The Real Need For Vitamins

What is the deal with vitamins?  That's always been my thought.  I've never really been a pill taker, whether its drugs or supplements.  I've never felt the need . . but more importantly, I never really knew the need.  The history of vitamins is an interesting one.  I've sure many of us have heard of the story of sailors getting scurvy which in the mid 1700's was discovered that scurvy was helped out by eating lemons and limes.  Even though at the time they did not know what was in these citrus fruits, they just knew that certain foods helped with certain conditions.  This discovery led to a whole new world of micronutrients.

The first discovered micronutrient was Vitamin B1 also known as Thiamine.  Each new vitamin has been added to the list given letters corresponding with their time of discovery.  We now have Vitamins A - K, all an important part of our diet and health, along with minerals.  Vitamins and minerals are essential because we cannot produce them on our own (except for Vitamin D which acts more like a hormone, and also Vitamin K which can be produced by bacteria in our gut flora).  The true discovery is that if we are deficient in any of these, a whole array of health problems will occur.  Likewise, if we supply ourselves with enough certain vitamins or minerals we will surely see these health problems disappear.  Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel Prize winner, stated, "You can trace every sickness, every disease and every ailment to a mineral deficiency."

All these essential vitamins and minerals are found in the natural foods we eat.  But that brings up my question. Humans have been eating food for thousands of years without needing supplements, so why do we now need to take extra vitamins in our diet today?  I would like to share with you three real needs for vitamins and minerals in our diet today.

1. We Choose Not to Eat Nutrient Rich Foods - This is the sad reality, but we are not Choosing to eat the right foods.  According to CDC, only 14% of adults and only 9% of teens are eating the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.  Only 14%!  And that's only the recommended servings which is the minimum, which is just barely enough to prevent deficiencies.  We aren't even getting the minimum.  Our plate should be at least half vegetables and fruits - and reports show that on any given day 46% don't even eat one fruit, and 18% don't even eat one vegetable.  Hopefully taking vitamins and minerals can help with these deficiencies.  What is to blame? A little bit is the food pyramid, or the "My Plate" education.  This has focused generally more on grains than anything, with little emphasis on fruits and vegetables.  Part of the blame goes towards processed food and fast food filling our foods with sugar and fats that have little to no nutritional value.  But the real blame is ourselves.  We make these choices.  We are not properly educated, we are not adequately informed and we are bombarded by thousands of unhealthy choices . . . but it all comes down to our choice.  Some say that eating healthy is expensive.  Look around.  Look at the cars we drive, the gadgets we carry, the clothes we wear, the computers we use, and the events and entertainments we attend.  Our body is more important than any of these, and we can't even make the priority to treat it the right way.  We have chosen to fail our own health.  When we are in the hospital with disease, our clothes are going to be in our closets, our car in the driveway, and our TV sitting in our living room.  They will all be there while our health is failing because we have made that choice.  I think we, in general, need to make better priorities.
2. We Live In A Processed World - There is a list of changes in our diet over the last few decades.  The key words that pop out are Refined and Processed.  Refined simply means to take out all nutrients.  We have refined sugar, flour, rice and other items.  These are nutrition-less products that are simply empty calories which provide no nutritional benefits and can do our body great harm.  Processed means that things have been added or has been chemically changed.  Again, we have processed sugar, flour, and rice.  This is the difference between white and brown rice, or white and wheat flour.  These "white" products have been processed and refined.  It has been chemically changed, making it foreign to our body and thus can create harmful reactions.  Some products are processed for preservation.  This is done by either adding salt, saturated fats, or other additives that are harmful to our health.  But this is the world we live in.  We want food now.  Companies need to process their foods to be able to meet the demands.  They replace natural products with processed foods which lack nutrition. A beef burrito may not even be real beef, and yet has a hundred other additives to make it at least taste good. Companies choose alternative products because they are cheap and inexpensive.  They gamble your health for their profit.
3. A Depleting Soil - This is the topic I truly wanted to discuss.  Soil is soil, right?  Well, not exactly.  I found that out just recently as I tried to grow a small garden in our backyard, and nothing grew.  The soil was absolutely no good.  But this is a reality for the whole world.  In the last century the increasing populations have put a high demand on crops.  The increasing demand has depleted value in the soil.  This led to the introduction of synthetic soil.  It was an idea that solved the problem temporally.  Over time, the artificial soil has created a more acidic environment, reducing the value of the soil over all.  Pesticides and herbicides have also been introduced, harming the soil.  The plants and crops grown reflect the soil it is planted in.  If the soil is depleted in vitamins and minerals, the plant will then also be deficient.  The reality is since 1940, the value of nutrition in vegetables has decreased by about 30-40%, even as high as 76% and in fruits has decreased in nutritional value by about 20%.  The natural foods we eat today are not the same that our ancestors ate centuries ago.

