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daily vitamin/supplements

Hello all!

I have been talking various vitamins and supplements for over a year now and now that I am becoming more raw and trying to eat balanced am I still needing these extra pills and powders?

Is there one good daily vitamin ? At one time I was taking upwards of 20 pills a day. In the last 6 months I switched to half pills and half powders for the absorbability factor.

I dont like spending the money on all the pills but at the same time I want to make sure im getting everything I need. I went thru a car accident and had many broken bones so I really want to make sure I keep them strong!

any thoughts on E3 Live? or life extension vitamin powder?

any help would be appreciated.

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Comments

  • I will give you my personal advice and meaning about vitamins and supplents according to the Natural Hygiene principles from Natural Health. They are drugs and poison for the body. If you eat a well balance raw diet, you will get all you need. There are many lies about not getting this or not getting that if you are specially VEgan, and they could only be true if you are a VEgan eating trash food. There are vegans that eat very health and there are vegas who eat only trash food. Raw eating is the right way to get all your body needs. If your intestine is not sick and is absorbing all you need, you won’t need any vitamins or supplements which do more harm than good to your body. Vitamins in pills are inorganic matter, not alive, which cannot be assimilated by your body. Your body can only assimilate organic matter, which is found in life food. Of course, for emergencies, and for short period oftime, pills or injections may be needed. No doubt of that. I will tell you what did just happen to me last year. I went to a very rough year of stress and I did not eat the best raw diet for about a year. My intestine got sick again and the B12 was not absorbed by the ileum in my small intestine. Because the diet was not optimal, my B12 was too low and I was not getting enought naturally to get it very quickly up to the right levels, I needed injections temporarly. So, this is an emergency case. Yes, I am vegan, with that issue they say all vegans will get, a problem with B12 vitamin, but not everybody will get it. In my case, it was not my diet, it was my intestine, sick and the streem emotional and mental stress I was for three years, which used up all my reserve and comibined with it not being absorved by my small intestine. So, if you are not having a sickness like this, you are eating raw, combining the food in the right way, limiting some condiments that irritate the intestine such raw garlic, onions, leek, mostard, among others, you should not have a need for vitamins in pills. Have your blood tested regulary to be sure your levels are ook. That is what I do if I have a doubt. GEt a book where you can see which vitamins, minerals, etc are in the most commonly eaten raw foods. One of the books I have is The American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond, a very good one, but I am sure there should be some other out there. If you are seriously intersted on this, I would suggest you follow the Natural Hygiene Certificate course from fitforlife.com. This changed not only my life, my health, who I am, but what I want to do with my life to.

  • Hi Friskygimp..I wanted to offer my perspective on this issue. I disagree that vitamin supplements are “poisonous” or “drugs” . Such statements have no basis in science. Simply put, there is absolutely NO proof anywhere that multi-vitamins are dangerous and thousands of studies, many that are double-blind third party, showing that supplements may offer health benefits to humans. Even many synthetic vitamins are bio-identical..that is, your body will recognize and utilize them in the same fashion as those found in foods. I do agree that vitamins found in foods are ideal because they are in balance for optimal assimilation and utilization. Taking a good quality basic multiple vitamin is very unlikely to do any harm to you, and may often be a good idea to ensure that you are getting adequate nutrition. It really depends on your diet, stress level, body metabolism and other factors. I am familiar with Life Extension Mix powder but would not suggest it. The LEF Mix is a mega potency multiple vitamin which would better serve those that have a chronic disease or MUCH higher nutritional needs. I would suggest either Trader’s darwin’s Multiple vitamin/antioxidant formula or Whole Foods brand one a day.

  • Thank you so much for your feedback :)

  • Agreed. It should be remembered that “supplements> was the original post topic, not just vitamins so I am glad you shared your experience with others.

    But I call for peace. :-) Let’s all remember that we still can share in the joy of eating wholesome raw foods..enjoy your journey folks!!

  • I apologize for getting the name wrong, forrestlyone. Again, another unappealing, unnecessary comment though, 123, and continued discouragement for a newbie. I didn’t realize that there were “rules” about posting and that only if you are a part of the debate going on are you free to share your experience/opinion. I wrote in response to one specific comment with the intention of only sharing my experience, not debating, not being “educated;” only to share. Something I am going to be hesitent about doing in the future.

