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You’ve heard the cliché, “when you have your health, you have everything.” It has never been more evident than in these past few years. Diet is foundational for your overall health and wellness. Yet, most people do not consume adequate levels of nutrients to support their overall wellness. (1) However, according to the latest data, nearly 60 percent of American adults do consume dietary supplements. That number increases with age. More than 80 percent of adults over age 60 take dietary supplements regularly. (2)
Not a fan of taking several pills each day? The good news is that supplements are available in a variety of delivery forms. From capsules to chewable tablets, to drinkable liquids and powders, finding your preferred delivery form can make daily supplementation much easier.
Moreover, different supplement delivery forms offer unique benefits. For example, some nutrients are more bioavailable when formulated in liquid or powder form (versus capsules or tablets).
Here at Seeking Health, we offer a variety of delivery methods: vegetarian capsules, chewable tablets, lozenges, softgels, powders, liquids, and liposomal. We select the delivery method based on the nutrient to offer you the best bioavailability possible.†
If you’re unsure what delivery method is best for you, this article explores what you need to know.
Once you decide to take supplements, the next decision is to choose the ideal delivery system to match your lifestyle.
The definition of a delivery system is “the method by which you consume nutrients.”
Delivery system methods range from traditional tablets to newer choices like liposomes, and several options in between. Perhaps most importantly, the delivery method helps determine how ingredients are released and absorbed by your body.
You can swallow only so many capsules in a day, right? This “pill fatigue” can result in poor compliance and waste your hard-earned money. But there is a better, more cost-effective way. At Seeking Health, you have many options to avoid being overwhelmed with a mountain of tablets. Our supplements are available as:
If you take supplements, you want to make sure they’re reaching your bloodstream and target tissues. Just because you take vitamins does not mean your body is absorbing the nutrients. That’s where bioavailability comes in. Bioavailability refers to how well or how much of the nutrients are absorbed by your body.
Bioavailability is essential to get the full health potential from supplements.
Two-piece capsules are one of the most common and popular delivery forms for dietary supplements. When you take a capsule, your body breaks down the outer shell leaving the powdered nutrients to digest. There used to only be gelatin-based capsules that contained animal components. But now, plant-based capsules offer a great vegetarian alternative.
Seeking Health’s vegetarian capsules are derived from non-GMO plant-based cellulose. They are: (3)
Two-piece capsules are versatile. If you have difficulty swallowing, you can open up a capsule and sprinkle the contents into your favorite drink or onto applesauce. Benefits of vegetarian capsules:†
Unlike the two-piece capsule form filled with a powdered blend, softgels are filled with a liquid mixture of nutrients. Softgels are produced with a semi-flexible outer shell. Some people may find them more comfortable to swallow than capsule or tablet form. The stomach rapidly breaks down the gelatin shell. Another advantage of softgels is that they have virtually no taste, odor, or aftertaste. Softgel capsules are ideal for oils and liquid forms of fat-soluble active ingredients such as fish oils and vitamin E. This delivery form is fully encapsulated which helps protect sensitive ingredients from external elements.
Benefits of softgels:
Although you may think that chewable vitamins are only for children, they are great for adults as well. Vitamin supplements in a chewable tablet form are ideal if you cannot, or prefer not to, swallow tablets or capsules. Traditional, non-chewable tablets have tightly compacted nutrients. It can be difficult for stomach acids and digestive enzymes to break them down. But when you consume a chewable tablet, the digestive process is quickly kick-started. Chewing prepares the nutrients for rapid absorption. There are no coatings, encasings, or protective encapsulation to get in the way. Chewable tablets are a highly effective method for delivering nutrients. Seeking Health offers a variety of delicious chewable supplements with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Benefits of chewable tablets:
You may not think of a lozenge as a nutritional supplement delivery system, but they are a quick and easy way to receive nutrients. They are also convenient since you don’t need water to swallow the product. Allowing the lozenge to dissolve in your mouth exposes the nutrients to saliva enzymes. When swallowed, this facilitates much faster absorption in the digestive tract. When delivered in a lozenge, the ingredients do not have to wait to be digested like they would with tablets. Even better, a slow-melting lozenge continues to release the ingredients a bit at a time. Lozenges are less likely to get degraded by stomach acids, which may allow them to be more bioavailable.
