What Are “Foundational Supplements

Health-specific supplements certainly have a time and place for various concerns. However, to nurture sustained health and vitality, daily foundational nutrients are essential.

Several vital nutrients are indispensable for life – vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients like omega-3s, choline, and alpha-lipoic acid, for example (1).

It’s true that all of the nutrients humans need are available from food sources. It’s also true that our modern diet no longer contains adequate amounts of them (1). Studies consistently confirm this:

• Food processing strips away nutrient-dense parts of foods, leaving the calorie-dense, shelf-friendly portions (2).
• Monoculture (3) and soil depletion result in far fewer nutrients in foods than the same foods 100 years ago (4)
• Genetic modification yields plant foods with more sugar (i.e., larger, sweeter fruits) and fewer phytonutrients than native plants possess (5).
• Spraying food with glyphosate, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides kills the soil microbes that help fortify our foods with nutrients. These chemicals also act as potent nutrient chelators (6, 7).
• We don’t eat enough of these already-depleted fruits, vegetables, and phytonutrients (8).

What We Lack the Most

Despite the food surplus in developed nations, nutritional inadequacies are relatively common. You might have heard the term “overfed and undernourished,” it’s a strange paradox we find ourselves in.

Some nutritional deficiencies are more insidious. Iron is considered the most common nutritional deficiency when it could be something else. The average person consumes 12.6-18.2 mg/day of iron (9). 90% of our daily needs come from recycled iron (10, 11); studies show we really only need about 2.5mg/day from dietary intake to support the production of red blood cells (12).

Many people may appear deficient in iron when their body is really saying, “I can’t use the iron that’s already here” (13). The inability to use iron appropriately can stem from other common nutritional inadequacies.

For our bodies to function optimally, they need an adequate supply of foundational nutrients (14). The most common inadequacies are:

• Vitamin A (15)
• B12 (16)
• Copper (17)
• Iodine (18)
• Magnesium (19)
• Folate (20)
• B6 (20)
• Vitamin K (21)
• Omega-3s (22)
• Choline (23)

This does not mean that everyone is inadequate in these nutrients. Many people likely get plenty of some from their diet/supplements but may be lacking in others.

Likewise, several people have genetic predispositions that require more of certain nutrients.

• 60% of the population is estimated to have a mutation in the MTHFR gene (20), which requires more B12, B6, folate, B2, or other cofactors.

A Balanced Approach

Conventional medical approaches are great at identifying nutritional deficiencies, but If you’re worried about insufficiencies, it’s best to work with a trained functional provider who understands the nuances of nutritional imbalances. A dietary review, blood tests, and/or genetic testing may help to pinpoint heightened nutritional needs (24).

Geographical area and dietary preferences can also unveil potential imbalances.

• Iodine intake is often low in individuals living further inland from coastal areas and/or not consuming large amounts of seafood or sea vegetables (18).
• Low to no consumption of eggs and liver can result in subpar choline and retinol intake (15, 23).

Regardless of dietary choices, there are some nutrients that most people just don’t get enough of in general, like magnesium and omega-3s (19, 22).

We understand that dietary changes aren’t feasible for everyone, so FIQ offers several whole-food-based supplements that cover your foundational nutrient needs.

FIQ Foundational Supplements and the Nutrients They Provide:

Why Not Just Take a Multivitamin?

Wouldn’t it be easier to get these foundational nutrients from a single supplement with all of them? Sure, but you’ll compromise on quality, potency, purity, and bioavailability.

Multivitamins are certainly better than nutritional deficiencies, but the body doesn’t always know how to use them efficiently and appropriately. It prefers to get nutrients from sources it’s counted on for millennia – whole foods.

See our article “Why Multivitamins Just Don’t Cut It” to learn more.

Get More From Less with FIQ

Our foundational supplements are designed for efficiency and bio-optimization. We only use the strongest potency and highest quality ingredients with minimal to no flow agents and fillers where able. What does that mean for you?

1. Fewer supplements – more nutrients: You need to take fewer FIQ supplements to achieve the same (or greater) milligram amounts of active ingredients compared to other popular brands.
   1. Our cod liver IQ comes in a much smaller capsule than other top brands but packs MORE naturally-occurring vitamins A and D than any other brand out there.
   2. Our Mag IQ Glycinate and Beef Liver IQ also provide more active ingredient servings per capsule.
2. Premium Potency: Our quality sourcing means you can trust that the nutrients you’re getting are coming only from their whole-food sources.
   1. We never fortify our products with synthetic vitamins and minerals. Many cod liver supplements have synthetic A and D added to them (look out for retinol palmitate on the label).
   2. We use potent extraction methods to offer high concentrations of active ingredients.
3. Fair, Affordable, and Transparent Prices: Our supplements cost less than comparable brands. Not because our quality is inferior but because we don’t believe in unfair price-gauging for premium quality.
   1. Sure, some brands do, in fact, charge less. We don’t claim to be the cheapest, just the most valuable. When you break down the cost per milligram of active ingredients, it’s undeniable – we provide more value for the money.
4. Finally, we source our ingredients from sustainable, pure, and appropriate sources.
   1. We use only American-sourced ingredients where appropriate.
   2. When the close-to-home sources compromise nutrient bioavailability and diversity, we elect the highest-quality international sources that have gone through extensive third-party testing (i.e., New Zealand beef liver, as it’s more nutrient-dense than American-raised cattle).
5. Each ingredient and final product is tested for potency and purity, and we happily provide COAs on our products at customer’s request.