What is a Vitamin
Vitamins are micronutrients that keep our bodies running smoothly. They cause our glands to function properly and are critical assistance to hormonal function, along with maintaining high levels of energy.
Peak performance and depletion of our immune system are lost without the proper vitamins in our bodies.
The fact is, and many studies show, that raw fruits and vegetables enable people to obtain the highest blood levels of nutrients.
It is challenging to eat enough fruits and vegetables to pack in all the essential vitamins and minerals that we need.
Use vitamins and supplements to fill the gaps in your diet.
Vitamin Facts
Poor nutrition creates poor quality body tissue and affects the quality of every organ in your body!
Vitamins and supplements will not cure any disease or illness but will provide the necessary elements necessary for your immune system to take control and overcome these illnesses.
You have your own unique chemical makeup, different DNA, inherited genes, lifestyle, and surrounding environmental differences. No two people are identical in terms of activity, metabolic functions, nutrient needs, or enzymatic functions.
Nutritional researchers generally encounter no vitamin B12 in plant foods today!
Not all vitamins are created equal and some you should flush down the toilet. How to choose the best vitamins.
Deficiencies
Through scientific studies we know that many people share some of the same vitamin deficiencies.
All deficiencies have a cause…
Not all deficiencies can be solved, easily, without vitamin supplementation
It may be possible to obtain all essential vitamins from the food you eat, depending on your current health condition, and would require a regimented lifestyle and a substantial amount of focus, time, and effort that would go beyond the average person’s capacity.
A case for Vitamins
Man has a magnitude of inventions and modifications to the food that God created.
And, we are paying the high price by getting too far away from the original diet that God intended for us.
This is resulting in an alarmingly high rate of obesity, disease and illness today.
We are not making headway by continuing to consume manufactured, chemically induced, dead food products.
We find these “dead foods” almost exclusively in stores.
Vitamins and minerals are important for oxidative metabolism – oxygen making energy from carbohydrates.
Vitamins and minerals vs prescription drugs
Our bodies break down due to the lack of proper nutrition. We then use chemically manufactured prescription drugs which is also the cause of many illnesses.
Read the side effects of any drug vs natural vitamins. There are no side effects of supplements
It is interesting to note that the same drugs that are used to treat cancer may cause cancer!
Treating the symptoms of the disease and not the cause is like putting ointment on your hand to treat a burn but leaving it in the fire. Natural supplements focus on treating the cause.
Choosing the best vitamins
If it is synthetic – it is created in a lab. The body cannot absorb synthetic vitamins. Save your money. They are also extremely acid-forming!
If it is inorganic – it is derived from a nonliving substance. It has no effectiveness because our bodies cannot break this down. Plants need inorganic materials for nutrients and we need organic materials for nutrients. Save your money! Some products may claim “natural” but contain inorganic materials. A good example of inorganic material is found in many of the calcium supplements on the market. Some common ingredients are ground oyster shells, carbonate, bone meal which is ground up animal bones and slaughter-house waste products. These inorganic materials are good for plant fertilizers but since the body has a very difficult time breaking down and absorbing this material most of it will be deposited in the soft tissue of the joints, blood vessels, eyes, and internal organs.
Some very serious health issues can develop as a result of taking this type of calcium. And these types of supplements will claim “Natural” on the label. You may have seen articles claiming that by taking calcium supplements you may actually increase the chance of heart attacks.
True – inorganic, as mentioned above can lead to plaque and hardening of the arteries which can promote a heart attack.
Plants absorb inorganic materials and minerals from the soil and convert it to organic minerals suitable to nourish our bodies.
Mainstream medicine many times will recommend calcium and Vitamin D supplements when in fact you may only need to increase the absorption of calcium by taking vitamin D3 and K2 which directs the body to properly deposit the calcium!
Use only natural and organic – that come from living plants. Choose whole food supplements!
Choose the products that contain No Refined Sugars, Gluten Free, NONGMO, NO Soy,
As stated previously every individual has a unique physiological makeup but all of us need the same nutrients in order to experience optimal health.
Studies show that many people may be lacking in theses vitamins and minerals:
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics, more than 96% of Americans are not getting adequate intakes of micronutrients from food alone, based on the government’s average requirement standard.
A good choice of vitamins to consider taking
Vitamin B12
Vitamin D3
Vitamin K2
Iodine
Probiotics
Silicon
False assumptions can harm you!
“I’m tired, I must be lacking iron”
This is a fairly natural response if you tire easily. There have been discussions on marginal iron deficiencies causing performance issues by reducing certain metabolic functions and reducing the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.
Athletes, especially female endurance athletes, may require additional iron supplementation, but we can usually meet our iron requirements by eating green leaf-vegetables, potatoes, dried fruits, pumpkin seeds, whole wheat bread, and nuts.
If you are getting a sufficient amount of sleep, exercise, and have your stress levels under control, but still experience fatigue, you may have an acidic condition in the body! Read the next article on calcium and osteoporosis.
Caution: Excess iron intake can decrease zinc absorption and is a component of insulin and the involvement of numerous enzymatic processes. Zinc plays an important role in human growth.
It’s cold and flu season – I’m loading up on vitamins!
Many athletes know that a high-performance diet is essential. Their diet will include a variety of healthy, natural foods, and pure vegetable juices. It is well documented that vegetarian type diets of this nature will adequately meet most nutritional needs.
Loading up on vitamins above the RDA, recommended daily allowance, without your doctor’s consent could be harmful.
The best choice is to create a lifestyle of better eating along with the required supplements on a daily basis.
As the old cells of our body die off they will be replaced at a rate of approximately 300 million per minute.
It is estimated that our entire body including the skeletal system is completely rebuilt every 7-10 years.
It is critical that these new cells have the proper nutrition and environment to develop properly so the immune system has the proper strength to eliminate the rogue, or cancerous, cells as they are produced.
Vitamin B12 deficiencies occur in about 47% of individuals who followed the Hallelujah Diet for a period of two years. Further tests show that many who do not follow a vegan type of diet also may be lacking B12.
Vitamin B12 deficiencies have killed Vegans! (the famous raw-foodist pioneer, T.C. Fry)
Joel Fuhrman, M.D. shares, “By the time you realize the symptoms of B12 deficiency you will already have nerve damage”.
Get all the details on Vitamin B12 here!
Multivitamins
Multi Vitamins can be very tempting to purchase because they contain all the vitamins one could need, packaged into one. This makes it easy for us, but we have to remember that many of these are made from synthetic (created in a lab) and inorganic (derived from nonliving substance) materials.
Another issue is that nutrients are isolated, or separated.
Whole foods work best in synergy, or together. The vitamins, co-enzymes, enzymes, minerals, antioxidants work in complex processes to produce the required nutrients for us.
The D3 –K2 Vitamin is a good example of a synergistic combination to enhance calcium absorption and properly depositing the calcium. See more details.
For maximum benefits, not all vitamins should be taken at the same time, as in the multivitamin!
The timing of taking vitamins to get the maximum benefits is another reason to take selected vitamins for your individual needs.
For instance, one vitamin may claim maximum benefit by taking prior to eating and another may be during or after a meal.
A 2012 study concluded that multivitamins do not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23117775
If you decide to take a multivitamin, Charlie Seltzer, MD, says to consider a whole foods powder supplement.
Again, the closer we can stay to Gods original diet as described in Genesis 1:29 the better health we will experience.