The supplements you choose are just as important as the food you eat in terms of safety, efficacy, and purity. What’s the best way to go about selecting quality supplements? When selecting supplements, it is important to first look at the ingredients on their labels. Do you recognize them? Are they manmade? When selecting a supplement, it makes good sense to go back to the basics and choose products that are made from whole food ingredients.
Fractionalized vs. Whole Vitamin Complex
For instance, let’s say you are looking for a vitamin E supplement. If you examine the ingredients of a typical retail vitamin E supplement with manmade components, you will likely see the chemical alpha-tocopherol, which is considered the active part of the vitamin E complex. If you were to examine a a whole food vitamin E supplement, you would see ingredients rich in the whole vitamin E complex, such as wheat germ oil, listed on the the label. Nature makes food in the form of many constituents, most of which have nutritional value. The nutrients found in supplements made from whole foods work synergistically to achieve their biological effects.
Another point to consider is potency. We often think more is better and try to megadose. However, quality is far more important than quantity; a small amount of a particular vitamin in a whole food form is far more effective in the body than a large amount of synthetic vitamin. Research indicates that synthetic vitamins may actually cause nutritional deficiencies. When you take a synthetic vitamin, it needs the co-factors normally found in the whole food, in order to complete its action. If they are not in the foods you eat, it will draw the co-factors from your body. You may feel good for a while but when the co-factors run out, you will actually feel worse.
Dangerous Additives in Supplements
Another factor to consider are the additives in most supplements. Dangerous chemicals that are listed as “other ingredients” include: talc, dyes, sodium benzoate, methylcellulose, carnauba wax, silicon and/or titanium dioxide. All of which are toxins that can accumulate in the body and cause harm. These supplements can actually fuel disease and disorders, including arthritis, osteoporosis, brittle bones, cancer, and yes, Alzheimer’s disease. Most supplements have artificial sweetener on the coating to mask the bitter taste. Generally in the form of neotame (which does not need to be listed in the ingredients). Artificial sweeteners are neurotoxins that can create all sorts of havoc in the body.
What are “Quality Supplements”?
I recommend whole food supplements. Simply put, whole food supplements are made from whole foods that have been dried and compressed into pill form. A beet is an example of a whole food. It contains all the things we need for good health – absorbable vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and phytonutrients. A whole food supplement may contain beet, as well as other foods, concentrated and preserved to keep their complete form.
However, even with whole food supplements, I recommend consulting a professional who knows how to test these products for dangerous additives, such as the kind listed above. Many capsules and coatings of even herbs or whole food products do contain neotame or other dangerous fillers.
I personally use Standard Process nutritional supplements for myself and in my practice. They are high quality foods, organically grown on the Standard Process farm in Wisconsin. They contain no dangerous fillers and no neotame. I have had excellent success over the years treating patients with these nutritional supplements. To find out more about Standard Process, see www.standardprocess.com
