Not All Vitamins Are Equal: The Power of Bioavailable Nutrients
Most people assume a “daily multivitamin” means they’re good to go. Just because something is marketed as an everything vitamin doesn’t mean your body can absorb and use it all. That’s why bioavailability matters.
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Reading’s great, but sometimes it’s nice to just listen in. So we turned today’s blog into a conversation. Our two AI sidekicks, Max and Chloe, break down today’s blog so you don’t have to read every word.
Defining Bioavailability
Bioavailability is how much of a nutrient your body can absorb and put to work. A supplement label may list impressive numbers, but absorption is often a different story.
Iron is a great example: Heme iron, found in animal sources like beef liver, is absorbed at 15–35%, while non-heme iron from plants absorbs at only 2–20%.
Why, you might ask? It’s all about how the body recognizes and utilizes each form. Healthy iron absorption supports ferritin, the protein that stores iron in your cells and makes it available when your body needs it for energy and focus.
Natural vs. Synthetic: How They Really Compare
Not all vitamins are created the same way. Synthetic versions are typically made from petrochemicals, coal tar derivatives, or industrial fermentation. While safe for consumption at regulated levels, they lack the cofactors, enzymes, and balancing compounds that are present naturally in whole foods.
In contrast, nutrients from beef organs and other whole-food complexes act as systems. They arrive in the body packaged with supporting compounds that help with absorption and effectiveness. Research shows that natural, bioavailable vitamins are often better recognized and put to work right away in the body.
Beef Liver: Nature’s Original Multivitamin
If there’s one food that shows the power of bioavailable vitamins and nutrition, it’s beef liver. Known as “nature’s multivitamin,” it’s rich in vitamin A, B2, B3, B12, copper, choline, and heme iron—all available in highly absorbable forms. Compared gram for gram with trendy “superfoods,” the better choice is obvious.
Per 100 grams of beef liver, you get 59.3 mcg of vitamin B12 versus zero in the same amount of kale and blueberries. Vitamin A is more abundant in beef liver than in plant-based foods. Just looking at iron, 100 grams of beef liver has 3x more than kale and 16x more than blueberries.
Even Dr. Mark Hyman, a leading voice in functional medicine, emphasizes the importance of organ meats. “I think they’re an unappreciated source of the most nutrient-dense food on the planet.” When you compare beef liver and plant-based protein sources side by side, he explains that “liver looks like the most powerful super food ever invented on the planet.”
And it’s not working alone. When taken with beef intestine, it adds collagen peptides and minerals that support the gut lining, making organ complexes a complete nutrient system for both energy and digestive health.
Why Sarenova Formula No. 06 is Different
Most beef organ supplements on the market require you to take megadoses, or six or more capsules a day, often totaling 3,000 mg. That can overwhelm digestion and leave you feeling uncomfortable.
That’s why Formula No. 06 takes a gentler approach: 600 mg/day, roughly the equivalent of one serving of beef liver a week. Combined with yarrow and slippery elm for gut comfort, plus black pepper to enhance absorption, it helps provide powerful nutrition without giving you nausea, bloat, or burps.
With our formula, your body gets exactly what it needs.
Support Your Energy and Digestive Health with Formula No. 06
Choosing bioavailable nutrition is about providing the nutrients your body actually recognizes, absorbs, and uses naturally, not just taking more supplements.
Discover the benefits of Formula No. 06 today: grass-fed beef organs with gut-soothing botanicals, designed to nourish women’s energy and digestive health.
Join the waitlist today for first access to beef organ supplements for women and exclusive perks.
💡 Key Takeaways
Bioavailability matters more than milligrams, because your body only benefits from what it can actually absorb.
Heme iron from beef liver absorbs at 15–35%, far higher than the 2–20% from plant-based non-heme iron.
Whole-food nutrients come packaged with cofactors and enzymes that help your body recognize and use them effectively.
