Multivitamins – Who needs them and who doesn’t?
This is a subject that I am asked about often. What multivitamins should we be taking, and who needs them? I have a very short answer! None and no one. But if you want the long answer please keep reading.
Here is why I don’t suggest multivitamins to my patient: they are a waste of money and synthetically created. It is proven that our bodies do not absorb these vitamins and we just excrete them. So basically, you are paying good money for yellow pee. Why don’t we absorb them? The isolated vitamins in a multivitamin are not recognized by our bodies, and therefore treated as a foreign substance…
Let’s look at vitamin C as an example. A lab somewhere extracts vitamin C from an apple to study it. They find that vitamin C is really good for us! So they try to recreate Vitamin C in a lab. But synthetic nutrients are different than those we receive from whole foods. To create synthetic vitamins and minerals, manufacturers must chemically isolate vitamins and then re-create them in a synthetic process that relies on chemical reactions.
Synthetic vitamins are chemicals. Our bodies may recognize these chemicals as toxins, struggling to metabolize them appropriately. This can take a lot of digestive energy to break down. Even if your body is able to process the synthetic vitamins, they may cause unwelcome changes in body chemistry as your body fights to metabolize something foreign to your system. (I know, that’s a lot of sciency stuff!)
But here’s the thing about that apple – it doesn’t JUST have vitamin C. We were meant to eat that whole apple and get the HUNDREDS of phytonutrients in that apple working in synergy together. When we eat an apple, we are absorbing vitamin c because our body recognizes the nutrients in their whole food form! How AMAZING is that?! Our bodies never cease to amaze me. (and the simplicity of whole foods always makes me smile)
Multivitamins have a supplement label. Supplements are not very regulated – meaning that there can be things in there that are not listed and vice versa. We are meant to get all of our nutrients from actual food – whole foods, like fruits and vegetables in their natural state (or as close to it as possible). Our amazing bodies crave whole food nutrition so that all those amazing nutrients can work together in synergy to create our best health!
The average person needs 7-13 SERVINGS of fruits and veggies every single day. And we need a variety of colors. Most people, including myself, don’t even get close to that on a consistent basis! That is why I was SO excited to learn about Juice Plus+! Juice Plus+ is the ONLY product that I use myself, give to my family and share with my clients. There are SO many reasons why, but I will give you the 2 that relate to this topic of multivitamins: 1. Juice Plus+ does not have a supplement label, instead it has a nutrition label. This means that it is recognized by the FDA as a food. (Because, guess what? It IS food!) 2. In the making of Juice Plus+ the entire fruit and vegetables are used, meaning that all of those phytonutrients are going in. And we know what that means. Our bodies recognize and absorb them!
So, the long answer to the multivitamin question is no, we don’t need a multivitamin. But we DO need a way to bridge that gap between what we SHOULD eat on a daily basis and what we ACTUALLY eat every day. For me and my family, Juice Plus+ was the perfect solution, and that’s why we will never go a day without it!