Vitamins A, C and E are 'a waste of time and may even shorten your life'

So said the headline published around the world this past week:

From the newspaper article:

"Vitamins taken by around a third of the population do not extend life and may even cause premature death, according to a respected group of international scientists.

"After reviewing 67 studies involving more than 230,000 men and women, the experts say there is no convincing evidence that taking supplements of the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E can make you healthier." More here.

We were as stunned as anyone else at the timing and impact of this huge report.

As you know from the "Are Your Vitamins Safe?" report, this is only the most recent in a growing number of studies finding that synthetic vitamins (either from a lab beaker or isolated from a plant or animal) are worthless or even risky for a significant number of people. How can this be?

Here's a big reason:

These isolated synthetic vitamins are not absorbed and utilized properly by the body.

That's because - the 'main vitamin' ingredient, (e.g. A, E, C, etc.) which is extracted by synthetic vitamin makers, does not include the chemical cousins and other ingredients that main vitamin comes with in its natural form. Apparently, the body needs these "cofactors" to absorb the main vitamin.

It's cheaper to extract just the main vitamin. Only it appears now that the resulting synthetic vitamins are useless or worse.

What's the alternative?

Today there is a new class of multis, whole food multis. They put the whole food in the supplement (minus water and fiber), rather than just the isolated main vitamin or mineral.

So that's the story.

Whole Food Nation, a new start up I am part owner of, makes one of these whole food multis. I'm telling you that - in case you'd like to try a month's supply of these whole food multis at no cost. So you can compare it to your current synthetic vitamins, you know?

You can test this whole food multi free for a month. Go here: The Vitamin Exchange program. Ends May 15.

Next issue, I'll review the latest weird diet craze: the Inuit meat and blubber diet. Have you heard of it?

P.S. Affiliates and employees of Whole Food Nation not allowed to participate.

Vitamin Exchange Program: Where to ship your Synthetic Multi Vitamins

Vitamin Exchange Program Participants: Here are the 3 steps to get your free whole food multi from Whole Food Nation. (Program ends May 15.)

1. Look to see if your multivitamins are synthetic. Check it against this synthetic ingredients list here: Are Your Vitamins Safe?

2. Decide which of the whole-food multi's you want: Pop a Purple or Pop a Green

3. Ship your synthetic vitamin bottle (leave some pills in it) to Whole Food Nation.

Name
Address
Email
Phone #
Which Pops you want

Whole Food Nation
4741 Central St. #1000
Kansas City, MO 64112

Questions? email me here.

P.S. No one from our company will hound you or pitch you anything. The Vitamin Exchange Program is a national experiment to introduce people to whole-food based multis. And we never share your info, for any reason.

P.P.S. Affiliates and employees of Whole Food Nation: Sorry you can't play.

Questions? email me here.

Experience a whole food multi on us: Vitamin Exchange Program

Next week, Whole Food Nation, the little start up I own part of, is doing a little experiment - you can trade in your synthetic multivitamins for a free month's supply of a whole-food based one.

Who it's for
People who are into health and whole food, who also religiously take a Synthetic Multi Vitamin each day (SMV) - any brand. You can now trade it away free for a month's supply of a whole food multi. What if it makes a difference in how you feel?

What to do

1. Look to see if your multivitamins are synthetic. Check it against this synthetic ingredients list here Are Your Vitamins Safe?

2. Decide which of the whole-food multi's you want for a month: Pop a Purple or Pop a Green

3. Ship your synthetic vitamin bottle (leave some pills in it) to Whole Food Nation (see below). INCLUDE:

Name
Address
Email
Phone #
Which Pops you want: Green or Purple.

Whole Food Nation
4741 Central St. #1000
Kansas City, MO 64112

Questions? email me here.

P.S. No one from our company will hound you or pitch you anything. The Vitamin Exchange Program is a national experiment to introduce people to whole-food based multis. And we never share your info, for any reason.

P.S. How do you know a multi-vitamin is synthetic? Use this report, "Are Your Vitamins Safe?" published by Whole Food Nation.

A synthetic vitamin - here's what it's doing...

So now you know why many synthetic vitamins and supplements don't do much. It sits there, until it is later found in the septic waste tanks (see comments here reproduced below).

(Kim here's the Reference for the septic tank story.
http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ealerts/ea200305/ea20030528.html

"Absorption is the key to everything. How much you swallow means very (VERY) little. Dr. Jonathan Wright was informed by a patient who was a septic tank cleaner that many septic tanks of 'pill-poppers' have layers of pills at the bottom, a clear example of taking something that went on through and was never absorbed." - Robin)

"Vitamins A, C and E are 'a waste of time and may even shorten your life'"

Alarming findings? Just published in Great Britain...

"Vitamins taken by around a third of the population do not extend life and may even cause premature death, according to a respected group of international scientists.