Beef liver is a nutrient-dense multivitamin, rich in bioavailable vitamins, minerals, and iron that outperform trendy superfoods.
Formula No. 06 delivers balanced organ nutrition with herbs and black pepper for comfort and absorption, without the downsides of megadosing.
Go Deeper
If you want to hear how this plays out in real life and why it matters for energy, focus, and gut health—I unpack it in this episode of Wild Is Wise.
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(AI-generated conversation and transcript)
Not All Vitamins Are Equal: The Power of Bioavailable NutrientsMax: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're, uh, getting into something really crucial. If you take any vitamins or supplements, we're looking at the gap between what's on the label and what your [00:00:10] body actually uses.
Chloe: Yeah, it's a really important distinction.
Max: Our mission today, pretty simple, but, but vital. We wanna figure out why.
Seeing, you know, a huge dose [00:00:20] on a bottle often doesn't mean much. And how understanding one key concept, bioavailability changes everything.
Chloe: Exactly. [00:00:30] Bioavailability. Um, it's really the core idea here. It's the measure of how much nutrient your body can actually absorb and then, you know, put to work. It's often way less than what you actually [00:00:40] swallow.
If you can't absorb it, well, it doesn't do much good.
Max: Right. You're. Paying for expensive waste essentially.
Chloe: Pretty much, yeah.
Max: Okay, so let's unpack this. Maybe start with a clear example, something that really shows why the [00:00:50] form of the nutrient is so critical.
Chloe: Perfect. Iron is, uh, probably the best example for this.
See, iron comes in two main forms, chemically. First, there's hay, iron. You find that in animal [00:01:00] sources like meat, liver, and the body recognizes it really well, absorption is pretty efficient. Uh, somewhere between 15 and 35%.
Max: [00:01:10] 15 to 35. Okay. That sounds quite good.
Chloe: It is, especially when you compare it to the other form, non-heme iron.
Max: Which is in
Chloe: plants, mainly leaf leafy greens, beans, that sort of [00:01:20] thing. But chemically it's different. And the body, well, it struggles a lot more to absorb it. The absorption rate there is much lower, maybe only two to 20%. Oh
Max: wow. Okay. [00:01:30] 2%. That's yeah's a huge difference compared to. Potentially 35% for heme.
Chloe: It's a massive gap and it really highlights that, you know, just because it's labeled iron doesn't mean your body treats it the [00:01:40] same way.
Max: So why is that? What's the actual difference in how the body handles them?
Chloe: It boils down to, um, biological recognition. Structure, heme iron fits neatly into [00:01:50] pathways The body already has ready for transport.
It's straightforward. Non-heme iron, though it needs extra steps, conversions, helpers. Mm-hmm. It takes more energy and it's just less [00:02:00] efficient. Mm-hmm. The body is simply a better setup for the heme form.
Max: And getting enough usable iron that's not just about avoiding anemia, right. It ties into energy focus.
Chloe: [00:02:10] Absolutely. Energy levels, concentration, even immune function, and it's key for maintaining healthy ferritin levels.
Max: Ferritin, you mentioned that. Remind us what that is and why it's so [00:02:20] important.
Chloe: Sure. Think of ferritin as your body's iron storage tank right inside your cells. It's a protein that holds onto iron, safely releasing it when needed for vital jobs like, [00:02:30] uh, carrying oxygen or driving metabolism.
Max: So if you're taking iron that isn't very bioavailable,
Chloe: then you're not filling up that tank effectively. It's like trying to deposit foreign coins at your [00:02:40] bank. They might not accept it easily or ferritin levels drop. That often leads to that dragging fatigue, brain fog.
Max: Got it. Yeah. Okay. Let's shift gears a bit.
This [00:02:50] links into the whole natural versus synthetic nutrient debate, doesn't it? It
Chloe: really does.
