Let Food Be Thy Vitamins (Part II)

I am forced to assume that the video was talking crystallized vitamins because those are the most popular kind of vitamins on the market (and the least effective).  Crystallized vitamins have been unadulterated, therefore the body cannot metabolize and absorb it very well.  In other words, once ingested it isn't treated like a food.  It falls apart in the digestive tract and then it is excreted.  Researchers believe that it is because too much has been taken out out of the supplement during purification.  The body can absorb about 10% of crystallized vitamins or less which is why the vitamin content in crystallized vitamins are so high.  With the added insult of GMOs, I would guess that they could have something to do with the increased cancer risk.  Also, too much vitamin A of any kind can cause health risks that I'm still learning about.  I've spoken to a number of doctors about this and they ALL said that it is best to get vitamin A from food (both eggs and raw milk butter from organic grass fed cow/goats have the highest content of vitamin A).  When you acquire vitamin A from food it is nearly impossible to get too much.  

Whole food vitamin supplements are another type of multivitamin.  This is my favorite way of getting the vitamins that I need each day.  There are two types of whole food vitamin supplements.  One type is a supplement made from food.  For example, algae can be made into a supplement.  It is grown, fed nutrient dense food and then freeze dried into a pill form.  The other kind of whole food vitamins are actual foods that you enjoy each day but work as supplements in the body.  For example, the American diet is iodine deficient.  Despite the iodine put in table salt, we are still an iodine deficient nation.  Sea weed is one way of obtaining sufficient iodine.  Brown sea weeds like kombu and kelp are among the highest.  I sprinkle kelp granules on my toast, eggs, soups and in smoothies (if I make it with fresh homemade nut milk) and I always cook kombu with beans.  Nutritional yeast has the highest concentration of a variety of B vitamins.  Salba seeds (or chia seeds) are a super food that contains more calcium than milk, more omega 3s than fish, more antioxidants than blueberries and more fiber than flax seeds.  One of my favorite snacks is something that I call vitamin toast; this is toast with homemade raw butter, Salba seeds, kelp granules and nutritional yeast.

I find it very disappointing that the presentation left out all of this information.  It didn't even mention that it is possible to obtain vitamins without "one per day" pills.  It's good to know that there is a way to get vitamins without having to rely on vitamin companies.