After reviewing 67 studies involving more than 230,000 men and women, the experts say there is no convincing evidence that taking supplements of the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E can make you healthier....

"The review involved trials on beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium.

"It says in-depth analysis of the different trials does not support the idea that vitamins extend lifespan.

'Even more, beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase mortality,' says the review. More here

These findings are similar to research reported in "Are Your Vitamins Safe?" A study using synthetic vitamins, e.g. synthetic vitamin E, resulted in increased rates of lung cancer, heart attacks and death.

Nearly ALL vitamins sold in the U.S. and the UK are synthetic.

Check your vitamin label against the above report. Then ask for whole food-based multis. There are not many but they do exist.

Here's a company that has them available online. (I am part owner of it, so you are supporting my work when you choose these.)

Are we wrong about fruit and veggies?

Many scientific findings never see the light of day. One reason? When they go up against the prevailing wisdom of the day. The powers that be obviously don't want to upset the apple cart or admit they might have been wrong.

In this case, here's an immense and scholarly new book which questions the need for fruit and veggies in our daily diets (yes, I know!).

Here we go...

"Harvard anthropologist-turned-Arctic- explorer V Stefansson, who was concerned with the overall healthfulness of the diet...he had spent a decade eating nothing but meat among the Inuit (Eskimos) of northern Canada and Alaska. The [Eskimos], as well as the visiting explorers and traders who lived on this diet were among the healthiest if not the most vigorous populations imaginable.

"Among the peoples with whom Stefansson lived and traveled, the diet was primarily caribou meat, "with perhaps 30 percent fish, 10 percent seal meat, and 5 or 10 percent made up of polar bear, rabbits, birds and eggs."

"The Inuit Eskimos considered vegetables and fruit 'not proper human food,' Stefansson wrote...

"The Canadian anthropologist Diamond Jenness, who spent two years living in...Canada's Arctic coast, described the typical diet during one three-month stretch as "no fruit, no vegetables; morning and night nothing but seal meat washed down with ice-cold water or hot broth."

"(The ability to thrive on such a vegetable-and fruit-free diet was also noted by the lawyer and abolitionist Richard Henry Danna, Jr, in his 1840 memoirs of life on a sailing ship...For sixteen months, Dana wrote, "we lived upon almost nothing but fresh beef; fried beefsteaks, three times a day...in perfect health, and without ailings and failings.")

Author Gary Taubes comments:

"It is still common to assume that a meat-rich, plant-poor diet will result in nutritional deficiencies." -Good Calories, Bad Calories. Gary Taubes, 2007.

If that assumption turns out to be false today, what should we eat then, for optimal health?

Suggestions welcome. I will make one manana.

---
The content for the above post came from an advanced university course, "Comparative Dietary Approaches" taught by Dr. Heidi Dulay in Northern CA. Meet Dr. Heidi here and here.

If "normal" food is so bad for us, why is it so common?

Do you agree with this and if yes, what are you doing?

"If you were dropped at a random point in America today, nearly all the food around you would be bad for you. Humans were not designed to eat white flour, refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated vegetable oil. And yet if you analyzed the contents of the average grocery store you'd probably find these four ingredients accounted for most of the calories.

"Normal" food is terribly bad for you. The only people who eat what humans were actually designed to eat are a few Birkenstock-wearing weirdos in Berkeley.

If "normal" food is so bad for us, why is it so common?

There are two main reasons. One is that it has more immediate appeal. You may feel lousy an hour after eating that pizza, but eating the first couple bites feels great. The other is economies of scale. Producing junk food scales; producing fresh vegetables doesn't. Which means (a) junk food can be very cheap, and (b) it's worth spending a lot to market it.

If people have to choose between something that's cheap, heavily marketed, and appealing in the short term, and something that's expensive, obscure, and appealing in the long term, which do you think most will choose?" -Paul Graham

We know we need to make a change. What SHOULD one eat that's quick, tastes good and doesn't make us look old and feel tired before our time?

Should we just take the lead and stop buying so much of the bad stuff?

We stopped smoking, didn't we?

What steps have you taken so far? Use the 'comments' below to tell.

P.S. There is damage control for the junk food and drink we consume. Whole food multis like these and others on the market. That's not a substitute eating real food, but it's at least limits the damage from all the artificial junk food, pastas, and sweets we consume.

About overweight: Who's right, who's not?

For readers of the "Are Your Vitamins Safe?" report.

Which one of these statements do you agree with more?

Read slowly. They say opposite things...

1. "Overweight and obesity result from excess calorie consumption and/or inadequate physical activity." U.S. Surgeon General

OR

2. "Most studies comparing normal and overweight people suggest that those who are overweight eat fewer calories than those of normal weight." - National Academy of Sciences, Diet and Health.



Would you like the next info-report to be: Overweight: Who's right and who's wrong?



See results so far here.

Results: Who's got it right on overweight?

Results so far: