Episode 01: Why Your Body Isn’t Absorbing the Vitamins You Take
You take the vitamins. You read the labels. You follow the rules. And yet you still feel tired, foggy, or off. For many women, supplements promise energy but don’t deliver it.
We’re taught that if a pill contains enough of a nutrient, our body will use it. But that’s not how biology works. Many vitamins never get absorbed in a way that helps your cells.
They pass through, and we’re left thinking we need more or that something is wrong with us. What if the real issue is that your body can’t use what you’re taking?
In this first episode, host Sara Estes, former private investigator turned functional health advocate, explains bioavailability and why the source and form of a vitamin matter more than the number on the label.
You’ll learn why natural, whole-food nutrients work differently, why many synthetic supplements fall short, and what your body actually recognizes as nourishment.
Listen in to stop guessing, stop wasting money on supplements that don’t work, and start supporting your health with clarity and intention.
Follow along:
Instagram: @wildiswise
TikTok: @wildiswise
-
Wild Is Wise: Why your body isn't absorbing the vitamins you take.
[00:00:01] Sara Estes: Most of us were taught a very simple story about vitamins. [00:00:05] If it's on the label, it's in the pill. If it meets the recommended daily amount, you're covered. [00:00:10] If you take enough of it, your body will sort it out. But the truth, and this is where the [00:00:15] science gets interesting, is actually quite different. And it [00:00:20] might completely change how you look at the supplement aisle.
[00:00:28] Sara Estes: Welcome to the Wild Is Wise [00:00:30] podcast. I'm Sara Estes, former private investigator who ditched the high stress legal life after a [00:00:35] major health crisis. I rebuilt my health from the ground up through nutrition and functional [00:00:40] medicine, and now I'm here to uncover the truth about women's wellness and [00:00:45] translate it so you can make informed decisions about your health and stop wasting time and [00:00:50] money on things that don't work. This podcast is where we break down the [00:00:55] complex, sometimes confusing world of women's nutrition and physiology, and we're [00:01:00] gonna turn it into practical tips that you can actually use. I spent years digging through the [00:01:05] science to understand my own body and studied nutrition at Harvard Medical School so I could help you [00:01:10] understand yours.
[00:01:11] Sara Estes: But here's the thing that I keep coming back to. In all of that [00:01:15] research, what we find in nature is often exactly what our bodies need, [00:01:20] not what's manufactured in a lab, not what's synthesized from [00:01:25] petrochemicals, what grows wild, what exists in the natural world, what we've [00:01:30] consumed as humans for thousands of years.
[00:01:32] Sara Estes: That's what our biology is [00:01:35] wired to thrive on. Wild is wise, and every episode we're gonna explore why we're [00:01:40] gonna get nerdy with the science. We're gonna look at real research studies and we're gonna make it [00:01:45] digestible and relatable and actually useful for your life. This is not [00:01:50] about demonizing modern medicine or telling you to throw out everything in your cabinet.
[00:01:54] Sara Estes: It's [00:01:55] about understanding that when it comes to nutrition, nature got it right the first time. And [00:02:00] we're gonna explore what that means for your energy, your hormones, your gut health, and your [00:02:05] overall vitality.
As always, this podcast is educational, not medical advice. Please talk to your healthcare provider before making any changes
Alright, let's jump in. [00:02:10] Today we're starting with something fundamental.[00:02:13] Sara Estes: Vitamins specifically, [00:02:15] why the vitamin industry has been selling you something that sounds amazing on paper, but [00:02:20] often fails miserably in practice. Just because a supplement label [00:02:25] says it contains 500% of your daily vitamin B12, for example, [00:02:30] that doesn't mean your body is absorbing anywhere near that amount.
[00:02:34] Sara Estes: [00:02:35] In fact, you may be getting a tiny fraction of what you actually paid for. The [00:02:40] word you need to know is bioavailability and understanding this one concept [00:02:45] will save you money, confusion, and a lot of wasted effort trying to [00:02:50] fix your energy with supplements that were never gonna work in the first place.
[00:02:53] Sara Estes: So what is [00:02:55] bioavailability?
[00:02:56] Sara Estes: Bioavailability is the measure of how much of a nutrient your [00:03:00] body can actually absorb and put to work. Think of it like this. Imagine you bought a concert ticket, [00:03:05] but when you show up to the venue, security says your ticket is not valid in the system. So you paid for [00:03:10] entry, you have proof of your purchase, but you're not getting in.
