5 Ways To Improve Your Nutrient Absorption

You eat well, you take your supplements – but is your body actually absorbing what it needs?

Nutrient absorption is a vital, often overlooked part of nutrition. It’s not just about what you consume, but how your body breaks it down and puts it to use. If you’re not absorbing nutrients efficiently, you could be missing out on the benefits of even the healthiest foods or highest-quality supplements.

Let’s look at what affects nutrient absorption, how to improve it naturally, and which supplements can give your body an extra boost.

Why Does Nutrient Absorption Matter?

Every cell in your body relies on a steady supply of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other nutrients to function. But before nutrients can do their job, they have to pass through your digestive system, get broken down properly, and enter your bloodstream.

When absorption is poor, you may experience issues like:

• Low energy
• Brain fog
• Weak nails or hair
• Digestive discomfort
• Frequent illness

Improving absorption helps you get the most out of your diet and supplements — and feel the difference.

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What Affects Nutrient Absorption?

There are several factors that influence how well your body absorbs nutrients:

• Digestive health: If you have low stomach acid, IBS, IBD, or digestive enzyme deficiencies, your body may struggle to break down and absorb nutrients efficiently.
• Nutrient interactions: Some nutrients work better when taken together, while others can get in each other’s way. For example, calcium needs vitamin D to be absorbed properly, but calcium and magnesium can compete for absorption and be less effective if taken at the same time.
• Age: As we get older, our bodies tend to produce less stomach acid and fewer digestive enzymes, both of which are needed for optimal absorption (1,2).
• Lifestyle: Habits like smoking, chronic stress, poor sleep, drinking alcohol, or taking certain medications can all impair your body’s ability to absorb nutrients properly.
• Food preparation: Cooking methods can either enhance or reduce nutrient availability. For example, lightly steaming vegetables can boost the absorption of antioxidants like beta-carotene, while overboiling can leach out water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B-complex vitamins. Fermenting, sprouting, and soaking can also improve digestibility and unlock nutrients in grains, legumes, and seeds.

The good news? Many of these factors are within your control. With the right approach, you can help your body get more out of the nutrients you eat.

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How Can You Improve Your Nutrient Absorption?

These five strategies can help maximize nutrient absorption and improve your overall wellness:

1. Eat Probiotics Regularly

Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria that live in your gut and support overall digestive health. A balanced and diverse gut microbiome helps regulate bowel movements, produce short-chain fatty acids, and break down food more efficiently. But their role goes beyond digestion.

Probiotics also help maintain the integrity of the gut lining, which is critical for nutrient absorption. A healthy gut lining allows nutrients to pass into the bloodstream while blocking harmful substances. Additionally, certain strains of probiotics are involved in the synthesis and absorption of nutrients, particularly B vitamins and vitamin K (3). Including probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and miso in your diet can help restore balance. For more targeted or consistent support, a high-quality probiotic supplement may be beneficial.

2. Use Absorption-Boosting Supplements

Another powerful absorption aid is fulvic acid, a naturally occurring compound found in organic-rich soils and in shilajit (6). Fulvic acid can help carry minerals across cell membranes and may enhance the absorption of trace elements and antioxidants. Shilajit supplements that contain purified fulvic acid are used to support energy, nutrient delivery, and overall wellness.

Both BioPerine® and Shilajit are included in our line of supplements. If you’re looking to get the most out of your diet or supplements, these absorption enhancers can be a simple but effective upgrade.

3. Back-up Your Digestive Enzymes (if needed)

Your body naturally produces digestive enzymes in the gut to help break down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates into forms your body can absorb. However, factors like age, stress, and certain health conditions can reduce enzyme production, making it harder to fully digest and absorb nutrients.

In these cases, enzyme supplements may help support digestion. For example, people with lactose intolerance lack enough of the enzyme lactase to properly digest dairy, but taking lactase can make dairy more tolerable (7). Likewise, some people struggle to digest protein due to low levels of proteolytic enzymes. While foods like pineapple, kiwi, and papaya contain natural enzymes that aid protein digestion, enzyme supplements offer a more concentrated and consistent source for reliable digestive support (8).

4. Manage IBS & IBD

Chronic digestive conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can significantly impair nutrient absorption. These issues often involve gut inflammation, changes in how food moves through the digestive tract, and damage to the intestinal lining – all of which make it harder for your body to fully break down food and absorb nutrients.

In either case, we recommend working with a healthcare provider to identify and manage food triggers and flare-ups. Dietary changes can make a big difference, but you may still need added support. This is where supplements come into the picture. The right supplement can help calm irritation, support digestive function, and over time, improve how well your body absorbs nutrients.

5. Pair Your Food Wisely

How you combine foods can make a big difference in how well your body absorbs nutrients. Some vitamins and minerals need the right partners to work their best, while others compete with each other and are better taken separately. Here are a few examples:

1. Pair fat with fat-soluble vitamins. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, which means they need fat to be absorbed (9). Add a drizzle of olive oil to your salad or eat avocado with your veggies to help your body actually use these nutrients.
2. Add zinc to protein-rich meals. Zinc is better absorbed when consumed with protein (10). Pair zinc-rich foods like oysters, legumes, or pumpkin seeds with protein sources like chicken or beans to support better uptake.
3. Avoid calcium and magnesium at the same time. These two minerals compete for absorption, so if you’re taking supplements, space them out instead of taking them together (11).

Simple adjustments like these can help your meals work harder for you—and ensure your body gets more of what it needs.

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Conclusion

Improving your nutrient absorption can be a game-changer for your health. With a few smart habits – like supporting your gut, optimizing your food pairings, and choosing the absorption-enhancing supplements – you can help your body make the most of every bite and capsule.

Whether you’re focused on energy, digestion, or overall wellness, we offer a range of thoughtfully formulated supplements designed with absorption in mind. From BioPerine® to Shilajit, probiotics to enzyme support, each product is crafted to help you feel the difference.

Upgrade your routine with absorption in mind. Because nutrition only works if your body can use it.