Your Nutritional and Vitamin Supplement Information Resource

posted by Ronald on Dec 9

We’re going to try and walk through the importance of the ionic form or the ionic state of a nutritional supplement.  The reason I say try is that this can get quite technical very quickly.  It is important that you understand the benefits to you and your body to have a nutritional supplement in ionic form.   I’ll put these in bullet form so that we can deal with the topic a bit easier (for me too!):

• The pill-formof nutritional supplements must have water or liquid added to convert them into a soluble that the body can digest.  It’s one of the reasons the vitamin supplement guys tell you to take your pill vitamin with an 8 ounce glass of water.  You need the liquid to break down the binder and filler materials into something that your body can digest. 
• The minerals in a liquid nutritional supplement are already in their liquid colloidal state in the digestive tract and provide all the advantages of the liquid form.  One of the advantages is you don’t need to add water and your body can begin the absorption process immediately. Your favorite liquid nutritional supplement probably recommends you to shake the bottle before pouring your serving.  The reason is to mix the nutritional elements evenly throughout the solution.  Colloidal simply means suspended in the liquid.  Shaking the bottle means the nutrients are equally distributed and suspending in the liquid.
• Metallic minerals obtained from a pill-form supplement carry a positive charge in their ionic form in solution and, in general, are just not very soluble. Scientifically, they are called hydrophobic because they are not very soluble in water.   Easy way to remember is they have a phobia against water - hydro (water) phobic!  Drinking a glass of water begins to dissolve the pill but because of the chemical processes taking place, the conversion to the right ionic form is difficult.  The result is that your body does not readily absorb the minerals from a pill-form supplement because they are not in the best form for your body to absorb them.

Now we get to the one of the most significant differences between pill and liquid forms of nutritional supplements.  The reason why you want your nutritional supplement in ionic form!

• Minerals that have been assimilated by plants are hydrophilic, so they are very water soluble (hydro-philic = I like water). This means that IF your liquid nutrtional supplement is derived from plants, like aloe vera or sea vegetables, the minerals within the supplement are very water soluble.  Because the are very water soluble they are readily absorbed by your body.  Your body receives the minerals it needs to function efficiently.
• Minerals that have been assimilated by plants are negatively charged and form direct hydrogen bonds with water. This means that as the water or liquid in your liquid nutritional supplement is absorbed so are the minerals!
• Hydrophilic plant derived minerals, which have not been destroyed by heat or acids or other chemicals, are enzymatically active and thus are highly bioavailable.  Processing a food - heating it before putting it in a can, mixing it with acids or chemicals to preserve it, and other heat related processes will kill the enzymes.  Dead enzymes don’t do anything for your body.  You need a liquid nutritional supplement that has been cold processed.  Cold processing means not heat or chemicals have been applied.  The enzymes (and amino acids) are alive.  Since they are in ionic form, extremely water soluble, and enzymatically alive, your body has the ability to absorb up to 98% of the nutrients (compared to less than 30% for pills).

The key points to remember:

• Minerals derived from plants and provided in the liquid form of a nutritional supplement, ionic, are readily absorbed by the body.
• Minerals that have been cold processed are enzymatically alive and provide more nutritional content then those that have been heated.
• Minerals that are in their ionic form and enzymatically alive can provide more nutritional benefit to your body than non-soluble pills.