[00:03:13] Sara Estes: That's what happens with [00:03:15] low bioavailability nutrients. They're in your body technically, [00:03:20] but your cells can't actually use them. They don't get in. And here's where it gets [00:03:25] interesting and honestly kind of frustrating. The form of vitamin matters just as much [00:03:30] as the amount and maybe even more. Let me give you a real example.
[00:03:34] Sara Estes: So let's look [00:03:35] at iron. Most women know they need it. We hear about iron [00:03:40] deficiency all the time, especially if you have a period or you're pregnant. But here's [00:03:45] the thing, not all iron is created equal. There are two types of iron. [00:03:50] There's heme, iron, and non-heme iron. Heme iron comes from [00:03:55] animal sources, meat, liver, things that once had blood.
[00:03:58] Sara Estes: Your body recognizes [00:04:00] this form of iron immediately because it's structurally similar to the iron in your own blood, [00:04:05] right? So the absorption rate of heme iron is between 15% and [00:04:10] 35%. Keep that number in mind. Non-heme iron comes from plants, [00:04:15] spinach, beans, fortified cereals, same element on the periodic table. They're both [00:04:20] iron, but chemically it's different and your body struggles to absorb this [00:04:25] kind of iron.
[00:04:25] Sara Estes: So the absorption rate for non-heme iron. Is only [00:04:30] about two to 20%. So compare that to the way your body absorbs [00:04:35] heme iron from those animal sources. That is about 15 to [00:04:40] 35%.
[00:04:41] Sara Estes: According to research published in the National Institutes of [00:04:45] Health, that's a massive difference. So if you're taking an iron supplement or eating [00:04:50] iron rich foods, the source matters more than the milligrams on the [00:04:55] label. Think of heme iron, like a VIP pass. It gets escorted [00:05:00] straight into your cells, no questions asked.
[00:05:02] Sara Estes: Non-heme iron, it's like trying to [00:05:05] get into that same venue with a ticket printed at home. Security is [00:05:10] suspicious. They're like, this looks us. There are extra checks, and most of the time it doesn't make it through.
[00:05:14] Sara Estes: [00:05:15] And this matters because iron does more than just prevent anemia. We know that anemia happens when [00:05:20] you have low iron, but it's also critical for energy focus and [00:05:25] maintaining healthy ferritin levels. You may have heard the term ferritin come up. It's [00:05:30] being talked about a lot these days because there is new research that's coming out that shows [00:05:35] how important our ferritin levels actually are.
[00:05:38] Sara Estes: Ferritin is the protein that [00:05:40] stores iron in your cells and releases it when your body needs it for [00:05:45] oxygen transport and metabolism. So if you're not absorbing iron, well [00:05:50] your ferritin tank, your ferritin levels, they stay low, and that's when you start to feel [00:05:55] that brain fog, the fatigue, the constant exhaustion that you know, no amount of [00:06:00] coffee seems to fix.
[00:06:02] Sara Estes: Now let's zoom out for a minute [00:06:05] and take a look at the bigger picture. So, natural vitamins versus [00:06:10] synthetic vitamins. So before when you were talking about iron, we're talking about the different sources that you can [00:06:15] get from, you know, animals and plants. Well, those are all natural sources, which is great.
[00:06:19] Sara Estes: But I want to [00:06:20] dive into a little bit. Natural sources versus synthetic sources. [00:06:25] Synthetic vitamins. So that means a vitamin that is created in a lab, not pulled from a [00:06:30] natural food source. So it's not found in the wild. We're recreating [00:06:35] it. So here's where the supplement industry gets a little. Let's call it creative [00:06:40] with the truth. Most multivitamins you see at the drugstore are made from [00:06:45] synthetic compounds, so we're talking about vitamins derived from petrochemicals, [00:06:50] coal, tar derivatives, or industrial fermentation processes. [00:06:55] Now, why would we do this?
[00:06:56] Sara Estes: Well, it's cheaper, right? So if you are pulling [00:07:00] vitamins from a natural food source, if you are creating a supplement, you know, that [00:07:05] uses, let's say ginger root and beef organs and things like that, you actually [00:07:10] are relying on so much more to go, right, to produce that vitamin, right? You actually have to grow the [00:07:15] crop.
[00:07:15] Sara Estes: You have to raise the animal you have, you know, it needs to go through all the processing that natural food sources [00:07:20] go through to end up with the. Final vitamin. [00:07:25] Now when you're talking about synthetic, you can make an endless amount of synthetic vitamins in the [00:07:30] lab without relying on food, animals, nature, ecosystem, weather, all of those [00:07:35] unpredictable things.
