What You Need To Know Before Purchasing Supplements

I've been diligently working on my next book, Great Health Begins at 50, A Women's Guide To Fearless Aging [working title]. There is so much useful information packed into this book, and its purpose is to help you navigate your way around our modern healthcare model, which focuses on managing and treating our symptoms, and not addressing the root cause in order to find answers and heal. Using food as medicne, and positive lifestyle changes, you will learn the most important health hacks that will help you gain more energy, and take back control of your health. I'm excited to bring all of my research to you so that you can purposfully take action steps now, so you don't have to become a statistic later on. With the epidemic of chronic illness on the rise, we desparately need a new game plan when approaching our health, instead of dis-ease. I'm sharing an area in my book that precedes my chapter on the health benefits of smoothies. This area focuses on how misleading supplements are and that we need to due our research before purchasing them. It's useful information and I hope you enjoy!

Most of us think that taking a multi-vitamin is the answer to staying healthy. The supplement world is unregulated which means manufacturers don’t have to go through the FDA approval process for effectiveness or safety. Many have harmful chemicals and toxic substances such as GMO’s, heavy metals (lead, arsenic), carrageenan, additives, hydrogenated oils, etc. And because supplements are not vetted by the FDA, they essentially place the burden for evaluating supplement safety, efficacy and content labeling primarily on the shoulders of the manufacturers. With a smoothie, you know what you’re getting --plenty of vitamin C, antioxidants, and immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.

Fruits and vegetables contain many biologically active ingredients that may help ward off illness and disease in ways that vitamins alone do not. A healthy diet is much more powerful than simply taking a daily multivitamin. When you’re considering the pros and cons of multivitamins, consider what you expect to gain and why you think you need a supplement in the first place. If you need to supplement your diet because you’re not eating well, vitamins are not going to be your answer. There’s a reason why they call them supplements. They should only supplement a healthy diet, and cannot replace a healthy diet alone. Supplements can be expensive, and in most cases, aren’t worth the investment. You will gain more with your money spent at the farmer’s market or your local grocery store’s organic produce section than with all of supplements you currently purchase.

When using food for health, you know what you’re getting. When using supplements for health you need to know whom you’re buying them from and and if they are a trusted source. As I mentioned above, The FDA is not authorized to review these supplements for effectiveness or safety. It’s important to defend yourself against poor quality supplements. There is a lot of confusion around purchasing the right suppplments, as there are more than 90,000 vitamin and dietary products sold in the U.S. Most supplements have little to no data on their effectiveness. It has been my experience, when looking to add supplements to my health protocol, I will seek out a functional medicine practitioner who supplies third-party-tested quality supplements (including probiotics.) That way, I know I’m getting the highest quality supplments and don’t buy the ones that are just wasting my money.

The counterfeit supplement world is a booming business. If you feel that you must purchase vitamins and supplements, you need to know where they are coming from. Alternative practitioners such as chiropractors, accupuncturists, integrative practitioners, functional and naturopathic doctors will do their due diligence in offering good quality suppelments. There are thousands of conterfeit supplment companies that are eager to sensationalize their product, and then take your money and run, so this will be your best route.

Gary Collins, who is a former special agent and forensic investigator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has investigated fraudulent counterfeit supplement manufacturers and explains why it is not safe to purchase supplements from unknown, unreliable sources, including Amazon. In fact, Amazon is loaded with these unscrupulous supplement suppliers. Gary says,

"One of the easiest ways to make a dishonest buck in the supplement world is to create a pill that mirrors a name-brand health supplement. Create lookalike packaging and you can sell your worthless pill on the Internet for a “discounted” price. And a counterfeit operation is born!"

When it comes to multivitamins, look at your diet first. Then if your doctor sees you’re deficient somewhere you’ll be able to make an informed decision and buy the right products. And when you’re eating healthy you’ll also look to food for your daily dose of vitamins and minerals as well. Food is easier to digest, and cost less. When you start looking at food as fuel for your body, you’ll feel empowered to make healthy food choices and you’ll be excited to experiment with recipes to incoroporate more of the colorful rainbow of fruits and vegetables vs. disease-promoting unhealthy foods, followed by your counterfiet multivitamin.

Remember, the easiest way to get a heavy load of vitamins and minerals every day is with smoothies.

I'm working on an online group coaching program that will help you get your sexy back! Yes, you can no matter what age, when you know this information! To stay in touch with me, please send me a short note you'd like to be notified when I roll it out. You can go to https://www.findingyourhealth.com/contact

To your health and happiness!