When you look into how to absorb vitamins better into your system, so they reach the systemic circulation stage, it is vital to understand how vitamins are broken down and absorbed by the body. The first step in vitamin digestion begins with chewing and the introduction of saliva.
After swallowing, the food moves to the stomach where stomach acids and gut bacteria break the food into easily digested particles. Finally, these particles move to the small intestine where the vitamins and other nutrients are absorbed, with some nutrients metabolizing in the liver.. After the nutrients are absorbed, the remaining particles pass on to the large intestine.
Individuals with digestive and malabsorption syndrome disorders and individuals with low stomach acid, or have had bariatric surgery can have a difficult time absorbing vitamins and minerals from food and supplements. No two digestive systems are alike, and each system has its idiosyncrasies and challenges. If you have digestive problems and take a digestive enzyme regularly to speed vitamin digestion, learning how to absorb vitamins better is essential to your gut health. You may need to switch to a vitamin supplement formulated with small particles for best results.
Many health experts also see nutritional deficiencies skyrocketing due to poor nutrition and poor vitamin absorption and mineral absorption, leading to physicians and natural health practitioners recommending highly bio-available vitamin and mineral supplements. If you have a gastrointestinal disorder or disease, poor nutrient absorption is common, and you may need to learn how to absorb vitamin supplements better without swallowing pills. An inability to swallow pills can lead to health problems including nutritional deficiencies, so it is essential to address the problem head-on to avoid complications.
The human body can’t survive, let alone thrive, without proper absorption of the 13 essential vitamins including vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and the B vitamins. These vitamins are essential for wellness, and research shows optimal levels in our system may help to protect against Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, certain types of cancer, and other chronic conditions.
When our bodies don’t absorb enough of these essential vitamins through foods or supplements, deficiencies occur. The top four most common vitamin deficiencies in the United States are vitamin D, B12, B6, and C.
The bio-availability of vitamins is the proportion of the nutrient that the body can use. The bio-availability score is often significantly less than the dose, or the calculated amount of the nutrient in a food or a supplement. In supplements, poor bio-availability can be caused by nutrient particles that are too large, or because of synthetic fillers, anti-caking agents, coatings, and other elements that interfere with absorption.
Specific nutrients may have poor bio-availability unless partnered with another nutrient — for example, turmeric and black pepper. Turmeric has poor bio-availability unless it is taken with piperine, a compound found in black pepper that increases the bio-availability of turmeric by 2,000 percent. This striking synergistic relationship between black pepper and turmeric isn’t the only example. As noted above, vitamin D and magnesium also need each other to be adequately absorbed by the body.
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble vitamins that are stored in our body’s tissues. These vitamins are critical because they support many healthy functions in the body and may even prevent certain diseases.[23] You should take these essential micronutrients with fats or oils so they can be solubilized (dissolved) for absorption.
Nutrients that cannot be dissolved are less likely to be absorbed, so you have to consume them with a solution that can dissolve them. To maximize nutrient absorption, consume your fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) with fats or oils that can help with absorption. For example, when taking your multivitamin in the morning, consume it with a nut butter, such as almond butter, cashew butter or peanut butter. If you have eggs in the morning – cook them in olive, coconut or avocado oil. You can also add avocado to your whole grain toast or as a side fruit. If you are taking your multivitamin at lunch or dinner, add some avocado slices or add a handful of nuts or seeds to your sandwich or salad, or add olive or avocado oil to roasted vegetables.
Most supplements containing fat-soluble vitamins come in dehydrated, compacted tablets, pills, or powders, which do not readily dissolve for efficient vitamin and mineral absorption. If instead, you decide to take a single fat-soluble vitamin, take a gel cap which packages the vitamin in oil for best absorption. For example, take a vitamin D provided in a gel cap that contains vitamin D already dissolved in sunflower oil.
Unfortunately, most gel caps don’t provide a broad spectrum of essential nutrients (fat- and water-soluble vitamins). For a more comprehensive blend of nutrients, like a multivitamin, you can try a new increasingly popular alternative — MICROGEL. I believe MICROGEL is the best dietary supplement delivery system for absorption. An example is Bioactive Multi and Vegan Essentials by Healthycell, which includes a broad spectrum of essential vitamins and minerals, plus phytonutrients and botanical antioxidants from premium ingredient sources in highly bioavailable forms. The fat-soluble vitamins are pre-dissolved in natural oils, and the water-soluble vitamins are pre-dissolved in water. Both types of vitamins are infused into a microgel that delivers high vitamin and mineral absorption. As a bonus, the microgel is made of prebiotics for an added healthy gut boost.
Wondering what percentage of a multivitamin is absorbed? It depends on the pill you’re taking. Tablets and capsules often contain relatively large, dense, poorly-soluble, and difficult-to-absorb particles (more than 10 times too big for absorption). Picture small grains of sand, which are about the same size as many vitamin particles found inside vitamin tablets. For this reason, many people only absorb about 20% of the ingredients in their supplements.
According to nutrition and bioavailability Ph.D.’s at the University of New England, micronutrients need to be absorbed into the bloodstream, and then into cells, to have a positive impact. The current size of most nutrient particles and tablets and capsules make it impossible for them to be absorbed into the bloodstream. This doesn’t mean crushing vitamins and minerals for better absorption, it means taking a supplement with nano-sized particles that can be absorbed and used as fuel by our cells.
A new microgel absorption technology called MICROGEL™ is creating a new standard for nutritional supplements and replacing tablets, capsules, and powders. Formulated by world-leading nutritional scientists, this unique MICROGEL technology allows for maximum absorption of ingredients into the body by releasing extremely small, ultra-bioavailable nutrient particles at specific locations in the digestive tract. You can try Bioactive Multi or Vegan Essentials by Healthycell to experience this new, pill-free, more effective way of taking vitamins.
For those of us who like to make informed decisions when it comes to the foods and supplements we consume, following the new FDA guidelines is a good rule of thumb. No one agrees with everything the FDA does but their new nutrition guidelines help to understand which products are formulated based on these guidelines. Unfortunately, many supplement makers don’t follow the science and recommendations, which leads to having mega doses certain nutrients and not enough of others.
Companies like Healthycell that have designed products that adhere to the FDA’s latest nutritional recommendations are proving the value they place on the last 30 years of scientific research that has gone into the FDA nutrient and nutrition label update as well as their customers’ overall wellbeing.
For example, the MICROGEL supplements by Healthycell are formulated specifically with the new FDA guidelines in mind to bring consumers a supplement that is as innovative in bioavailable form as it is in function. In addition to these benefits, Healthycell’s unique gel pack size allows them to fit the scientific dose of key ingredients where pill vitamins have obvious size limitations.
So if you’d like to save yourself from having to compare and calculate your supplement’s nutrition based on the FDA changes, your best bet is to go with a MICROGEL product by Healthycell.
