READER E-MAIL Questions and Comments Answered Here
To protect and safeguard e-mail addresses, once a reader sends in an e-mail comment or question, the reader's e-mail will be immediately deleted.
DAN ( Dec 2023) asks about whole food vitamin products mentioning the label nutrient amounts in Dr Schulze's Superfood powders.
Dan, you are 100% correct, this product has to contain yeast that is fortified with synthetic B vitamins. The first nutrient to look at is vitamin B12. All whole food vitamin products fail to satisfy this nutrient source. Yeast does not naturally produce vitamin B12. There may be a little in algae and chlorella, but not at the serving amount listed on the label. Plus one has to be careful not to use vitamin B12 and algae in higher quantify together as the vitamin B12 analogues in algae may interfere with regular B12 absorption. Thanks for the reference for the work of Daniel Roytas on whole food vitamin issues.
Another issue with the Superfood label is that there are no amounts given for each ingredient. The ingredient boxes on supplements have only one regulation in this case, the largest ingredient amount is listed first, and then others in order as amounts get smaller. Thus, in the Superfood Plus product, all we know is that yeast should be the largest amount ingredient while Organic Blue-green algae is next to last and the fruit Elaeis Guineensis is the last and potentially at the smallest amount. Elaeis fruit is from a member of the Palm family. But there is also the possibility that all amounts are at equal amounts or nearly the same. Any analysis for what vitamins and minerals each ingredient provides is difficult to discover.
To see what a proper label should look like, check out Paradise's Orac Energy GREENS. Most of the top ingredient amounts are individually listed for a better analysis of the potential contribution of vitamins each ingredient might provide.
One other point has to be mentioned. While Organic is a preferred source, it increases the potential for toxic metals such as lead and cadmium making testing crops for any contamination a constant factor. This issue is related to the use of natural fertilizers such as animal excrement, or manure, and green compost. Luckily, not yet a big issue. ref ref
Last, you mentioned the great sound bites used for Ancient Nutritiontm. I am not a fan. Jordan Rubin is a great marketeer. But his product quality suffered at his past company. Mixing food and probiotics in the same product is not wise. The probiotics start to activate, or change. Plus, soil bacteria organisms, while great for plants, are not necessarily good for humans. And the organics issue just mentioned above has also been a stumbling block in the past.
Collagen is very important for health. ref Collagen gets a lot of good reviews and science. Carefully processed bone both is great. But not mentioned very often is how cancer cells hijack collagen and use it to promote tumor growth. How collagen supplements impact this scenario is still an open question and a precautionary approach might be prudent. People with digestive issues may benefit from some forms of collagen supplements.
Supplements to help the body produce collagen include Vitamin C family, proteins, bone broth, bio-available silicon, and grape seed extract (OPC) to control collagen and elastin breakdown.
LISA (JUNE 9, 2015) No need to search for access information for member login as it is not active. Over 90% of website articles are currently accessible and available free. The few that are hidden from the Public are still in development process or contain sensitive material needing verification. Good luck in your search for vitamin usage. As you have seen on this website, this is not an easy task as so much misinformation gets into the web and even Scientists do not agree.
An Important point needs to be stressed. Some Professionals, Doctors and Scientific researchers, are contracted and paid for their services by Vitamin Companies hoping to prove or show vitamins have benefits. Unfortunately, there are ways to construct a test or select parameters that guarantee arrival at the desired answer, one that is not exactly honest according to sound and accepted scientific methods. The Johns Hopkins Vitamin E review of studies that found adverse effects at higher dosages is guilty of this type of manipulation. A study result that was extremely different from any other similar study finding was used even though the study authors stressed their results should not be used in such a comparison.
NOTE: A number of references posted to this website are really advertisements with links to sell products made to look like information articles. This type of reference now has been completely eliminated.
LC writes: I use New Chapter, and have been using it for years. I just found out from a friend that Proctor and Gamble bought them about a year ago. I now am very afraid to use the New Chapter products. My friend told me to stop using this line, because it WILL go down hill. P&G is a big company that will eventually try to cut costs by skimping on this amazing product, and yet will charge more and more money to the customer, living off of the product's old reputation. It's just a matter of time. This is what happens when a large money corporation takes over a product line.