Before we go exactly into the best vitamins to take, where you can find them, and more, it’s important to note a few things about our current lifestyle.
It’s no secret that a vast majority of us are lacking in all sorts of important nutrients that are greatly beneficial to our health, mainly due to the fact that we simply aren’t eating enough of the healthy things, and much more of the processed, empty calorie foods.
Another reason is that we live increasingly busy lifestyles, sometimes you don’t have time to fill up on all the necessary fruits and veggies, sometimes, fast foods can be the most tempting option as they are readily available, and absolutely everywhere. The lack of essential vitamins, among other things, can be greatly detrimental to our health, which is why it’s important to be able to be able to supplement them, if we are not able to get sufficient quantities from a balanced diet.
You should however of course, seek guidance from your doctor or dietitian before taking supplements.
The importance of vitamins in our diet
Vitamins have a critical role in promoting healthy cell development, growth, and function. They impact digestion, immunity, and metabolism, among dozens of other things, and the body has no means of producing them (with the exception of vitamin D3). In short – you need to have the right amount of vitamins for your body to function properly.
Vitamin deficiency can cause a major health problems such as heart disease, cancer, poor bone health, scorbutus, and much, much more.
An overview of the 13 essential vitamins:
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- Vitamin A aids the development and maintenance of healthy teeth, bones, soft tissues, mucus membranes, and skin.
- Vitamin B6 allows for normal brain function, and helps to form red blood cells. This vitamin also plays an important role in the proteins that are part of many chemical reactions in the body. The more protein you eat the more B6 your body requires.
- Vitamin B12 also helps to form new red blood cells, as well as being important for metabolism and the central nervous system.
- Vitamin C is an antioxidant that promotes healthy teeth and gums. It aids the body with iron absorption, maintaining healthy tissue, and wound healing.
- Vitamin D is produced by the body when exposed to the sun. 3 sessions per week of 15 minutes of exposure to the sun should suffice for people at most latitudes, to get enough vitamin D. Food sources alone cannot give you a sufficient quantity of vitamin D. This nutrient also helps the body to assimilate calcium, which in turn you will need for a healthy development and maintenance of teeth, bones, and levels of calcium and phosphorus.
- Vitamin E is an antioxidant which helps the body to form red blood cells and use vitamin K.
- Vitamin K prevents blood coagulation, and also plays a role in bone mineral density, and a decreased risk of fractures
- Biotin is essential for the metabolism of proteins and carbohydrates, and in the production of hormones and cholesterol.
- Niacin helps to lower cholesterol, as well as maintain healthy skin and nerves.
- Folate works with vitamin B12 to help form red blood cells. It is needed for the production of DNA, which controls tissue growth and cell function. Any woman who is pregnant should be sure to get enough folate. Low levels of folate are linked to birth defects such as spina bifida. Many foods are now fortified with folic acid.
- Pantothenic acid is needed for the metabolism of food, as well as the production of hormones and cholesterol.
- Riboflavin (vitamin B2) works with the other B vitamins. It is important for body growth and the production of red blood cells.
- Thiamine (vitamin B1) helps the body cells change carbohydrates into energy. Getting enough carbohydrates is very important during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is also essential for heart function and healthy nerve cells.
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Foods and vitamins today
The fact of the matter is that modern intensive agricultural methods have gradually decreased the nutrient contents from the soil in which we plant our food. Each generation of fruit and vegetable is made to grow faster, bigger, resist pest, but also lose their nutritional value. With the constant increase of population comes already insatiable demands on farming, which will only worsen over time.
Taken from Scientific American:
A landmark study on the topic by Donald Davis and his team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century. Davis and his colleagues chalk up this declining nutritional content to the preponderance of agricultural practices designed to improve traits (size, growth rate, pest resistance) other than nutrition.
