Buying Supplements Quality Information

Supplements are not all created equal. Many are cheaply produced and marketed with a lot of hype to compensate for their lack of quality. In addition, I have found that many supplements which are sold at very high prices often don't have better ingredients and you practically have to be an organic chemist to decipher which ones are any good and which ones are hiding something that might not be so good for you.

These are the things to watch out for when choosing supplements in order to know if they are of good quality.

• Minimum binders and fillers. The purpose of binders and fillers in supplements is not for you health but for the ease of production. (They keep the machines working well as they fill the little capsules or press the tablets together) Most supplements have magnesium stearate or stearates in them, which are not the best, but are hard to avoid. Whenever possible minimize how much you take in by choosing capsules over tablets, and avoid products that have a long list of fillers and coatings. These all slow down proper absorption of the nutrients within the tablet/capsule and can make proper absorption for people with compromised digestion quite difficult.
  
• Avoid Synthetic ingredients whenever possible. Lets face it, most supplements are in some way manufactured using "not natural" processes. It is the nature of the industry - otherwise we would not be able to get such concentrated forms of nutrients into such tiny tablets. However there is a big difference between simply extracting a natural substance and concentrating it somehow, and creating an almost identical one from scratch. The most harmful ones to watch out for are:

1. Vitamin A - Avoid any synthetic forms of Vitamin A. The only natural vitamin A available comes from fish oil or fish oil derived products and will say Retinol on the bottle. If it doesn't say retinol, but something else, then avoid it when possible. Synthetic Vitamin A is the culprit behind the hype over vitamin A being toxic at high doses, natural vitamin A in complex foods like fish oil etc. is not nearly as toxic and is safe in much higher doses.
   
2. Vitamin C - Ascorbic Acid is the synthetic form of Vitamin C. Natural forms come from Vitamin C that is found and isolated from oranges is identical to the vitamin C derived from other plant sources, largely because plants containing vitamin C biosynthesize the substance in the same manner. However, when Vitamin C was first isolated and produced in a supplement form, we did not know about bioflavonoids. They were discovered later. It was found that in nature, bioflavonoids always accompany Vitamin C. In fact, the bioflavonoids are essential for better absorption. They increase bioavailability by 30%. This suggests you should take the natural form of vitamin C. http://www.vitamins-nutrition.org/vitamins/natural-vitamins-synthetic.html
3. Vitamin D - Avoid any Vitamin D in the form of Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) as this is the synthetic form and is not well tolerated by the body, having only a half life of natural vitamin D and it can have toxic effects at higher doses. The synthetic form is also often called vegan or vegetarian vitamin D since it is produced by irradiating lanolin, and does not come from natural fish oil like Vitamin D in the natural form.
   
4. Vitamin E: With Vitamin E, for example, the d- form of vitamin E derived from vegetable oils and other natural sources is different from the dl- form (which is often called the synthetic form). The dl- tocopherols are actually a mixture: the d-form and the l-form (usually a 1:1 mixture).
   The human body uses only the d- form. The l- form, when present, does not confer any known health benefit and is normally excreted by the body. So, in essence, when consuming the dl- form of vitamin E, you obtain an effective dose of about half the vitamin E dosage reported on the label.  http://www.vitamins-nutrition.org/vitamins/natural-vitamins-synthetic.html
5. VITAMIN B6 - The best form to buy is Pyridoxal 5 Phosphate because this is the converted form which is much easier for the body to utilize.
   
6. VITAMIN B12 - The best form to buy is Methylcobalamin or Adenosylcobalamin. Avoid when possible cyanocobalamin which the body has to convert before using, making it much less potent and less easy for the body to utilize.
   
7. FOLIC ACID - Folic acid is usually sold in the synthetic form - folic acid. In fact the only natural forms of folic acid are folate, in food state form, or other variations of folic acid that are biologically like what the body would use or make naturally. Folinic acid is a better choice when buying folic acid supplements when possible.
8. MINERALS IN GENERAL -  Try and purchase minerals in the compound form of citrates, malates, ascorbates, aspartates. Avoid when possible oxides, gluconates and carbonates which are much less absorbed and utilized by the body and therefore even though they tend to be cheaper products you would have to take a much higher dose to get the same amount absorbed into the system.