Eli5: Why do so-called vegetable-powder pills not work as well as eating whole vegetables?

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Curious on behalf of my inner 5-year-old…

I’ve read that there is something about whole vegetables that make them more beneficial for your health, compared to eating ‘powdered’ vegetables in pills or shakes.

I’ve seen things like, “pills are unlikely to replicate the powerful, nutritional effects of whole food”, or… “supplements can help, but are not intended as a replacement for real veggies.”

But I’m confused: the (albeit not that trustworthy) marketing for powdered vegetable pills always sounds like they are literally just mashed-up and super dehydrated vegetables or something. So… if true, wouldn’t that have the same effect? Or is that a total misrepresentation of what the pills really are?

Thanks!

In: Biology

10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Fibre gets removed and fibre is essential for your microbiome (beneficial bacteria literally feed on fibre). Also the vegetable you eat has beneficial bacteria on its surface and you ingest some of that and it benefits your gut flora. Those pills can be shelf stable for ages which means things that live probably don’t survive that.

Another way to look at it is millions of years of evolution in humans and plants side by side, vs maybe 100 years of “science” related to these products. I have the same theory about breast milk vs baby formula.

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