Vitamins (Complementary/Natural Health in general)

Member Name: jentiger

Product:	Complementary/Natural Health in general
Date:	06/11/02 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: read opinion

Disadvantages: read opinion

When you hear the word "vitamins," most people think "pill." "Thinking pill" brings to mind confusing images of medicine and drugs. Though vitamins can and certainly often do the work of both medicine and drugs, they are neither.

Quite simply, vitamins are organic substances necessary for life. Vitamins are essential to the normal functioning of our bodies and, save for a few exceptions, cannot be manufactured or synthesized by our bodies. They are necessary for our growth, vitality, and general well-being. In their natural state they are found in minute quantities in all organic food. We must obtain them from these foods or in dietary supplements. Supplements, which usually come in pill form and around which so much controversy has arisen, are still just food substances, and unless synthetic, are also derived from living plants and animals. It is impossible to sustain life without all the essential vitamins. A lot of people think that they can replace food. They cannot. In fact, vitamins cannot be assimilated without ingesting food. There are a lot of erroneous beliefs about vitamins. and I hope I can clear up most of them.

- Vitamins are not pep pills and have not caloric or energy value of their own.

- Vitamins are not substitutes for protein or for any other nutrients, such as minerals, fats, carbohydrates, water or even for each other.

- Vitamin themselves are not the components of our body structures.

- You cannot take vitamins, stop eating, and expect to be healthy.

Believe it or not........

- one cigarette destroys 25 mg of vitamin C

- Lecithin can provide the same stick free pots and pans that Pam does without propellents!

- milk with synthetic vitamiin D can rob the body of manesium

- people who live in smoggy cities are not getting the bitamin D that their country cousins get because the smog absorbs the sun's ultraviolet rays <
br>
- more than one cocktail a day can cause a depletion of vitamins B1, B6, folic acid, and vitamin C

- oral contraceptives (the pill) can interfere with the availability of vitamins B6. B12, folic acid and vitamin C

- cancer researvhers at the Massachusetts Institure of Technology have found that Vitamins C and E and certain chemicals called indoles, found in cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and related vegetables in the crucifer family, are potent and safe inhibitors of certain carcinogens

- vitamin B1 can help fight air and seasickness- If you are on a high protein diet your need for B6 increases

The recommendations I have made are not meant to be prescriptive, but can be used in a flexible program.

Summary: