1. Free Radical Production
2. Glycation
3. Methylation

and how to effectively treat them with specialized and in some cases rare supplement ingredients.

Your body has to fight against these SERIOUS problems every single day. Besides aging you they are responsible for the onset of degenerative disease.

These four aging components require specialized ingredients in your nutritional health supplement to effectively address and control them.

The problem we have seen however is that because around 99% of vitamin health supplements, of all standards, are manufactured to a price, with many distributed via expense heavy MLM structures, these specialized ingredients are just too expensive to be included.

In today’s article I will look at the final aging component – Chronic Inflammation.

When people hear the word ‘Inflammation’ most will immediately think of Fish Oil and Omega 3. Yes, you will see Fish oil in the list below of the necessary specialized anti inflammation nutrients but……………

It Takes Much More Than Fish Oil To Adequately Tackle And Control Inflammation!

If inflammation is not controlled it will cause crisis to your health!

It is a serious condition but one that is not mentioned much in anti aging discussions. In fact there are leading scientists who have publicly stated that chronic inflammation is the main contributor to age related health damage. This is because excessive inflammation causes toxic chemicals which eat away body tissues, thus leading to heart disease, dementia, arthritis and diabetes and so on.

Just think about that for a moment!

Regardless of whether these scientists are spot on or not chronic Inflammation is a VERY BIG DEAL when it comes to your health and to the issue of

PREMATURE AGING!

You see, just about every one of us is suffering from premature aging. That’s because we live in the civilized world and so we can’t hide from the causes:

Things like oxidation (from breathing), X rays, sunlight, and numerous dietary/environmental toxins and stressors which impact on our health EVERY SINGLE DAY! (The only way to escape these is to run away and live in remote places like the Himalaya’s, with races like the Hunsa’s who live to around 120 years and where men father children well into their nineties.)

How do these things impact your health exactly ?

The answer is above!

They SPEED UP the four things which are primarily causing you to age: Free Radical Production, Glycation, Methylation and Inflammation.

So, to support, improve and (hopefully) optimize your health, you need to SLOW DOWN AND NORMALIZE YOUR AGING PROCESS . In other words to bring it more into line with what mother nature intended.

Therefore you must comprehensively take action against free radical, glycation, methylation and inflammation.

That’s the straightforward answer you’ve been looking for.

Anti Aging Secrets – Take Action How?

Well, your dietary intake is certainly a HUGE part of the action you must take but as you have/will discover from my previous articles in this series, some of the specialized anti aging nutrients you must have to take on free radicals, glycation, methylation and inflammation, cannot be taken in through your diet.

That’s why supplementation is so critical to the process.

So, if you believe in using nutritional health supplements, and you are/are going to spend good money on one, on a continuing basis, then you absolutely need to make sure it can do more than just top up any nutrient deficiencies you may have!

The key here is to understand that these four components are completely interrelated. That means you have to treat all four simultaneously. It’s completely a waste of time buying an isolated nutrient(s) in order to address just one or two of them. This WON’T WORK.

If you haven’t read through parts 1,2 and 3 of this anti aging secrets series then this might be a good time to do so and then you will understand the interconnection of these four aging components. (Use the anti aging secrets links in the sidebar over on the right of this page.)

But here’s a good example to highlight this interrelatedness.

MDA (Malondialdehyde) is a dangerous chemical byproduct formed in your body as a result of the action of free radicals on the fatty membranes of your cells. It is a major factor in the production of AGEs from glycation. This same chemical, MDA, is also involved in inflammation.

Anti Aging Secrets – Reduce The Summation

So, if you try using anti-oxidants to decrease your free radical population then you will reduce the oxidation of your cell membranes which will in turn reduce the formation of MDA which in turn will reduce glycation and thereby the creation of AGEs. Presto- you have reduced inflammation as well!

But you still need to take Carnosine (part 2) in addition to the most powerful antioxidants (part 1) to inhibit the creation of AGEs because there will still be free radical production – you can’t kill all those troublesome free radicals – so MDA is still going to form and try to create AGEs which in a summation effect will contribute to inflammation

And you can’t stop the production of all AGEs and by connection not all inflammation can be avoided so you absolutely have to use specialized nutrients that can tackle inflammation (in ADDITION to the the other specialized nutrients for glycation, methylation and free radicals. (parts 1, 2, 3)

In part two, I discussed the unique qualities of the nutrient ‘Carnosine’ with respect to glycation. Well, Carnosine is also on the list of specialized ingredients for addressing inflammation. Carnosine really is an amazing nutrient!