Benefits of lozenges:
If swallowing any form of a tablet is difficult, powdered forms are a great alternative. Since the ingredients are designed to be mixed into a liquid and consumed as a drink, powdered nutrients are rapidly released for absorption.
Powders are superstars when it comes to bioavailability.
The nutrients are quickly available because powders do not have casings or outer shells that need to be broken down first. The typical excipients, fillers, additives, and binders found in tablets are not necessary for powder formulations. Plus, powders also offer an easy way to control the dosage for your individual needs. If you decide on a powder delivery system, remember that you want to mix with cold liquids, not hot, since heat can damage the vital nutrients packed into the powder.
Benefits of powders:
When you want your dietary supplement to go down smoothly, choosing a liquid delivery form may be your best bet. The objective of every supplement is to be broken down for use by the body. Liquid vitamins and drops are one of the most readily absorbed delivery methods. A liquid vitamin supplement formula can be rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream soon after you consume it. Medical studies have shown that liquid or drops have faster absorption rates and are more easily digestible. (4) Liquid dosages can be easily adjusted. This can be beneficial to serve multiple family members, making liquids a cost-effective decision.
Benefits of liquids:
Have you heard about liposomal supplements? Easily confused with liquids, liposomal products are one of the most readily-available delivery methods for your body.† A liposome is a tiny phospholipid vesicle that mimics the body’s own cell structure. That means the active ingredients in liposomal supplements are easily absorbed inside your cells. This occurs in part because liposomal delivery protects fragile ingredients and supports the digestion and absorption of nutrients.†(5) In addition, by encapsulating nutrients, liposomes may guard against sensitive ingredients being prematurely broken down and degraded. This process allows more nutrients to be used by the body.†
At Seeking Health, we are pioneering liposomal delivery for supplements. (6) Our liposomal formulas are composed of non-hydrogenated phospholipids, derived from GMO-free sunflower oil. We understand that the liposomal delivery method has many advantages, especially when it comes to antioxidants, like vitamin C.
Benefits of liposomals:†
When you pick up a dietary supplement bottle of any type, you’ll notice a lot of information on the back panel of the label. This includes the level of each nutrient as well as the daily serving size. Serving sizes may indicate one or more capsules, lozenges, scoops of powder, etc. each day. This occurs with some of the Seeking Health formulations. To optimize the benefits of certain supplements, a large serving size may be required. Effective doses of some vitamins and minerals such as calcium, folate, and Vitamin C, may require multiple servings. Some nutrients require higher servings because of the vital roles they play in supporting the body.†
For example, Seeking Health Optimal Prenatal and Optimal Multivitamin Plus are comprehensive formulations that deliver optimal levels of each nutrient. Each vitamin, mineral, and herb takes up space in a capsule. In order for us to include such a broad spectrum of ingredients, multiple capsules are necessary.
When you’re serious about supporting your long-term health, you should be picky about your supplement delivery method. Your priority is to choose the delivery method that is best for your lifestyle. The worst supplement you can buy is one that you can’t take on a regular basis. While most dietary supplements have been sold as capsules, there are new, optimized delivery options available. Chewable tablets, lozenges, liquids, liposomes, and powders are viable alternatives for anyone who doesn’t want to swallow a lot of pills. The variety of delivery forms allows you to be comfortable and consistent with daily supplements to support your overall wellness. Seeking Health offers an assortment of high-quality supplements in several easy-to-take delivery methods. Visit our website and shop all products to find the formulation that best suits your individual needs. You can search our products by delivery method by clicking the box on the left-hand side of the page.
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