Vitamin & Mineral Supplements

New information comes out about vitamins, minerals and our bodies' processing of those substances all the time. Supplements that used to be recommended as "the best" are put in question and new favorites emerge.  To help make good choices in supplements, I have compiled information for my clients.  I hope this will be useful to many other people as well.

Natural vs. Synthetic Supplements

Natural vitamins, minerals and enzymes occur mixed with other nutrients that work together for our health and well-being.  If one part is missing, or is fractionated, or is in the incorrect form or the incorrect amount, entire chains of metabolic processes cannot and will not proceed normally. Only nature can provide us with naturally-occurring vitamins as found in real, wholesome organic foods.  

Mainstream marketing has created the myth that synthetic vitamins and inorganic minerals may be isolated individually, and that we can derive total natural benefit from taking these fractionated chemical creations.  Many of these synthetic ingredients are derived from coal tar, a known carcinogen.  Almost all commercial supplements contain synthetic ingredients, which can cause un-intended side effects, blockage of uptake of natural nutrients and deficiency diseases.  

Synthetic	Natural
“Natural” (may be 10% natural and 90% synthetic and still allowed to use “natural” on the label.	“100 percent natural” “100 percent plant-based” “100 percent animal-based”
Individual vitamins/minerals listed as ingredients Example “Vitamin C”	Foods listed as ingredients Example “acerola cherry powder”
Ingredients include: acetate, acid, bitartrate, chloride, gluconate, hydrochloride, “hcl”, nitrate, palmitate, succinate
Words ending in “-ide”, “-ate” or	One exception to the “-ate” rule is Folate (natural Vitamin B9) vs. Folic Acid (synthetic B9)
Words beginning with “dl-”

Common Synthetic Vitamins to Avoid

• Vitamin A: Acetate and Palmitate
• Vitamin B1 (Thiamine): Thiamine Mononitrate, Thiamine Hydrochloride
• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Riboflavin
• Pantothenic Acid: Calcium D-Pantothenate
• Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine): Pyridoxine Hydrochloride
• Vitamin B12: Cobalamin
• PABA (Para-aminobenzoic Acid): Aminobenzoic Acid
• Folic Acid: Pteroylglutamic Acid
• Choline: Choline Chloride, Choline Bitartrate
• Biotin: d-Biotin
• Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid): Ascorbic Acid
• Vitamin D: Irradiated Ergosteral, Calciferol
• Vitamin E: dl-alpha tocopherol, dl-alpha tocopherol acetate or succinate

Prenatal Vitamins

Your goal should be to obtain all the nutrients you need from your food.  Improvements in food choices should be made when you decide to conceive or as soon as you know you are pregnant.  Supplements should be thought of as extra assurance that you are getting all you need and never used instead of good foods.  Avoiding the artificial ingredients listed above, I can no longer recommend many of the vitamin supplements I used to suggest!  The only prenatal multivitamins I can recommend include: RAW Prenatal, MyKind Organics Prenatal Multi, and MyKind Organics Once Daily Prenatal Multi, all from Garden of Life; and Prenatal Gummy from Natures Dynamics.

Folate vs. Folic Acid

Since the 1950’s and 60’s, the role of Vitamin B9 in preventing birth defects like spina bifida and other neural-tube and midline defects has been known.  The US government has attempted to reduce the number of babies born with these defects by requiring the “fortification” of processed foods with Vitamin B9 and other nutrients.  Foods like white bread, cereals, crackers and almost all other grain products have added Folic Acid, the synthetic form of Vitamin B9, to comply with the government requirements.  This was a well-meaning step in the right direction.  However, 50 years of Folic Acid exposure has revealed problems with the synthetic vitamin.

Folic Acid (synthetic Vitamin B9) is added to “fortified” foods and cheap vitamin supplements.  Folic Acid is absorbed by the body and broken down in the liver for use.  This time- and energy-consuming process uses up other nutrients in the process, and can lead to other vitamin deficiencies and liver-related problems.  Folic Acid also “clogs up” the folate receptors on our cells, so natural Folate cannot be absorbed.

