We understand: people want to eat as naturally as possible. They want to eat food straight from the farm, grown without pesticides, and enjoy ancient grains that interact with the body in the most natural ways possible. We eat healthy ourselves, and know that what we eat, and the supplements we consume, can truly have a huge, positive impact on our health.
So while we enjoy getting most of what we need from our diet, that doesn’t also work in the real world. The fact is, raw ingredients and pills each have their advantages and disadvantages, and it’s a good idea to consider both when you’re looking for health supplements online. Can pills really be as good as eating something in its raw form? Here are a few things to think about
Pills
The Advantages
- One of the most obvious advantages of pills is that they are extremely convenient to use. All you have to do is take a few with you in your pocket or purse wherever you go, and they’re ready to take before a meal. They take up less space in your house and don’t need to be refrigerated.
- You can have them shipped straight to your house. One of the big problems with fresh versions of the supplements is that you might have to seek them out in specialty grocery stores, and even then they might not always have them on hand. Have you tried to find fresh horny goat weed at your local Safeway? It ain’t happenin!
- Speaking of horny goat weed, pills have the advantage of being more discreet. Horny goat weed supplements are much easier purchase online than asking for them at a specialty market. Because we all know what it’s used for.
- They last. While every pharmaceutical grade supplement has a “best if used by” date, they’re certainly going to last longer than your average fresh items.
- They go down easier. Garcinia Cambogia fruits might be good in sour curries, but you probably don’t want to eat sour curries every day. Some fruits found in supplements aren’t even edible until they are cooked, making pills an even more obvious choice.
The Disadvantages
- You have to be careful where you get your pills from. Pills from foreign countries might not adhere to the same strict standards as those from the best-quality supplement brands in American.
- You can’t see inside pills. Even if you grind them up, you’re never sure you’re getting what they claim to be unless you get them from a top supplement brand. Without an expensive DNA test, you’ll never know whether you’re getting Ceylon Cinnamon supplements, regular cinnamon supplement, or a sugar pill! (Go with a reputable brand and you can rest assured you’re getting what’s on the label.)
Raw
The Advantages
- When you eat something raw, you can see what you’re eating. If you can find horny goat weed, you can make sure that’s what it is by referencing it against a trusted online plant identification site. Unfortunately, you can’t see what’s inside pills.
- Sometimes a plant can have additional benefits that go away when they are distilled into plant form. Perhaps there was some soluble fiber that the pill-making process eliminates, or some vitamins or minerals are lost when the pill is made.
The Disadvantages
- Raw ingredients are hard to find. As we discussed in our blog about how supplements are discovered, one of the most common ways is by seeking out traditional medicine from foreign lands. That often means that the raw materials are native to areas across the world, making fresh versions of the supplements very hard to get in the United States.
- Even fresh supplements can be iffy. If you’re not an expert, it can be difficult to tell the difference between regular old cinnamon and true Ceylon cinnamon. If a certain supplement was flown in fresh, you don’t know what circumstances it was grown under, if they used forced labor, or if foreign pesticides were applied.
- It’s a lot of calories. Every fruit and vegetable you eat contains calories, which many of us are trying to cut back on. To get the high amount of probiotics you’ll find in our natural probiotic supplements, you’d have to eat many, many cups of yogurt, taking in all of those calories at the same time.
- It could lead to an upset stomach. When pills are made, they are extracting the beneficial aspects and often doing away with parts that could hurt you in too high a dosage. After all, bananas are full of potassium, but too many can make you constipated. If you’re looking for a lot of potassium, it’s better to take a potassium supplement rather than eat 12 bananas!
- You’re not getting the combos. Sometimes beneficial supplements go well together, and we put them in the same pill so that you can get both at once. Take our high-quality turmeric supplements, for instance. They are filled with curcumin, but by adding BioPerine, a top-tier black pepper extract, it improves absorption of the curcumin pill’s beneficial properties by nearly 200-percent. That’s something you can’t get from raw true cinnamon.
- It doesn’t always travel well. Sure, you can suck on a Ceylon Cinnamon stick (if you can find it), but it’s kind of hard to take a Garcinia Cambogia fruit as a snack!
We know what you might be thinking: “of course they’re going to recommend pharmaceutical-grade supplements; that’s what they sell!” We understand, but we also believe that it often makes the most sense to turn to a trusted source when you’re looking for a specialized supplement. Sure, if you’re just looking for fiber, eat some kale or beans. If you need protein, enjoy some soy or some beans. (Beans are awesome!)
But when it comes to specialized supplements with ingredients that might come from foreign countries, it’s just easier, and, in many cases safer, to go with a top supplement brand. Not only can be ensure that the pills are processed properly, but we can also vet the ingredients to make sure that they are coming from reputable sources. Find everything you need right here!