One nasty component of inflammation is excitotoxicity. This is a process which leads to damage and death of nerve cells from excess levels of glutamate and similar substances in your diet (MSG and other flavor enhancers, like aspartame, are the problem – take note! ) If brain cells are killed due to excitotoxicity this can lead to strokes, traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases like Multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

One of the very dangerous chemicals associated with chronic inflammation is Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF). TNF actively promotes the degeneration of your brain and nerves! It is activated by a combination of free radicals and AGEs.

A supplement label SHOULD list the category of nutrients it contains, like Vitamins, Herbal Extracts, Enzymes, Amino Acids, Immunity and so on? An important category of nutrients that should be on that list is ‘Calorie Restriction Mimics’. Is it there on your supplement label?

To keep the production of TNF as low as possible you need to take in the best known calorie restriction mimic:

Resveratrol.

For greater efficacy and increased value for money be sure to check that any Resveratrol in your supplement is in the ‘Trans’ form and not the cheaper and less bioavailable ‘Cis’ form! Due to resveratrol’s extremely high price, supplements that can afford to include it usually do so with very low potencies of around 5 – 10% and inadequate dose amounts (< 50 mg). BEWARE!

And speaking of well known, let’s talk about Omega 3 fish oil. Now, most doctors and health experts promote fish oil exclusively as the answer to inflammation. There’s no debate that the anti inflammatory activity of fish oil helps significantly in controlling inflammation but the problem here is that it addresses only one component of the much wider picture of inflammation.

So to finish up, here’s your list of the most effective anti-inflammation nutrients that work in synergy with fish oil in addressing and reducing inflammation:

• Resveratrol

• Glutathione

• Carnosine

• Turmeric

• Alpha Lipoic Acid

• Flavanoids

Anti Aging Secrets- Summing Up

I’m sure many of you reading this article would now like to expand your anti aging knowledge more. So, just let me give you a heads up that a very large amount of the literature out there promotes just free radicals as the most important concern in anti aging programs.

Of course you know this is NOT the case. Supplement companies and marketers are responsible for this – because their products do not address glycation, methylation and inflammation, they won’t mention them. They also have tried to brain wash consumers into believing that fish oil is the sole answer for inflammation.

But…just using antioxidants to tackle free radicals or fish oil for inflammation, will NOT achieve what you want. It is only PART of the complex anti-aging equation.

Well everyone, that wraps up this anti aging secrets and nutritional supplements series. I hope it has helped you to understand your aging process more fully and the actions you need to take to comprehensively tackle and protect yourself from the serious health issues that speed up your aging and lead to degenerative disease and a debilitated lifestyle.

Nature intended for us to live in vibrant health and die from natural causes – not from disease. But unfortunately that’s not the case for the majority of the population today.

We all really do need a helping hand from the best nutritional health supplements to make this possible.

Here’s one more heads up for you. I review hundreds of supplements each year including the so called market leaders. To date I can tell you there is ONLY ONE health supplement out there that has a formula which properly addresses free radicals, glycation, methylation and inflammation.

It uses a whopping 97 ingredients in order to get the job done.

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that it’s the supplement my family and I have use. I wouldn’t trust my health to any other supplement because quite simply there isn’t another supplement currently out there which takes on each part of the anti aging equation with the specialized nutrients required.

It’s called Total Balance. I use the Men’s Premium version. Use this link if you want to read up more on Total Balance and it’s unique properties. They even have a formula for children! (My niece and nephew use it!)

Total Balance

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If you’ve already read Parts One and Two in this anti aging secrets and nutritional supplements series you’ll understand how the processes that lead to premature aging and the onset of debilitating degenerative disease are all INTERRELATED!

You’ve seen that to be successful, to any real degree, with an anti-aging program you must treat all four of the fundamental components of aging:

Free Radicals
Glycation
Methylation
Inflammation

The bottom line for [tag-tec]nutritional supplements[/tag-tec] marketing themselves as having anti aging benefits and the ability to slow down your aging process, is that they MUST contain the specialized ingredients which can address and tackle not only the free radical problem (which most supplement do reasonably well) but also these other three crippling aging components.

