Connie, what a terrific question. I haven't yet found anything as user-friendly as a chart or a graph, but i did find some information.
-- Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluable vitamins, and are absorbed with fat from the intestines into the body. If you have excess, the body can store it. Because of this, a person needs to not take them in mega-doses.
-- Vitamin C and the B vitamins are water-soluable vitamins. They stay in the body only a short time.
Sally Squire of the Washington Post gives some guidelines:
"Take vitamins, both multi- and individual vitamins and minerals, at the same time each day. Don't take them all at once. Because some vitamins and minerals interact in a way that depletes absorption rates, stagger your supplements throughout the day. Take some with breakfast, some with lunch, and some with dinner. Just be consistent.
"Do not take calcium with multivitamins or zinc and iron supplements since calcium blocks their absorption. Take the latest recommended amounts, but no more. There is no scientific proof that megadoses help.
"Keep it simple. Don't bother with the time-released or sustained release vitamins. They cost more and have no apparent benefit. Think about your stomach. Some vitamins can cause stomach irritation when taken without food, such as iron and calcium, while others are best absorbed without food. Fat soluble vitamins--A, D, E, and K--should be taken with food containing some fat."
Here's a page that indexes some interactions between vitamins and herbs:
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Connie, what a terrific question. I haven't yet found anything as user-friendly as a chart or a graph, but i did find some information.
-- Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluable vitamins, and are absorbed with fat from the intestines into the body. If you have excess, the body can store it. Because of this, a person needs to not take them in mega-doses.
-- Vitamin C and the B vitamins are water-soluable vitamins. They stay in the body only a short time.
Sally Squire of the Washington Post gives some guidelines:
"Take vitamins, both multi- and individual vitamins and minerals, at the same time each day. Don't take them all at once. Because some vitamins and minerals interact in a way that depletes absorption rates, stagger your supplements throughout the day. Take some with breakfast, some with lunch, and some with dinner. Just be consistent.
"Do not take calcium with multivitamins or zinc and iron supplements since calcium blocks their absorption. Take the latest recommended amounts, but no more. There is no scientific proof that megadoses help.
"Keep it simple. Don't bother with the time-released or sustained release vitamins. They cost more and have no apparent benefit. Think about your stomach. Some vitamins can cause stomach irritation when taken without food, such as iron and calcium, while others are best absorbed without food. Fat soluble vitamins--A, D, E, and K--should be taken with food containing some fat."
Here's a page that indexes some interactions between vitamins and herbs:
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/druginteractions/A_to_Z_Index_of_DrugHer...
And here's a link to an article by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that has a little more info:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/3/162
October 17, 2008 - 9:20amThis Comment
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