Take Your Vitamins!

As a dietitian, I like to try and steer people to the path of getting nutrients from real food. As a real person, I know that not everyone eats that many fruits and vegetables every day. Daily vitamins are a good supplement (not substitute) for daily nutrients. With so many vitamins on the shelves these days, which one to choose? Well, I did a little experiment at work the other day for a presentation about vitamins and their effectiveness. Check it out!

I had three bottles of vitamins: Women's One a Day, Alive! and something very expensive from the health foods store. I took cups of warm water, plunked a vitamin in each cup and waited. Within 5 minutes, the Women's One a Day dissolved almost completely (the least expensive of the three). After 20 minutes, the Alive! vitamin's slimy coating finally came off so that the real vitamin could start to dissolve (totally dissolved within 30 minutes). The most expensive, health food store vitamin - after an hour it began to soften. After two hours there was a copper type substance that began to cloud the water. After 3 hours, I threw it out!

Here is a cool article about what can be in your vitamins: http://www.do-dietary-supplements-work.com/vitamin-supplements-solid.html  Stay healthy!