Each of us wants to be healthy, and therefore makes every effort to this. Someone does exercises in the morning, someone devotes most of their time to drawing up a healthy diet, and someone actively combines both. Nevertheless, there are things in the world that the human body cannot do without - these are useful minerals and vitamins. They come to us with food and are absorbed, giving the body the necessary vitality, a charge of vigor and good mood. Due to the violation of the environment and the constantly occurring stress in our life, we need such energy more and more, and vitamins in food are becoming less and less. That is why mankind has invented their synthetic substitutes - vitamin complexes and biologically active additives. Today we will try to figure out what is the difference between them.
Definition
Vitamins contain in vegetables, fruits and other food products, however, this is the term used today to call the vitamin complex (VC), which is produced synthetically and is absorbed in the body to a lesser extent. Our body is so arranged that it absorbs vitamins only in combination with food: fats, proteins, carbohydrates and fiber. That is why VK is recommended to be taken with meals, at this time they act as biological catalysts. Since they belong to drugs, they must undergo thorough clinical trials, first on animals, then on human volunteers. In this case, everything is studied - their absorption, excretion routes, metabolism. Huge amounts of money are spent on such research.
Dietary supplements (biologically active additives) are a broader concept, they include both vitamin-mineral complexes and food substitutes (for example, protein cocktails, protein isolates), instant teas, and liquid concentrates (such as aloe juice). Today in Russia, compositions of several medicinal herbs are quite popular, which are used to prevent diseases of various organs and systems. It is worth noting that the products of competent companies really retain biological activity, since gentle technologies are used in the processing of raw materials.
Comparison
Based on the above, we can conclude that vitamins (VC) are drugs, and dietary supplements are not. Buying vitamins, we can assume how our body will behave when using them, buying dietary supplements - we cannot know this for sure, since we do not know the ways of its distribution in the body, the mechanism of action, side effects, ways of excretion. Medicines are sold in a pharmacy, dietary supplements are most often distributed by network companies.
The main difference between vitamins is that a fixed amount of the active substance is contained in them in a dose that is optimal for most patients. Dietary supplements do not belong to drugs, and therefore it is not possible to find out their exact formula and the amount of active substance. Their manufacturers have only proven that they are harmless to the body. Unlike drugs that contain the active substance in therapeutic doses (that is, in doses that cause the necessary pharmacotherapeutic effect in most patients), dietary supplements contain the active substance in subtherapeutic doses that do not cause this effect. All over the world, dietary supplements are much cheaper than drugs because much less money is spent on testing them.
Conclusions TheDifference.ru
- Vitamins are drugs, dietary supplements are not.
- Vitamins are undergoing appropriate clinical trials, dietary supplements are not.
- Vitamin complexes include vitamins in therapeutic doses, dietary supplements - in subtherapeutic doses.
- In Russia today, dietary supplements are several times more expensive than vitamins, although in everything the situation looks exactly the opposite.
