Supplements

I was asked to teach a class next week about supplements. That's a broad subject, so I thought this would be a good place to pinpoint a few supplement considerations.

When I choose supplements I figure that I get what I pay for. I also want to consider where I buy them. Is there rapid turnover and is the shelving out of direct sunlight? Are the bottles opaque?

Right now, I take very few supplements. I take MAXgxl, which increases my body's own capacity to make glutathione. That's a powerful antioxidant that has numerous functions in our body from protecting eyesight to chelating heavy metals out of the body, quenching free radicals, and eliminating inflammation.

I also take Vitamin D, in a liquid form. I prefer Apex Energetics because their product is fresh, needs to be refrigerated and is date stamped. This is a professional supplement line, similar to Standard Process or Biotics Research. These are available through chiropractors, nutritionists, and other professionals.

When you think about taking calcium, consider what will be most usable. It's certainly not calcium from coral or oyster shells. Remember, they are super hard substances designed NOT to dissolve. Your body will need to work harder to break them down than it will to utilize calcium citrate, for example.

I'd love to be able to say that we don't need supplements. I really would! However, our food is only as good as the soil it is grown in. If you eat meat, consider what the food is that your food is eating. If we live in an area that has soil deficient in iodine, our food will be lacking in that important nutrient. If there has been a lot of phosphates added to amend the soil, our food will have an imbalance in that nutrient.

That old saying from back in the day, "You are what you eat." is still true.

So, supplement decisions are complex. We all get that. I advise clients to take a bottle of trace minerals, by a company called Trace Minerals, once a year. I suggest that raw pumpkin seed butter is a good source of zinc. Pumpkin seeds are also thought to be a good way to rid the intestines of parasites. I view it as a supplement that I eat about 3 times a week.

There are great resources at natural food stores. Usually books abound there for resource informaton. Some stores have trained help in this department. Ask questions and educate yourself. If you don't want to take any supplements, I have a few suggestions for whole foods to include in your diet.

Sea vegetables and seaweed, organic bone broths, eat a WIDE VARIETY of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Eat grass fed beef, poultry, wild game, and wild caught fish. Eat raw dairy if you can tolerate dairy. Whole grains in moderation and variety. Try some that might be new to you: quinoa, kamut, triticale, kasha, wahini rice, buckwheat groats.

Cultured foods provide probiotics that feed the gut and enhance absorption. Try making your own kefir, saurekraut, yogurt, pickles, and more. Remember not to boil them. It kills the good bacteria.

For more information on increasing the nutritive value of food, selecting food, preparing food, and learning how our food is often sub-par, check out Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Also see the Weston A. Price Foundation website, headed by Sally Fallon. This is a great organization to be a part of if you really want to maximize your food knowledge in a usable way.

Antioxidants and the ORAC Scale

Have you ever wondered what the ORAC rating is? It appears on all kinds of exotic fruit drinks, essential oils, and supplements labels. Claims abound for the various anti-aging properties of high ORAC scale rated vegetables, extracts, and more. Who can you believe when it comes to some of these incredible health claims?

The ORAC scale, or rating, was developed by scientists at the National Institute on Aging. It measures the antioxidant capacity of a substance. That is a very simple explanation, because lab environments vary greatly from our internal environment. Can we know how much antioxidant capacity is generated from the food we eat? Does it survive the digestive tract? Is adequate and complete digestion needed to utilize the antioxidants of the food or supplement? What is the functionality of the antioxidant in our body? These are some questions to ask yourself next time you choose one of these products.

This is a quote from Wikipedia on the comparison data of the ORAC scale, which I think is very relevant.

