Supplements, are they necessary for good health?

My sister told me that on Oprah’s show last week about “going green“, they were also promoting Shaklee vitamins. I get asked about the topic of supplements a lot, so I’ll try to shed some light it…

Flushing cash down the toilet?

A lot of people have asked me about this issue, and to be honest, it’s a tough one. Sure, there are many stories of people who have had various health problems completely disappear after taking Shaklee or other supplements, but if you’re blessed with good health, you might be like me and don’t feel any different whether you’re taking them or not. Of course that leads you to wonder if you’re just flushing money down the toilet every month. All I can do is tell you what we take and why, and you can decide from there.

Can supplements prevent disease?

I’ll start by telling you that my father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago, and that was when I really began looking into various supplements. Knowing that early-onset Alzheimer’s is hereditary, I wanted to find out if Kent could take certain vitamins that could possibly prevent him from getting it down the road. What a confusing and time-consuming job that was, trying to wade through the unbelievably huge amount of information out there on that topic.

As many brands as stars in the sky!

And it’s not just the information about what might be helpful in your situation that you have to figure out. It turned out that even worse than figuring out if we should take supplements and which ones, was when I had to figure out which brand of supplements to take. Unless you’ve done any research on that yourself, you have no idea the vast amount of different brands there are. It was overwhelming, to say the least. I did hours and hours of research, and I’ll try to explain to you what conclusions I came to.

It’s the undebated truth, eating well really is better than any supplement

One of the main goals of this site is to help people try to eat better – if we all did that, then just as you’ve heard many times, we really wouldn’t need supplements. If you’re eating a good well-balanced traditional diet, they wouldn’t be necessary, as getting nutrients the natural way is always better. (Especially if you’re eating food from farmers who know how to keep their soil nutrient-rich, but that’s another story…) However, because I just never know if we’re getting “enough” of what we need, even though we eat fairly well, we do still take supplements as an “insurance policy“.

As important as cod liver oil:

One supplement we take is called, “Perfect Food“, and I feel that it’s probably AS important to take as cod liver oil is. Taking this is like eating multiple servings a day of green vegetables, so it’s great for those of us who aren’t able to get as many into our diet as we’d like, especially in the winter months. They also provide anti-oxidants and probiotics (10 strains), both VERY important. What is even better about this supplement is that it contains an enzyme that is found in our stomachs, so it is already pre-digested and our body recognizes it as a “food”, not as a foreign pill.

WHERE TO BUY PERFECT FOOD AND GET THE BEST DEAL:

You can get it here: Garden of Life Perfect Food caplets (or you can do a search at that link to find the powder there, but there’s no way I could drink that stuff.) The link has a special deal that Matt at this online store worked out just for Kitchen Kop readers – I had researched it and found it cheapest somewhere else, so he lowered his price hoping to get our orders. I’ve checked all over and this is a lot cheaper than any of the places I found. In order to match the best deal at the other site I’d found, Matt is also giving us free shipping, but TO GET FREE SHIPPING YOU MUST TYPE IN “free shipping” WHERE IT ASKS FOR “REDEEM CODE” ON THE CHECK-OUT PAGE!

Note: Primal Defense or Primal Defense Ultra (more potent) are stronger probiotics than what is in Perfect Food. Great for constipation, digestive healing, and many similar issues.

Get an even stronger probiotic: GAPS recommended probiotics.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re wondering whether or not I make any money if you end up buying anything you click on in this post, read #3 at my FAQ post and I’ll answer that question.)

One brand I’ve looked into:

We do also take Shaklee vitamins. No one gave me a sales pitch on them, I found it as I did my own digging, and everything I read talked about how much research they do on their products to make sure they are made well and that they can be assimilated by our bodies well. All this isn’t to say that I believe Shaklee is the only good brand out there, I’m sure there are others. But over and over again, I’d do some research on another supplement, then for various reasons, kept coming back to Shaklee. (I’m surprised they don’t have a good brand of cod liver oil -this post explains why everyone needs to take that and where the best place is get it.)

Major health improvements possible

For some, supplements provide a very real and obvious improvement in their health. My friend, Nancy, had dramatic benefits from taking Shaklee, and there are many stories like hers. (Just as I’m sure there are for other supplements too, but again, I chose to go with the one that I felt has the most research behind it.) E-mail me if you’d like to know where I get Shaklee at member cost with $3 shipping, otherwise you could find a local distributor. Here’s Shaklee’s site if you want to see what they have available.

Will we ever know?

The whole problem, though, is who really knows? You can do all sorts of research like I did to find out which supplements you feel are best, but we may never know if they really can prevent disease. Of course that’s what all the companies say, but when they profit from getting you to buy their products, I’m skeptical.

Is it worth it to you?

My point is that we could be flushing money down the toilet with any supplement we take, but I’ve always said that I’m willing to spend the money on the chance that it could prevent Kent from getting Alzheimer’s, or prevent any of us from getting whatever could have been in our future.

How to figure it all out

There are so many different reasons people take supplements, that there is no way I can do ALL your work and research for you. Here’s my advice for how to figure out for yourself which supplement to take (if any), and what brand:

• Get online and Google like crazy whatever your question or issue is – be sure to read both “sides” – the “conventional” advice and the “natural” advice, then you can use your own judgment to find what is best for you.
• As you’re reading, first be sure to find out if there isn’t a way to get whatever it is that you’re thinking about taking through your diet, in the more natural way.
• If you have found a company for the supplement you’ve decided to take, read about them, what kind of research do they do on their products?
• Ask people you trust for their input, what do they take and why?
• Use common sense! If a company is promising “instant results” or something else that sounds far out, don’t fall for it! Or if there’s an up-front cost or some other fishy way to get your money, stay away from that company, too.
• Lastly, decide if you can afford it, and if the cost is worth the “insurance” to you or not.

Here’s the breakdown on what we take:

• The kids take a Shaklee multi-vitamin and cod liver oil.
• I take a Shaklee multi-vitamin, a Shaklee B vitamin w/ folic acid, cod liver oil capsules, & Perfect Food.
• Kent takes a Shaklee multi-vitamin, cod liver oil capsules, Perfect Food, and also what he calls his, “anti-Alzheimer’s cocktail” – various other Shaklee supplements (and a couple others) that I’ve researched and found could (an expensive word for us!) help prevent or delay an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. (Somehow he swallows them all at once! I can’t even watch him or I gag.)

All-in-one?

My friend, Jen, asked why we don’t just take a vitamin that has everything we need already together in the same supplement? That would be nice, to not have to take as many pills, but the simple answer is that there just isn’t one, not that I’ve found anyway. Even if there was one that I’m not aware of, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have the potency that these all have separately.

What’s the bottom line?

If you can only afford to take one supplement, high quality cod liver oil is definitely the one I recommend. Beyond that, the bottom line is this: take whatever supplements you have researched and are willing and able to spend the money on, but more importantly, try to move closer and closer every day to a whole foods, traditional diet, and away from fast-food, processed food, & packaged foods.

RELATED POSTS:

• Do you take supplements as an “insurance policy”?
  
• Dieting/my “food conversion”
• Healthy milk
• Cod liver oil: answers to common questions
• How to make recipes healthier/info on healthy no-flavor coconut oil
• Eating healthy, without sacrifices
• Kelly’s yummy popcorn/info on healthy virgin coconut oil
• Tips on getting exercise into your life
• Where is the truth on health and nutrition?
• Have you heard of Weston A. Price?

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