At the request of one of you, our beautiful New Lifer’s, I am going to give a quick rundown on some things you should know about vitamins today. This is not an exhaustive report, but some good things to know and consider when purchasing and taking vitamins. Here goes:
WHY TAKE VITAMINS The number one reason to take vitamins – vitamin deficiency causes sickness and besides just not getting sick, higher levels of many vitamins in your body provide greater benefits. If you consider that most of our food is grown and taken from the same fields year after year and the only thing they add back into the soil is commercial fertilizer, you’ll understand that you simply do not get the same vitamins (or minerals) that were present in the soil the first few years they grew carrots there, or onions, or cabbages, or whatever. Add to that processing of our food – all processing destroys nutrients. Freezing your food destroys nutrients, cooking it does too, freeze then cook the same food your decrease it’s nutrient value even more. Put it in a microwave and you completely destroy the anti-oxidants in the food (anti-oxidants are a requirement for life on this planet!) If you are making the mistake of eating any form of processed food, you are allowing convenience to override common sense and you are depleting your body of not only things that are good for you, but are essential.
So, if you do anything except eat whole, raw, unprocessed foods the bulk of the time, especially if what you eat is grown in what is now called “conventional” farming, you might want to consider taking vitamins to compensate for the lack.
B VITAMINS There are many B vitamins and as a group they are responsible for helping with your energy systems, with our absorption of iron, and with healthy growth and development of babies (in the womb). If you suspect you are lacking in B vitamins, you should take a B 50 complex.
VITAMIN C Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant and it is water soluble meaning that it is very good for you, but doesn’t stay in your system long. Don’t buy chewable vitamin C that is loaded with sugar. Take 500mg at least twice a day – better yet 3-6x/day.
VITAMIN D Especially in Canada, where the sun does not touch most of our skin for 5 or 6 months/year taking a vitamin D supplement is probably smart. A lack of vitamin D makes you extremely susceptible to upper respiratory infection. Vitamin D is an oil, so stop buying it as a tablet (extra processing for no reason), it should be purchased as an oil dripper. 1 drip = 1000iu’s. The average adult should take about 5000iu’s/day. Sun exposure is much better!
VITAMIN E Vitamin E is an oil based anti-oxidant and it is very important for many things including preventing memory loss. It is important to get natural sourced vitamin E. The small print will read “d-alpha tocopherol” as opposed to “dl-alpha tocopherol” if it is synthetic. Like everything else natural works much better. 400-800iu’s/day is a good dose for an adult.
SOURCE Do not buy Jamieson or any other brand from a drug store. They are produced by the pharmaceutical industry, who are notorious for lying to people and providing very poor quality products. Instead buy high quality products from health food and online stores.
LASTLY, WHY NOT TAKE VITAMINS If you eat high quality, organic foods not grown in the same fields year after year, and prepare them with minimal processing, your need for supplements is much less :)) Now is a great time to order seed for your own garden where you can grow super-healthy, vitamin rich foods!
God Bless,
Dr. Brad and the New Life Team
New Life Chiropractic│ 705.735.1838
