Organic Vitamins
Organic Vitamin Supplements

Let's look at organic vitamins for optimum health.

In terms of what we eat, vitamins are "essential," which means that our bodies don't produce them.

We need to get them from the foods and supplements (if any) that we consume.

Yet again, the critical principle is that of balance.

It's important to avoid vitamin deficiencies and to avoid excess (toxicity).

In terms of vitamin insufficiency, we want to avoid falling under the current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) or Adequate Intake (AD) level for every vitamin for which they have been established. Though we don't want too much of any one and, so, should avoid exceeding the Tolerable Upper Limit (UL), we also should meet Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) levels.

Current RDA's, UL's, DRI's, and descriptions of how the various vitamins work are easy to find online as well as in books that we recommend (for example, Wildman and Miller's SPORTS AND FITNESS NUTRITION).

If you are following the dietary or physical training program recommended here on our free website (or a similar program elsewhere) please consider yourself a "trainee" for the sake of this discussion.

(You may or may not also be a competing athlete. If you are, you may want to know if vitamin supplements are able to enhance your performance. The general answer is that they have not been shown to be ergogenic. For the rest of this discussion, please just identify yourself with other trainees.)

Organic Vitamins: Guideline

In general, the experts are not sure.

In theory, anyone who is regularly consuming a wide variety of organic, fresh vegetables, fruits, and quality proteins does not need supplementation of organic vitamins.

How many of us, though, eat every day as well as we should?

Very few, which is why we recommend daily, organic, multivitamin supplementation for everyone as nutritional insurance (see below).

There may be additional recommendations appropriate for trainees because trainees may deliberately and chronically

---restrict food intake,

---manipulate the macronutrient ratios in their diets,

---focus on particular macronutrients to the detriment of others, and

---restrict themselves to plant foods.

Furthermore, training increases energy metabolism, oxidative stress, and the body's recovery and adaptive efforts. If extraordinary amounts of water are consumed, vitamins may also be increased or decreased through increased urinary output.

There is a correlation between certain kinds of physical activity and increased free radical production. Researchers have recently been investigating whether antioxidant vitamins have the potential to minimize the effects of free radicals during and after exercise for well-nourished trainees.

Once again, the experts are not sure. There's no consensus.

Free radicals have one or more electrons in unpaired spin states, which makes them highly reactive. This means that they try to steal electrons from other molecules to pair with their unpaired electrons. Their primary targets are the very structural and functional basis of tissue, namely, unsaturated fatty acids, proteins, DNA, and RNA.

Many free radicals are oxygen based and brought into the body via inhalation. Those exercises and sports that have high VO2 demands are the ones particularly associated with the increased production of free radicals.

Regular training enhances oxidative stress, which is reduced by antioxidants (namely, vitamins C and E as well as certain enzymes [GSH-Px and SOD] and coenzyme Q, lipoic acid, and uric acid).

When it comes to supplementation, we tend to be conservative. It's wise to be cautious. Some popular supplements are unnecessary and expensive. Furthermore, some may be harmful.

In this case, we do not recommend antioxidant supplementation for trainees for two reasons.

First, the exercise program presented here on this website does not include the kind of endurance fitness training that is most associated with increased production of free radicals.

(On the other hand, if you train seriously for an endurance sport such as cycling or running or for a higher intensity intermittent sport like soccer, then you are doing that kind of training.)

Second, even chronic training of that kind may also result in adaptive mechanisms that deal with routine free radical generation from that training. As long as you are well-nourished, we see no reason not to trust your body in this case.

If you want to worry, worry about getting an ample variety of organic vegetables and fruits in your daily diet, as these are excellent sources of vitamin nutrition.

Organic Vitamins: Recommendation

As with natural organic food, the short term price of natural organic vitamins may be slightly higher but the long term cost may well be lower—for both you and our planet.

Good multi vitamins will contain all or nearly all of the organic vitamins. The fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E, and K; the water soluble vitamins are C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B6, B12, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, and choline.

A good organic multi vitamin, therefore, will ensure that all your body's physiological roles are covered. These are the ones concerning energy metabolic pathways, homocysteine metabolism, red blood cell formation, collagen formation, antioxidant activities, protein transcription, blood clotting, and vision.

If you have difficulty finding organic vitamins as a multivitamin (or other dietary supplements) from a manufacturer that processes plants that are grown on certified organic farms, we should be able to point you in the right direction. We know sources in different countries. You can reach us through the Contact Us page.

You should also look for organic vitamin supplements that come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. (You may also want organic vitamins and supplements that are kosher or halal certified.)

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