Vitamin absorption into the body is something that any supplement taker should pay special attention to.

It can severely affect the usefulness of the vitamins you are taking, and, therefore, the benefits you are getting.

As you may have heard, many sellers of liquid vitamins claim their products are the best because people who take tablet form supplements just excrete the vitamins and nutrients from the body unused.

This is a good marketing gimmick, and it is partly true, but the truth goes far deeper.

Let's consider some facts...

Vitamin Absorption into the Body

Although the absorption rate for vitamin may seem important, there are other more fundamenatal issues a consumer needs to understand.

Some tablet vitamins and supplements are very cheap, mass produced and sold in supermarket chains. These supplements are made using the cheapest ingredients possible, as well as the cheapest excipients (excipients are what bind the ingredients together).

Because of the cheap excipients, the nutrients are mostly released in the stomach, and, therefore, destroyed by the stomach acids.

In the case of these very cheap supplements, 90% of the vitamins can indeed end up wasted in the toilet.

On the other end of the spectrum, though, there are companies that manufacture highly sophisticated supplements, often referred to as nutraceuticals. These companies can use extremely expensive all natural, potent ingredients and excipients.

Some of these supplements, due to these differences, have highly sophisticated delivery systems. For example, the best of them have excipients that ensure the nutrients are absorbed via the lining of the walls of the upper intestine, allowing them to enter the bloodstream, after which they are used by the body.

The best delivery system for vitamin absorption (and other nutrients in the tablet) is what is known as enteric coating. Enteric coating requires specialized technology that coats the supplement. Many expensive pharmaceutical medications also employ enteric coating technology.

What makes enteric coating so effective?

Because many powerful nutrients cannot be taken as supplements without being destroyed by the stomach acids, enteric coating protects the tablet (and therefore the nutrients) from being destroyed by the acidic PH of the stomach acids.

The tablet, therefore, can pass thru the stomach and enter the upper intestines, where the PH is more alkaline. The enteric coating is designed to then dissolve in this higher PH, allowing the nutrients to get into the bloodstream.

Now, not all nutrients need to make it thru the stomach acids, but many do. For example, powerful nutrients that can be purchased in supplements like SAMe are almost instantaneously destroyed by the stomach acids, and, therefore, require an enteric coated supplement to be effective and beneficial.

Many other nutrients in supplements are also partly or completely destroyed by stomach acids and need enteric coating.

So don't just think about vitamin absorption into the body...think about all the nutrients you may take in a supplement, especially the more sophisticated ones that have nutrients much more powerful and expensive than just vitamins, which tend to be weak antioxidants.

What's so interesting about these above facts is that although liquid vitamin sellers are correct in stating that most some tablet supplements can be excreted, largely useless, their products also often fall into the same category because liquid nutrients/vitamins cannot be enteric coated.

To learn more about enteric coating, how it works, why it's crucial for Vitamin absorption into the body visit our free resource online.