Suzy’s Blog

Since the vitamin and mineral content of our food has been reduced 1000% since the turn of the last century, it has become extremely important to supplement with daily vitamins.  The major killing diseases of this age – heart disease, stroke and diabetes to name a few – are diseases of malnutrition, so it is vitally important that you supplement daily.

There are hundreds of different vitamin and mineral supplements on the market. Some of them are good; many of them are less good.  The following are five ways to tell good vitamin-mineral supplements from bad.

1. Unless it is a horse pill, there is no one multi-vitamin that can meet your vitamin and mineral needs in a day.

2. The quality of Vitamin E is a giveaway to whether vitamin production is too cheap to produce a quality product.   If the scientific name of the Vitamin E is “dl-alpha-tocopheryl” the vitamin E is cheap and the amount is half what the company claims it has added.  The problem is with the “dl”.  D and L are mirror images of the same thing, which makes it very expensive to separate them. The body needs “d” and can’t use “l”.  Good vitamins have only the “d” in them.  The inclusion of the “l” is a giveaway to the quality of all the other vitamins and minerals in the vitamin because if they have skimped on the separation of “d” and “l” they have probably skimped on the rest of the vitamins.  As a rule, any vitamin with “dl” in the scientific name of Vitamin E should be avoided.

3. The packaging of vitamins is another giveaway, particularly with oil-based vitamins like Vitamin E or Vitamin A.  The potency of oil-based vitamins is destroyed by light.  If the bottle the vitamin comes in is clear, the oil in the vitamin has been turned rancid by light and it will not only fail to achieve what you are taking it for, it will potentially harm you.  Clear bottles for multivitamins do the same thing, since they contain E and A – both oil-based vitamins.  Make certain that the bottles your vitamins come in are dark plastic or, if they are glass, they come in dark green, blue or brown.

4. Now look at the Chromium in the mineral section of the label.  There are three kinds of chromium.  Cheap vitamins use chromium chloride.  If the label reads chromium chloride don’t buy the vitamin.  If it reads chromium picolinate or chromium poly… the vitamin company has not reduced production cost at the expense of your vital chromium.  Since most diabetics are chromium deficient, this is a very important mineral to have in your supplements.  Fir it to do any good, it must be in the right form.

5. The ratio of calcium to magnesium is another giveaway of bad vitamin-mineral supplements.  The ratio should be 2:1 or 1:1 calcium to magnesium.  That means it should be 100mg:50mg or 100mg:100mg.  In the cheap vitamin-mineral brands the ratio is as bad as 100mg:20mg.  If the magnesium content is too low, the calcium will not metabolise.  If the calcium and magnesium aren’t in the right ratio, don’t buy the vitamins.

A company I like very much, which has excellent vitamins, minerals and supplements is New Spirit Naturals.

Suzy Prudden is President of Positive Changes Hypnosis of Beverly Hills and can be found at http://www.suzyprudden.com/

Recently, when I was conducting my monthly One Day Weight Loss Workshop, a participant asked, “What about vitamin E?”

Vitamin E is an oil-based vitamin that is wonderful for your health, and like all vitamins it is not designed to be used alone.  Vitamins and minerals are team players.  I recently read of a study in which the placebo did better than vitamin E when used by itself.  Missing vitamins and minerals actually lessen the effectiveness of other vitamins and minerals, so getting the dosages right is very important.  It’s vital to take a full vitamin and mineral complex and not megadose vitamins or minerals without balancing them with other vitamins and minerals.  The exception to that being Vitamin C - which is a water based vitamin and seems to do miraculous things in mega doses.

The makers of really good multiple vitamins (and I don’t include any of the major brands in that definition) know the exact amounts of vitamins and minerals to include in a daily regimen.  They also know that all vitamins and minerals should be included in their mixtures so that the team can function completely.

I hope that answers the question of “What about Vitamin E?”  It’s great and should be taken as part of a daily multi-vitamin and multi-mineral combination.

As a side note, “Why should I take vitamins?” is another question I hear quite frequently.  The answer is, because the nutritional value of the foods we eat today are down 1000% since 1900.  You are simply not getting the nutrition your body needs from the food you eat even if you eat exclusively organic.

By the way, I highly recommend the products from New Spirit Naturals, a very reputable company in San Demas California, that is dedicated to high quality products.

If you want to know more about my One Day Weight Loss Workshops please email me at suzy@suzyprudden.com or check out my website at www.suzyprudden.com