Dear Friends,
Unlike vitamin C or vitamin D, there isn’t a single vitamin B. Eight different vitamins make up the vitamin B family.
Since many of these B vitamins work together to support different body functions, taking a B vitamin complex that gives you all eight B vitamins together in a supplement is recommended.
B vitamins are found in many foods, the challenge is they are pretty delicate and get destroyed easily, particularly during the cooking process.
The B vitamin content in raw vegetables can decline by as much as 80% or 90% once cooked.
Food processing also can result in a decline in B vitamin content– they can either be destroyed or the food parts with the B vitamins may be removed during processing. Grains are a good example of this.
The bottom line is many of us fail to get enough of the B vitamins needed daily to support heathy aging, which is why B vitamin supplements are popular and often recommended by healthcare providers.
How B Vitamins Support Our Health
Let’s review some of the key ways B vitamins support and benefit our health. The first of these is cellular health, including supporting the creation of cellular energy.
You often see B vitamins added to energy drinks to help you feel like you have extra energy.
This is more marketing than truth. If you feel energized or more alert after drinking an energy drink, that’s the caffeine or sugar creating a temporary buzz, not the B vitamins.
The B vitamins are not a direct fuel source for your body. They do play an important role in turning the nutrients we get from food into energy that cells can use as a power source.
The carbohydrates, fat and protein you eat can be metabolized or converted into cellular energy, and the B vitamins support that process throughout the day.
So unless you’re completely depleted of B vitamins – which is extremely unlikely – that short term energy buzz you may feel from energy drinks, is likely from the stimulants, not the B vitamins.
In addition to supporting the creation of cellular energy from food nutrients, the B vitamins also support many other cellular health functions.
They help create red blood cells which is important for immune system function and the transportation of oxygen throughout the body.
Plus the B vitamins help your body make new DNA genetic material, which allows cells to multiply.
B vitamins are also important during pregnancy and more recent research is finding they can be helpful for fertility in women and men.
Homocysteine Support for Brain and Cardiovascular Health
Another key function of B vitamins is helping to keep an amino acid called homocysteine in a normal range.
Homocysteine is a byproduct of protein being metabolized in the body. High levels can be harmful, so the body has a process (involving certain B vitamins) to convert homocysteine into beneficial amino acids the body needs.
A normal homocysteine level in the blood is less than 15 micromoles/liter, and many researchers believe being below 10 micromoles/liter is more ideal to support healthy aging.
The three B vitamins your body uses to keep homocysteine in a normal range are folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6, so it’s very important to make sure your body is getting these vitamins, including the right forms of folate and vitamin B12 (more on this in a bit).
B vitamins are often linked to better cardiovascular health and cognitive function as we age, and a key reason for this is helping to keep homocysteine in check.
When you have too much homocysteine in the blood, it can damage blood vessels and hurt blood flow. This can affect heart and brain function, as well as many other parts of the body that depend on healthy blood flow.
This is why one of the most important functions of B vitamins is supporting healthy homocysteine levels.
Choosing a Good B Vitamin Supplement
As you just read, there are many reasons to make sure your body always has adequate amounts of the B vitamins available each day, which is why taking a good quality B vitamin makes sense.
Most B vitamin supplements are made with synthetic vitamins, but we recommend taking a plant-based B vitamin complex, where the B vitamins come from whole food sources, which most closely replicates how we get these vitamins from diet.
In nature and in our food, vitamins don’t exist in isolation, they are surrounded by nutrient co-factors that help your body use vitamins most optimally.
Synthetic B vitamins do not contain these nutritional co-factors, limiting their value as a supplement.
The TrueB supplement we make at NatureCity is different because the B vitamins are sourced from USDA certified organic plants: organic guava fruit, organic holy basil, organic lemon peel and organic sesbania.
The B vitamins are surrounded by co-nutrients also found in the plant, which is how our bodies are accustomed to getting vitamins from diet. This is why we think it’s the best way to go.
We do fortify the plant-based vitamins with two important additions.
The first is active vitamin B12 in the methylcobalamin form. As you may know, plants don’t contain B12 (or at best have trace amounts), which is why we added methylcobalamin to TrueB.
As the name suggests methylcobalamin has been methylated, so it’s active and ready to use, your body does not have to convert the B12 to the active form.
This conversion can be more challenging for our bodies as we age, which is why we provide the already methylated form of B12.
Similarly, we fortify the natural folates in TrueB that come from the plants with active folate in the form of 5-methylfolate from the Quatrefolic brand.
The methylation or conversion of some folates from food and folic acid (which is synthetic) to active folate that our bodies can use is a struggle for about 30% to 40% of the population.
These folks (including yours truly) have a genetic variant that makes this conversion really challenging.
Given the importance of active folate to help keep homocysteine in a normal range, and many other things, we added 5-methlyfolate to the natural folates to make sure everyone can benefit.
We don’t recommend using folic acid as a supplement. Even if you don’t have the genetic variant I mentioned, 5-methylfolate is superior in our view.
We think the combination of organic plant-based B vitamins plus active folate and B12, makes TrueB the ideal B vitamin complex to take as your supplement.
Yours for Good Health,
Carl Pradelli
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