any IV treatment you get when you're at the hospital.  Isotonic vitamins are in powder form, mixed with water, and drunk.  When the mixture hits your stomach, it is already the same pressure as your stomach fluids, doesn't have to be digested, and triggers the immediate opening of the pyloric valve.  Away we go into the small intestine.  

Okay so is there really an advantage to taking Isotonic vitamins?  The statistics speak for themselves.  Pills can take up to 4 hours to fully digest and then you only get 40% absorption.  Isotonic formulas take 20-30 minutes to digest and you get around 90% absorption.  

Yes, isotonic vitamins are going to cost more than the generic vitamins down at WalMart, but to me that doesn't matter. I would rather pay a little more for something that works than pay pennies for a placebo.  First thing I do every morning is go to the kitchen and mix up my tasty vitamin cocktail.  I wait about 20-30 minutes before eating breakfast to maximize my absorbtion.  I have felt so much better and actually take a wider variety of vitamins because I'm able to drink them.  (Great news if you hate swallowing pills!) Not all isotonic vitamins are created equal so let me know if you want to know where I get mine.  

Until next time......eat, drink your vitamins, and be merry!