A Question on Vitamins
Carmon posted on vitamins and how she does it here. I commented and asked:
Maybe you could do a post on what vitamins you take and why and what vitamins you would recommend to other moms. I currently don't take any vitamins - I know, slap my hand for it - I try to eat well, drink lots of water, get some exercise and fresh air, stay calm, and get enough sleep (something I'm not always good at, but I sure do try!). I'm quite healthy right now, but I know that I need to do the best I can do to keep myself healthy and strong for my family's sake. Any suggestions or ideas from you would be wonderful!Do any other mothers want to chime in on this? I think that striving to live healthfully, as long as it is done in balance, is important. As Christians, our bodies are the temples of the Lord and we have a responsibility to keep them as fit as strong and vibrant as possible. I'd love to hear what other moms do to stay healthy, especially when your time and energies are limited.
posted by Crystal Paine at 12:35 PM
14 Comments:
I'm not a mother, but I can say what my mom has done for vitamins in our family. Every morning at breakfast, we all take probably around 8 vitamins, which include but are not limited to: Vitamin C, Calcium (these two are our main ones for general health and bones), Vitamin E and A (for healthy blood and eyes), plus a smattering of things like Brewer's Yeast, Grapeseed, and Spurelina (sp?).
I'm not a mom either and I don't take vitamins as I have not been able to find a brand that doesn't make me feel oogy after I take them (any suggestions? I've tried taking them on a full stomach but I still get nauseated). However I make sure I get what I need through food using a system I developed with measuring cups. Helps keep the weight in check too. I also do not eat sweets of any kind (except for very special occassions), stay away from processed foods, and try to stay away from a lot of dairy. Although I do LOVE cheese...
The one thing I will say about living in NYC, as trying to my faith as it can be sometimes, is that it's very easy to get fresh, inexpensive produce. I shop every day for whatever my body craves. There's a lovely little grocery right down the street from me I walk to after work and pick up whatever I'm in the mood for. I can always count on the quality!
Since my mom's diagnosis of cancer last fall, I see how important it is to take care of my health NOW so that I won't have as many problems later down the line.
I would really encourage using GNLD products (www.gnld.com)--of which I'm a distributor. I've been taking their Tre-en-en and one of their other products for several months now and have noticed a HUGE increase in my over all health, strength, and stamina; and I've had a huge boost in energy.
If you'd like to find out more about it, my business website is www.springtohealth.com. I'd be happy to send packets of information to any mother/wife who would be interested.
GNLD is truly the best company out there--they are the leading-edge company in the field. They have no competition when it comes to producing quality products that work!
GNLD puts our health first, instead of the "almighty dollar." Many of the of the companies on the market put "natural" products in our suppliments (as filler), but they aren't apart of the human food chain and are actually harmful to our health--i.e. clay, harmful heavy metals, etc)! GNLD has a "what's right" and "whole-food" philosophy (including the ingredients that are found in nature's blueprint for our ultimate health--nothing more, nothing less). To find out more, check out: www.springtohealth.com
Crystal,
I am not a mother, either, but I have found that I function much better while taking my vitamins. My mother has Vitamin B deficiency and has passed that along to me, so a B complex vitamin is the first one I take after breakfast. During my very active past year I started taking a multivitamin after lunch and that helped a lot with having strength to finish my day. In the past few weeks, as life has slowed down, I thought I would start only taking vitamins after breakfast, alternating between the B complex and multivitamin... but that did not work at all! Though there were some other factors as well, I started having less energy, more fatigue and some headaches. All this was happening while getting lots of sleep, eating well, etc. I went back to my established vitamin routine and bounced back to feeling like my normal self within one day. I was already convinced that they were good for me, but now I'm really a believer in their everyday use! :-)
Well, Amber beat me to the punch.
When my 16 month old son (now 20 mos) started being really picky about his food and not eating any kind of vegetable, I started thinking that I needed to make sure that he was getting proper nutrients anyway for his little growing body.
I started doing some study on the various types of vitamins out there (the market is HUGE) and came to the conclusion that WHOLE FOOD vitamins are the safest (as your system will just process out whatever it doesn't need instead of toxic amounts of synthetic vitamins building up in the body).
My aunt recommended GNLD's Liqui-vite for Ethan. Its a whole-food based liquid multi-vitamin and also has Tre-en-en in it, as well as flavonoids. He takes it no problem, either in juice or straight. I also give Ethan cod-liver oil (Garden of Life Lemon Mint) for Omega 3 fatty acids.
I started suffering from some baby blues after Gregory was born, so I decided to put both me and my husband on GNLD's Formula IV and GNLD's Carotenoid Complex. I've noticed a difference in my energy level and motivation to get up the morning. Also, my skin has improved. We also take Carlson's Salmon Oil by capsule. (GNLD's is fine too).
GNLD tends to be expensive, but IMHO its worth it to invest in safe, quality, human-food chain preventative health measures.
