Should
you take Liquid vitamin supplements?
Nowadays,
it is hard to escape hearing about so called liquid vitamins,
as they are advertised everywhere on the internet it seems.
Liquid
vitamin supplements have an almost total absorption rate, often
quoted as high as 98%.
Accompanying
this claim is another one: 90% of the nutrients taken in a tablet
or pill form are going straight down your toilet.
But
are these claims true? Are there any real benefits to liquid vitamins?
Are there drawbacks?
At
Liquid-Vitamins.org we will present the facts,
and let each of you make up your own minds.
The facts on Liquid Vitamins: Liquid
Vitamin Supplements
First, let's begin with the claim that supplements taken in tablet
or pill form are 90% excreted and wasted.
This
is a very (intentionally!) misleading statement.
Here's
why: there is a huge variation
in supplement quality.
On
one end of the spectrum, you have cheap
vitamins mass produced and sold in supermarket chains.
These supplements are made using the cheapest ingredients possible,
as well as the cheapest excipients (excipients are what bind the
ingredients together).
Because
of the excipients used, the nutrients are mostly released in the
stomach, and, therefore, destroyed by
the stomach acids.
In
the case of these supplements, 90% of the vitamins can indeed
end up wasted in the toilet.
On
the other end of the spectrum, though, there are companies that
manufacture highly sophisticated supplements, often referred to
as nutraceuticals. These companies can use extremely expensive
all natural, potent ingredients and excipients.
Some
of these supplements, due to these differences, have highly sophisticated
delivery systems. For example, the best of them have excipients
that ensure the nutrients are absorbed via the lining of the walls
of the upper intestine, allowing them to enter the bloodstream
where they go to work.
In
short, it is dishonest for these purveyors of liquid vitamins
to try and claim all tablet or pill form supplements have poor
absorption. Comparing supermarket variety vitamins to sophisticated
nutraceuticals is like comparing apples to oranges.
Absorption of Liquid Vitamins
Now, let's discuss the alleged 98% (or greater) absorption claimed
by some of these liquid vitamin supplements.
Sadly,
this is also misleading.
There
are only a few different ways in which nutrients can get into
your bloodstream:
1)
By injection...must be performed by a clinic or physician. For
example, vitamin B12 or Human Growth Hormones can be introduced
into the body using this route.
2)
Through the mucous membranes of the mouth via a sublingual tablet
or liquid. This can be highly effective for certain nutrients,
but does not work for many others simply because many nutrients
possess molecules that are too large to be absorbed via the mucous
membranes.
3)
Via the lining of the walls of the upper intestines. (Discussed
above, this is how many of the best nutraceuticals work).
4)
Via the lining of the colon walls using suppositories (which are
prescription items and are not applicable to supplements).
5)
No specific delivery system.
It
is the last category that cheap vitamins you buy in the supermarket
fall into, as well as so called liquid multi vitamins.
In
short, these cheap supplemements and liquid vitamin supplements
are simply drank as is, or mixed with water or juice before imbibing.
They then enter the stomach where the vast majority of the active
nutrients are destroyed.
The
bottomline is that these companies that market liquid vitamin
supplements are taking advantage of the fact that most people
are not equipped with an understanding of the principles behind
absorption and bio-availability, and can present their liquid
vitamins as having greater efficacy than they truly do, while
at the same time "knocking down" supplements that come
in tablet or pill form.
Other facts that manufacturers of Liquid
Vitamins don't want you to know
If you follow the latest breaking health trends as we do, you
may be aware of the many benefits of enzymes, which have been
revealed to possibly help disorders ranging from the caridovascular
to the circulatory to the health of the lungs, kidneys, liver,
and even brain. A good amount of this research is being conducted
by Medical Scientists at the prestigious Harvard Medical School.
Many
sellers of liquid vitamins will often extol the virtues of enzymes
and claim their products harbor all of the beneficial enzymes
that you need.
Don't
buy the hype.
The
fact of the matter is that the enzyme component in these products
are negligible because the enzymes are not added, and therefore
only contain trace amounts, which were present in the food matrix.
What's
worse, enzymes cannot be added to liquid vitamins because enzymes
are highly sensitive and can only survive in a liquid form for
approxiately 2 to 3 hours.
Enzymes,
however, can be a viable component in complex tablet form nutraceuticals
and not suffer destruction like they do in liquid vitamin supplements.
Liquid-Vitamins.org's Verdict on Liquid
Vitamins
In our opinion, liquid vitamins are on a par with respect to efficacy
as cheap supplements you can buy in any supermarket. Unfortunately,
most of these liquid vitamin supplements are not cheap (especially
for what you are getting) at all.
Indeed,
many of them command prices of 40 dollars and upwards -- this
is primarily due to the way these liquid vitamins are marketed,
which is MLM (Multi-level-marketing). Multi-level-marketing schemes
have a strong tendency to inflate the retail prices of the products
because there are many levels of payment made to those marketing
them.
In
the final analysis, the only real benefit we can ascertain of
taking liquid vitamin supplements is that some people have difficulty
swallowing any tablets.
If
you are one of these people, then taking a liquid multi vitamin
will probably be better than taking nothing at all.
However,
liquid vitamin supplements cannot compare to sophisticated nutraceuticals
for the reasons cited above -- and many more.
Those
interested may read up on the line of nutraceuticals we here at
Liquid-Vitamins.org personally take ourselves. We hope you have
found our liquid vitamins review helpful.
We
believe, in the end, people should be allowed to make up their
own minds what they want to take or not.
|
