Ms Immortal - Whole Food Vs Synthetic Vitamins
Ignorance is Bliss
I'm the obnoxious health nut in the family that is always telling everyone what they don't want to know.
I confess, I have been a vitamin popper and a vitamin pusher for years.
I like to read the latest nutritional news and keep up to date on the latest health developments. What we should be eating, the vitamins we should be taking, etc. Always shoving my latest health food recipe in their faces for approval.
"I don't want to hear it!"
Why, don't they want to hear it?
When doing something that may not be optimal for our health, even if we have the smallest trace of suspicion, turning a blind eye may be the easiest thing to do. Sometimes we are genuinely surprised to find out what we are doing is not in our best interest. Whatever the case may be, we know once the correct information comes our way, the flood gates will open and the luxury of being blissfully ignorant is no longer an option. It’s the beginning of the end; in other words we are screwed.
That's how I felt today when The Healthy Home Economist said: organic coconut milk and almond milk are really not as healthy as people believe. In fact, there are a couple of ingredients that are toxic: synthetic Vitamin A and D2.
I confess, even though I purchased and drank almond milk, subconsciously I knew something stored in a carton sold in a grocery store could not have half the nutrition as fresh almond milk made at home. I was willfully ignorant.
I ran to my refrigerator, opened it and checked the label on my organic almond milk. It was true. How could I have been fooled? I like to consider myself an educated consumer. After all, I bought organic almond milk, I buy farm fresh eggs, grass fed organic meats, raw milk, I even eat seaweed.
I was mostly disappointed because this meant I couldn't have organic almond milk from the grocery store anymore. You see, now that I have the right information, I'm not blissfully ignorant anymore. Even though I enjoy store bought almond milk, I now had to make a choice. Will I drink the almond milk even though I understand the ramifications or do I stop drinking it. In that moment I felt somehow defeated by this news, but in reality I was rescued.
Thank you Healthy Home Economist!
WebMD.com says Americans are popping more vitamins than ever before.
What's wrong with synthetic vitamins?
Nothing, if you want to sport the latest designer yellow neon pee, because that's all you have to show for your hard earned money.
The vitamin industry is a 17 billion dollar a year industry. People everywhere are giving up a good portion of their pay checks to buy vitamins.
Why? For peace of mind, a kind of health insurance, you might say.
Our fast paced lives are not conducive to good nutrition and healthy lifestyle. Many of us eat on the run or throw together a meal full of processed foods at the end of the day. At least we are taking our vitamins, right?
Synthetic ‘vitamins’ contain preservatives, fillers, gelatin and coal tar. These ingredients have no business being in our body. They can not be assimilated nor find their way out. The excess vitamins bounce around and end up lodged in tissues, which can promote disease. A small amount of these vitamins are utilized, and not without side effects; the rest is expelled through our urine.
The reason synthetic vitamins are so popular is because they are easier and cheaper to make than whole food vitamins.
If you go to your local grocery store you will find that most of these vitamins, if not completely synthetic, contain mostly synthetic ingredients. Don’t be fooled by ‘health food stores’. The chances that you’ll find whole food supplements are only a little better than in the grocery store.
Not Really a Vitamin, Just an Isolate
Synthetic vitamins are isolated chemical adaptions, and just one part of the entire vitamin complex.
An example of this is ascorbic acid, which is synthetic vitamin C. This small isolated part of the vitamin is the outside structure which protects the various agents inside from rapid oxidation.
An analogy of what ascorbic acid is when contrasted to actual vitamin C would be if you had a television with only the outside structure and none of the insides to make it work.
This would not be a television, just as ascorbic acid is not a vitamin.
Cofactors
Synthetic multi-vitamins do not contain important vitamins and minerals that serve as cofactors required for healthy bodies. Cofactors are considered helper molecules. They are organic non proteins that are bound to a protein which are essential for the activity of an enzyme.
Because synthetic vitamins do not contain cofactors they will draw them from out our body. The result is a temporary boost of well being followed by a crash; only to experience the same symptoms with the added deficiency caused by loss of important vitamins and minerals.
