There’s no doubt that there are times when supplemental vitamins are a good idea, but the best way to get your daily requirements of all vitamins is to consume them naturally – with food!

Most people don’t eat enough of the right foods to get all the vitamins needed to keep your body healthy. One of the strikes against getting the right vitamins through diet alone is time. It simply takes time to stop for breakfast, lunch and even dinner. Another is the sheer availability of fast food. Most people are filled with the need to grab something to eat on the go.

Click it to Pin it!

Arguably the biggest strike against eating right is simply habit. It’s easy to let grabbing a package of chips instead of an apple or banana for a mid-morning snack become ingrained in the daily routine. A doughnut and coffee could easily be replaced by a muffin and fruit juice or milk, but we tend to crave those less healthy foods. Take a minute to consider some sources of vitamins that could easily be part of your daily food intake. You may be surprised at easy a few substitutions could be.

• Orange or apple juice instead of one soda a day. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you develop a taste for the juice. With this one change, you’re greatly increasing your intake of Vitamin C, needed to keep your immune system healthy. Not only that, apple juice provides a pick-me-up very similar to the caffeine rush some people look for.
• Bake it, broil it or eat it raw. Instead of French Fries at your next meal, choose a tossed salad or baked potato. Unless counting calories is an issue, slather on the dressing or sour cream to make it more appealing. (NOT low-fat: contrary to popular belief, low fat does not equal healthy! Low-fat equals toxic, chemical, man-made mess.) The bottom line is that baked or raw veggies are generally higher in vitamins than their fried counterparts.
• Supplement those smoothies. Make yourself a fruit smoothie packed with leafy greens, healthy fats, and probiotics. You’ll probably only taste the fruit (yum!) and you’ll get a whole bunch of nutrients and minerals along with it. Quick + easy.

At the end of the day, a lot of us simply don’t eat right. If you measure the intake of vitamins over the course of a typical day, you’ll probably find that you’re not getting all the vitamins you need. When that’s the case, find good vitamins in the form of tablets, chews or other supplements as the next step – but don’t rely on them as the first step toward optimal nutrition!

That said, not all supplements are created equally. You guessed it: ingredients matter.

Clinical trials repeatedly show that synthetic products are not absorbed as well as natural food-sourced supplements. Unlike the ones extracted from various herbs, pharmaceutical compounds sold under the name of mineral and vitamin supplements require a high effort from the body for adequate and healthy processing. Moreover, the assimilation rate of synthetic compounds is a lot lower than that of natural vitamin supplements, which is why the latter are usually favored when it comes to diet support. Presently, it is beyond any doubt that the best source of vitamins and minerals is Mother Nature, and this “nature-oriented” trend is gaining popularity.

Natural vs. synthetic vitamins… yep, #ingredientsmatter! http://t.co/xMMcNLpiFq

— ibody science (@ibodyscience) September 18, 2013

Natural vitamin supplements do not overload the body and immediately pass into the blood flow, once they are identified as easy to process. Many people have actually taken the habit of administrating the natural vitamin supplements during meals because of the widespread belief that they will be better absorbed. As a matter of fact, natural vitamin supplements do not depend on specific times of the day in order to have an optimum action, they can be taken with or without food, any time you like. The general recommendation is that you administrate the supplement in the morning, so as to benefit from the boost of energy throughout the entire work day.

Plenty of herbs, fruits and vegetables lie at the basis of the manufacturing process of natural vitamin supplements. Lemons, limes and kiwis for instance provide a great source of vitamin C, but certain herbs, like wild rose extract, are even more concentrated in vitamin C content.

Over the last decade, there has also been an upsurge in the interest shown towards the great benefits of certain seaweed and algae for human health. Natural vitamin supplements that include high concentrations of spirulina, chlorella and other green-blue algae are totally positive in their effect on health. Unlike any other vitamin and mineral supplement, they have absolutely no side effects, allowing long-term or indefinite administration.