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    I remembered I know the answer to the reason why gladpike got better when she took b12! (duh!! took a while to get my brain in gear, not a symptom of said deficiency I hope lol)

    A doctor recently told me that b12 deficiency is not a vegan issue but an issue for everyone. He sees people with it who are meat and dairy eaters. I guess the issue lies with our ability to absorb nutrients. A musucless diet such as raw food must assisst in absorption but anyway…Gladpike could’ve been heading for b12 deficiency whether a vegan or not.

  • @ curlysparkle. Please dont hesitate to share, your opinion or experience are as legit and important as others.

    Ive always found this forum really cool, because everybody was non judgemental. That has somewhat changed. Is it just me or is there suddenly a lot of posts where tea, cocoa, condiments, supplements are being labeled as “poison” and you are “uninformed” if you dare to use any of it? Another thing is that there are a lot of emotion in food, and calling other peoples food poisinous or something similar is downright rude!

    No matter what kind of raw you believe in, we are all rawfoodists and there is no need to be judgemental, we probably get our share of that in the “real” world.

    Ok rant over, have a nice weekend guys

  • forrestlyone, I disagree with your post there…here is an article to assert my point of view: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/20…

    Supplements at the very least are a complete waste of money and resources at the worst they can do harm.

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    Hi friskygimp, The one supplement I do take is B12. This was recommended to me by a raw-friendly naturopath and has helped quite a bit.

    lushpapaya: We certainly agree with you – Gone Raw is here for each of us to discuss and learn about bringing raw food into our diets and we welcome a range of ideas and opinions.

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    Hi friskygimp, The one supplement I do take is B12. This was recommended to me by a raw-friendly naturopath and has helped quite a bit.

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    I disagree with Forrestlyone too. There is plenty of science that shows isolated/synthetic/fractionated vitamins and supplements to be harmful and antinutritive. Some vitamins don’t even dissolve in the body. I witnessed this at the town water supply where many capsules floated in the waste water. Vitamins don’t even compare to whole foods because there are so many undiscovered components in plant foods. I think we live in a world of excess, not deficiency. People take vitamins without even knowing whether they need them or not.

  • 123..I’d be interested in seeing all of this science you are referring to. Alternatively, you can go to www.pubmed.gov and see thousands of studies on the potential benefits of supplemental nutrients. I do agree that when the diet is optimal, a healthy person may not need to take supplements, but in reasonable doses, they are very unlikely to cause harm. I also agree that quality is a BIG issue when considering nutritional supplement. If considering using nutritional supplements, it is advisable to go with a company that is pharmaceutical grade and agrees to third party testing for dissolution, potency and efficacy. There are plenty of cheap and worthless brands out there that use ineffective binding agents that do not allow the tablet to fully disintegrate in a stomach acid solution.

    SocaL, I challenge you to further research the claims made in this article, rather than take such articles at face value. ..I have done plenty of research such claims. You will see that much of the so called “evidence” that shows supplements to be ineffective and harmful are based on a meta-analysis models, funded by pharmacuetical drug companies for the sole benefit of demonizing the nutritional supplement industry….the testing models used are so flawed and corrupt that it is laughable. (sickly populations, least efficacious isomers used,etc,,,)..in fact..a meta-analysis on beta carotene used a population model mainly of elderly, ill people that were already at a higher risk of mortality..thus participants expired within the 5 years model and beta carotene was to blame…does that make sense? There are also many studies on Vitamin E and C showing benefits on cardiovascular and respiratory health to name a few.

    I invite you to read a fully referenced counter article to such articles that you have posted. Here, you can see the many study flaws that have made such claims dubious at best:

    http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/consumer_a…

    When debating these topics, I like to rely on scientific evidence, but I also believe in the importance of anecdotal case histories. Jack Lalanne, health guru who turned 90 recently, has relied on high quality nutritional supplements for many years (up to 40 per day)..please tell me this man is unhealthy? Have they done him some good? I believe so. have they done him physical harm..absolutely not!

    I do agree whole heartedly that the ideal way to obtain vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and yet undiscovered beneficial compounds is from a clean healthy diet. the assertion, however, that all nutritional supplements are “poison” and no one needs them is just simply incorrect.

