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VITAMINS :
Why bother taking vitamins
at all? Our forefathers survived just fine without multi vitamin packs,
why can't we? The answer to that question is easy, go look in your
cupboards. Our forefathers ate a lot better than we do. High processed,
homogenized, pasteurized, canned and prepackaged fast food means less
chance of natural occurring vitamins surviving for any length of time.
While some of us pick our own fruit and grow our own vegetables, most
of the country chooses to rely on packaged, store bought fruits and
veggies. These aren't as healthy as they look, either. The longer
the apples and tomatoes are off the vine, the faster they begin to
lose their nutritional value, losing vitamins during processing and
shipping.
Your body needs vitamins to boost your immune system, ward off colds
and other viruses, and even keep you even tempered, so to speak. Did
you know with a vitamin deficiency that you are less likely to clot
when you cut yourself? Vitamins play a much bigger part then we think,
and the average diet does not include all the vitamins necessary to
keep the body in top shape.
A good multi-vitamin is your best choice, but here again you can be
misled into believing that 100% of the USDA recommended dosage is
good enough. They mean 100% total, not 100% of each vitamin necessary.
Think about it, they can't possibly pack the right amount of every
kind of vitamin that you need into one pill a day, and most multi
vitamins sold in your local grocery store are cut with fillers and
preservatives.
Nope, you'll have to visit your local food co op and get some natural,
all inclusive vitamin supplements. Along with eating well, these supplements
contain everything you need for balanced vitamin intake, with none
of the fillers and preservatives that I, for one, resent paying for.
So let's talk B vitamins as an example. You need several different
kinds of B vitamins alone. B6 and B12 are just two, but the most commonly
talked about. Vitamin B6 promotes the development of red blood cells,
and 12 helps promote energy and fights Alzheimer's disease. You need
these and other vitamins to be in the purest form possible in order
to be the most beneficial.
Let's skip back for a moment, the history of vitamins, if you will.
Vitamins began being "discovered" by scientists and surgeons
around 1914, and the word "vitamin " comes from the word
"vital" as in vital energy for life, but as far back as
the 1600's sailors knew to eat citrus fruits to prevent scurvy. It
wasn't until later that they knew it as vitamin C.
Now we will skip forward to the future. Many vitamins are now available
as liquids. Remember cod liver oil? Well now most vitamins can be
taken from a spoon rather than choked down (although if you were one
of the kids forced to down cod liver oil, you were choking anyway),
what's more, they taste good now as well.
Now before you get all excited and run out to stock up on each vitamin
that you are deficient in, let me remind you that you can, in fact,
'overdose' on vitamins, kind of. The water soluble vitamins such as
B's and C's will simply be expressed through your urine if you've
taken in more than your body needs, but fat soluble vitamins such
as D and E can accumulate and cause problems such as diarrhea, nausea,
vomiting, and rash.
I recommend contacting a homeopath to test for vitamin deficiencies
before you run out and spend a lot on vitamins. Knowing exactly what
you need the most and in what daily dosage will save you some money,
because again, you really need to purchase each vitamin separately,
rather than in a multi-vitamin pill.
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