We Eat Food, Not Nutrients: Isolated Molecules vs Whole Foods

Humans evolved to eat food. Until archaeologists discover the remnants of an ancient supplement store buried in the African savannah, we are forced to believe this course of events. We evolved by experimenting with different foods, learning from trial and error. Recently, we've started focusing more on individual nutrients and overlooking the complexity of food.

Why don’t we eat grass and rocks?

Grass is rich in essential nutrients like calcium and magnesium. Yet, we intuitively don’t eat it because humans have insufficient enzymes to break down the cellulose holding the structure together. Further, if we have an iron deficiency, why can’t we simply eat an 8mg rock of iron ore?

These questions clarify a fundamental aspect of human biology: we evolved specific mechanisms to absorb combinations of nutrients within whole food structures. Together, these create food form, texture, and matrix, and this is how our bodies recognise nutrients (1).

Isolated molecules

Isolated molecules refer to individual nutrients that are extracted or synthesised from their original source, often from whole foods. These nutrients are typically sold in the form of supplements or fortified foods, providing a concentrated dose of specific vitamins, minerals, or other bioactive compounds. While isolated molecules offer precise dosing and targeted supplementation, they lack the complex matrix of compounds present in whole foods, which may have synergistic effects on absorption, metabolism, and overall health.

Health Claims

Walking down the supplement aisle of the local chemist, we find just about every bioactive molecule has been isolated and crushed into a powder or pill and packed into a plastic bottle, each with a list of health claims.

• Helps maintain cholesterol and lipids.

• Helps maintain blood vessel health.
  

Only $36 for 100 capsules!

Men’s 50+ multivitamin

• Supports vitality, immunity, heart health + mental performance.
  

Only $14.49 for 90 capsules!

How do they prove this product can do all these amazing things? Who cares, a ripped old guy is exercising with a huge smile in their ads.

A personal favourite is “immunity support”. What does that even mean?

If you get sick, can you ask for a refund? If you eventually get better, will they say it was because it supported our immunity?

So the only way we can say the product didn’t work is if we die. In which case you probably have bigger issues than claiming your $14.49 refund. That’s good marketing.

So do they work?

The claims are quite substantial so they must work, right? Many multivitamin users claim that they make them feel better and report better health, despite no evidence of measurable differences.

Research suggests this may simply be due to the placebo effect (2) and no association has been discovered between supplement use and improved mortality (3).

Are supplement companies lying?

Maybe not lying, but using a combination of facts and vague terminology that are impossible to disprove.

Take this B complex vitamin for example:

• Fact: Most B vitamins are coenzymes involved in energy metabolism reactions.

• Claim on label: Supports energy levels and stress response

Notice it doesn’t say “increases energy levels”. There’s no real metric by which to prove or disprove these claims. We indeed need B vitamins to produce energy and energy is indeed required for a stress response. But there is nothing inherently special about the product. They’re just referencing real physiological processes and saying that our product has something that is part of those processes.

The problem is that they don’t actually need to work in order to sell them legally. They just can’t make people sick.

An excerpt from the Therapeutic Goods Administration website reads:

“Most vitamins fall into the category of low-risk complementary medicines, which means that the TGA regulates their safety and quality only.”

We have so much faith in our healthcare system that most people don’t realise how poorly regulated these industries are. Most of you reading this are probably learning this for the first time.

So why don't we hear about this?

Because when people learn how laissez-faire the regulations are…

...instead of telling people, they start a supplement company!  

The Complexity of Digestion

It's easy to focus solely on nutrients and assume digestion begins in the stomach, but the process is far more complex. Digestion starts with the cephalic phase, triggered by seeing, thinking about, or smelling food. This early stage prompts the release of digestive enzymes in anticipation of nutrients. Chewing and touching food further prepare the body for nutrient absorption, with taste and texture playing crucial roles.

The Whole Food Matrix

Whole foods offer a rich blend of nutrients, phytochemicals, fibre, and bioactive compounds working together in harmony, a concept known as food synergy (4). Take an apple, for instance: it provides Vitamin C, fibre, antioxidants, and other micronutrients that collectively enhance health. This intricate interplay of components is more beneficial than isolated nutrients.

Absorption and Bioavailability

While some isolated nutrients might be absorbed more quickly, most are often excreted because the body doesn't recognise them as it does whole foods. The complex matrix of whole foods, despite sometimes lower bioavailability due to fibre or anti-nutrients, aligns with our evolutionary biology for nutrient extraction.

Counterargument

There are circumstances where supplements may help. High-latitude locations can affect vitamin D levels, bodybuilders may see performance improvements from isolated creatine, and individual malabsorptive issues may require large quantities of supplementation. But these cases are rare, and they are not the biggest market for supplements. Most people supplementing with isolated molecules don’t live in Greenland or have malabsorption mutations.

An argument could be made that most people today are living in food swamps full of low-nutrient-dense and ultra-processed foods. The soil our food grows on is less nutritious than that of the soil our ancestors evolved on. Therefore, isolated molecules may have a place in modern diets because the average diet is of such poor quality.

But if someone is eating takeaway twice a week and buying lunch from the service station, then takes a cabinet full of supplements to meet their nutrient requirements. That doesn’t mean the supplements are miracle pills, it simply means their baseline health was so poor to begin with that anything with some semblance of nutrition would have helped.

Final thought

The surge in supplement use, often without solid evidence, is concerning. While isolated nutrients may have specific uses, they can't compare to the benefits of whole foods. Our bodies are designed to extract nutrients from whole foods, a process honed over millions of years. We don't need nutrients in expensive powder or pill form to rectify our deficiencies. Deficiencies arise from poor diets, not from a lack of supplements. We should focus on the natural extraction of nutrients from food, appreciating the process as much as the nutrients themselves.