Water soluble are all the commoners you know and probably already take – all the B’s and C. Water-soluble vitamins are carried to the body’s tissues but are not stored. They are found in plant and animal foods or dietary supplements and must be taken in daily. Whether it’s a tablet, liquid or injection, these vitamins are flushed out within a few hours (this includes vitamin B injections). Their effects might last a few days, but water soluble vitamins should be ingested daily.
Fat soluble vitamins are a whole group on their own, re-emerging in importance (after our low-fat lifestyles have left us mortally deficient). A, D, E and K are Fat-soluble vitamins and will not be lost when the foods that contain them are cooked.
The body does not need these vitamins every day and stores them in the liver and adipose (fat) tissue when not used; there is, therefore, a risk of toxicity from supplementing megadoses, and one should do so only under the beady eye of a Functional Medicine Practitioner who knows how and what to test.
Taking water soluble B & C is not complicated, because all you need is water and the rest is your biology doing what it does best – using what it needs and eliminating the excess and metabolites. Fat Soluble vitamins are a whole different kettle of fish (literally 😊). When taken incorrectly they cannot be utilised and end up being stored to the point of toxicity. Fat soluble supplements are very often poor quality, synthetic polymers (!) or the incorrect FORM, so it’s important that you buy your supplements from someone who knows what the differences are. We’ll talk more about using and utilising fat soluble vitamins in our next blog…