"When comparing ORAC data, care must be taken to ensure that the units and food being compared are similar. Some evaluations will compare ORAC units per grams dry weight, others will evaluate ORAC units wet weight and still others will look at ORAC units/serving. Under each evaluation, different foods can appear to have higher ORAC values. Although a raisin has no more antioxidant potential than the grape from which it was dried, raisins will appear to have a much higher ORAC value per gram wet weight than grapes due to their reduced water content. Likewise, watermelons large water content can make it appear as though they are very low in antioxidants. To say then that chocolate has "more antioxidant" potential than blueberries is tenuous at best. While ounce per ounce chocolate may have a higher ORAC value, on the comparison of dry weight, we see blueberries have a higher ORAC value. Additionally, considering the ORAC value per calorie could be of some utility, as understanding just how much antioxidizing potential one could incorporate from a product into one's diet would determine the real utility of the product."

An example of this absurdity is found in cinnamon. It has the highest rating of any food on the ORAC scale - 267,536, while a Gala apple has 3903. But the amount of cinnamon is 100 grams, or almost 1/2 cup. Who eats that much cinnamon? Yet cinnamon could lay claim to having the highest ORAC scale rating, under labeling laws. It truly is buyer beware out there in the marketplace.

I wondered, how did the body deal with inflammation and other processes impacted by free radicals, prior to all the magic foods now available? Cinnamon and cloves are among the highest foods on the ORAC scale, as I previously mentioned. Perhaps that's why Europeans went in search of them? Our bodies have an innate intelligence and seeking out high quality foods used to be the norm, before food processors became the dictators of our diets.

However, our body naturally produces antioxidants. We have to, because we breathe oxygen, and cellular respiration results in the breakdown of oxygen molecules. This produces free radicals. Our body's naturally-produced antioxidants are more powerful than any food substance. The number one antioxidant that the body produces is GLUTATHIONE. It quenches free radicals and protects the mitochondria of the cell, enabling more energy production.

I'll be writing more about this at a later date.

Two New Links

I received an email that had a great link to a post that lists 101 ways to detox.

http://www.nursingschoolsearch.com/blog/2008/07/detoxify-yourself-101-tips-to-remove-the-poison-from-your-body-and-your-life/

Here's another link to inspirational food blogs. There really is something for everyone here.

http://www.nursingschoolsearch.com/blog/2008/07/100-food-blogs-to-inspire-your-healthy-eating/

Local Bounty

A growing movement to buy local is munching its way across the USA, along with rising gas prices. The Hundred Mile Diet is one such version that has been in the news lately. A friend brought me a copy of the Chicago Tribune from a recent trip. The article, Support Your Local Farmer was front page news!

Yesterday, I did a mini-workshop about vegetables and weight loss. We discussed local farmer's markets as a source for fruits and veggies, with the caveat that you'll pay more. While that is often true, there are benefits to buying locally that do good things for all of us, in spite of a higher price.

Consider less transportation means less air pollution. Remember that a local farmer is contributing to the quality of life locally and they often will have great deals if you go directly to the farm.

This summer, I've been gleaning strawberry fields and cherry trees locally. It's a great way to spend some quality outdoor time and have lots of great fruit to share with neighbors. It also helps the farmer.

There's a new movement in Eugene to go back to an old concept: the Victory Garden. At Victory Gardens For All, you can have Charlotte and her crew help you get started. Containers are available for those with limited space. Help make her dream of 10,000 new gardens in Eugene/Springfield a reality.

Do you need more inspiration to eat fruits and vegetables? Here is an antioxidant website that gives you a simple breakdown on many of the antioxidants found our foods. Starting with beta-carotene, be sure to explore the other antioxidants listed too. Each page lists food sources for the various antioxidants.

If you'd like to learn more about how your body can produce more of its own natural, super antioxidant, glutatione, visit my MAXgxl website and explore the information. Glutatione quenches free radicals and inflammation. Dr. Robert Keller, the creator and composition patent holder of MAXgxl, is presenting Friday at the 16th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine.

For a sneak peak at Dr. Keller's presentation and findings, Glutathione: Improvement in Parameter’s of Aging and Inflammation in Patients with and without HIV Infection Supplemented with a Patented Oral Glutathione Accelerator, contact me at my email: sandi.thompsonntp@gmail.com