Max: We've talked about absorption rates. Now let's talk about the nutrient source itself. Synthetics are often cheaper, [00:03:00] easier to get high doses if the, say, vitamin C is chemically identical. Why does the source matter?
Why this recognition factor? [00:03:10]
Chloe: That's, yeah, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? So synthetic vitamins. Where do they come from? Often it's industrial processes, things like petrochemicals, coal, tar [00:03:20] derivatives, sometimes industrial fermentation. Now they are regulated. They're safe at certain levels, but the key thing is they're isolated.
Max: Isolated meaning?
Chloe: Meaning they're just the pure [00:03:30] vitamin molecule, nothing else. Compare that to Whole Foods. Whole foods deliver nutrients as part of a complete system. It's not just the vitamin. It comes packaged with co-factors, [00:03:40] enzymes, other compounds.
Max: Oh, like a support team.
Chloe: Exactly. A built-in support team that helps the body recognize, absorb, and use the nutrient effectively.
Synthetics [00:03:50] arrive alone. They lack that natural context, that that instruction manual, if you will. So
Max: those co-factors are what actually activate the vitamins sometimes.
Chloe: Often, yes. They play [00:04:00] critical roles. Think of it like a key in an ignition. The synthetic vitamin might be the key, but you need the co-factors, the ignition system that naturally come with it in [00:04:10] food to actually start the car.
Vitamin D for instance, it needs magnesium. A co-factor often found alongside it in nature to really become active in the body. That whole food [00:04:20] package provides everything needed.
Max: We truly brings us to a prime example of the source has mentioned. Beef liver, it gets called nature's original multivitamin
Chloe: and for good reason.
[00:04:30] When you look at the nutrient profile, it's incredibly dense and crucially, the nutrients are in those highly bioavailable whole system forms.
Max: Like what specifically?
Chloe: Well, [00:04:40] you've got vitamin A. Several B vitamins like B two, B three, B12, copper choline, and of course that highly absorbable heme iron we talked about.
And the B12 levels are [00:04:50] particularly famous. It's one of the richest natural sources known.
Max: Okay. Let's put some numbers on that density. The sources compare to things like kale in blueberries.
Chloe: They do, let's take a hundred grams, about [00:05:00] 3.5 ounces is a comparison point.
Max: Yeah.
Chloe: For vitamin B12, a hundred grams of beef liver packs around 59.3 micrograms.
Kale, zero [00:05:10] blueberries, 0
Max: 59 versus zero. That's stark.
Chloe: It is now iron. Same a hundred grams of beef. Liver has about three times more iron than [00:05:20] kale.
Max: Three times kale. Okay, and
Chloe: 16 times more iron than blueberries.
Max: Wait 16. 16 times the iron in blueberries. We hear so much about blueberries being superfood.[00:05:30]
That's kind of mind blowing.
Chloe: It certainly challenges some common assumptions, doesn't it? It shows just how concentrated nutrients can be in certain whole foods.
Max: And Vitamin A too, you mentioned?
Chloe: Yes. Vitamin A is [00:05:40] another big one. Beef liver provides it in its active, readily usable form, which is often much more easily utilized by the body than the precursor forms like betacarotene found [00:05:50] in plants.
Max: It's no wonder people in functional medicine are highlighting this. I saw a quote from Dr. Mark Hyman calling Organ Meats, quote, an unappreciated source of the most nutrient dense food on the [00:06:00] planet.
Chloe: That's right. He's a big proponent,
Max: and he even said, liver looks like the most powerful superfood ever invented compared to plant proteins.
Chloe: Hmm.
Max: That's strong language from a [00:06:10] respected doctor.
Chloe: It reflects that incredible density and bioavailability we're talking about, and it leads to another important concept. Nutrient synergy.
Max: Synergy meaning [00:06:20] how nutrients work together.
Chloe: Exactly. It's not just about individual nutrients in isolation, even from Whole Foods.
