Friday, May 21, 2010

B Complex Simplified

B Complex used to be plain old vitamin B, just like its cousins C and E. Things got complicated however when it was discovered that there were chemically distinct vitamins coexisting within this complex vitamin. These distinct vitamins are:

B1 (thiamin)
B2(riboflavin)
B3 (niacin)
B5 (pantothenic acid)
B6 (pyridoxine)
B7 (biotin)
B9 (folic acid)
B12 (various cobalamins)

Just about everybody in America gets all of the B vitamins they could possibly need in their diets. They are found in whole, unprocessed foods and are particularly concentrated in meat. Other sources are potatoes, bananas, lentils, chile peppers, tempeh, and beans. Processed foods with their sugars and white flour tend to significantly reduce B vitamin content so we're back to looking at our diets to understand if extra supplementation is needed. If your diet consists basically of whole unprocessed foods then taking supplementation of B vitamins is probably not necessary. A note to vegetarians; B12 is not available in plant sources so this is a consideration even if your vegetarian diet is mostly whole unprocessed foods.

As with Vitamin C, my plant based multi gives me 100% of the RDA for B vitamins (in addition to what I get in my diet). So sorry B Complex you've been a valued member of the team but due to cost cutting measures and reorganization your services are no longer needed.

In summary, here is what I like to call my A team, supplements that have made the cut (vitamin
E and Resveratrol have yet to have their review so stay tuned). Enjoy the weekend.

Plant based Multi Vitamin
Absorbable D3
CoQ10


Here is a trusted site for purchasing plant based multi vitamins and the below links are Dr Mercola's D3 and CoQ10.

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