It is becoming grossly apparent we are deficient in the essential nutrients that we need.  We are seeing our own "scurvy" scourge with the numerous diseases and ailments we see today.  But it can be prevented.  We need to make better choices and eat more natural, nutrient rich foods. But the need of supplementing vitamins and minerals is growing and unavoidable.  I've not saying to take every little pill.  We must first get our nutrients by the foods we eat.  Afterwards, we must be aware of the nutrients we are more deficient in, to supplement them, that we may avoid any costly and harmful effects.  I wish I had more time to discuss more in depth of which vitamins to take, but I encourage everyone to make the small and simple steps of eating healthier and taking a good multi-vitamin.  There is a real need for Vitamins for us today

Sweet As Sugar

I have made a few mentions in other posts concerning sugar and sweeteners however, in my effort to find alternatives I found a pretty good list of sugar alternatives to either stay away from or are natural and good to use in replace of regular table sugar.

So what is the big deal about sugar? When I say "sugar", I mean the white granulated table sugar we purchase and commonly use in our cooking.  Sugar is a processed and refined form of sucrose taken from a variety of natural sources.  Simply when something is refined - it pretty much means that all nutrients are taken out and when something is processed it means that it has been changed chemically. The natural sugar has been turned into an empty (nutrition-less) calorie that is frankly foreign to the body.  Sugar is a simple carbohydrate which has many effects

• Increases Triglycerides
• Promotes Dysglycemia
• Suppresses Immune Function
• Promotes Nutritional Deficiency
• Feeds Pathogens
• Promotes Cavities
• Increases Uric Acid
• Increases Blood Pressure
• Increases Cholesterol - Decreases HDL

All those are terrible effects, but what does this all mean?  Stats show that in 1750 the average person consumed 6-8 pounds of sugar per year, in 1950 the average person consumed about 120 pounds of sugar per year.  That's a dramatic increase.  Today, the average person consumes 170 pounds of sugar a year.  The reality of it all is this is the same pattern of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and ADD/ADHD - all diseases or conditions that have inclined in the last couple decades.  It is no coincidence.

Sugar is an inflammatory agent that creates harmful reactions within our body.  Usually these are small effects, but with the increase of consumption - all the little reactions adds up to a gigantic problem.  Sugar increases triglycerides and increases LDL cholesterol levels which develops into atherosclerosis and heart disease. Sugar is a preferred substrate utilized by cancer cells, promoting cancer growth.  It also decreases immune function which prevents regulation of the cancer cells.  But most importantly may be a factor in causing cancer.  The refined sugar is an empty substance to which when is broken down in our body is basically waste.  Our body has several ways to rid of waste, however, when we have more waste than we can get rid of, our body has to store it somewhere.  This waste product is stored in fat cells - thus creating more fat cells which increases obesity risks.  But this is more than just a weight issue.  These new fat cells now contain toxic and harmful waste in which if accumulated can create defective and cancerous cells.  Diabetes is an obvious concern with simple sugar consumption.  Not only does sugar increase our blood sugar levels, but fat cells can create resistance to insulin.  ADD is also an up and coming issue in our society.  There are many issues when it comes to ADD or ADHD, however sugar is surely a component.  When we intake sugar, insulin is released to reduce blood sugar levels.  What people don't realize is that insulin stays in our system for hours clearing out the sugar in our blood that can deplete our body of all energy sources making one hypoglycemic which often effects our attention and thinking processes.  As a society we feed our kids cereal, juice, pancakes, muffins, or other sugary substances - overloading their system - and send them off to school where they are wired and energized, but are forced to sit in desks all day and than after several hours the kid gets a crash when the insulin has depleted all sugar levels and now can't concentrate or pay attention - and now we have an ADD kid.  Fantastic

Sugar is no harmless substance - and for decades we have tried to come up with alternatives to avoid these harmful effects.  There are some great natural sources, but there are also some synthesized forms in which need to be avoided.  Here is a helpful list of Sweeteners to know what is a good alternative to use.  To quickly forewarn - when I say "good" alternatives doesn't mean we don't need to limit ourselves.  Too much of anything is too much -

