Vitamins: Tablets, Liquid, or Powder?

A Comparison of Different Forms of Nutritional Supplementation

Tablet Table
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COMPARING WAYS OF VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTATION

If you came to this page looking for brand comparisons or brand recommendations, you will be disappointed. I never make brand recommendations, period. And as for comparisons, they are easily made by reading labels carefully.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Suggestions

Tablets or Capsules

Easy to carry; Easy to use; Excellent shelf life

"Pills" to take; Tableting ingredients sometimes bother stomachs

Take higher potency tablets; Divide doses; Take with a meal or buffer with calcium; read this

Chewables

Tasty;
Great for kids

Relatively expensive; Unbuffered forms are tough on tooth enamel

Try powder instead, in tasty juice;
Rinse mouth with water
Hints for kids.

Powder

Cheap;
Pure: no fillers;
Easiest oral-dose way to body saturation

Taste must be hidden in juice;
Awkward to take in public

Use powder at home; Travel with tablets

Liquid

Convenient for babies

Potency quickly diminishes after opening

Add fresh vitamin powder daily to fortify the mixture

Injection or I.V.

Best possible absorption;
Ideal for very sick or hospitalized patients

Just try to find an M.D. who will give them!

Read this.

Intra-nasal

Excellent absorption; good alternative to B-12 injections

Looks pretty strange;
May irritate sensitive membranes

Limit use to B-12.
And read this.

Topical (Paste or Patch)

No pills to swallow; no needles; gets high concentration right where you want it.

May be visible to others; May irritate sensitive membranes.

Vitamin E: soothing and excellent for skin; B-12: good but pricey alternative to injections; Vitamin C: if it stings, use a buffered form such as calcium ascorbate. Never use ascorbic acid inside the mouth.

Healthly Foods

Food vitamins are natural; Cost efficient since you have to eat anyway

Low potency; Many good foods are unpopular

Juice your vegetables; garden; sprout beans and grains; read this.

"Fortified" Processed Foods

Better than NOT fortifying a processed food.

Too little fiber, trace nutrients; Loaded with sugar and fat.

Do not buy any food with artificial flavors, preservatives, or colors.

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

Andrew W. Saul

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