Will a Vitamin a Day Keep the Doctor Away?

Take your vitamins!

How many times have you said that to your children?

But did you know that not all vitamins are created equal? That the wrong kind of vitamin may be doing more harm than good?

Dr. David M. Winsor, Chiropractor and Nutrition expert tells us what to look for in the vitamin aisle:

by David M. Winsor, D.C.
You may have decided by now that all this nutrition stuff is too much for you. You may be wondering if you could just load yourself and the kids with a mega-multiple vitamin and call it a day. After all, there are so many and the ads look so good. Why do we need to bother with this “good” food stuff?

In a world so used to having a pill for everything, who can blame you for thinking along these lines? The hard truth is that some of these pills are not very good for us. In fact, most of these pills are not so good and some are downright bad for you.

Believe it or not, all multivitamins are not created equal. Some may, in fact, inflict enough punishment on you that they should probably be flushed down the toilet. Consider this… If your multivitamin is synthetic, how do you know it’s even doing you any good? Are you assuming that because you take a ‘multi’ you’re guaranteed better health than if you don’t – because it seems like the healthy thing to do?

I always acknowledge any effort to improve health and hate to see this effort wasted, so let’s discuss some basics.

The majority of multiple vitamin supplements are partial or synthetic, or in other words, incomplete. The human body has to maintain a chemical balance at all times and if a food is incomplete, it has to rob Peter to pay Paul. It must take nutrients from some where else in your body. This creates deficiencies.

One of the best examples of this is a high dose of ascorbic acid -- greater than 100 mg. The label shows Vitamin C (ascorbic acid). The problem is that vitamin C contains bioflavinoids and lots of co-factors which are protected by a shell of ascorbic acid. If you take the ascorbic acid without the other stuff, the body takes what you have from your stress gland, the adrenals. This actually increases your stress and weakens your immune system. This happens with all incomplete or synthetic vitamins in the multiple. Some have 50 or more ingredients, so the damage can be great.

Nature intended for you to consume food in WHOLE form because all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes are together in one package. They work synergistically to give your body the nutrition it requires for optimal health. Synthetic vitamins often give you massive quantities of some nutrients (usually the most inexpensive ones) and insufficient quantities of others, not balance.

Always read the label and only buy supplements which are whole food, not just from food, but the whole food. The link below is to a short video which explains this a little more.
http://my.standardprocess.com/display/2111.spi

Sometimes we have to show our children what to do and not just tell them. A colleague of mine would make a point of eating things he really did not like and making quite a face while he did it. When his children asked him why he would eat something he obviously did not like, he replied that it was the only food which would give him the specific nutrition he needed and the taste did not matter. Years later he heard them doing the same for their children. Every little bit helps.

Be advised that the suggested nutritional program is not intended as a treatment for any disease. This adjunctive schedule of nutrients is provided with the intent of supporting the physiological and biochemical processes of the human body, and not to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition.
Dr. David M Winsor
www.AccessChiroCenter.com; 941-629-8444

Read Dr. Winsor's other nutrition columns on Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Last week, my goal was to improve the quality of my daughter's breakfasts. She's a teen. Need I say more? So I came up with a workable, although imperfect, solution:

I put a scoop of all-natural vanilla ice cream into a smoothie! She won't eat it without the ice cream, but with it? Viola! A somewhat healthy breakfast!

The other ingredients I used were Coconut Milk, Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries and Bananas. So, all in all, I'd say the good outweighs the bad. And sometimes, that's all we can do.

My goal this week is to have carrots and celery and cucumber with ranch dressing on the table when the kids come home from school. I buy relatively "healthy" chips, but I'd rather seem them go for the veggies than empty calories.

Okay, that's it for now. Hope you are learning alot and feeling encouraged that you can do this!

If you'd like to participate in Mission Family Nutrition this week:

1.) Choose a nutrition goal for your family.

2.) Write about it on your blog and link back to this post via Mister Linky below. (Or use the handy button code in the righthand column).

3.) Visit others who are participating!

Congrats, MamaAngie ... You are the winner of this weeks Nutrition giveaway -- a $10 Walmart Gift Card! Just email me at melinda@parentingconfessions.com with your email and I will send it out pronto!

Good luck and good eating! ;0)