What do Vitamins and Minerals Do for You?

Build up your Immune System - Illness and disease are not "caught". one doesn't catch cancer, heart disease or a cold. You create these ailments with deficiencies based on what you eat or don't eat.

Increase your Energy - Vitamins and minerals are involved in the release of energy from digested foods. Strong lasting energy levels are good indicators of healthy vitamin and mineral intake.

Enhance your Appearance - Skin clearness, tone, and elasticity; hair strength, thickness and colour; fingernail strength, colour and texture all depend on vitamins and minerals. Some people look 50 years old at 30. Some look 30 at 50.

Expand your Intelligence - Brain function, ability to concentrate and memory require proper vitamin and mineral levels. Everyone will die, but how you look and feel for the last 20-50 years depends on your lifestyle and vitamin and mineral intake throughout your entire life

When it comes to nutrients stick with reputable companies producing pharmaceutical grade products that are guaranteed for potency.

How do vitamins/minerals leave the body?

Vitamins and minerals are "used" by the body. As they perform their function, they often use themselves up in the process, which is the case with most of the critical disease fighting antioxidants.

Even thinking uses vitamins and minerals. Exercise and stress use a lot of vitamins and minerals; the use of diuretics (substances that increase the discharge of urine) such as drugs, alcohol, coffee, tea and sodas - washes vitamins and minerals out of the body creating deficiencies - this can create a major health problem!

Tobacco and alcohol can also inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals, or accelerate the loss of them.

Your Health, Your Intelligence, Your Energy, and Your Appearance are Dependant on you Replenishing your vitamins and minerals several times per day.

Should you take Vitamin & Mineral Supplements?

Vitamins and minerals are vital nutrients for bodily functions and prevention of disease. There is an archaic argument of "I can get everything I need from food." Are you? In a large 26,000 person study it was concluded that not one person received the nutritional requirements set forth by the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance). 96% of the US population dies of a disease - we are NOT getting proper nutrition.

"Insufficient vitamin intake is apparently a cause of chronic diseases... Most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. Pending strong evidence of effectiveness from randomized trials, it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements."

American Medical Association

Vitamin & mineral supplementation is necessary for the following reasons:

1. Crop nutrient losses - Decades of agriculture have overworked and depleted soils of minerals.
2. Poor digestion - Eating too much or too quickly and stress can cause indigestion. Indigestion reduces absorption of vitamins and minerals.
3. Over-cooking - Can easily destroy valuable food nutrients.
4. Microwave cooking - Studies suggest that microwave cooking alters the nutritional structure of food.
5. Food storage - Length of storage and freezing deplete the nutritional value of most foods.
6. Food selection - Eating a too limited range of different food groups will result in nutrient deficiencies.
7. Food omission - Allergies to foods, crash dieting and poorly designed vegetarian diets omit significant dietary sources of nutrients.
8. Environmental factors - Herbicides and pesticides are used on crops, leaving them with low nutritional value.
9. Antibiotics - Antibiotics interfere with the intake of essential nutrients.
10. Poor lifestyle habits - Smoking, alcohol and caffeine can inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals or accelerate the loss of nutrients.
11. Stress - Be it physical or emotional, can increase the body's requirement of vitamins and minerals.
12. Out of balance - The level of each vitamin and mineral in the body has an effect on others} so if one is out of balance (missing), all are adversely effected. With antioxidants, one is not nearly as strong as several combined as each greatly enhances the power of the others.
13. Nutrient variance - There are substantial differences between one fruit or vegetable and another. One tomato can have 10 times more nutritional value than another - which tomato did you eat?

Where do vitamins/minerals go in the body?

Vitamins and minerals go from your stomach to your intestines. They then go through a very complex allocation system whereby the body distributes certain vitamins and minerals to parts of your body based on its own priority system.

If a nutrient is needed in a certain organ that it (the body) deems more important, it will take the nutrient from a less important organ, and allocate it to a more important organ. Sort of a "rob Peter to pay Paul" action. That's why it is critical to maintain proper vitamin & mineral levels.

Vitamins and minerals in your body should not be viewed as independent substances, but rather as a cooperative network of nutrients working together. If one nutrient is missing, it throws the entire network of nutrients out of balance.

"A deficiency of a vitamin or mineral will cause a body part to malfunction and eventually break down - and, like dominoes, other body parts will follow."

James F. Balch, M.D. - Prescription for Nutritional Healing

How do vitamins/minerals get in the body?

Vitamins and minerals get into your body when you eat plants such as fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and spices or when you take a vitamin/mineral supplement. You can also get some vitamins and minerals into your body by eating meat as most animals eat plant food.

Vitamins and Minerals - where do they come from?

VITAMINS are natural substances found in living things such as plants. Vitamins must be obtained in the body from foods or supplements as they cannot usually be produced by the body.

MINERALS are found in plants. Plants get their minerals from the soil - soil gets minerals from water washing over rocks. For vitamins to do their job, they require minerals. Minerals must also be obtained from food or supplements.

ANTIOXIDANTS are specific vitamins or minerals that protect body cells from the damaging effects of Free Radicals. Free radicals come from or are caused by smoking, sunlight, stress, exercise, etc., and are one of the primary causes of premature aging, sickness and disease.

SUPPLEMENTS are vitamins and minerals that have been extracted from a plant or created in a laboratory and put into a form that can be ingested and used by the body.
There are effective supplements, ineffective supplements and hazardous supplements. Uneducated consumers are at risk from two sides.

1. Consumer knows they should supplement but doesn't know how to select an effective supplement, therefore wastes their money, time and health.
   
2.  Consumer is uninformed (or given bad advice) on the need to supplement and sacrifices their health.