Chlorella Vs Synthetic Vitamins
Vitamin supplementation is often thought of as a modern medicine invention, but this is not the whole story. Consuming specific nutrient-dense whole foods has long been used as a natural method for filling in nutritional gaps in many cultures across the globe; essentially - the first form of dietary supplements. Extracts, tinctures, or dried powders are all age-old examples of reducing nutrition into supplement-like forms to increase their potency. This has been done with various roots, leaves and flowers as well as with non-plant sources including algae like chlorella.
The effectiveness of these traditional methods has been shown through the vast amounts of anecdotal evidence from the many years of use from generations past. Though there is a wealth of texts and testimonials supporting many of these traditional methods, this type of evidence is often considered invalid by today's golden standard of the scientific "randomized controlled trial" study. This has led to much of the historical knowledge on natural whole food supplementation to be deemed as "quackery" and entirely tossed aside by mainstream nutrition narratives until recently.
With the development of modern science and medicine came man-made synthetic vitamins, which eventually gained popularity over older natural whole-food supplements. Vitamin extraction and isolation from natural plant or animal sources was also developed and could offer what is called "naturally sourced" vitamins. More often, both in the past and today, the synthetic versions are used because of their affordability. Both of these artificial or "naturally-derived" substitutes for whole-food supplements are now so commonplace that many consumers don't even realize they still have other options!
The evidence for synthetic vitamins in particular creating positive health outcomes has been mixed. Synthetic vitamins have contradictorily shown positive outcomes, neutral ones, and even health-harming ones. One aspect of vitamin research that however has been consistent is the finding that the closer a nutrient is to its natural source, the more beneficial they are to our health, implying that artificial vitamins are not adequate substitutes. The bioavailability of synthetic vitamins and even naturally sourced ones are simply inferior to whole-foods. Perhaps even more importantly, consuming nutrients from a "whole food package" also increases their nutritional value by offering a wealth of other complementary nutrients.
Both the digestion and utilization processes of vitamins in the body are extremely complex. Our body requires cofactors, enzymes, and sometimes combinations of vitamins and minerals to be able to use vitamins to their maximum efficiency.
Amazingly, nature tends to provide many of these complex requirements already pre-packaged in whole food sources. Humans have adapted throughout time to seek out nutrients from food sources, and the replacement of this natural instinct by artificial vitamins is a recent phenomenon in the timeline of human history.
Without a doubt, we still have much to learn about nutrition and human health. It's an extremely complex topic with many questions still unanswered. Regardless, one thing that is apparent is the incredible value of nutrient rich whole foods like chlorella. The vast array of synergistic nutrients is unmatched by any lab-created alternative. We are slowly discovering that the secret to better health may in fact be as simple as returning to nature.
WHAT IS CHLORELLA?
Chlorella is a single-cell fresh water algae and is one of the oldest and most nutritious plant life forms on earth. It's known as a "superfood" due to its incredibly high concentrations of essential nutrients including chlorophyll, beta-carotene, mixed carotenoids and phytonutrients iron, vitamin C, vitamin A, magnesium, Omega’s 3 and 6 zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin D and ,many others. It's one of the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet.
