When it comes to nutritional supplements, there are lots of options. Power-packed pills like capsules or tablets vs. liquid vitamins including extracts. Here are the benefits for each.

In This Healthy Insight:

• Benefits of liquid extracts
• Benefits of pills: capsules and tablets

Benefits of liquid extracts

• Ready, fast absorption. Within a minute a liquid extract touches your tongue, it gets to work in the bloodstream.
• Easy to digest. Due to a variety of reasons, certain individuals may have difficulty digesting capsules and tablets, making liquid extracts an ideal option.
• Ease of taking. Simply mix them with water, juice, tea or favorite beverage.
• Greater potency. Just the plant and its beneficial nutrients in their most potent state.
• Taste. Many of them are flavorful and soothing including Ginger, Cranberry and Green Tea.
• Flexible dose. Easily cut the dosage down to a drop or half-drop and adjust from there.
• Customized to your needs. Want to support your immune system, heart health plus digestion? Mix various liquid extracts to address each of those concerns into a single, customized dose.
• Longer shelf life. When stored in a cool, dark cabinet out of direct sunlight or near heat, liquid extracts can last two to five years.

Benefits of pills: capsules and tablets

• Commonly accepted as a typical format. Most vitamins and supplements are in capsule or tablet form.
• Often have a lower cost due to simplified manufacturing processes.
• Portability. Pills are easy to put in your pocket, purse or suitcase so you can take anywhere.
• Can offer a unique blend of custom ingredients. There are formulas that combine vitamins, minerals, herbs and other nutrients for condition-specific needs like circulation, blood pressure or digestion.
• Sometimes they’re chewable or dissolvable. This applies mainly to tablets, which can get to work right away as their ingredients are absorbed into your system.
• Easy to adapt to your needs. Capsules can be broken apart and tablets can be crushed and added to a smoothie or yogurt.
• Coated for ease of swallowing. High-quality supplements usually use inactive ingredients that assist in absorption as does the natural coating of tablets.
• Capsules are odorless and tasteless. Since all the nutrients are inside a hard gelatin, most capsules have no aroma or taste.