Open Shake Tap Gulp

Let me ask you, do you know the proper way to ingest your vitamins? I do...now.

One of my athletes is a vitamin guru.  He's worked in the supplement industry for years and years, and helped get several vitamins and OTC drugs into that giant metropolis known as COSTCO.  Needless to say he's got a stockpile of extremely large bottles of Omega 3 and magnesium, well, you name it, in his pantry.  

When I expressed an interest in his knowledge, he showed up at our hike on Wednesday with an arsenal of hand-picked vitamins and minerals just for me.  I proceeded to rip off the paper safety label and shake some CQ10s into the palm of my hand, only to hear him sigh in utter dismay.

"You obviously don't know how to properly take a vitamin, do you?" he said, rolling his eyes.  

Uh, no, I didn't know there WAS a proper way to take a vitamin.  

He took the bottle from me, and, rather than shaking the vitamins into his hand, he tapped a few into the lid of the opened container, then shook the extras back into the jar until I had the two I needed.  "This prevents contamination to the other vitamins," he said.  "The dirt and oils on your hands end up on the vitamins in the jar when you drop them back in," he said.  "Vitamins are extremely porous and absorb those oils quickly, ruining them."

Well that makes sense to me.  

So, I'm a changed woman with a new, clean, contaminate-free vitamin regimen:  Open. Shake. Tap. Gulp, nary an oil or contaminant on ANY of my supplements. 

And in 30 days, I'll report on my cocktail* and see if the huge bottles from COSTCO are worth their expense, or just make for bright yellow urine.  

* Omega 3

*  CQ10

*  Magnesium 

*  D3