Sweeteners to Avoid -

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup - If sugar is harmful, then High Fructose Corn Syrup is 2x worse.  Also known as corn syrup or corn sugar - the claims of being a natural source is absolutely false.  It has the same effects of table sugar, but magnified.
2. Aspartame - This is an artificial sweetener found in NutraSweet, Equal, and Canderel.  This synthesized sweetener is an excitotoxin or neurotoxin.  This chemical excites the nerves in our body (mainly in the brain) and makes it rapidly fire until it burns out.
3. Neotame - This is the magnified version of Aspartame - another excitotoxin
4. Sucralose - This is a synthesized compound commonly known as Splenda.  This chemical when broken down releases Chlorine ions which kills the bacteria in our gut.  This chemical causes dysbiosis of the gut which if accumulated can create indirectly a whole mess of issues.  Never mess with the gut.
5. Acesulfame K - Also known as Acesulfame Potassium, Ace-K, or Sunett which is often found in Sweet One or Sweet & Safe (safe? ironic)  The issue is that this product has very little or improper testing.  It is known to contain the chemical Methylene Chloride which is a carcinogen (cancer causing) and has many effects on the body, but the FDA doesn't think that it is necessary to do more research - really?
6. Saccharin - This is considered a carcinogen compound, however, the FDA has for some reason decided to remove any warning of harmful effects.  There have been several reports of allergic reactions as well
7. Cyclamates - To be honest - the effects of cyclamates have been debated.  There has been research shown to cause stomach cancer and there has been research to refute it.  Cyclamates is used in 55 countries, but is banned in the United States.  I shrug my shoulder on this one - no clue

Natural Sweeteners To Use

1. Stevia - This comes from the Stevia plant and is a natural source.  It can come in powder form or in liquid.  My experience with Stevia is that it doesn't take much to make things sweetened, just a drop or two, but the taste is lacking.  It is becoming a popular choice however for an alternative due to the fact that it is safe for diabetics - look at the link for a list of other diabetic safe sweeteners
2. Evaporated Cane Juice - The name is a little confusing as ECJ is a granulated crystal and not liquid.  It is extracted from sugarcane and is a great alternative to sugar, especially brown sugar
3. Fruit Juice - Just good old fruit juice - yum
4. Rice Syrup - Derived from cooking rice with enzymes - Brown rice has a lower glycemic index
5. Honey - Raw Organic Honey is a great substitute for sugar, especially in baking and cooking.
6. Licorice Root - This is the only natural source that has a toxicity level, however, licorice root is also used for a variety of things such as alternative medical uses so using as a sweetener, the toxicity levels is not an issue
7. Amasake - This is a Japanese form of rice syrup, using koji to break down and ferment rice
8. Vegetable Glycerin - Glycerin is a natural component to oils and fats that gets broken down in our body into Amino Acids.  It is a colorless and odorless liquid with a sweet taste used in a variety of products
9. Maple Syrup (without added sugar) - Raw, organic, or molasses is the best form.

I hope this list helps.  I don't mean to begin with a fearful intro, however, it is necessary these days to be aware.  The first step is to check ingredients and see what is being used - even if you don't think sugar is in it, it most likely is or one of those other artificial sweeteners.  Even drug companies use sweeteners  Why do companies use artificial sweeteners when there are natural sources? Simply, it's cheaper to use artificial sweeteners.  Check labels.  Also, read the package or box.  If it says diet, sugar free, or other word play - that is the hint that artificial sweeteners are used.  Most importantly, it all starts in the home.  Just cooking at home dramatically decreases sugar intake, but we can do better and create recipes with these natural alternatives.  Grab the raw honey next time you are at the store and give it a try - your body will thank you

Vaccines: Does It Really Make Sense? (I'm just saying)

Gardasil is about the prevention and protection against cervical cancer . . . is the only vaccine that prevents cancer
- Krystie Brashear, A.R.N.P. - Woman to Woman clinic
(The CDC states that cervical cancer is an uncommon consequence to HPV (10%) and if detected has a 90% cure rate - most deaths from HPV are from those who didn't get checked and let the cells get infected.  That's like having a vaccine to prevent cuts because some people don't treat it properly and let it get infected. It is also stated that there are multiple factors that have to occur - not just having HPV - like risk factors, immune suppression, oral contraceptive use and having multiple sexual partners.  Plus, the vaccine only protects against 2 (out of 16) types - does vaccination make any sense?)

HPV vaccine is recommended for girls early as 9
- CDC
(Really, as early as 9 years of age? The fabricated idea is to vaccinate before they are sexually active.  The scary reality is that Gardasil has only been tested for 5 years and remains ignorant to any serious side effects that may occur later on in life or of any damage done to the reproductive organs.  The vaccine is promoted as a prevention tool but this is misleading much like other vaccines.  Pro-vaccine websites and anti-vaccine websites both have graphs depicting the history of a disease and it's prevalence.  These graphs from both sides are accurate however only show what they want to show.  Anti-vaccine graphs show death rates and how they have already dropped before vaccines were introduced.  Stats show that advanced sanitary precautions reduced death rates before vaccines existed.  Pro-vaccine graphs fail to show this but rather show the number of cases and how the number of cases didn't drop until vaccines were introduced.  As much as this is accurate a majority of those cases were no longer life threatening.  This is the same for Gardasil.  Cervical cancer was prevalent in the United States and a serious problem.  Death rates were high, until Pap Smears were introduced.  Death rates dramatically dropped thereafter.  So Gardasil doesn't reduce deaths, but rather the number of cases, which much like its predecessors - majority of these cases are no longer life threatening and is a misleading claim - does vaccination make any sense?)

