Question: Which herbs are better- liquids or capsules?
Answer: Whichever will consistently get into your stomach.
There is a bit more subtlety with regards to onset and duration, that I will discuss in the last paragraph of this piece. If you need to just skip to the seriousness now- I won’t be offended. But for for overall efficacy, the most important factor when choosing liquid vs capsule herbs is personal preference. Allow me to offer an example.My sister owns a boutique fitness business. Five days a week, she teaches a TRX class, followed by a Cardio Fit dance class, and wraps up with an hour of Mat n’ More, a combination of strength training and stretching. During the spring COVID-19 lock-down, she moved instruction to virtual Zoom classes with great success. Not even a global pandemic got her to slow down. Like most highly active, fitness enthusiasts, she likes to make nutritionally dense smoothies, enhanced with dietary supplements to get the building blocks of life into her system in a hurry. And Herbalogic herbs are part of her smoothie ritual.
Recently, I asked her about her smoothie recipe, and she gave me the scoop. Literally, she gave me a scoop of her smoothie. It was yummy. Then she gave me a walk through of how she makes them.
Every piece of fruit in her house on the precipice of spoiling, she throws into the freezer. It all makes its way to smoothies at some point. She’s also tosses not yet frozen, but not long for the counter fruit in as well. Berries, pineapples, apples, melon, bananas- they all find final purpose in the blender, and that purpose is natural sweetness.
She buys bagged power greens at the warehouse store. The bag contains spinach, kale and chard. When they are no longer salad worthy, she carefully presses all the air out of the bag and chucks it into the freezer. Sister tells me freezing the greens has been a game changer for the frothiness of her smoothies.
She uses protein powder, because, you know, protein. She is not particular on the brand and will happily use whatever whey protein powder is on sale. But for those of you wanting to try this at home, there are plenty of vegetarian protein powders options, if you so desire.
Finally, there is a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar because, “it makes her feel healthy.” Powdered probiotics and a dose of vitamin B12 round the smoothie out.
I watched her make this smoothie recently. And as the blender with a motor that I think could power a lawnmower whirred, I asked, “But when do you add your Herbalogic herbs?” She answered, “I don’t. I swallow the capsules while the blender is going. I don’t like the taste of the liquids.”
What’s Really the Difference?
Some of the Herbalogic formulas are the same ingredients whether in liquid or capsule forms. They are the ones with the same names: Easy Breather, Flashback, Quiet Mind and Solid Eight. For some of the formulas, the capsule is the liquid but with some additional ingredients. These are the capsules with the extra letters as suffix to the name: Back In Action XT, Decompress MX, Fixed Focus HD, Peacekeeper CX, and Peak Power K2.
| Liquid Name | Capsule Name | What's the Difference? |
| Decompress | Decompress MX | Both help with mood support, but Decompress MX is stronger at keeping emotional highs from getting too high and lows from getting too low. |
| Solid Eight | Solid Eight | Same great formula. Liquid acts faster, capsules last longer. |
| Back in Action | Back in Action XT | Back in Action XT has more turmeric and corydalis to make a greater effect on inflammation and muscle tightness. |
| Easy Breather | Easy Breather | Same great formula. Liquid acts faster, capsules last longer. |
| Peak Power | Peak Power K2 | Peak Power K2 is named after the second highest mountain in the world, called K2, that is the hardest to climb. Size ain't everything, Everest. Peak Power K2 is the Peak Power formula combined with the Fixed Focus formula, for a combination of grounded energy and focus. Peak Power is just straight up sustained, improved energy. |
| Flashback | Flashback | Same great formula. Liquid acts faster, capsules last longer. |
| Peacekeeper | Peacekeeper CX | Peacekeeper liquid is great to level the emotional highs and lows due to PMS. Peacekeeper CX is all the same great herbs plus herbs for pain due to cramping and breast tenderness. |
| Fixed Focus | Fixed Focus HD | Fixed Focus supports mental concentration. Fixed Focus HD is Fixed Focus and Quiet Mind herbs in one convenient capsule, for people who need to calm their bodies in addition to improving attention span. |
| Quiet Mind | Quiet Mind | Same great formula. Liquid acts faster, capsules last longer. |
Capsules take longer to digest because your stomach has to work its way through the vegan gel cap we use. Thus, the onset of the herbs takes longer. However, because of the concentration process we use to make the capsules, the duration of effect is longer lasting.
If you truly have no preference between taking capsules and liquids from a taste standpoint, ask yourself, are you a three dose a day person (liquid) or a two dose a day person (capsule)? Also, what is more convenient to your daily routine? Maybe that second or third dose doesn’t happen at home, in which case you might be happier with capsules where you can just pack two of them in a little pill box and take them to-go.
Finally, there is an art to combining the liquids and capsules based on what health system you are trying to support. For example, Peacekeeper might be appropriate the entire month on a daily basis to help with overall emotional support, because, in my experience, my menstrual cycle isn’t the only time that people are aggravating. But once PMS related pain arrives, it might be time to add a dose of Peacekeeper CX for the inflammation mitigating effect.
But really, back to the original point, whether you are talking about Herbalogic products or some other supplement, on the question of liquids vs capsules, the answer- whichever one will consistently end up in your stomach is the right one for you.