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    I’m not going to dig through all of my files and a lot of the information that I have is in books, but here’s a source, with references, that backs up the claim that isolated/fractionated/synthetic vitamins are not bioavailable,antinutritive and in some cases harmful. .

    thedoctorwithin.com/index_fr.php?page=articles/whole_food_vitamins.php

  • Raw_ChocoholicRaw_Chocoholic Raw Newbie

    There’s always the option of taking suppliments such as Green’s Plus or Brendan Brazier’s Vega forumla. I would advocate taking something like that over a sythnetic vitamin. Nature knows better than we do. However, organic foods would probably be better invested in because they contain a lot more of vitamins than non-organic. Right now I’m doing an intestinal cleanse called Collonix. It’s supposed to help clean out years of impacted fecal matter so that more vitamins can be absorbed.

    For healthy bones you could drink some sesame milk for added calcium. One Edgar Cayce reading suggested orange juice with a squirt of lemon. Don’t forget about magnesium though, without it calcium isn’t absorbed properly. Raw cacao is a great source of magnesium but I read somewhere that it has an acid which inhibits the absorbtion of calcium. Carob is another calcium-rich food. Just make sure to eat a wide variety of foods, especially the ones you feel drawn to eating.

  • forrestlyone, the article you posted is written by the Life Extension Foundation see the bottom:

    “All Contents Copyright

  • I guess I have to disagree that supplements are not needed. I was vegan/ rawish for the last year (veg for several years before that), and tired all the time after switching to vegan. I could barely walk around. I just felt like I had bricks for legs. I didn’t want to take supplements, because I believed I was eating healthy (I was and am) and didn’t need anything- about a month ago, I finally started a supplement for B-12 and totally feel like myself again. It is the only thing I have changed in my diet and it makes a world of difference. I hope to stop it someday, but for now, I know it is what my body needs.

    I think each of us is in a different stage in our transition out of cooked food and meat products and should listen to our bodies.

    I have read tons of articles on the effectiveness of supplements and how they are not regulated properly. I take a dehydrated form of supplement- organic from our local grocer.

  • SocaL..although this is a raw food website…topic forums are allowed to cover other pertinent issues surrounding health and well-being. I didn’t initiate this topic but only gave my response, as did you. You are welcome to believe that all supplements are toxic and “silly” but that is only your opinion..not facts. What is wrong with copyriting an article??? Companies do this all the time. Although LEF sells supplements, all articles are well referenced with credible studies and abstracts.

    123…pigs and B vitamins? hmmmm..Sorry, but alot of his data seems odd. I have to still go with the thousands of peer reviewed safety and efficacy studies of B vitamins. They are extremely safe, even in high doses for long periods of time.

    Alas I too am tired of debating this topic, but I believe that readers should be entitled to the facts about nutritional supplements. Does everybody need them? no. can some people benefit from them? yes. Do they need to be better regulated? absolutely. Are some brands superior to others? yes (I like megafood) Are they all poison or toxic to the body? NO.

    I can assure you that even though I do take a few high quality supplements, and have been for many years, I do not live in a SAD world of “toxins” :-). I encourage dialog like this to remain friendly, as I am sure we still share many beliefs about other issues. (like yummy Durian) Keep in mind there is nothing more toxic than anger.

    gladpike, this is a perfect case history and I have heard many others. I am glad that you are feeling better.

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    I was just wondering, and I’m not trying to undermine what your experience was Gladpike, I’m just expressing a train of thought here…from what I have researched, b12 is stored in the body for years and years, and deficeiencies only show up after many years on a B12 deficient vegan/or other diet. I am struggling to understand how someone could be deficient after being vegan for only a little while. Maybe the placebo effect? Placebos are 40% effective.

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    Forrestlyone. That was a finding in 1939 about sterile pigs and synthetic B vitamins. The truth is that synthetic vitamins, of any type are foreign to the body. Most B-12 in multi-vitamins is cyanocobalamin, processed using cyanide. The cyanocobalamin isn’t even the form that the body uses. It has to be converted to methylcobalamin. You can get B-12 from plant sources, seaweed and kelp. There is no need to take synthetics. Who’s angry? I just have a difference of opinion based on longtime study of vitamins due to a chronic illness and searching for a cure. We all live in a world of toxins whether they’re in our food, water or air. We don’t need to add them to our vitamins too. I think green powders are a better option. I also think that whole food vitamins are better than fractionated/isolated/synthetic ones.

  • As a newbie, I’ve found this thread to be somewhat discouraging and a big judgmental. People take supplements for a variety of reasons when sometimes they are unable to get the nutrients from a natural source for whatever reason. For example, I was very sick last year to the point of being hospitalized. I was almost forced to get a blood transfusion, but was saved by taking high doses of iron via supplement as instructed by the doctors. I could not eat for being so sick and would have surely had a transfusion and who knows what else but for the supplements. So, from what one individual is saying, by trying to save my life I was actually poisoning myself. I have never in my life been anemic and am not now, due to a healthy diet of iron rich foods, however at that point in time I did need the help.

