The Truth about Vitamins and Minerals
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between vitamin and mineral supplements and the vitamins and minerals that naturally occur in foods? We’ve been led to believe that they are basically the same, but that is far from the truth – in fact they are quite different, and the differences will surprise and perhaps even shock you.
In fact, research conducted by Dr Jaakko Mursu, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota (The Iowa Women’s Health Study), found that women who took multi vitamins and minerals did not live as long as those who didn’t take them. Yes, you read that correctly; if you’re taking vitamin and mineral supplements you could be shortening your life rather than extending it. In Dr Mursu’s words, they were 6% more likely to die than those who didn’t take them. He studied 38,000 women for nearly two decades and found even higher odds of death associated with specific supplements including: Vitamin B resulted in 10% higher risk of death compared with non-users, Folic Acid 10%, Iron 10%, Magnesium 8%, Zinc 8% and Copper 45%.
In other words, instead of increasing health and longevity, vitamin and mineral supplements are actually jeopardising your wellbeing and life span.
I’ll give you a minute to recover from the shock of this new information and then I’ll explain why this is the case.
So, how do these supplements cause such harm?
Commercially produced supplements contain vitamins and minerals that are either crystalline or synthetic. Crystalline vitamins have been separated from their original food sources by the use of strong chemicals, and synthetic vitamins are created in the laboratory from scratch. The most disturbing part about these fractionated concentrates, according to Dr Mary Enig, nutritional biochemist, is that they act more like drugs than nutrients; disrupting body chemistry and causing many imbalances. She further states that synthetic vitamins often occur as the mirror image of the natural vitamin, which causes the opposite effect intended and that can be dangerous. And if your using laboratory enzymes, they discourage the body’s own digestive function, which can lead to organ shut down, due to the physiological feedback system. Your body is receiving information that these is no need to produce these enzymes. The same thing occurs with vitamins and supplements as well as hormone therapy.
Not only do these ‘health products’ act like drugs, disrupt chemistry and create imbalances, but most people taking vitamins and minerals just end up with very expensive urine, because the body is unable to utilise them and therefore rejects them.
Well, I think we’ve just been given the explanation for Dr Mursu’s somewhat shocking research findings.
Where does that leave us for getting good nutrition?
There is however another way to get those much needed vitamins and minerals. You can make use of what nature has provided: whole foods, super-foods and food concentrates such as herbs and desiccated animal organs and glands. These are excellent sources for the vitamins and minerals your body requires and they are of a far better quality than synthetics. They also come with a bonus: ‘co-factors’ such as enzymes and the necessary vitamins and minerals in the exact proportions to ensure everything will be properly absorbed and utilised.
When it comes to accessing your body’s ability to heal itself there’s no substitute for perfectly balanced ingenious foods from nature.