Why can’t I just take a supplement? Doesn’t that give me the same health benefits as eating a plate of vegetables? I often get questions like this from patients, and the answer is…it’s complicated. That’s because on one hand no amount of supplements can replace a good diet in terms of phytonutrients, macro nutrient balance, etc. But on the other hand, even the best of diets can leave you depleted of some key nutrients.
When there is a readily available food source, the nutrients from natural foods sit in complexes that are overall better absorbed and better utilized by the body than those from a supplemental pill. Food, particularly plant-based, whole food, cannot be replaced. As Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” For example, an extract loses the synergy of everything around it in the food it came from. Hence, when a particular vitamin, mineral, enzyme, antioxidant, or phytonutrient is isolated and made into a pill, you miss out on the important sister compounds found in the original whole food source. But there are many factors to consider.
