General Vitamin Information

    When we were children, vitamin supplementation came in the form of chewable Flintstones characters. They were delicious and we took one every day by the recommendation of our caring parents. Now we are adults. We have different issues.  There are many choices, and there are many articles suggesting we take this and that. It gets very confusing. So here is all my 'general' information for you.

    If you are perfectly healthy, you still need to supplement your diet. Why, you ask? Our food used to have all the nutrients we needed from the soil. But today, the soil is nutrient depleted, so even though you may be buying organic food (WAY BETTER FOR YOU) you still will not eat enough of the good stuff to have everything you need in your diet. Generally, you can find this in a multi-vitamin formula. Of course, there are good ones, bad ones, ugly ones, and not-much-in-em ones. To understand which are good and bad would take a lot of research and time. So my advice to you is to find a raw foods supplement. They exist in powders like the ingredients found in AMAZING GRASS and other green drink powders. They have raw foods that you could never find in your grocery store or possibly have time to incorporate into your everyday diet. The drawback is that they can get kind of pricey. So look for vitamin capsules that are made in the same fashion, from raw materials as opposed to manufactured synthetically in a lab. For a majority of vitamins, we still do not know how they are absorbed in the intestinal tract. By taking a raw supplement, you are increasing your chances of absorption because they are packaged with enzymes and other nutrients that will not be incorporated into a synthetic formulation. But, even with all that said, something is better than nothing. If you have a bottle of ONE-A-DAY, taking that every day is better than not supplementing at all.

    Everyone should take an Omega 3 supplement. It's incredibly good for the body as an anti-inflammatory. There are claims that every disease in the body is caused by some form of inflammation. These are best to take right before bed, as the body produces fatty acids during your sleep cycle. The absolute best supplement of this sort is KRILL OIL. It has a less fishy taste and offers extra benefits in addition to the Omega 3 content. If you are a vegetarian to the core, flax oil is a good replacement, but there have been articles stating that it is not as beneficial as fish oil (I have not researched the validity of this statement).

    Antioxidant formulas are big on the market now.  You should pack in as many antioxidants as you possibly can into your diet. This is by way of vegetables and fruits, some teas and coffees. However, research on oral antioxidant supplements has not always been positive. One study, SELECT, gave high doses of Vitamin E and C  to men with prostate cancer. The study had to be discontinued because the cancer was progressing faster in  many of the patients taking the supplements.It is suspected that at some dosage the antioxidants turn into free radicals, exacerbating the original problem. Please note that this study was shown to be flawed in many ways, so we can not take this information as an absolute truth. They used synthetic sources of Vitamin C and E. For instance, in the Vitamin E supplement, there was only one of the four tocopherols in the formula. While there is not a great deal of black and white evidence from the study, what we can take from it is this: unless you have a nature-derived supplement the maximum dosage you should take is 500mg. Keep in mind that caffeine that will be in your coffee and tea inhibits vitamin absorption so if you have to have your cup of joe, do it hours after you eat and take your vitamins.

    Now where this changes is in the cases of deficiency. If you have a vitamin deficiency, taking more than 500mg might be necessary for you to reinstate your health. For instance, I take a high dose of Folate and the rest of the B-complex vitamins every day for my brain function and stress levels as my intestines are not absorbing the B-Vitamins adequately from food (because I'm gluten intolerant). The amount I'm taking is way past the suggested daily intake. Yet, this works for me. Again, if you are trying to take an extra dose of something, see what compounds it is found hanging out with in our natural vegetation and find the most well-rounded formula. See if you can spread the dosage throughout the day, especially if they are water-absorbant vitmains. That way the body can deal with excess intake more easily. Sometimes we have to go with trial and error. If a dosage really works for you, do it. You're the only one who can take charge of your health.

    Calcium, Magnesium, and Vitamin D should be taken together. It is best to take calcium after you have eaten and with a glass of water. In a supplement workshop I attended, the teacher suggested that if taking both a multivitamin and a calcium supplement, you should take them at different times. So, to take them correctly, try taking the multivitamin with your meal at the beginning and the calcium supplement after you are finished eating. Vitamin D has been shown to be extremely beneficial to preventing disease. However, you can over do it with Vitamin D, so it's best to follow dosing instructions.

    Brazil nuts have a high dose of selenium, which is anti-carcinogenic. It is recommended that every adult eat 2 Brazil Nuts a day. However, there are two schools of thoughts on this:
1) 2 Brazil Nuts a day is perfect
2) Brazil nuts have so much selenium in them, it is better to spread them out (taking one a day or every other day) to avoid the negative effects of selenium overdose.

    Nonetheless, if you do decide to take them, do so before you go to sleep. The fat and protein in the nut, discourage the body from glycemic fits in the night for a full sleep. 

    Turmeric is another anti-carcinogenic compound. While, I've tried these in capsule formulations, I prefer to skip the gelatin capsule and just sprinkle it on every food I consume.

    Perhaps you are all the more confused about the adult version of Flinstones for our health. I hope that this article simply makes you look at your supplements with a little more skepticism and knowledge. If it has boggled your noggin', just remember this: Something is better than nothing.