    While we are all entititled to our respective opinions, I think there is a difference in trying to state and opinion as a fact. There is always going to be a study that says that one person’s train of thinking is correct and another incorrect. The results of studies vary based on the amount of people used, the length of time and that general overall purpose of the study and so on and the reasons for the different studies vary, so I think that everything should always been taken with a grain of salt.

    I think ultimately as we are the ones who have to live in our own bodies, we are the best judges of what our bodies need. If someone feels that their health needs are better served by taking an additional supplement then that is what is best for them, same as those who feel the opposite.

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    Iron is a mineral, not a vitamin. I’m glad it helped you.

  • Dear Forum Members,

    I agree that “vitamins” are a questionable source for adequate nutritional supplementation. However, it is very challenging to recieve all the nutrients we need on a daily basis from our diet alone. It is often difficult to get fresh, organic produce that has the optimal nutritional value.

    The next best thing I have found to being so wealthy and priveleged to get fresh produce from around the world available to me is a live, whole food based juice powder called “The Feast”. What a godsend to have such a food product available.

    Lovingly, Linda

     

  • Dear Forum Members,

    I agree that “vitamins” are a questionable source for adequate nutritional supplementation. However, it is very challenging to recieve all the nutrients we need on a daily basis from our diet alone. It is often difficult to get fresh, organic produce that has the optimal nutritional value.

    The next best thing I have found to being so wealthy and priveleged to get fresh produce from around the world available to me is a live, whole food based juice powder called “The Feast”. What a godsend to have such a food product available.

    Lovingly, Linda

     

  • 123..I’m not sure about this study and it is quite old. There have been thousands of studies since then on B vitamins and other isolated nutrients showing safety and benefits. You can get B12 from plant sources yes, but the intrinsic factor is required for proper absorption. Some individuals are unable to absorb much B12 from plant sources, which may have been the case with gladpike.

    Also, I was not referring to you when I suggested we keep this debate friendly. It was mentioned that those who chose to take supplements live SAD and toxic lives…I think this statement was a bit unkind and inaccurate, thats all.

    I agree with curlyspark that we really should not state our opinions as facts, but remain open minded.

    I also agree totally that whole food vitamins are superior to synthetic, but that does not mean that all synthetic vitamins are “toxic” to the body.

  • That is the unappealing attitude I was speaking of, Forrestlyone. I never said Iron was a vitamin. I used the word “supplement” as this thread is about Vitamins/Supplements and I was sharing my experience related to that specific supplement, as someone noted that vitamins and supplements are toxic.

    That said, I agree that the best form of getting anything is in nature. It’s known that large doses of thing, such as Iron, can be toxic, however they can be beneficial at times as well. My opinion is that applies to vitamins and other dietary supplements as well.

    This thread seems a bit redundant at this point. I hope the original poster can take from it what is beneficial to her.

  • omshantiomshanti Raw Newbie

    lushpapaya: amen!;)

    kandace, Is b12 a supplimnet one should just try and see if there is a difference in feeling, or is there a symptom( for lack of a better word) that one should expierence first..just curious i currently take no suppliments, but my gums receding have me freaked out,and im shedding alot too..:( also im heading toward 40 should i worry about osteoporosis? my mom is on me about calcium, but i eat lots of greens, spinacj , kale and lettuces…

  • As an alternative to synthetic B12, you could use spirulina, which comes in either powder or pill form. It actually has a pleasing taste (like concentrated green vegetables) and goes well in soups and green smoothies.

  • Morning_theftMorning_theft Raw Newbie

    I don’t think it’s usable, actually (B-12 in spirulina). From what I’ve heard anyway. I actually heard it can lower absorption of B-12.

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    omshanti: I believe that one can be tested for B12 deficiency, but I’m not positive about the outward manifestations. Here’s a short article written by my naturopathic doctor about whether or not one would take B12.

  • omshantiomshanti Raw Newbie

    thanks Kandace, ill hop on over to the doc and get tested, what brand do you take? MT, this is one of my big concerns, as i believe any supplimentation over time can damage our bodys ability to process its actual need and its ability to process what it needs, this is from no actual research just an intuition. thanks every one, ill have to check it all out.

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