Ingrid Pilz, Naturopath
Even the best nutrients can’t go it alone
You’ve probably heard that eating a balanced diet will always win hands-down over taking individual vitamins when it comes to keeping you healthy. That’s partly because most foods contain many, many different complex nutrients, and science still hasn’t identified all of them yet (let alone everything they do). But it’s also because even when individual nutrients like vitamins or minerals have been identified, they don’t usually work on their own in our bodies. Instead they interact with each other to support the thousands of functions that go on in our bodies every day.
Four important individual nutrients that work together to support all kinds of functions in our bodies are Zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin B6 and Magnesium. In combination, these four nutrients can help to:
Of course, all four nutrients don’t have to be present together for your body to use them. Sometimes just two or three of them can work together in combination. For example:
The word “synergy” means the effects of something as a whole are greater than the effects that its individual parts would have. That’s exactly how nutrients work when you get them from fresh, wholesome food – or at minimum, from a well-balanced, high-quality multivitamin and mineral tablet. Getting your nutrients in combination with each other is the smart way to help avoid deficiencies, and help your vitamins and minerals work together synergistically.