Transcription
So today we're going to talk about all the reasons why vitamins won't work. The first thing to talk about is why do we need vitamins? Can't we get all of our vitamins from food? Many times you're not going to be able to satisfy that just by eating certain foods, especially vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, and even vitamin B3, which is called niacin. And with all that chemistry going on, your body needs roughly about 180 nutrients to allow that biochemistry to work. And it's actually very difficult to determine if someone's deficient in a nutrient by just checking the blood because a lot of these nutrients are deep in your cells.
A big reason why vitamins might not work in your body is that you might not have enough acid in your stomach. You can't absorb certain things like minerals. You're going to have a hard time breaking down things with B12 because B12 is usually in meat, and that's locked up with protein. And if there's not enough acid to break down the protein, you don't get absorption of B12. One big clue to know that you don't have enough stomach acid is if you have indigestion, heartburn, too much bacteria in your small intestine.
The problem with synthetics is they don't get absorbed like natural ones. The next point I want to bring up is when you take a vitamin or a mineral as an isolated nutrient. This is very unnatural. It's going to create a problem because in nature, you never see an isolated nutrient. If you take too much vitamin D, especially in higher amounts, you'll end up with a magnesium deficiency. It's important to know that a lot of these nutrients come in more of a kind of a complex with other nutrients.
The other topic I want to talk about is the form of nutrition. For example, folic acid, you don't want to take the synthetic version. Anytime you take vitamin B9, you want to take that in the active form, the folate. The same thing that goes with vitamin B12. You don't want to take the synthetic version called cyanocobalamin. Instead, you want to take methylcobalamin. Why? Because you want results. You want something to work better.
The next point I want to bring up is thinking you're taking a vitamin like vitamin A, but it's not really. It's the precursor to vitamin A, not retinol. When people say just eat a lot of carrots or spinach, you couldn't eat the volume of that food to get this very important active version of vitamin A, retinol. The way to get retinol is from egg yolks or cod liver oil, not a supplement. The same thing that goes with omega-3 fatty acids. People have this idea that if you eat walnuts or flaxseed, you're getting your omega-3. It's not true because the active form of omega-3 is EPA and DHA, and you can get that from like fish oil, cod liver oil.
Next point is a lot of vitamins have fillers with maltodextrin, which is a starch, and they use maltodextrin as a spray agent to turn things into a powder. Problem with maltodextrin is it can compete for certain nutrients like vitamin C. You also have the problem of depleting certain nutrients, especially B1. B1 is essential in helping you break down sugar and refined carbs. And so when you're taking maltodextrin or sugar or starch, the need for B1 goes way, way, way higher.
Next point, trying to get results from a vitamin or a mineral while at the same time you're eating junk or your diet sucks. Don't think that vitamins are going to work to compensate for a bad diet. And that leads us to the next problem. Problem with nutrition, if you are a diabetic or pre-diabetic or have insulin resistance, your ability to absorb nutrients is going to be a lot less. You want to fix the insulin resistance first or the diabetes by going on a low-carb diet. And as another side point to that, if you're a smoker, if you drink a lot of alcohol, that's going to kind of nullify the nutrient results. Unless you're giving up smoking or drinking, then it's very important to start taking nutrition. Realize that the absorption is going to be a lot less.
The next point I want to bring up is when you read the label on the back of your multivitamin and the first one says calcium carbonate, you're basically taking limestone. Anything that's listed as the first ingredient is usually the majority of what's in that bottle. That's why when you take these multivitamins and they're so heavy, it's like a paperweight. When you take calcium at the same time as you're taking magnesium, they can cancel each other out because they both compete for absorption.
The next point I want to talk about is taking enough of certain nutrients. The one that I'm talking about mainly is vitamin D. The RDAs for vitamin D3 are like 600 IUs. It's ridiculous. They did not calculate the information correctly from 10 research studies when they came up with this 600 IUs. And I talked to a pioneer in vitamin D research, and this person said that this wasn't an error. It was an intentional thing that they did to make it sound possibly toxic. I mean, think about it, 10,000 international units of vitamin D3 sounds very, very scary when, in fact, it's only like being out in the sun for 20 to 30 minutes. It was found that this so-called error with vitamin D3, I'm talking about 600 international units, should have been calculated at 8,895 international units if you corrected the confusion that they had had from all of these studies. If you're taking 600 and you don't feel any difference, you know why.
Now, this especially relates to the next point I want to bring up. If you have a health problem, let's say, for example, you have some chronic illness or diabetes or whatever, small amounts of any vitamin are not going to create the change you need. Therapeutic doses, especially with vitamin D, magnesium, and other nutrients. For example, if you had peripheral neuropathy, the bottom of your feet was numb, tingly because of your diabetes, and those nerves are literally dying. If you took tiny amounts of vitamins, especially like vitamin B1, it's not going to create any difference. To fix peripheral neuropathy from a diabetic situation, you need a special type of B1 that is fat-soluble. It's called benfotiamine, and in larger amounts to create an effect. Anytime you're trying to create a therapeutic effect, you're going to need larger amounts of the nutrient. And like I said before, it's going to be very difficult to get that from your diet. You're going to have to use supplements. And this also relates to potassium. If you're looking for a potassium supplement, if the milligram dosage was 99 milligrams, you'd have to take over 47 of those tablets or capsules to get just the daily dosage of your potassium. So again, if you're taking potassium and you're just taking one of those a day, don't expect any change.
I hope I shed some light on why vitamins might not be working for you and give you some knowledge on what to do to get your vitamins to work better. Now, I have another similar related topic on mistakes people make with vitamins, and you should check that one out. I put it up right here.