As far as vitamins making one feel "oogy"; it could be that one has a reaction to synthetic vitamins or the ingredients in the supplement (which as Amber said are not in the human food chain) or it is the body detoxifying itself.
I've also read that taking good quality (broken cell wall)chlorella is a great natural multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, phyto-nutrient supplement. And its a whole food all by itself - you can't take too much because its a complete food.
Interesting topic for study.
When my daughter was 2-5 years of age she seemed to be sick a lot and I was frustrated. She would be sick, get well and then we would be around other children and then she was sick again. I felt so bad for her and wanted to do something that would help. I had a friend with a similar situation with her child and she started taking a natural whole food supplemant called JuicePlus+. Basically it is 17 servings of fruits and vegetables [God's nutrition :) ] in caplet form. It is like juicing, but in a low dehydrated form of powder in a capsule without the mess ;) . We (my husband, daughter & myself) take two fruit caplets in the morning and two veggie caplets at dinner time. It has improved our health a lot and my sweet daughter is not sick as much as she used to be. There are no side effects because JuicePlus+ is all natural and it has most of the sugar and calories taken out. We were so impressed with this whole food product that I (Denise) became a JuicePlus+ representative. I have enjoyed learning about nutrition and it is a joy to help my family be as healthy as they can be. If anyone want to learn more about JuicePlus+ please email me at Pearsonnds@aol.com
Lindsay,
I take my vitamins at night, right before I go to bed. That has helped eliminate the upset stomach I sometimes got when I took them in the morning.
daybreaking
Lindsay,
My sister had the same problem, getting sick on supplements. Have you tried whole food supplements? They are more pricey, but they are the real thing! I take the Prenatal brand of New Chapter Organics. My sister has also tried their brand, and she doesn't get sick! Maybe that will help. They have many other types besides just prenatals by the way. :-)
Thanks to everyone, especially Caroline and Daybreak, for the suggestions. I'm definitely going to look into whole food supplements and see if I can tolerate them!
I'll hve to look into www.springtohealth.com. I need all the help I can get! Friends of mine loved Juice Plus and recommended that I try it for my migraines. I knew that it had some food triggers in it, but I was hoping everything would be o.k. I was on it for a few months and got the worst migraines I have ever experienced! I just wanted to put that warning out there. Some adore it and I have seen how they can really help people. Sadly, I am not one of them and am still searching. : (
I'm in the process of becoming a Certified Natural Health Professional and can tell you that there are many paths to good health. Some people find that vitamins help them a lot, others don't.
The Super Mom vitamins you bought are a bargain at only $10 a month. They have tons of good stuff in them and I will be surprised if you do not feel that they are helpful.
Not everyone feels that they can change their diet, but my belief is that we should let our diet be the healing force in our bodies as much as possible, rather than eating as we like and then trying to compensate for bad fuel with vitamins. The foods we choose have the ability to help, heal, or hurt us.
Some of my favorite resources for healthy eating are
The Healing Power of Whole Foods by Beth Loiselle, and Rejuvenate Your Life by Serene Allison (you can purchase this from the resources at aboverubies.org).
The better we do at nourishing ourselves well, the less we will need additional vitamins. But, if it's the only thing you can do, it's better than nothing.
What I normally recommend to people and practice in my own life is to only try out one or two new supplements at a time. I use them as directed, give it a month or so, and see if I notice an improvement. I tinker with the dosage to see if I can get results using less, etc. and then take only as much of what is helpful to me and drop any supplement that I don't find to be helpful.
Over time I have found lots of things that I am positive help me and meet a need in my body that food alone hasn't done yet.
I think if you take the 2 a day of the Super Mom vitamins for the entire bottle you will know whether or not it is a keeper. Let us know!
Hey--just a thought on your comments section here. If you are going to leave comment moderation on, maybe you could leave the word verification off.....?
Thanks for your insight, DollyMama!
Oh, and I suppose I could take comment verification off, but then it would mean I'd have to moderate a lot of spam. Anything to streamline and make things more efficient is my motto (sorry if that means it makes a bit more work for people to comment here -- I so appreciate all the people who go to all the trouble to do so!).
Vitamins - I know I have found they make a difference. I take mine 2x/daily. The vitamins I take are from Arbonne - all natural and I am a consultant for Arbonne. Please feel free to go to my website and look around - www.servantsheart.myarbonne.com. The ingredients for all products are listed and state what they are used for. There are vitamins for pre- & post-menopausal women, as well as children, men, and teens. Other supplements for digestion, herbal colon cleanse, etc.
If you are looking to take care of yourselfe besides food intake/diet. These vitamins are wonderful and don't have synthetic fillers.
Denise,
I read what you wrote about juiceplus so I googled it to see what I could learn. What do you think of this article at www.mlmwatch.org/o4c/nsa/juiceplus.html
I'm especially curious about what the article says about fiber.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home