Could Your Vitamins be Killing You?

Billions are being spent annually on vitamin and mineral supplements. It can also be argued that never in history has so much money been spent on the advertising and purchasing of any merchandise, with so little knowledge of the product itself, on the part of either the seller or the buyer,

Most consumers and even salespeople know the difference between a synthetic, a crystalline, and a truly natural whole food vitamin.

I feel that the following information is essential for you to read and hope that it will provide you with enough information and clinical evidence so that you can make an educated decision on the health and well being of you and your family members.

“You can trace every ailment, every sickness and every disease to a vitamin and mineral deficiency.” Dr. Linus Pauling, renowned scientist and two time Nobel Prize Winner

Chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease take decades to develop. So do wrinkles and fuzzy brains. The core foundation of how Young you feel, how much Energy you have, how healthy you remain and are able to function all starts with proper nutrition.

Research through numerous scientific studies have conclusively shown that proper daily nutrition when coupled with daily exercise, as simple as walking, promotes the very essence of how well you feel, and as you age your body’s ability to prevent, ward off, and minimize diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Lester Packer, Ph.D., a molecular and cell biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, after many years of research, worries that more than 70 percent of people will die prematurely from diseases caused by or compounded by deficiencies of antioxidants. But starting young – in your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s – can help keep your body youthful and disease-free instead of in need of repair later. Antioxidants are also called phytochemicals and/or phytonutrients and carotenoids.

NUTRITIONALLY, WHAT EXACTLY IS HAPPENING TO US?

We are the direct product of what we eat and the lifestyles we have elected to live. Granted, there are diseases that are passed along to us genetically, but even in those instances through proper nourishment and lifestyle changes, we can greatly reduce our risk of premature illness and death causing diseases.

In the 1980’s, a study was conducted in the United States by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Using 50,000 people, it was found that not a single person was getting the recommended amounts of the 10 essential vitamins required for normal health.

For years you have been advised to look to the food pyramid, which recommends that you eat at least 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruits daily. Sadly, the vast majority of us, and you know who you are, fall woefully short of these guidelines. The problem is we can’t eat the volume of food it would require. More than 90 percent of people don’t eat the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Even if we did, food today doesn’t have the vitamins and minerals that they had 40 or 50 years ago. In those days farmers restored the soil by mulching, using natural fertilizers and rotating crops. Today, extensive use of chemical substances depletes the soil of many of the essential elements needed for adequate nutritionÂ…giving us a supply of beautiful products that look great, but don’t have the vitamins and other important nutrients we think they should have and, not near the vitamin, mineral and other essential nutrients (phytochemicals) they had 50 years ago.

Another problem is that most vitamins and other valuable nutrients are lost in processing. Cooking and freezing dramatically reduce vitamins, nutrients and food value. Added to this problem, are the presences of flavor enhancers, artificial colors, stabilizers and chemical food preservatives. Additionally, studies show that the nutrient value of our food is continually decreasing due to more air pollutants and less oxygen.

Additionally, mainstream marketing of supplemental vitamins and minerals has successfully created the myth that vitamins and minerals may be isolated from each other, that correct amounts may be measured out, and then we can derive total benefit from taking these fractionated chemical (synthetic) creations. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Vitamins and minerals, and also enzymes, work closely together as co-factors for each other’s efficacy. If one part is missing, or in the wrong form or the wrong amount, entire chains of metabolic processes will not proceed normally. Result: a downward spiraling of health, probably imperceptible for long periods of time.

SO WHAT’S THE ANSWER?

The dilemma we are faced with is; if we cannot get all of the nutrients we need through diet alone then how do we get them? We get them by taking supplementsÂ…but the right kind of supplements.

“We now have a substantial body of data showing that if everyone took a few supplements every day, they could significantly lower their risk of a multitude of serious diseases.” David Heber, M.D., Ph.D., of the Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA

While you may think that you have filled this need, you may be getting little benefit from using the vitamin & mineral supplements available today. Studies show that 90 percent of vitamin pills pass through your body unabsorbed! This is primarily due to the fact that most all vitamin & mineral supplements contain nothing but laboratory developed synthetic ingredients. Natural ingredients are more effectively used by your body which is designed to reject synthetic and foreign substances.

Your synthetic, fractionated chemical vitamin never grew in the ground, never saw the light of day, and never was alive or part of anything alive. It’s a chemical. In your body it’s just another drug. Synthetic vitamins have toxic effects in mega-doses and actually can increase the white blood cell count. Vitamins are only necessary in minute quantities on a daily basis. Whole food vitamins, by contrast, are not toxic and trigger no immune response.

Whole food vitamins are obtained by taking a vitamin-rich plant, removing the water and the fiber in a cold vacuum process, otherwise known as freeze–drying, free of chemicals, and then packaged for stability. The entire vitamin complex in this way can be captured intact, retaining its “functional and nutritional integrity.” Upon ingestion, the body is not required to draw on its own reserves in order to complete any missing elements from the vitamin complex.

