The new era of a healthy diet with plant-based supplements!

Not all vitamins and minerals are created equal, and your body can tell the difference between synthetic and plant-based supplements. If you have ever taken a cheap, synthetic vitamin or mineral and failed to notice a change in how you look or feel, there is a reason. Artificial vitamins often pass through your body without being absorbed. Just like when selecting food to eat, taking the time to study the labels and ingredients can make the difference between achieving the health you want or wasting your time and money.

A lot of the same rules you probably already use for choosing food also apply to choosing the right supplements. Look for ingredients that are plant-based, organic, and come from whole-food sources. Likewise, steer clear of synthetic chemicals or other artificial ingredients, sweeteners, and fillers.

What Are the Benefits of Plant-Based Supplements?

Minimally-processed, plant-based supplements offer several advantages over synthetic vitamins and minerals. Here are the top benefits of plant-based supplements.

Better Bioavailability

Bioavailability is how easily your body can absorb a given nutrient. An overwhelming amount of evidence indicates that healthy, whole plant foods are the foundation of a nutritionally complete diet. This includes the supplements you use to maintain your health. The best supplements are those that your body is equipped to handle, in other words—they’re plant-based. This is because your body evolved to recognize and use nutrients that come from the plant sources that our ancestors found in nature.

Lower Toxicity Risk

Proper absorption is not just about getting more. In some cases, taking too much of a particular mineral can be toxic. Plant-based supplements typically carry a lower risk of mineral toxicity than their synthetic or animal-sourced counterparts. For example, the risk of toxicity from a plant-based iron supplement is less than that of animal-sourced iron supplements.

Additional Cofactors & Conutrients

Plants contain a complete spectrum of vitamins, minerals, aromatic oils, and phytonutrients. In many cases, these nutrients work together. When you isolate specific compounds, you may get the star of the team, but you leave all the supporting players behind. These supporting players are the cofactors and conutrients that are only available in plant-based supplements. Here are just a few things that synthetic and lab-made supplements might leave out.

• Plant pigments: chlorophyll, curcumin, flavonoids, carotenoids, lutein, anthocyanins
• Flavonoids: catechins, quercetin, polyphenols
• Aromatic compounds: allicin, sulforaphane, carvacrol, thymol
• Alkaloids: caffeine, quinine, theobromine, piperine
• Enzymes: protease, cellulase, amylase, nattokinase, lipase
• Terpenoids: saponins, limonene, phytosterols, oleanolic acid
• Polysaccharides: cellulose, acemannan, pectin, hemicelluloses

Natural Smell & Taste

One of the most desirable traits of plant-based supplements is that you know what you are getting. Plant-based supplements typically don’t have the synthetic fillers, toxic chemicals, and artificial sweeteners that are far too common in other supplements. Plants include oils and other constituents that provide the natural smells and tastes absent in lab-grown vitamins. If you want to check the quality of a plant-based supplement, open it up and check the smell and taste. You should be able to recognize some of the natural odors of the organic ingredients.

Buying plant-based supplements is always the smarter option, but how do you know you are getting the best?

Look for a brand you can trust that pays attention to how and where each plant-based ingredient is grown and processed. As soon as plants are harvested, they begin to degrade.

Heat, humidity, and time are all enemies of fragile plant nutrients. Supplement companies who are serious about your health will do all they can to protect the plant and keep these valuable nutrients, cofactors, and conutrients in the final product. Proper drying, milling, and concentrating techniques that lock in these compounds should be in place. Without these rigorous protocols, your supplements will not provide their maximum possible benefit.

After doing your own research, have a look here.

Dr. Lampros Gerakoulias M.D. {E.H.}

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