[00:07:36] Sara Estes: So that's why synthetic vitamins [00:07:40] are so much cheaper and why a lot of vitamin companies use those instead of [00:07:45] using natural. Sources for the vitamins. So are they safe? Yes, at [00:07:50] regulated levels, but here's what they're missing. They're missing these supporting cast [00:07:55] of everything that goes around the vitamin.
[00:07:58] Sara Estes: So I want [00:08:00] to clarify this to kind of help you understand the big difference between a [00:08:05] natural vitamin and a synthetic. Vitamins in nature don't just show up alone, right? They [00:08:10] come packed with co-factors and enzymes and other compounds that help your body [00:08:15] recognize and absorb and activate them. It's like the [00:08:20] difference between getting a text message that says, call me, versus one that says, call me.
[00:08:24] Sara Estes: [00:08:25] I have great news about the job you applied for and I need to walk you through the steps. [00:08:30] Massive difference in how those texts are received.
[00:08:34] Sara Estes: Same core [00:08:35] message, but one has context. One has the information that you need to [00:08:40] actually understand what's going on. So think of synthetic vitamins as [00:08:45] that. Call Me Text that kind of sends your body into, uh, crazy Town. And then Whole [00:08:50] Food Natural Source vitamins are that text with all the context that you need to [00:08:55] stay regulated and process the information.
[00:08:58] Sara Estes: For example, your body doesn't [00:09:00] just need vitamin D, it needs the magnesium that naturally accompanies [00:09:05] it in food to activate it. It needs the full spectrum of compounds that make the vitamin [00:09:10] functional, so not just the isolated molecule.
[00:09:12] Sara Estes: Another way I like to think of it, is kind [00:09:15] of like the photos on your phone. So when you take a photo on your iPhone, it's not just that photo, [00:09:20] right? There's all this metadata in the background that you don't necessarily see at first, but it [00:09:25] helps your phone organize that photo in all of its data, right?
[00:09:29] Sara Estes: So you've got the [00:09:30] date, you've got the location. All of those things that you can later go back and search, but that [00:09:35] metadata is very important to how your photo is [00:09:40] able to be stored into your phone. Vitamins are very similar. [00:09:45] While you've got the main vitamin that you can see, and that is on the label, when you extract it [00:09:50] from natural sources, it's got all of this metadata or those are the co-factors, the enzymes, all these fun [00:09:55] things that come with it, that it really needs to thrive. And without [00:10:00] that kind of like a photo with no metadata in your phone, your body just doesn't really know [00:10:05] what to do with it.
[00:10:05] Sara Estes: And so oftentimes it will just send it right through and it won't be able to really [00:10:10] incorporate it the way it would if it came with all of its context.
[00:10:14] Sara Estes: Now [00:10:15] if we are talking about whole food, nutrition and bioavailability, we have [00:10:20] to talk about beef organs and specifically beef liver. I know, I know most [00:10:25] people are not excited about eating liver, but hear me out because the numbers are [00:10:30] legitimately wild. So beef liver is very often called nature's original multivitamin, [00:10:35] and when you look at the nutrient density, it is not an exaggeration. You can compare it to [00:10:40] any other super food out there like kale, broccoli, any kind of [00:10:45] mushroom beans, all of that, and the numbers are just staggering.
[00:10:47] Sara Estes: Beef liver wins out in [00:10:50] so many areas of vitamin and nutrient density, so it literally has more [00:10:55] vitamins in a higher. Range than most other foods. So let's take a [00:11:00] closer look at it per 100 grams, that's about 3.5 ounces. Beef liver [00:11:05] contains almost 60 micrograms of vitamin B12. So you can compare that [00:11:10] to many other superfoods, which have zero. So kale doesn't have any blueberries, don't have any [00:11:15] beef. Liver has three times more iron than kale, and 16 times [00:11:20] more iron than blueberries.
[00:11:21] Sara Estes: It also has high levels of vitamin A in its [00:11:25] active, ready to use form. That's the retinol, not the precursor form [00:11:30] like betacarotene that your body has to convert. So this means it's really great for your hair and skin and nails and all the [00:11:35] things that benefit from that vitamin A in the active form.
[00:11:39] Sara Estes: B [00:11:40] liver also has vitamin B two, B three copper choline, and that highly [00:11:45] absorbable heme iron that we talked about earlier.
[00:11:47] Sara Estes: It's a pretty incredible food and [00:11:50] that's why I love it so much and try to, in whatever way I can incorporate [00:11:55] that into my diet. Now, most of us don't like eating beef, liver, or [00:12:00] beef organs. Or at least I don't. So I just choose to supplement with beef organ [00:12:05] capsules.
