Vitamin Scare

Your daily vitamin might not be the insurance you think it is.

Are you aware of big vitamin scare going around the US and UK? The staid Reader's Digest even had a cover story, "The Vitamin Hoax: 10 not to take" Feb., 2007).

Worst case: some vitamins are harmful. Best case: they do, well, nothing. So says the Reader's Digest.

Before you pop that next daily multi, check the bottle for two things:

1. Toxic ingredients.
Artificial colors: FD&C Blue #2 Lake, FD&C Red 40, etc.
Preservatives: sorbates (eg, Polysorbate 80), benzoates (eg, sodium benzoate), nitrites (eg, sodium nitrite), sulphites (eg, sulphur dioxide)

2. Are they synthetic?
Look at the names of the vitamins and minerals in the “Ingredients” listing on the label of the bottle. (You may need a magnifying glass.) A vitamin or mineral is synthetic if only its chemical and/or popular name appears, with no plant source.

E.g. from the label of a popular synthetic multivitamin seen on TV

Ingredients: Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, Potassium Chloride, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), DL-tocopheryl acetate (Vitamin E), ALL SYNTHETIC vitamins.

Your vitamins are not synthetic if they are listed with their whole food source. For example, “Vitamin C (from camucamu fruit)” indicates that you’re getting the Vitamin C, along with the other nutrients it lives with in the whole fruit. Not just the isolated vitamin C made in a lab.

That's the reason Dr. Heidi finally designed a daily whole food multi, the Pops.

If you want a daily multi that is whole-food based, with no toxins or synthetic vitamins, go here and get some. They're not a drug, so give them a few months to test them.

If you HATE to pay shipping like I do, check the 4 month (4 boxes) "subscription" option, and you don't pay shipping.

Regardless of whether you get the whole food multis designed by Dr. Heidi or not (I've taken them for three years) please throw out any synthetic vitamins that might be doing you more harm than good.

FDA Monitoring Vitamins

....a firm is responsible for determining that the dietary supplements it manufactures or distributes are safe and that any representations or claims made about them are substantiated by adequate evidence to show that they are not false or misleading. This means that dietary supplements do not need approval from FDA before they are marketed...firm does not have to provide FDA with the evidence it relies on to substantiate safety or effectiveness before or after it markets its products.....manufacturers do not need to register themselves nor their dietary supplement products with FDA before producing or selling them......the manufacturer is responsible for establishing its own manufacturing practice guidelines to ensure that the dietary supplements it produces are safe and contain the ingredients listed on the label.....there are no provisions in the law for FDA to "approve" dietary supplements for safety or effectiveness before they reach the consumer.....The manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that the "Supplement Facts" label and ingredient list are accurate, that the dietary ingredients are safe, and that the content matches the amount declared on the label...That is directly from the FDA website, It honestly scares me.

Whole Food Nation has posted this.........

Whole Food Nation’s manufacturing facility, Garden State Nutritionals (GSN), New Jersey is FDA-licensed and certified GMP. GMP, which stands for Good Manufacturing Practices, is a certification given by the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) and NSF International, two independent national nonprofit organizations that employ a uniform set of standards so that consumers can be assured that what’s on the label is also in the box, and that they are receiving pure supplements at accurate dosage levels. GSN has earned the coveted NNFA GMA 'A' rating, and is kosher-approved.

GSN has been manufacturing health supplements since 1977 and supplies diatary supplements to more than 35 countries around the world.

GSN link - http://www.gardenstatenutritionals.com/

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not review or approve dietary supplements like Pop a Green™ or Pop a Purple™.
  
• The FDA instead licenses factories to manufacture dietary supplements, and issue label guidelines.
  
• Pop a Green™ and Pop a Purple™ are manufactured by an FDA-licensed factory that has met all the FDA label guidelines.
  
• These guidelines include posting the statement in the box below. (The FDA does review and approve drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex.)

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Whole Food Nation
Are Your Vitamins Safe?
Vitamin Girl Shop