The anti aging secrets presented in parts one and two revealed that when it comes to addressing the first two aging components, free radicals and glycation, virtually all nutritional health supplements and multi ingredient vitamin supplements FAIL to give you either the best of these specialized ingredients (in cases where there are some choices) or NONE AT ALL.

Because almost all supplements are made to a price the manufacturers simply cannot afford to include these expensive rare ingredients!

Anti Aging Secrets – Methylation

So, now I’m going to move on to the third aging factor:-

Methylation

Anti Aging Secrets No 2:

Maintaining and Enhancing Methylation Is A Critical Step In Treating Aging And Disease Including Cancer And Heart Disease!

Have you heard of Methylation before?

Most vitamin supplement consumers won’t have come across it because supplement manufacturers won’t discuss it. Why?

Well that’s an easy answer and I bet you’ve already guessed it. It’s because their products do little to nothing to address Methylation! To mention it would highlight a major weakness in their supplements putting paid to their anti aging and ‘optimal‘ health claims.

Methylation is a biochemical reaction resulting in the attachment of a chemical fragment, called a methyl group, on various substances/molecules in your body, like DNA. DNA methylation is one of the most essential uses of a methylation process however there are many others – in fact there are hundreds of methylation reactions in your body!

So, simply put, methylation is a reaction that provokes changes in your body!

When a a methyl group attaches to some compounds in your body this acts as a catalyst for a reaction to take place such as the ‘turning on of a gene or the activation of an enzyme. (When the methyl group is lost/removed the reaction stops- ie the gene is turned off and the enzyme is deactivated).

Let’s use an example to put this into perspective so that you can understand why we should bother to care or even think about about methylation.

Consider the well known neurotransmitter serotonin.

Receiving a methyl group ‘turns on’ serotonin production leading to appropriate levels of this ‘happy/feel good’ brain chemical. But if your serotonin is not methylated it is turned off and this results in depression. See how methylation can have serious consequences for your health!

Now, people can be an over methylator or they can be an under methylator. In the case of our depression example above let’s say you are an under methylator. If your methylation is increased you may not need to take SSRI’s (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors).

This is very important for a person with depression! Further down I’ll explain how supplements can help to increase your methylation.

Please don’t start worrying about whether you’re an over or under methylator. Not everyone is one or the other, there are other groups and you may be in the group that is neither under or over so you’re fine. Statistical analysis by Professor Karl-Peter Pfeiffer from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, suggests 45% are under methylators and 15% are over methylators. That leaves roughly half of the population as neither!

The simplified bottom line for methylation is this:

If your methylation processes are altered, limited or in any way working less than optimally, you are heading for nasty health problems. The effects of under methylation can be seen as premature aging, cancer, heart disease, liver disease and other chronic illness, depression and birth defects. Not to mention the acceleration of your aging process!

So, methylation is incredibly important. It’s a bit like a spark plug in a car- making things turn on and happen. Without methylation you would die in a matter of days!

Anti Aging Secrets – Homocysteine

Now, I’d like to mention homocysteine because the methylation of it is exceptionally crucial to your health.

You’ve probably heard of homocysteine before because of its connection to the most common cause of death in the United States – HEART DISEASE! The medical and health establishments have gone to great lengths over recent years to bring to the general publics attention the importance of keeping their homocysteine levels low.

Homocysteine is a by-product of an important amino acid methionine and is what remains when methionine is used to methylate your proteins and DNA. Homocysteine needs to be methylated and converted back to methionine – it can be toxic if not converted!

How toxic?

Besides heart disease, elevated homocysteine levels are associated with poor circulation, degenerative illnesses (eg Dementia and Alzheimer’s), liver disease, and other severely debilitating conditions!

It is critical to keep your homocysteine levels down!

Anti Aging Secrets – Methylation As Time Goes By

Your body can become methylation-depleted just as it can become depleted with antioxidants or any vitamin or mineral, and with age your methylation process becomes less efficient. This results in DNA damage and a dangerous buildup of homocysteine as well as heightened risk of contracting any of the flow-on degenerative conditions listed above.