Folate (naturally occurring Vitamin B9) comes from foods like dark green vegetables, leafy greens, fruits and vegetables.  Folate is assimilated by the body in the bowel and made available for use immediately.  This process does not deplete the body of other nutrients and does not burden the liver.

What to do?

• Increase Folate intake by eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. 
• Avoid processed foods and vitamins listing “Folic Acid” in the ingredients. 
• Switch to a supplement with Folate instead of Folic Acid.
• Avoid hormonal birth control, Methotrexate, drugs which increase homocysteine such as Nitrous Oxide (mostly used in dentistry), and antacids.
• Reduce or eliminate dietary intake of gluten, wheat and dairy.
•  Avoid cooking, drinking, storing and heating in any type of plastic container.

 This information is vital for people with a genetic mutation called “MTHFR.”  People with MTHFR are at a higher risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and many other diseases, as well as being more likely to have a baby with a midline defect like spina bifida, cleft palate, tongue-tie, etc.

Iron Supplements

Most prescription or over-the-counter “iron pills” and cheap prenatal vitamins contain ferrous sources of iron.  Just look at the label and you will find ferrous sulfate, ferrous gluconate or other ferrous form of iron.  Taking these pills is like swallowing rust.  They slow the bowel transit time and cause constipation.  They are hard for the liver to process, creating a back-log of work for the liver.  The liver has a lot of work to do during pregnancy and it doesn’t need to be bogged down with ferrous iron processing!  Also, the liver dumps waste into to bowel for removal.  But the constipation caused by the ferrous iron slows the bowel so much that the waste is re-absorbed into the bloodstream where it ends up back in the liver.  The poor liver is already taxed by the extra work due to pregnancy, ferrous iron, and now it has to re-process the same waste over and over.  The result can be liver problems like cholestasis of pregnancy, jaundice or persistent or slow-to-resolve anemia!  Please don’t tax your liver by ingesting ferrous iron.  Check the label of your prenatal vitamins.  If you see the word ferrous on the label throw them away and get something better!

If you need to increase iron intake to correct anemia, do it with food first, supplements second.  Foods that raise the hemoglobin include:

• All the dark green vegetables like broccoli, green peppers and asparagus
• Leafy salad greens like romaine lettuce, spinach and kale
• Dried apricots (containing the most easily assimilated form of dietary iron!),
• Raisins, prunes, dried black cherries
• Sea vegetables,
• Molasses, especially black-strap molasses (careful, it is sweet!),
• Nutritional yeast - sprinkle on food (delicious on popcorn!)
• Egg yolks, and
• Organ meats like organic liver.

If you are already consuming these foods and are still anemic, or need to get your hemoglobin numbers up quickly, you can supplement with concentrated herbal iron sources:

• Alfalfa tablets or capsules - up to 2 or 3 with each meal.  I think of these as a compressed salad!
• Liquid chlorophyll - Liquid chlorophyll comes in plain and spearmint flavored.  I think the plain tastes like grass clippings pulled them fresh off the lawn mower blade!  But some people prefer the plain to the spearmint.  They both work great.  Put a tablespoon in a glass of water once or twice a day.
• Chlor-Oxygen drops, follow the label for dosage, it is much more concentrated than regular liquid chlorophyll
• Nettles tea - high in iron and many other minerals, drink at least a cup a day
• Red Raspberry leaf tea - also high in minerals, good for pregnancy and all times of life
• Vitamin C - 500 mg per day, helps with iron assimilation
• Hemaplex capsules, 1 per day
• Floradix liquid iron, up to 2 teaspoons, twice a day
• Ferrofood from Standard Process, follow label instructions
• Homeopathic ferrum phos - a homeopathic cell salt that enhances iron absorption, once or twice a day
• Spirulina
• Chlorella
• Dandelion leaf (good for the liver, too), up to 3 capsules per day
• Yellow doc tincture - up to 3 dropperful three times per day (high in iron and supports the liver)

Calcium & Magnesium

“Chelated” minerals have been combined with amino acids to form mineral complexes.  Chelated minerals are more absorbable and useable by the body.  Look for a chelated calcium/magnesium supplement in a 2:1 ratio.  That means there are 2 milligrams of calcium for every 1 milligram of magnesium.

I hope this information is useful to you!

Blessings!
:) Deborah