Nutraceuticals - What are they?

1. Blog Home
2. Nutraceuticals - What are they?

Thoughts from Ginny 😊-

We have a lot of patients ask WHY the supplements we carry in the office are better than ones you can get at the grocery store. Dr. Enix explains because there are nutraceuticals that are of a quality that you can only buy from a physician. Yes I know you can find them on ebay or Amazon but those resellers are registered doctors with the company and should be reselling at the same price the supplement company sets as the retail price but controlling that is hard.

Anyways, I always grin when he says nutraceutical because most people don’t have that great of a poker face and I can see the look of curiosity every time. So I thought I’d start sharing some of the things I’ve gleaned over the 15 years of being a patient and then an employee of Dr. Enix’s.

The actual definition of a nu·tra·ceu·ti·cal is a food containing health-giving additives and having medicinal benefit.

In traditional medicine they use pharmaceuticals, which are substances used in the treatment of disease, and usually comes from a synthetic source. We prefer nutraceuticals which are used in the prevention of disorders and come from natural sources.

Nutraceuticals are also called functional foods. These products can be single nutrients like Vitamin C. Or they can be dietary supplements such as a multiple vitamin/mineral combined together.

There are a lot of nutraceutical companies out there, but they are not all equal. We carry Metagenics and Xymogen and sometimes Advanced Biologics because they are way above the standard and don’t use fillers in their products. There have been numerous articles written about some of the brands in grocery stores, etc…having very little of the actual product and a lot of fillers. Some are actually so bad they will pass right thru your digestive tract whole. Ew!

The FDA has come out with new daily recommendations on what we should have. It looks like a lot but a really good multi can cover most of it. I’ve included the list below and hope that you have found this information helpful.

Yours in GREAT health!

Ginny

Posted In: Health