So, if you are an under-methylator to begin with or you have become methylation depleted you absolutely need to take action! If you are still young or middle aged then you also need to take action now to balance and possibly enhance your methylation and guard against premature aging and degenerative disease.

The action you need to take is simple! Just supplement your dietary intake with the methylation agents your body needs to successfully complete this task.

Anti Aging Secrets – The Methylation Agents You Must Have In Your Supplement

These 3 groups of compounds are what you want:

• B Vitamins – B6, B12 and Folic Acid
  

• Tri-Methyl-Glycine (TMG) – also known as ‘Betaine’
  

• SAMe (S-Adenosyl-Methionine)

However they are FAR from all equal in their levels of effectiveness as methylating agents!

SAMe stands head and shoulders above the others!

That’s because science and bio-chemistry have long since identified it as the primary methylating substance in the body.

Now, if you think back to parts one and two in this anti aging secrets series you’ll remember how I keep stressing that your aging process results from constituent components which are ALL interrelated.

Free radical damage, (part one), is one of these aging components. So, here’s another example of this interrelationship: free radicals alter methylation patterns!

What’s the big deal with that you may be asking?

Well, it’s these alterations which ‘turn on’ genes.

And that includes CANCER genes!

Anti Aging Secrets No. 3:

SAMe, in it’s role as the primary methylating agent, has the power to reverse damage to methylation patterns caused by free radicals!

So, SAMe is an absolutely vital ingredient that must be in your health supplement if you expect to be successful in your anti aging program. The other methylating agents listed above must of course also be there.

Now, as with parts one and two, I’m going to ask you to go take a look at your supplement bottle label.

In my post about free radicals I asked you to check your label for the most powerful antioxidant L -Glutathione ‘reduced’. Then for glycation you went to check for Carnosine, the only nutrient which can inhibit the formation of those deadly ‘aging’ molecules AGE’s.

I said that because 99% of nutritional vitamin supplements are made to a price, 99% of you won’t find those specialized and critical anti aging ingredients in your supplements because they are simply too expensive for most manufacturers to include.

Well, this time I’m going to ask you to check for SAMe and guess what?

Yes, it’s the same story for this essential ingredient. You won’t find it !

Firstly, because of its super expensive price and secondly, just like L-Glutathione, it is particularly susceptible to damage by stomach acid and so it MUST be used in a pharmaceutical grade enteric coated tablet.

Unless you’re using the supplement that I use, your supplement definitely isn’t enteric coated.

So, SAMe’s not on your supplement label, right? Well, it’s not on mine either!

BUT…… .it will be there by the end of this month. That’s when the 6th Generation version will be released. It already includes all the other effective methylating agents so the inclusion of SAMe will just further enhance it’s existing methylating abilities. This new formula sets a new standard within the supplement industry.

OK, so I’ve now covered three of the four fundamental components of aging (free radicals, glycation, methylation) and we’ve seen the importance of treating all of them in order to produce real anti aging benefits and achieve a life without degenerative disease.

That leaves one more to go.

Look out for my final post in this anti aging secrets series next week where I’ll be discussing inflammation.

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Use this link if you would like to read about the multi ingredient nutritional vitamin supplement I use.

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Your nutritional vitamin supplement contains Folic acid, right?

Well it very well may cause you cancer - according to a recently released article!

That’s exactly what Harvard Medical School researchers have said in the March 2008 edition of their Harvard Men’s Health Watch newsletter.

They also cited studies to say that other multivitamin ingredients, namely [tag-tec]antioxidants[/tag-tec], [tag-tec]vitamins B6[/tag-tec], B12 and [tag-ice]Folic acid[/tag-ice] don’t prevent disease (cancer and heart disease).

Now, before jumping to any conclusions, it is VERY important, with all (often sensationalist) negative supplement reports, to DIG DEEPER to see what’s really going on!

As you know some researcher’s research protocols and conclusions can be clouded by vested interests and their results INTENTIONALLY SKEWED. Third party examinations of the cited studies/research usually paint a somewhat different picture/conclusion. (Usually that it is inconclusive and needs further study!).

Over the years there has been studies conducted, which have been ‘sponsored’ by those with ‘anti-supplement vested interests’, such as Big Pharma, where the final conclusion has been pre-determined before the study even begins! This needs to be kept in mind when reading negative [tag-tec]supplement[/tag-tec] studies.

