Why We Need To Supplement

Have you ever heard from your doctor that there is no need to supplement if you eat a balanced diet?  Has this doctor ever said that detoxing is not important either?  Even worse yet... Do you believe what they have told you?

Have you been told that taking vitamins is useless because you are only producing expensive urine?  Here is a question to ask yourself... If this was even close to true, if your body is incapable of absorbing vitamins, then how can your body have no problem absorbing dangerous prescription medications or over the counter drugs?  Does your body operate selectively?... does the human body not know how to absorb healthy nutrients found in nature because what it really needs to function at an optimal level is another synthetic medication? (rhetorical question)

If your doctor was interested at all in "Health Care" instead of "Sickness Care", he or she would never give you such ridiculous advice.  We, as a population, have become trained to believe that "sickness" just happens to us.  It is poor luck, bad genes, poor environment, etc... As long as we live with this belief, then we will be forever trapped in a system that only "Manages" disease and illness.  Wouldn't you rather eliminate your illness and help prevent it from ever coming back... or would you rather just "Manage it with medication."... for the rest of your life!

You may be asking yourself... Who are you to tell me that my doctor doesn't know what he or she is talking about when it comes to health?  To start with, think of someone you know, (maybe even yourself), who is currently taking medications for High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, and maybe even Adult Onset Diabetes.  O.K.... Here is the tough question.... Are they any healthier than they were before they started taking these medications???  Of course not.  Sure, their "Numbers" may look good on a Lab Report, but there is no chance that they are healthier now than they were before taking the medications. 

(I am not talking about the people you know that have actually started to change their diet and lifestyle.  I am talking about the people that haven't changed a thing except to take medications.) 

Still Skeptical?  Yes, I understand.  This may be the first time you are hearing a "different" truth, but don't take my word for it... I am only reporting facts.  Here is some proof.  The following information is taken directly from "Lessons From The Miracle Doctors" written by Jon Barron.

Why We Need To Supplement...

The food we eat today is not the same as the food we ate 50-100 years ago.  We have to compensate for the loss of "value" in our food.

• It takes 80 cups of today's supermarket spinach to give you the same iron you'd get from just one cup of spinach grown 50 years ago.
• According to a Rutgers University study, it now takes 19 ears of corn to equal the nutritional value of just one ear of corn grown in 1940.
• There is less than half the protein in today's wheat as in the wheat our grandparents ate.
• Much of our soil is so depleted that our farm crops depend ENTIRELY on the chemical fertilizers they are fed to grow.  That means that most of the food we eat is devoid of virtually all the trace minerals we need for survival.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's happened.  We've exchanged quality for quantity.  You can't keep increasing your yield per acre, at the same time steadily depleting your soil year after year, and not expect to lose something in the process.  And what's been lost is the quality of our food. 

How do we do better... Try organic.

• Organic snap beans have 30 times the manganese, 22 times the iron, and 23 times the copper of the conventionally grown variety.
• Organic cabbage has 4 times the calcium and 4 times the potassium of the cabbage you buy in the supermarket.Organic lettuce is 5 times higher in calcium, 50 times higher in iron, and 170 times higher in manganese.
• Organic tomatoes are 12 times higher in magnesium, 68 times higher in manganese, and almost 2000 times higher in iron.

Keep these facts in mind the next time someone tells you that you don't need to supplement if you are eating a balanced diet.

Are You Taking Junk Vitamins?

Are you taking vitamins, minerals or other supplements?  If you said yes... then do you really know what's in them?  The reason for this question is because there are many supplement products out there that contain ingredients that maybe you should think twice before swallowing.  Junk vitamins are often endorsed as quality products that many times have a physician or celebrity name attached to them. 

Rule #1... Beware of Marketing Hype  This is just a generalization, but any company that spends a lot of money on marketing, (like the ones you see on commercials), is not using quality ingredients.  Quality ingredients cost a lot.  Ingredients in their natural form are often over 10 times the cost of their synthetic form.  Any company using the best quality ingredients rarely has enough money left over to market heavily due to the fact that they have to be cost competitive with the "Name Brand" companies. 

Rule #2... Beware Of Poor Quality  The easiest test for finding out if the supplements you are taking are made with quality ingredients or not is to look at the Vitamin B12 listing.  Vitamin B12 is almost always the most expensive component in your supplement even if it is from the cheapest form.  Not to mention that most companies only add a little more than 6 mcg (micrograms)... what the recommended daily value is.  This number is ridiculously low, but was set in order to prevent anemia, not set to actually help the body function at a higher level. 

So how do you find out if your supplement is using the cheapest form of B12?  Look on the label for Cyanocobalamin.  This is the cheapest form of B12 and it is stabilized using a cyanide molecule!  When your body metabolizes it, it breaks it down, strips away the front end molecule, cyanide.  Then you have to detoxify the cyanide, which the body can do, but if you are already tired or fatigued, struggle with your health, or suffer from fibromyalgia, then you will struggle to keep your energy levels up because your body is trying to metabolize this junk.  Your body has to use energy just to break this component down.  This is why many people complain of feeling worse after taking their B-Vitamin supplements.  Look for Co-enzyme forms such as "methyl" or "adenosyl" cobalamin.  Hydroxycobalamin is also good, but not quite as good as the two mentioned before.

There are many other things to look for when choosing your supplements, all of which will be discussed in future newsletters and website postings.  As I said, the easiest way to see if your supplement manufacturer truly cares about your health is to just read the label for B12.  Remember, if they are cutting corners on this ingredient... where else are they cutting corners as well?

Please, continue to take the supplements that you currently have if you feel like they are helping.  Even in synthetic form, you can still see some health benefits.  Just know that these benefits may be more than 50% less effective than if you take the best supplements you can find.  Finish the bottles you currently have... this will still give you a healthier body than most people.  And during this time... do some more research and find products that will guarantee to raise your level of health.

Check out our Supplements And Products pages listed in the icons above.  I have chosen companies that refuse to compromise on quality.  They are truly the best you can find.  The more often you check our website, you will notice new products being added.  This is because I am always looking for more companies that guarantee the quality that you will find on our website.  Unfortunately, finding reputable companies to deal with is not easy.  Many of them are worried more about profits and less about quality... but don't worry, we will do the work for you.

Yours In Health,

Dr. Jason Hurst, DC, CCSP, CSCS