Supplementing your diet

In natural whole foods, the essential vitamins and minerals we need to function healthily and efficiently are NOT found in isolation. The vitamins and minerals are bound into a complex food matrix that maximises the body’s ability to absorb them.
If you extract those nutrients from their original source they become isolated into just a single structure. The exact formula is well known and can be made the same, time after time. These are known as “Standard” nutritional supplements. There is a strong belief by many scientists within this field that absorption levels are not as effective in this state and the body can reject a high amount of the nutrient supplied.
In contrast there are ranges of supplements which are known as “Food State” or “Bio-Natured”. These are a complex material made of many structures where the exact formula is not known and there is a natural variance in reproducing the product. The benefit is that Food State is more recognisable to the body and that it reflects more of it’s natural form. This increases bioavailability, absorption and retention in the body.

What else effects absorption:

The method of manufacturing a tablet often requires the addition of a number exipients (a binding product to hold it in tablet form). The exipients used in main stream manufacture can themselves affect the availability of the active substances for absorption.
Pressure used in the normal manufacturing process ( “squeezing” the product into tablet form) can also have a damaging effect on the product as the heat generated through the process can negative affect on the active ingredient, this is not usually the case with Food State.

Conclusion:

In our opinion, for “Food State” supplements, greater care is taken in sourcing and growing the materials as well as the tableting process. As a result the food matrix that the nutrients are held in, offer best performance and provide a considerable increase in absorption levels. This also means the dosages required are much lower .
At HB Health we offer a full range of supplements to meet all your requirements which are available on line in our shop or at our clinics.