“We have yet to improve on what Mother Nature has given us to eat. Foods simply cannot be artificially duplicated in the science laboratory.” Gabriel Clousens, M.D.

Examples from clinical tests conducted in Finland and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• 25 mg of Vitamin C in its natural whole-food form will cure scurvy but, 250 mg of synthetic vitamin C (ascorbic acid) will not!

• “Saltwater” can be synthesized in a laboratory, but when you put a fish in it the fish dies.

WHAT OCCURS IN THE BODY WHEN YOU INGEST SYNTHETIC VITAMINS OVER A PERIOD OF TIME?

Most people are not aware that most vitamins are processed at high temperature, contain petroleum derived chemical solvents, such as coal tar derivatives and ethyl cellulose and are coated with methylene chloride, a carcinogenic material. These sources are not living foods but dead chemicals and over a period of extended use can be potentially dangerous.

According to Dr. Zoltan P. Rona, M.D., “Although most healthy people will have no obvious side effects from ingesting small amounts of toxins found in most vitamins, the long-term consequences of continuous, daily intakes are potentially dangerous.” Dr. Rona says that reactions include fatigue, memory loss, depression, insomnia and potential liver disorders.

A recent Finnish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine states that “taking synthetic vitamins is worse than starvation! The synthetic vitamins will kill you quicker.” Admittedly, this statement is a bit aggressive, but does show the emphasis the researchers wanted to make regarding the potential health danger of using synthetic vitamins.

Living systems are very complex and specific in their need for building materials. In addition, living systems are constantly breaking down cells, organs and tissues, and rebuilding and repairing themselves. For these processes, the body must have a continual supply of specific, high-quality materials.

If you build a house with cheap, imitation construction materials, your house will quickly fall into disrepair. The same is true for the physical body. The body has a very precise design, which is so incredibly intricate and complex that even with all the scientific and medical research thus far; we have only scratched the surface of understanding it.

The following examples are a handful of hundreds that could be given to illustrate this point:

• Reported on April 14, 1994 in the New England Journal of Medicine was a study in which 29,000 male smokers were given synthetic beta-carotene and synthetic Vitamin E to evaluate the cancer-protective effect of the “vitamins”. After 10 years, the men taking the synthetic beta carotene had an 18% higher rate of lung cancer, more heart attacks, and an 8% higher overall death rate. Those taking Synthetic Vitamin E had more strokes. Food sources of these same nutrients, such as fruits, and vegetables, consistently demonstrate protection against cancer, heart attacks and stroke.

• On November 23, 1995, the following was reported in The New England Journal of Medicine. 22,748 pregnant women were given synthetic Vitamin A. After four years the study was halted because of a 240% increase in birth defects in babies of women taking 10,000 IU daily, and a 400% increase in birth defects in babies of women taking 20,000 IU a day. Women eating natural food sources of Vitamin A showed no increase in birth defects.

• Reported in Reuters Health, March 3, 2000 was a study of men who took 500 mg of synthetic Vitamin C daily. It was found that over an 18-month period, these men had a 250% increase of the intima-media lining (inner lining) of the carotid artery. This thickening is an accurate measurement for the progression of atherosclerosis. That is, synthetic Vitamin C induced atherosclerosis, even at 500 mg dose. Whole food Vitamin C protects and repairs the inner lining of blood vessels, and is preventative against atherosclerosis.

WHAT IS BEST FOR ME?

Using years of research and clinical data published by the National Cancer Institute, American Heart Association, USDA and the International Food Information Council Foundation, the American Diabetic Association and countless medical studies we need to keep our bodies free of refined and processed food, eliminate high fructose and artificial sweeteners . We need to consume a “Rainbow” of fruits and vegetables to get as much color variety in your diet as possible, so that you can maximize your intake of a broad range of nutrients. The colors of fruits and vegetables are a small clue as to what vitamins and nutrients are included. By getting a variety of different colored fruits and vegetables, you are guaranteed a diverse amount of naturally created essential vitamins and minerals. Choose grains, fruits and vegetables that are grown in deep mineral rich, alluvial soils without the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicidesÂ…there’re grown as mother-nature intended.

The Choice is yours

110 companies sell vitamins in the United States. Less than 5 of them use whole food vitamins. The reason is simple: whole food vitamins are expensive to make. A few of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world mass produce synthetic vitamins for the vast majority of these 110 “vitamin” companies, who then put their own label on them, and every company claims theirs is the best! Americans spend over $9 billion per year for synthetic vitamins and our health is worse now than it’s ever beenÂ…something is wrongÂ….it’s called synthetics!

Don’t you think it’s time for a change?