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What do you think about supplementing with food-based forms of vitamin C such as camu camu berry, acerola, etc.?

Chris: I think in many cases it’s best to supplement with the forms of nutrients that are as close to what we get in food as possible, and there are multiple reasons for that. But one is that those are the forms that our bodies are accustomed to absorbing, and many of the food-based forms have cofactors and enzymes in addition to the nutrient itself that help us to absorb that nutrient. Another reason is safety. We’ve been eating the nutrients in food for many, many years—thousands of years or thousands of generations, even. And so we know that our bodies process them well and they’re safe for us, but that’s not always the case with supplemental forms of nutrients. Calcium is maybe the best example of that. Supplemental calcium is actually associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and kidney stones, and it doesn’t benefit our bones, whereas dietary calcium does. That’s one example but there are many others.

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