[00:12:05] Sara Estes: Even Dr. Mark Hyman, which if you're into nutrition, I feel like you've heard his name or you've seen [00:12:10] his content around. He's one of the leading voices in functional medicine and he said that organ meats [00:12:15] are an unappreciated source of the most nutrient dense food on the planet.
[00:12:19] Sara Estes: And [00:12:20] when you compare beef liver to plant-based protein sources side by side, he calls liver the most [00:12:25] powerful super food ever invented. Now, here is where it gets even more interesting, which is [00:12:30] about nutrient synergy. I love this word synergy. It's like kind of like corporate [00:12:35] speak, but it does define what we are talking about here pretty well, so [00:12:40] nutrients don't work in isolation.
[00:12:41] Sara Estes: So when you pair beef liver with something like beef [00:12:45] intestine, you are not just stacking vitamins, you're creating a system. Liver brings the [00:12:50] vitamins, minerals, and energy driving nutrients where the intestine brings collagen [00:12:55] peptides and minerals that support your gut lining, the very place where nutrient [00:13:00] absorption happens. So you're nourishing your body's systems and supporting the digestive [00:13:05] infrastructure that makes absorption possible. So that's nature's version of [00:13:10] compound interest. Love it. so I mentioned organ supplements before when I was talking about beef liver, [00:13:15] and here's where. Okay. Traditional organ supplements have historically failed, and this is all about the [00:13:20] dose. Very important. Most beef organ supplements on the market tell you to take like six, [00:13:25] eight, sometimes 10 capsules a day.
[00:13:27] Sara Estes: we're talking about 3000 milligrams or more [00:13:30] of beef organs or beef liver specifically. And for a lot of people that causes, [00:13:35] well, exactly what you would expect. Nausea, bloating, horrendous, burping. You're [00:13:40] basically trying to force feed your digestive system more than it's designed to handle at once.[00:13:45]
[00:13:45] Sara Estes: So it's like watering a plant with a fire hose. or something. Yes, the plant needs [00:13:50] water, but too much, too fast, and you're, you're just flooding the roots at that point. [00:13:55] So there is a better approach and that is smaller. Consistent [00:14:00] doses. we're, we wanna look at around 600 milligrams a day, [00:14:05] and that's roughly the equivalent of eating about one serving of liver per week, but spread [00:14:10] out for that steady compounding absorption.
[00:14:13] Sara Estes: So, I mean, if you think about [00:14:15] life back in the 1950s where, you know, your mom was making liver and onions if you can find a [00:14:20] way to supplement your diet with this in small doses so that you don't upset your gut, [00:14:25] that's what I would recommend starting off with.
[00:14:27] Sara Estes: And then what's even better is if you combine [00:14:30] the beef liver, beef organs with some gut soothing herbs that [00:14:35] can really help soothe your digestion and make it a really wonderful experience and give you [00:14:40] all the benefits of the beef liver nutrition without any of the digestive [00:14:45] upset.
[00:14:45] Sara Estes: All that to say it's not about more, it's about better focus on getting better quality and [00:14:50] better sourcing of your vitamins. Alright, so here's what I want you to take away from [00:14:55] today. Number one, bioavailability matters more than the number on the label. [00:15:00] Your body only benefits from what it can actually absorb and use. Number two, natural whole [00:15:05] food nutrients come with the co-factors and enzymes your body needs to recognize [00:15:10] and activate them. Synthetic vitamins, on the other hand, are isolated molecules [00:15:15] without that built-in instruction manual for your body.
[00:15:18] Sara Estes: And number three, not all [00:15:20] vitamins are created equal, and that goes for the source, the form, and the dose. [00:15:25] So if you've been taking a multivitamin and you're wondering why you still feel tired or [00:15:30] foggy or just off, this might be why. And it's not that you need to take more vitamins, you might [00:15:35] just need vitamins that your body can actually use. And that's the philosophy that we're gonna keep coming back [00:15:40] to on the show. What nature produces is often exactly what our bodies are wired to recognize, [00:15:45] absorb, and thrive on. Alright, that is it for episode one of [00:15:50] Wild Is Wise. Thank you so much for listening. And if this resonated with you, share it with a [00:15:55] friend who's confused about supplements because honestly, we all have one. Next episode, we're going to [00:16:00] be diving into your gut, not coffee, not more sleep. Your gut is [00:16:05] the actual key to all day energy and I'm gonna show you why.
[00:16:08] Sara Estes: So until then, stay [00:16:10] wild, stay wise. I'll see you next time.
Subscribe + Review
If this episode resonated, please follow Wild Is Wise and leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more women find these conversations and gives the show momentum in the early days. Thanks for listening. See you next week. 🎙️