52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you thought you knew about supplements was wrong!, November 5, 2009
This review is from: Supplements Exposed: The Truth They Don't Want You to Know About Vitamins, Minerals, and Their Effects on Your Health (Paperback)
In this provocative, well researched book, Dr. Brian Clement challenges everything we think we know about supplements. The first myth he exposes is that we can get our nutrition without supplements, from food alone. He cites a US Senate report dating 1936 which proved that our soil is depleted in nutrients, and explains that even organic soil is insufficient! He proceeds to give us the history of vitamin manufacturing, and the more you read, the more you realize it sounds little better than the drug companies!
Another misconception is that synthetics vitamins are equal to natural nutrients, or even effective or absorbed at all. (In fact, many indigested vitamins are found in Port Potties!) As director of the Hippocrates Institute, he has examined the blood of over 11,000 guests who used synthetic supplements and has shown this to be true. But here is where it gets tricky: Synthetic vitamins are allowed to label their product as being from whole foods or from a food source by legal loopholes--when in fact they simply have a base of algae, yeast or other bacterium or food medium that was spiked with synthetic vitamins! Sorry all you MLMers--even multi-level supplements usually come from the same sources, the same synthetic vitamin manufacturers. Our best option is to purchase "products that state on their label that their vitamin or mineral or nutrient potencies came from "Naturally Occurring Food Sources" and mention on their label which exact foods those sources are. Also, any vitamin products that carry the NOS (Naturally Occurring Standard) logo are safe and guaranteed to have vitamin potencies that only come from real, whole foods" (p. 161).
Additional myths exposed are that vitamin studies are reliable, and we are given a list of 5 reasons why. We also learn to mistrust the label "Natural" as it really can include toxic additives. Common additives found in supplements include fillers, binders, disintegrants, lubricants, flavoring agents, coloring agents, coating materials and preservatives.
There is an entire chapter devoted to the fallacy of fish oils. Brian explains that they are based on fish that is toxic, and this creates lipid peroxide contamination. There has been a lot of propaganda to take fish oil especially for its DHA benefits (the brain being about 60% DHA). I disagree with Brian that most people can get their Omega 3s from flax seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts, and let the body convert them to the DHA and EPA that the brain so desperately needs. People who are over 30 (unless they have been vegan most their lives), sick, toxic, or have a history of taking drugs often need to take the DHA and EPA directly---either from fish, algae or eggs from chickens that were fed flax or chia seeds.
An in-depth chapter is provided about the role of specific vitamins, and another on the main minerals. Appendix A gives us food sources for these nutrients. These chapters make this a great resource book!
The end of the book contains alarming information about Codex. Their goal (since 1962) has been that the drug companies will (on Dec 31, 2009!) take over the vitamins, making them available (except minute, ineffective dosages) only by doctor's prescriptions. And they will probably become as expensive as drugs! Who knows whether they will even carry NOS vitamins? We are losing our health freedom because the mainstream media (virtually owned by the drug companies) is silent about this.
Update: I just saw the author of this book give a lecture last night. Brian says he just got word that Codex did NOT pass, so we will continue to have our supplements and (relative) health freedom for at least 2 more years!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Those Who Want to know the Truth about Vitamins...., February 15, 2010
This review is from: Supplements Exposed: The Truth They Don't Want You to Know About Vitamins, Minerals, and Their Effects on Your Health (Paperback)
This is the best and most factual book I have ever read on naturally occuring vitamins, rather than synthetic vitamins developed by Big Pharma and sold under the name of 'natural'. If you want true vitamins in addition to those you consume via eating, purchase organic full spectrum whole foods vitamins ... and do yourself a good deed by reading this book....will save you thousands of dollars.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This Is Not Enough, December 8, 2011
This review is from: Supplements Exposed: The Truth They Don't Want You to Know About Vitamins, Minerals, and Their Effects on Your Health (Paperback)
I admire Susan Schenck's review of this book. It is comprehensive and honest and everything in it is what is in the book. The only thing the Amazon reviewer omitted, I notice, is make any evaluation that the information in the book is sufficient for living healthily with or without supplements. While the book does offer food sources for vitamins, we know that food is not enough. You can't get all the vitamins and minerals you need through food. For instance, whole wheat lacks sufficient amounts of selenium in order to be healthy and resist disease. One has to supplement. The soil plants and fruits grow in is depleted. One has to supplement.
One commentor on the above-mentioned review states, "Good Luck on finding any multi-vitamins that are NOS certified! Anybody found any yet?" NOS refers to "naturally occurring source," that is, not synthetic. And here's the difficulty with this book. While Dr. Clement lists in Appendix C two pages of web links for "resources for natural products," not one of them contains a source for NOS certified multi-vitamins. Most of the references have to do with exotic and expensive "neutraceuticals." Reading a book like this that warns of the major health risks in taking synthetic vitamins and minerals without providing adequate and reasonable and natural substitutes is similar to warning of dangers ahead without showing a safer path. It's obvious supplementation is absolutely necessary for good health, but Dr. Clement's concern here is mostly only about preventing bad health through synthetic pills.
I did find Defense Nutrition dot com website contains a multi-vitamin that is NOS certified. Clement's book references Dr. Joel Wallach, author of "Dead Doctors Don't Lie." Dr. Joel Wallach offers a line of supplementation for good health, although there's no testimony anywhere to be found whether the supplements are totally synthetic.
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