Taking and Storing Nutritional Supplements

How to Take Nutritional Supplements:

One of the most important parts of using nutritional supplements is how you actually go about ingesting them. Foremost, it is important to make a commitment to actually ingest your nutritional substances and not let them sit on the shelf. Nutritional supplements confer health benefits only when taken on a regular basis and in some cases benefits are not realized until after months of regular ingestion.

Secondly, it is vital that the proper amount of the supplement is ingested. All supplements will have an optimal dosage with too little giving no health benefit while too much is either a waste or detrimental to health. This will vary both to the type of supplement, such as Vitamin D vs. Vitamin C , and to the form in which is packaged (capsule, liquid, powder).

The consumer can get a general idea of how many pills or drops to take by reading the directions on the label, for example: “take two tablets two times a day with food” or “take on an empty stomach”.

In the case of fat soluble vitamins, they must be taken with some food that contains some fat in it in order for them to be absorbed properly. Also, in the case of water soluble antioxidants like Vitamin C, it’s important to take divided doses three times a day (morning, afternoon and night). Also divided doses of smaller amounts of antioxidants over the course of the day is better than taking a single high dose of an antioxidant in the morning. High doses of antioxidants taken in one shot can actually act as a pro-oxidant, which is deleterious to health.

One must be careful when combining vitamin formulas in which a mixture of nutritional compounds are contained in one pill with other single ingredient supplements in order not to take potentially harmful amounts. This is especially important with trace minerals like selenium and the fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A and D.

How to Store Nutritional Supplements:

It is highly important to store your precious nutritional supplements where they will not be compromised. By following the simple steps below you will insure that you keep your nutritional supplements safe and potent:

*Avoid excessive heat, light and moisture.

*While it might seem like a good idea to store vitamins and nutritional supplements in your refrigerator, it may have detrimental effects due to moisture condensing in the opened bottle each time they are removed from the fridge and opened. While this could be avoided by allowing the bottles to come to room temperature before opening, it’s inconvenient and time consuming.

*Remove and discard cotton plug from bottle upon opening since it can absorb moisture from the air.

*At all costs do not store them in your medicine cabinet in your bathroom. Excessive moisture and heat from the shower and sink can easily get into the supplement bottles.

*I keep mine in the kitchen cabinet away from the stove.