by Melissa A. Bartoszewski, DC
(NaturalNews) Do you currently buy your vitamins at the local grocery store, bulk club store, pharmacy, etc? More than likely, you are not getting what you paid for and are doing more harm than good. Getting your daily dose of vitamins and minerals should come from food, and only then should you supplement with high quality products when necessary. Many store bought vitamins contain harmful ingredients and chemicals. Synthetic vitamins are cheaply made and are in non-absorbable forms so your body does not get any nutritional benefits. Stop wasting your money and harming your body.
What to avoid
Beware of the term “other ingredients,” these can include: talc, dyes, sodium benzoate, methylcellulose, carnauba wax, silicon/titanium dioxide, animal parts, and artificial ingredients. Why does something that is supposed to benefit you contain such toxic chemicals while you, the consumer, think you are doing the right thing by supplementing.
Gummy or kids’ fruit-flavored chewable vitamins, designed to be colorful and taste like candy, are loaded with possible carcinogenic, artificial ingredients and food dyes. The first ingredient in many of these children’s vitamins is: glucose syrup. Other ingredients include: Blue #2, Red #40, Yellow #6 and aspartame, the known neurotoxin. Voluntarily feeding children these “vitamins” is doing more harm than good; stop poisoning your kids. Several published studies discuss the link between food additives/dyes and ADHD in children. In a double-blind study, children that were fed a diet that included food additives and dyes had worsening ADHD symptoms, while children that had additive-free diets had improved symptomology.
Centrum vitamins, owned by the drug company Pfizer, have a long list of toxic ingredients, including: Yellow #6, hydrogenated palm oil, pregelatinized corn starch, silicon dioxide, maltodextrin, modified food starch, and the list goes on. Please stop willingly ingesting these chemicals and causing damage to your body, instead of helping it. These vitamins do anything but promote health.
Remember, quality over quantity
Ask yourself, what are the ingredients? Where do the ingredients come from? Are the vitamins/minerals in absorbable forms? Is the product organic? How long has it been sitting on the shelf for? If you do not know what an ingredient is, research it. Companies such as, Standard Process, offer several whole food supplements. “Whole food supplements are made by concentrating foods for use in supplements” (Standard Process). Metagenics, Douglas Labs and several other supplements sold through healthcare practitioners are also of high quality, safe ingredients. Whole food supplements help to close the nutritional gap caused by over-processed, nutrient-deficient food in today’s society. Eat more fruits and vegetables, organic whenever possible, and supplement with high quality products when necessary.
Article Sources:
http://www.naturalnews.com/036459_Centrum_vitamins_Pfizer.html
http://www.naturalnews.com
https://www.standardprocess.com/Why-Whole-Foods
http://www.centrum.com/centrum-adults-under-50#tablets
http://www.flintstonesvitamins.com
http://www.feingold.org/Research/PDFstudies/Kidd00.pdf
About the author:
Dr. Melissa Bartoszewski is a chiropractor at Estramonte Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Charlotte, NC. She is a graduate of New York Chiropractic College. Dr. Bartoszewski is also a raw food and natural healthcare advocate. Follow her on Twitter at PolishChiro.