Vitamins

[ll_billym]

Does it matter whether you get vitamins from fresh fruit / veg or from pills.  I know that it is better to eat healthily than unhealthily but are the actual vitamins themselves and the benefits gained from them different depending on the from they are taken in.

[Dacetine]

As far as I am aware a vitamin is a vitamin is a vitamin. Whether it is obtained from fruit & veg or produced synthetically the chemical composition is identical and the molecules indistinguishable from each other.

As such, the benefits should be the same in both cases (unless some other component present in food has a contributary effect e.g. affecting level of uptake of vitamins by the body).

[jake-the-peg]

Some vitamins are fat soluable and can only be absorbed by the gut if there is fat present to aid digestion.

Very high dosages of certain vitamins can be dangerous - Vitamin A is a case in point

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/LifeScience/GeneralBiology/Biochemistry/VitaminsMinerals/FatSoluble/FatSoluble.htm

[DavidUK]

I think that the absorption of vitamins and minerals into the body is a complex process and that the form of the vitamin or mineral can affect correct absorption. Also, absorption can be affected by what you take with the vitamin or mineral.

What I am getting around to saying is that I am sure that nature will have created vitamins and minerals in the best forms and with the best accompanying substances in natural foods. Having said that, though, it is probably good to get vitamins and minerals in pill form if for some reason you think you are not getting enough in food.

Unfortunately, by the time we get most of our fruit and veg it has lost much of its natural vitamins and minerals because of lengthy storage, processing and/or the fact that the soil that it is grown in is depleted of certain things (e.g selenium).

[Peter Pedant]

Definitely much better to get it from a variety of fruit and veg.

For the simple reason that if you pop a few pills and have a cr+p diet, you could get a vitamin deficiency, but if you have a vareid diet of fruit and veg then you wont.

[SerenaOrtolani]

Suitable quantity signifies that there might be insufficient or even way too much of some vitamin supplements. Nutritional consumption is really crucial that the FDA suggested everyday necessity is suggested in product labels in food items.
Source: http://www.thevitaminmag.com/