Synthetic overdose
Synthetic vitamins are sprayed on our cereals and added to foods such as dairy, shakes, energy bars, juices and flour.
People are popping vitamins like never before, plus eating enriched and fortified foods such as cereals, dairy, protein shakes, energy bars, juices, flour and more. Too many synthetics may be putting us in danger of toxic overload.
What about natural vitamins?
Most ‘natural’ vitamins on the market today only need to be 10% natural to be classified as a natural product. And please don't be fooled by the one pill miracle vitamins. You simply can not get all your vitamins from one vitamin pill.
Science has made great leaps but we still can not compress all the vitamins and minerals we need into one little pill. If this is what your vitamin claims, throw it away, or try to get your money back.
For information on how to read a vitamin Label go to pdf below:
http://www.debdrake.com/support-files/naturalvssynthetic.pdf
Whole Food Vitamins: Our Heroes
A vitamin is “a working process consisting of the nutrient, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and trace minerals activators.” --thedoctorwithin.com
Whole food supplements contain vitamins, minerals and enzymes. They are real food concentrates the same as in the whole foods we eat. Whole Food vitamins are necessary to complete and already healthy diet. As hard as we may try to eat a balanced healthy diet it's still important to take whole food multivitamins to get all the vitamins and minerals our bodies need and deserve.
So, now that we know to take only Whole Food vitamins is that all we need to be healthy?
Yes, with the addition of a healthy diet and life-style.
I would first like to make it very clear that taking whole food supplements alone doesn't make up for a shabby lifestyle of poor eating and lack of exercise.
Whole food supplements compliment an already healthy lifestyle that of which proper eating and exercise are only a part of. Drinking excessive alcohol, smoking and other environmental hazards must also be avoided. It is the complete lifestyle, not just a part of it. That's like just going on vacation with only half of your money. It will only be fun while the money lasts.
Choosing a Whole Food Supplement
Choosing a supplement, is similar to trying to find a needle in a haystack. There hundreds of vitamin companies making unfounded claims, it’s a jungle out there. The internet is swarming with vitamins. Most vitamins are underwritten by pharmaceutical companies, so be careful what you choose. I have researched and have found brands that I know and trust. I share them with you below.
Let's make changes today, right now. Join me in my journey of health and vitality.
For your delicious almond milk and much more:
Almond Milk Recipe
1 cup soaked almond
5 cups water
sweetener - 6 dates or 1/4 cup Maple syrup (some people use agave, I do not recommend that)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Put almonds in a large bowl and cover with water. Soak almonds for 24 to 48 hours, covered in a cool place. Rinse almonds thoroughly and pour into blender with 5 cups water and blend add more water if necessary until almonds are nice and creamy. Pour blended almonds into a nut-bag (a mesh bag you can improvise from cheesecloth) over a bowl and squeeze as if you are milking your own cow. Another method for extracting milk is putting the milk bag into a mason jar securing the milk bag with a rubber band and let the milk drain for several hours on it's own. Both work well, it's really what you prefer. Once you have collected all the milk put milk back in blender and add sweetner, which ever you prefer dates, agave or maple syrup and vanilla. You now have delicious and very nutritious almond milk that will keep in the fridge for about 4 days. Make sure it is in airtight container, mason jars work well.
Wait---don't throw out your almond pulp. There are a couple suggestions I have for you.
Add chocolate and sweetener to it for a yummy spread or you can spread almond pulp on a cookie sheet and bake in 175 oven or better yet put it in a dehydrator to make almond flour.
Enjoy!
Ms. Immortal
I hope you enjoy my other hubs below:
The Food Allergy Epidemic And How We Can Avoid It: My Personal Story
The Food Allergy Epidemic: Raising A Food Allergic Child (Part II)
The Food Allergy Epidemic And Howe We Can Avoid It - Groundbreaking Information (PartIII)
Who's Afraid of the Flu? - Not Vitamin D
Who's Afraid of the Flu? - Not Vitamin D (Part 2)
As We Live And Breathe - A Tale Of Toxins
It Was The Day After Christmas - A Poem: by Alexander Fidelibus (my father)