The best course of action is to never take any of them at face value.

In the case of this Harvard Men’s Health watch report, the Vice President for Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at the Council for Responsible [tag-tec]Nutrition[/tag-tec] (CRN), Andrew Shao, Ph.D., has come out to question the research cited in the newsletter and labeled it’s conclusion as “premature”.

Mr Shao helped put this report in perspective for supplement consumers and other interested parties by revealing that the [tag-ice]antioxidant[/tag-ice] studies it referenced have been “heavily criticized by the scientific community.”

He also noted that the Folic acid research cited was “only one study”!

Hmmmmm – ONE SINGLE STUDY!

That lone study found an increased risk of [tag-ice]cancer[/tag-ice] (colon and prostate cancers) among people taking Folic acid. BUT……

……the study involved ONLY people taking large amounts of Folic acid ( a whopping 2.5 times the recommended daily allowance) and who already have an increased risk of developing the [tag-ice]disease[/tag-ice].

The devil is in the details!

NOTE: Harvard professors contacted by Shao also thought the article was premature, and said that they still take their [tag-tec]multivitamins[/tag-tec].

The newsletter article concluded “There is no proof that a daily [tag-ice]multivitamin[/tag-ice] is harmful. Still, it now seems possible that the high levels of Folic acid achieved by well-intentioned people who take a multivitamin and eat healthful [tag-ice]foods[/tag-ice] could increase the risk of colorectal and possible prostate and breast cancers.”

Sources:

Harvard Men’s Health Watch March 2008

Natural Foods Merchandiser March 4, 2008

Brett’s Comments:

An estimated 35 percent of U.S. adults regularly take [tag-tec]nutritional vitamin supplements[/tag-tec]. That includes the industry’s best [tag-ice]super supplements[/tag-ice] that come with a much higher price tag.

That’s a HUGE amount of money each year spent on [tag-tec]dietary supplements[/tag-tec]. ($21 billion actually).

But….. it has been previously estimated that $1 in every $3 used on [tag-tec]nutritional supplements[/tag-tec] is WASTED!

Gosh, could that be your money?

Supplement users, like you and I, have relied on supplement manufacturers for the safety and efficacy of supplements we use. We rely on them to balance the ingredient dose amounts so that if in the unlikely event situations such as the above Harvard report ever turn out to be true, we will not be affected by having consumed excessive amounts of any isolated ingredient.

If you’ve read through some of the articles in at the nutritional supplement truths main site, you’ll already know that relying on supplement manufacturers can be a BIG MISTAKE!

The time has come for supplement consumers to start thoroughly checking up on the manufacturers of supplement(s) they use or those they are comparing prior to purchase.

Why?

Because there are just too many dishonest and disreputable manufacturers out there trying to mislead you.

And on top of that there’s many many others who just don’t have the superior manufacturing know-how to produce a safe, professional, science-based supplement that is highly effective. The kind of [tag-ice]elite supplement[/tag-ice] that savvy consumers like you and I want to take.

You know, even the huge and well known supplement companies who have marketed their way to large scale popular recognition over the years, are cleverly holding back little known key information because it would reveal weaknesses and poor value for money in their products.

Now more than ever you need to check the details of your nutritional supplements to be sure you haven’t been sucked in by deceptive and misleading marketing and that you really are getting all the [tag-tec]health benefits[/tag-tec] you want and are paying for.

Many self claimed super supplements are certainly not all they claim to be and this extends right down to the basic supermarket type multivitamins as well!

The short time it takes to do your supplement homework will be well worth it, for your safety and peace of mind and that of your family if they use [tag-tec]nutritional health supplements[/tag-tec].

WHAT’S IN YOUR NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENT?

I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not but the FDA dietary supplement regulations leave it up it up to supplement manufacturers to make sure their supplement is safe and effective, and that the bottle label is a truthful representation of what’s really in each tablet in that bottle.

These FDA regulations don’t prevent manufacturers from creating poorly put together and even [tag-ice]unsafe supplements[/tag-ice]!

Because there’s currently no FDA enforcement, many manufacturers take advantage of the situation by doing minimal to no quality assurance testing of their raw material ingredients.

