Take food based or herbal supplements
Most people do not eat a diet that gives them the width and breadth of sound nutrition so they need to take supplements. Just as a copy of a Picasso is not the same as an original, even though it may LOOK the same, supplements from a science beaker will not give you the health benefits that you would get from the real deal.
Biochemistry students learn that vitamins do not exist as single components that act on their own. Vitamins are made up of enzymes, co-enzymes, and co-factors that must work together to produce their intended biologic effects. Vitamins that are found naturally in whole foods come with all of their necessary components.
Most vitamin supplements sold are made from synthetic vitamins and these are made from isolated parts of the vitamins naturally found in food so you will never get the associated micro-nutrients. Petroleum and Coal Tar have carbon atoms, which are basic to all organic matter, and these cheap resources are used to reconstruct a vitamin molecule chemically. Now add the synthetic pill coatings, fillers, and artificial colorings and flavoring, and you will see how far that supplement is from anything real.
Many herbs can be used for their nutritional and medicinal properties. Nettles are a good source of vitamins A, C, and D, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium. Many commonly used drugs have sought to replicate the medicinal quality of an herb. Chemists isolated a molecule found in Willow, added an acid to it and came up with salicylic acid, aspirin. The same theory applies to herbs as to vitamins from food: natural is your best choice.