Gardasil has been around for several years (*cough*5 years*cough*) and has been very safe . . . risk of death is extremely small
- CDC
(Of course the CDC and FDA deems it safe when it gets compared to AAHS - an aluminum placebo - Gardasil Vaccine Info.  AAHS is a highly toxic ingredient with a variety of adverse reactions - MSDS Report. Even compared to a toxic agent, Gardasil still has slightly greater adverse risks.  VAERS has claimed 18,000 REPORTED adverse reactions to Gardasil and so far 65 REPORTED deaths.  The key word is reported, because VAERS is a volunteer company that depends on reported cases and warns that numbers are highly effected due to Under reported incidences or dismissed cases by family doctors - does vaccination make any sense?)

CDC recommends HPV vaccine for boys
- Associated Press
(After a 1.1 Billion dollar revenue in the first nine months for Gardasil, Merck's stock has dropped 3 percent collecting only $219 Million (oh so sad) and they are scrambling to figure out what went wrong.  Seriously?  It's obvious isn't it?  A good business can't profit with a limited consumer base (girls from 9-26), right?  Everyone knows a business needs to expand its market - good job Merck for tapping into the boys 9-26 market - does vaccination make any sense?)

Texas Mandates Cervical Cancer Vaccine
- CBS news
(Wait - now they are forcing kids to get vaccinated?  The whole idea of mandating vaccines may pose more of a threat than the actual vaccine.  I looked at my shot records and it's only a third of how many kids are required to have now.  The numbers are increasing.  Research is now looking into how multiple shots can have serious effects.  This is also a business decision taking advantage of a faulty "herd immunity" theory.  The goal of these vaccines is to get 100% vaccinated.  There are 5,000 deaths a year from cervical cancer.  Merck has stated that if 100% are vaccinated they could save 1,000 people dying from cervical cancer.  Do the math - that is only 20% efficacy - does vaccination make any sense?)

Parents of 2,300 students who failed to get needed vaccinations could be fined or thrown in jail
- Washington Post
(Isn't there something wrong with this picture?  Putting people in jail for not vaccinating their kids.  Penalizing parents for saving their kids from chronic diseases, inflammation, decreased mental function, asthma, heart dysfunction paralysis, cancer, alzheimers, autism and many, many more conditions that can and possibly will occur because of vaccines - does vaccination make any sense?)

California 12 year olds to be vaccinated without parents knowing
- Project Avalon
(Okay - these guys are sick.  No one is buying into the vaccine so now they have to not only force it on people, but now justify that sixth graders are competent enough to agree to taking a vaccine without parental consent.  Without knowing your child could be vaccinated.  Seriously, I'm not anti-vaccine, I'm really not, but when Big Pharma goes out and forces people to take their product so they can take in Billions and not take any responsibility for any injuries or death (you can't sue vaccine companies) that doesn't sit well with me.  Something isn't right - does vaccination make any sense?)


Vaccines are expected to bring in more than 35 Billion dollars in 2012
- Vaccine Business Congress
(The truth is that Vaccines is now a business.  The Vaccine Business Congress is a group made up of Vaccine companies which had a website which somehow has now been removed.  However, there is a PDF file online that contains all the details of that very website - claiming that $35 Billion will be made in 2012 in just vaccines alone.  The truth is that the Gardasil vaccine is getting such a lime light because of the Presidential and other elections.  Rick Perry who first ordered a mandate for the HPV vaccine for Texas is closely tied to Merck and the Women In Government who are pushing for the vaccine.  There are more lobbyists in government now for vaccines than any other organization.  This system is tainted.  What once used to be a noble cause has been corrupted and the majority of citizens are the victims.  There is a case in which a girl was influenced to take the Gardasil shot from television ads.  On her third shot, she began to experience serious symptoms - paralysis, epilepsy, strokes, vasculitis, nausea, numbness, tingling, and other symptoms.  A 16 year old girl to prevent herself from a "terrible" virus is now taking 40 pills a day - $2,000 a month out of pocket - to treat these symptoms.  Not only did the companies get their $400 for the three required shots, but that's just chump change when compared to the $2,000 monthly income they out rightly know will be coming in and greedily expect.  It's terrible - does vaccination make any sense . . . for the pharmaceutical companies it sure does - lots of it - I'm just saying . . . )