Reputable supplement manufacturers, however, test ALL their raw ingredients for conformity with each Certificate Of Analysis (COA).

The COA is a document containing detailed information about the identity, quality and purity of the raw material. It should reflect the true and representative properties of the substance in question.

Disreputable manufacturers just don’t test.

They simply rely on the word of the raw material supplier who supplies the COA. This creates tremendous cost savings for them. They’d rather focus on excessive profits at the expense of your [tag-tec]health[/tag-tec]!

In other words they’re gambling with your health!

“How?”

They know all too well that raw ingredients can be adulterated with heavy fillers, some of which can be TOXIC, not to mention impurities and potencies far below what they should be.

And how about this for RIDICULOUS – Raw material suppliers to the nutritional supplement manufacturing facilities are “EXEMPTED” from the new (2007) FDA GMPs !

Are you starting to see what you’re up against here!

Reputable manufacturers are well aware that some raw material suppliers (even including those with GMP accreditation) falsify their COA’s!

That’s why quality focused manufacturers go through the huge cost of testing ALL their raw ingredients.

But then we have the problem of some manufacturers falsifying the results of their own tests!

Argh – What to do!

Despite the fact that there are currently no regulations to do independent, third party testing to verify raw material conformity with COA’s, the absolute best manufacturers DO employ third parties to verify their own test results.

Those third parties should however be accredited state, regional or national bodies. (It ‘s estimated that by the end of this year the FDA will be ready to appoint its own third party auditors.)

And just putting aside the quality and safety issue of raw ingredients for a moment, don’t forget that producing a professional grade supplement is a complicated manufacturing task that has many complex steps.

If there is any technical oversights (ie. MISTAKES!) from a lack of know-how in any step OR cost-cutting shortcuts, then in no time at all supplement quality is rocketing downhill. The end result is a substandard, less effective supplement or in the worse case scenario a potentially dangerous supplement.

So, when it comes to choosing a quality nutritional vitamin supplement or one of the market’s leading super supplements, there are a multitude of options to weed through. Therefore you really do need to examine many details.

This is exactly why it’s so risky selecting on PRICE ALONE!

There is a huge risk that you will end up with a sub-standard supplement that has not been verified through a vigorous quality assurance process.

Don’t take anything for granted when it comes to your health and your family’s health.

Every detail is worthy of your attention!

Don’t trust any supplement or the word of any supplement company, unless you’ve done your homework and are 100% sure it makes the grade!

PLEASE DO YOUR SUPPLEMENT HOMEWORK!!!!

You’ll be relieved to know that dietary supplement quality controls in the USA will soon significantly improve.

The revised (June 2007) FDA cGMP contain much stricter (legislated) standards than what manufacturers have been operating under to date and will weed out a lot (but not all) of the disreputable manufacturers who are only in it for a quick buck. These companies are essentially marketers in disguise.

These new regulations could have been much stricter and to be honest they don’t actually prevent a manufacturer from producing a bad supplement. That’s because, as I mentioned above, the FDA leave it up to the manufacturer to conform.

There is no enforcement!

Nonetheless it will be near impossible for most of the really bad manufacturers to continue.

So, for the sake of your health and longevity, you’ve got to do your supplement homework.

Depending on the number of employees, companies have until June 2010 (at the latest) to become cGMP compliant.

You’re Not Going To Wait?

Great!, – to learn all the nutritional supplement details that you need to check on please visit my are super supplements all they claim to be article.

What To Ask – Ask The Right Questions!

You need to ask the right questions of supplement companies to draw out product and manufacturing details which they have deliberately kept hidden.

This then allows you to fill in the ‘information gap’ and judge the true effectiveness and value for money of a supplement.

Visit my evaluating nutritional vitamin supplements series of articles.

There’s 6 of them covering these crucial topics:

• The Formula
• Ingredient Quality
• Bioavailability
• Manufacturing Standards
• Synergy
• Value For Money

At the bottom of each one you’ll find a list of the RIGHT QUESTIONS to ask for that particular topic (or for a couple there’s a link to pdf files).

Please don’t waste your money, and worse yet, run the risk of potential harm, by taking poorly put together supplements offering poor value for money?

The value for money factor is one of the least understood issues by supplement consumers, particularly when it comes to super supplements made by those gigantic well known U.S based companies.