It's about how combining certain foods or sources can [00:06:30] create an even better overall effect. The sources mentioned pairing beef, liver with, uh, beef intestine, for example.
Max: Intestine. Okay. Why that combination specifically? [00:06:40]
Chloe: Well, the liver brings the vitamins, the minerals, the energy related nutrients. The intestine, on the other hand, is rich in things like collagen peptides and specific [00:06:50] minerals that support the gut lining itself.
Max: Ah, so you're nourishing the body's energy systems and supporting the digestive system where absorption happens
Chloe: precisely. It creates a more [00:07:00] complete system. You're boosting nutrient intake while also helping the system that absorbs those nutrients. It's a really holistic approach.
Max: Okay, so we've established liver is this [00:07:10] powerhouse whole food systems are generally better.
But let's be practical. Eating organ meats isn't for everyone, and historically, organ supplements often [00:07:20] meant taking a lot of capsules, right? Sometimes causing issues.
Chloe: That's been a major hurdle. Yes. Discomfort, digestive upset. Many older supplements used a kind of more is [00:07:30] better approach. You'd see recommendations for six, eight, even more capsules a day who
Max: could be like 3000 milligrams
Chloe: easily, and that sheer volume can just overwhelm the [00:07:40] digestive system for some people leading to nausea, burping, bloating, not pleasant.
Max: So how do you get the benefits? Without that downside, is there a different approach?
Chloe: There [00:07:50] is the alternative thinking detailed in the sources moves away from just megadosing. It focuses more on consistency and uh, digestive comfort. So instead of that huge daily load, [00:08:00] it suggests a gentler daily amount, maybe around 600 milligrams, which is roughly like having one serving of liver a week, but spread out.
Max: Okay. A much smaller dose. Yeah. But how do you ensure it's still [00:08:10] effective?
Chloe: That's where the formulation comes in. It's about enhancing what's there. The sources talk about two key things,
Max: which are
Chloe: first adding botanicals known for soothing the gut. [00:08:20] Things like Yaro or Slippery elm. The idea is to support digestive comfort, making it easier to tolerate even sensitive stomachs.
Max: Makes [00:08:30] sense. The second thing,
Chloe: enhancing absorption, using something like black pepper extract, piperine, which is well known to help increase the bioavailability of various nutrients. [00:08:40] It's taken with
Max: Right piperine. I've seen that added to turmeric supplements too.
Chloe: Exactly. It helps shuttle the nutrients across the gut barrier more effectively, so you get better bang for your [00:08:50] buck from that smaller, gentler dose.
Max: So the goal is. Powerful nutrition forms. The body recognizes easily absorbed and comfortable to take no [00:09:00] nausea, no bloat.
Chloe: That's the ideal. Yes, efficacy combined with tolerability, based on respecting how the body actually works,
Max: it really shifts the focus, doesn't it? Away from just [00:09:10] chasing the highest number on the label.
Chloe: Completely. It becomes less about quantity and much more about quality and biological compatibility, providing forms. The body already knows how to use efficiently. [00:09:20] That's the real metric.
Max: Okay, this has been incredibly insightful. To recap, bioavailability is king. Natural whole food [00:09:30] systems with their co-factors generally outperform isolated synthetics because the body recognizes them better.
Chloe: Right?
Max: And beef liver stands out as a true [00:09:40] nutritional powerhouse, especially when you look at the actual numbers for things like B12 and heme iron compared to other foods,
Chloe: undeniably dense.
Max: So let's leave our listeners with a final thought, a [00:09:50] provocative question, Mannie.
Chloe: Okay.
Max: If our bodies are fundamentally designed to recognize and use nutrients best when they come in these complex synergistic whole food systems, Hmm.
What does that really tell [00:10:00] us about relying heavily on isolated synthetic nutrients? Should we always be looking for that natural synergy that built in teamwork when we choose how to nourish ourselves? [00:10:10] Something to think about next time you're looking at a supplement label.
