Supplemental Differences

This newsletter is going to touch on a variety of subjects regarding vitamins, mineral supplements, and herbs.  Many of us have a cupboard or fridge full of these concoctions that are occupying space and/or we don’t really know why we are taking them. read on...

Many of our health problems can be directly linked to a lack of basic nutrition and increased chemicals in our foods.  Nutritional content of the food we eat is often lacking or is being destroyed by the time it gets to our tables, for a number of reasons:

Soil conditions – depleted soil due to poor farming conditions. Fertilizers affect our hormones in addition to depleting such nutrients as iron, vitamin C, zinc and trace minerals)

Food Transport – shipped long distances and stored long periods before sale (depleting nutrients)

Chemical animals – antibiotics and growth hormones given; pesticides and herbicides in animal food accumulate in the fat cells of animals which in turn are stored in our fat cells

Food additives – serious source of nutritional stress

Food processing – single greatest destroyer of nutrients; “non-foods” such chips, soda, fries, candy, etc. contain little or no nutritional value except unwanted fats and calories, and deplete the nutrient stores and cause nutrient malabsorption, increase the load of toxins and cancer-causing substances, stress and irritate all organ systems

Irradiation – bombards foods with radioactive isotopes to kill bacteria and molds.  This also damages the molecular structure of food making it less absorbable by the body.

Although the purpose of this newsletter in not to discuss each supplement, vitamin and herb in existence, we will touch on a few we use for hormonal balance a little later.  First of all, it is vitally important to know what to look for when choosing a dietary supplement as not all products are created equally.

Ideally products should be all-natural and contain only the highest quality ingredients with absolutely no additives, preservatives, fillers or flowing agents!

Lubricants and Flowing Agents

Do your supplements list ingredients such as magnesium stearate, stearic acid or palmitic acid?  These “ingredients” are actually lubricants or flowing agents.  Magesium stearate appears by far the most popular one.  They add absolutely no value to the supplement content.  Their purpose is to make the manufacturing process easier because they keep ingredients from sticking to the machinery.  These lubricants are saturated fats!  They tend to engulf the active ingredients which interferes with their absorption.  It is like throwing a good portion of your supplements down the toilet.   Stearic acid melts at 69^oC and palmitic acid melts at 63^oC.  Our average body temperature is 37^oC!  Many companies talk about purity and superior raw materials, but they have not managed to solve the problem of flowing agents.

Fillers and Preservatives

You would be amazed if you found out what manufacturers can legally put into supplements in terms of additives, fillers, and binders without having to list these items on the label. Most all of them utilize raw materials containing

lactose, sodium benzoate, BHA, BHT, hydrogenated oils

These are actually fillers and preservatives. These ingredients often cause allergic reactions, and many are harmful to the person ingesting them.

Binders, Glues and Coloring Agents

Whenever you use supplements in tablet form, beware!

All tablets contain binders and glues to keep their shape.

Many tablets contain artificial coloring agents to make them look "prettier". Titanium Oxide as a "whitening agent" is just one example.

Again, these additives often cause allergic reactions, and many are detrimental to your health. Pharmaceutical glaze, confectioners glaze, or natural glaze may be the name of the ingredient you see on the label, but these are just euphemisms for the real name of the ingredient – SHELLAC – the same substance you use to varnish furniture.  Shellac is used because it makes a tablet “shiny” and easier to swallow. 

Labels will also list natural vegetable coating, natural protein coating, vegetable coating, or maize protein – all euphemistic names for Zein, which is a CORN PROTEIN.  Many people are allergic or sensitive to corn protein, and would readily recognize its presence in a substance if it were correctly identified.

Hypoallergenic Supplements:

To produce truly hypoallergenic encapsulated supplements, purest raw materials must be used.  Every manufacturer has 2 basic choices available for raw materials: purchase either truly pure raw materials, or purchase raw materials to which substances have been added to facilitate manufacturing. The commonly utilized commercial sources for vitamins B12, D, K, or biotin are diluted with substances such as lactose, cornstarch, and preservative such as BHT, BHA, sodium benzoate and sorbic acid. 

The choices made by supplement manufacturers make the difference between an excellent, effective, well-tolerated product and an inferior, poorly absorbed product that may potentially cause allergenic problems.