These companies have huge costs when they manufacture nutritional vitamin supplements and these impact on the product selling price and on which ingredients, potencies, bioavailable forms, and dose amounts that they can afford to include!

The Devil Is In The Details!

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This particular supplement was marketed in a very clever way to stress the importance of taking only a natural supplement with natural “whole food” ingredients.

If you read my comments you will see that product is nowhere near as good as it claims to be and because of the huge amount of vitamin C it contains it offers consumers very poor value for money. And some of the “whole food sourced” ingredients it promotes actually do not occur naturally so there’s a nice example of bending the truth to say the least.

Today I thought I would stay with this ‘whole food’ theme.

Another reader (Deb) contacted me early this year and asked my opinion on whole food supplement formulas. You can find her question on the ‘Your Questions’ page at nutritional-supplement-truths.com

So here is a reduced version of my answer to Deb.

Point No.1

Whole foods, fruits and vegetables in this case, are chocked full of crucial vitamins, minerals, fiber, and micro nutrients including potent, disease conquering phytonutrients, a number of which scientists have isolated and many which they believe they don’t know about yet.

Eating whole foods is absolutely the way to go and for a large part of the population there is a need to eat A LOT more –

particularly raw vegetables. Studies show that people (especially adult females) avoid the dark green vegetables in particular. (These are key anti-cancer promoters! )

I eat ALL my vegetables raw. (75% of my entire diet is raw!)

That’s because a extraordinary bio-scientist in Australia explained to me the necessity of this. This amazing lady has a near perfect record of curing cancer in people who seek out her help as well as all kinds of other diseases and medical conditions (all of which stem from nutritional and lifestyle factors!)

So putting aside the extensive on-going debate about the extent to which cooking your vegetables destroys crucial enzymes and nutritional content, I recommend you eat your fruits and vegetables raw.

So, to the question at hand:

SHOULD WE TAKE IN WHOLE FOODS THROUGH SUPPLEMENTS?

Most people under 50 today know about the importance of eating fruits and veggies (and those over 50 always knew) but they don’t want to eat them – certainly not in sufficient quantity. They’ve been cajoled and lured by food scientists/manufacturers/marketers over many years to enjoy the taste of fat and sugar.

But now there appears to be a magic bullet that people, who know they’re not consuming enough fruits and vegetables, have wished for, for so long.

A way to take in enough of those boring fruits and bland tasting vegetables by simply swallowing a whole food pill or three while still continuing to consume nutritionally poor diets full of great tasting (but nutritionally deficient) processed and junk foods.

And whole food supplement manufacturers are playing on this for all they can get.

Unfortunately it’s just not that easy and here’s why.

You would have to be swallowing handful after handful after handful after handful of these whole food vitamin supplements each and every day to be getting the equivalent nutritional value that comes from eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

To take whole foods in supplement form is simply not a practical solution for health conscious consumers!

Consider this:

When preparing a whole food (fruit or vegetable) to be an ingredient in a supplement, the water must be removed by either spray or freeze drying.

After the water is taken out you are left with an amount that is between 1/10 th and 1/50th of the original food mass.

In other words if you had a supplement containing 500mg of a freeze dried whole food then that would be equal to between 2.5 – 5 grams of the real fruit or vegetable.

To put this in perspective, an average sized banana is about 125 grams. So, our 500 mg supplement provides the gross weight and nutritional value of only about 1/25th to 1/50th of a banana!

About one small bite of the banana!

To get the equivalent of one normal size banana you would need to take from twenty five to fifty whole food supplements (500 mg tablets/capsules).

See what I mean?

And I won’t bother to get into the other negatives involved in the preparation of whole food ingredients, like sterilization, milling and distribution times.

Ask yourself why would you bother to purchase a whole food supplement when one decent meal will give you the equivalent nutritional value as about one month’s supply of the supplement.

Think about the cost difference!

And keep in mind that the example above involves only one bite of one type of fruit.

You need a WIDE spectrum of fruits and vegetables daily to take in all the various nutrients you need for good health and to avoid nutritional deficiency based disease.

The Bottom line:

Whole Food Multivitamin Nutritional Supplements SHOULD NOT Be Used As Any Kind Of Substitute For Eating Fresh Vegetables And Fruits!

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