Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
Vitamin and mineral supplements can be difficult for the body to absorb unless they're chelated. Chelated supplements are able to pass more easily through the intestinal walls and be absorbed into the blood stream.
Transcript: Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
The Body Needs Vitamins and Minerals
The human body requires various vitamins and minerals in order to thrive. Most of these nutritional necessities can be found in whole, non-processed foods such as fruits and vegetables.However, the modern diet of processed, over-cooked, and fatty foods is lacking in essential nutrients. Therefore many people take vitamin and mineral supplements.
Problems With Synthetic Supplements
Unfortunately these supplements may contain synthetic vitamins that are much less effective in the body; synthetic supplements do not easily cross from the intestines into the blood stream, but are instead eliminated from the body.And, if they are able to be absorbed, synthetic vitamins and supplements may not be used efficiently by the body because of variations in their chemical structure from whole food vitamins.
Chelated Vitamins and Minerals
Fortunately, many over-the-counter supplements now contain vitamins that are easily absorbed and that can be used by the body.In addition, many supplements today contain minerals that are "chelated," which means they are bound to small protein building blocks called amino acids.
Chelation helps the minerals move more easily across the intestinal wall and into the blood stream, where they are later absorbed from the blood by the body's cells.
Once inside the cells, vitamins and minerals can promote chemical reactions in the body that are needed for good health.
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