The fast pace of modern life and intensive farming practices are negatively affecting the food supply. In fact, even if people try to follow healthy eating habits, they still lack the essential vitamins and minerals needed to maintain a healthy living. Knowing what supplements your body needs is important, but just as vital is making sure that whatever you choose contains the purest and most bioavailable ingredients possible. Bioavailability simply means the extent by which the vitamins can be absorbed from your intestines to perform its job. In case of low bioavailability of the product, more is actually passing through your body in place of helping your health.
A lot of misleading information has however been surfacing as to what vitamins are the best for you. In fact, most people when looking for quality vitamins and supplements have been subjected to other’s opinions as to what is best for them, or what others think is superior. Therefore, to help you better understand the difference between the much created hype; the following article focuses on the foundational paradigms on which vitamins are made.
Vitamins can be taken in three main ways, including – prescription grade, general vitamin supplements also known as whole food vitamins and pharmaceutical grade vitamins.
Whole Food Vitamins – These are the vitamins you find at your local stores. These do not follow any real regulation, which makes their purity questionable. In addition to this the actual vitamin contained in the whole food vitamins is not very bioavailable.
Prescription Grade – A purer form of vitamin that comes in a better bioavailable form as compared to whole food vitamins, but then again, there are no outside source that evaluate these products and validate its contents.
Pharmaceutical Grade Vitamins – The pharmaceutical grade vitamins are by far the best vitamins you can buy. For any company to claim their vitamins to be pharmaceutical grade means that an outside lab has evaluated their supplement and confirmed its purity and high bioavailability.
Pharmaceutical Grade Vitamins vs Whole Food Vitamins – What’s best for you?
While every vitamin supplement has its potential benefits and drawbacks, whole food and pharmaceutical grade vitamins come with different advantages and applications.
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Different Levels of Regulation
One of the key differences between whole food vitamins and pharmaceutical grade vitamins is the level of government regulation on their manufacturing and sales.
The pharmaceutical grade vitamins are required to undergo stringent regulations set by the Food and Drug Administration. Under this, the pharmaceuticals go through rigorous testing at every stage in order to monitor their content safety, efficacy and reliability.
Whole food vitamin supplements on the other hand, only undergo the general regulation to ensure they will not harm the consumers. However, these do not undergo the same level of stringent regulations with respect to their contents. What’s more, although the foods comprising of vitamins are monitored for their safety levels, but here again, these do not undergo stringent regulations with respect to efficacy and the vitamin levels.
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Ingredient Check
Another major difference between whole food vitamins and pharmaceutical grade vitamins are their ingredients. Generally, you’ll find pharmaceutical grade vitamins to contain pure samples of active vitamins. This is specifically beneficial for doctors as it allows them to administer precise dosages of essential vitamins to meet the patient’s needs.
Talking about whole food vitamins – most often these contain less pure samples of active vitamins and may also contain beneficial additives, such as green tea extracts. Also, the vitamins that come from foods are complimented with many other nutrients that come with food, these include, proteins, sugars, minerals and other vitamins.
Here’s How Whole Food Vitamins Can Benefit You
One of the major advantages of whole food vitamins for you is the presence of many other beneficial nutrients. Plus, you consume your vitamins in a healthy way, following a varied diet that helps to ensure that you consume essential nutrients, including minerals and other phytochemicals. When looking to maintain a great health, you should prefer taking a varied diet and also improve your vitamin intake with multivitamin. But remember, it is important you talk to your health care provider before adding any supplement to help determine the effective dosages that best meet your needs.
Why Pharmaceutical Grade Vitamins Best For You
There are many cases where pharmaceutical grade vitamins have proved better than whole food vitamins and prescription grade vitamins. Taking pharmaceutical grade vitamins can prove useful in curing various diseases, as these provide dosages of pure vitamins without the addition of any additives that can otherwise affect a vitamins function. For instance, a pharmaceutical grade vitamin, niacin may prove far more effective than any regular vitamin supplement in treating health ailments, such as high cholesterol.
In case you require these vitamins in order to treat a specific disorder, make sure you consult your health care provider about what all benefits the pharmaceutical grade vitamins may provide you.