After some preliminary research, I’ve found the consensus to be that you can’t replace fruits and vegetables with multi-vitamins and fiber supplements. But, I can’t find an adequate answer for why this is. What does the food offer that the vitamins don’t (aside from macronutrients that could be attained from foods other than fruits and vegetables)? It seems logical that they wouldn’t be interchangeable – just looking for a more specific answer.
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A diamond and graphite are made out of the exact same elements, its just the structure that is different between the two.
Fruits and vegetables have been around for a long time and our bodies have evolved to digest them. They carry more and different proteins and amino acids. They have certain types of bacteria and fiber and sugars all that change the way you digest them. At the end of the day, vegetables are almost always going to be better but certain people with deficiencies are going to need to take a vitamin especially if your body is already having problems metabolizing certain molecules. So, you mentioned the macro nutrients and that really is the just of it. There is a major structural difference between the pill and food and it is exactly that structural difference that causes the change in digestion. Ever since the pill enters your mouth and you swallow it, it begins the digestive process differently than food. That is why pills can be hard to swallow because your body subconsciously chews food up into little balls that nerds call bolus that is the right shape for your throat muscles and stomach density. Long story short the digestive system is a very long and complex system that is effected majorly over time even by “seemingly” small changes. To satisfy your question about something different than macro nutrients its the combination of those nutrients. People can eat something and it not be very good for them but in certain combinations certain amino acids and proteins break down better for example, eating rice and beans together is way better than just eating rice and beans separately. With a vitamin you have no chance of making these combinations of macro nutrients. To be any more specific would be to pick a specific amino acid and follow it through the cells throughout the body which is sometimes a headache tracking it throughout the body.
Awesome question btw, once I asked my chemistry teacher which types of vitamins are better than others for whatever reason and she looked at me crazy and said, “just eat vegetables.” lol and after years of studying biology later I realize your entire body is just to break down food and feed the brain. Most your body is supporting your digestive system and over time your diet majorly effects all systems in the body.
So, great question! With a question like this if you can’t find an explanation chances are we simply don’t know yet. Remember that the field of biochemistry (which is what you’re asking about) is BRAND new compared to other fields, like about a hundred years old. Compare that to physics which is about 550 years old. We are only just beginning to take our first steps out of the cave and grasp the biochemical world we live in, even more so when it comes to nutrition science.
Part of this is due to the Multivitamin industry being simply terrible and not actually providing you with what you need. However, some micronutrients like Vitamin C are volitile and don’t take well to preservation or cooking.
I have a long standing issue with anemia. As a teen I was ordered on iron pills to help. Fell away from it over time. Now in my forties I am back on them just so I can donate blood. If I don’t, I am turned away for low iron. So the only pill I can really speak to are iron pills, they work. I’m know nothing about the rest of the garbage on the market, so I don’t take it. Veggies all the way.
For example in multivitamins they use ascorbic acid they make out of corn starch. Commonly known as vit c. They sell you just acid. You dont get the whole complex vit c. Like that it cant work anything good for you except making things sour. You piss it away.
I believe there are several things at play.
1: Fruit and vegetables come with a whole lot of other substances that are good for your health.
2: Fruit and vegetables are made up of a complex matrix which gets digested more slowly so that vitamins have more time to be absorbed.
3: Fruit and vegetables may offer combinations of nutrients that enhace absorption.
4: Research is limited. I think many vitamin studies look into the effect of only one or two vitamins at once. They will be given in high doses whereas all other nutrients will remain on a relatively low dosage (i.e. no supplementation at all). I think this skews research results as it could provoke a relative vitamin deficiency in some of the other non-supplemented vitamins. Thus, the studies might show that vitamins are bad for you when it’s really just poor study design.
5: Who knows who did most of the research? If the pharma industry financed most of the research, I daresay they would not find much good in vitamins. Similar things happened with milk and sugar.
You can think of the digestive tract as a computer that has software. And it has different modes, different algorithms, for different foods. It will notice wether you eat meat or fruits and load different software modes accordingly. But it has never seen a pill in its millions of years of evolution. So the absorption is far from perfect and it basically does not know what to do with it, so we really do not know what happens to the pill or the vitamins during digestion. We can only measure levels in the blood. There are some benefits for people who can not eat certain foods, or maybe have an actual deficiency for whatever reason. But for most people it is better to go with the natural source.
edit: Also the bacteria on the natural food is often beneficial, as another answer pointed out.
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