“Efforts to breed new varieties of crops that provide greater yield, pest resistance and climate adaptability have allowed crops to grow bigger and more rapidly,” reported Davis, “but their ability to manufacture or uptake nutrients has not kept pace with their rapid growth.” There have likely been declines in other nutrients, too, he said, such as magnesium, zinc and vitamins B-6 and E, but they were not studied in 1950 and more research is needed to find out how much less we are getting of these key vitamins and minerals.
The Organic Consumers Association cites several other studies with similar findings: A Kushi Institute analysis of nutrient data from 1975 to 1997 found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27 percent; iron levels 37 percent; vitamin A levels 21 percent, and vitamin C levels 30 percent. A similar study of British nutrient data from 1930 to 1980, published in the British Food Journal,found that in 20 vegetables the average calcium content had declined 19 percent; iron 22 percent; and potassium 14 percent. Yet another study concluded that one would have to eat eight oranges today to derive the same amount of Vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one.
What can be done? The key to healthier produce is healthier soil. Alternating fields between growing seasons to give land time to restore would be one important step. Also, foregoing pesticides and fertilizers in favor of organic growing methods is good for the soil, the produce and its consumers. Those who want to get the most nutritious fruits and vegetables should buy regularly from local organic farmers.
UT’s Davis warns that just because fruits and vegetables aren’t as healthy as they used to be doesn’t mean we should avoid them. “Vegetables are extraordinarily rich in nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals,” he reported. “They are still there, and vegetables and fruits are our best sources for these.”
So while the nutritional value of the food and fruits we eat is declining rapidly, they are still a primary source of the vitamins our body needs to survive.
The vitamins
There are thousands of different vitamin supplement brands out there so for we decided to filter out the noise and choose a single, effective supplement. Sport Formula Inc is an innovative supplement, packed with everything missing from our diets today – raw multivitamins, minerals, BCAA-amino acids, B complex, antioxidants, digestive enzymes, and more yet.
The nutrients will help your body what it needs to function properly and keep you energized throughout the day. With the right nutrients you will be able to lose weight, workout more intensely, think clearer, and perform better.
The ingredients are clean, raw, and cold processed to maintain live enzyme function. They’ll help you recover faster after a workout, and the included digestive enzymes should make it easy for your body to absorb the nutrients.
From the desk of the Founder of Sport Formula, Jimmy DiShanni.
We have been making raw powder multivitamins for 20 years,
Helped 100’s of people lose 1000s of pounds of fat,
And fueled several gold winning Olympic athletes to success.
The reason we even make a multivitamin supplement is due to the poor quality of foods available.
Vitamins 101:
Ever wonder why orange juice says “vitamin C enriched” ?
Why are they adding vitamin C to the source of Vitamin C, oranges?
It’s a good question, right?
This simple statement on the orange juice label will help you understand 3 things:
1) What’s wrong with food
2) The proper absorption of nutrients
3) Why food makes you fat, and more!
But first, you need to understand simple economics.
The orange juice COMPANY makes a product called ORANGE JUICE, for a PROFIT.
If the orange juice spoils and gets thrown away before it sells, the company loses money.
Solution for the company.
The company need to extend the shelf life of the orange juice so it can sell it before spoiling.
What they do is heat the orange juice passed 200 degrees to kill pathogenic bacteria spores.
This is called pasteurization. Now the orange juice won’t spoil so fast.
A real problem for consumer.
Guess what dies when they kill the bacteria spores?
That’s right, …the vitamins die.
Revelation #1
Vitamins only work if they are raw, if they are heated they will die.
Vitamins must have live enzyme function (be raw) or they simply flush out in your urine, unused not absorbed.
What do vitamins do?
They, the control your metabolism.
Raw vitamins are essential for turning calories into energy, instead of fat.
Plus, over 1000 metabolic reactions in your body including, free radical scavenging, hormone production (anti-aging) to name a couple.
Revelation #2
Your body does two thing with calories, burn them as energy or store them as fat.
If your food is heat pasteurized, the calories are prone to storing as fat.
What about the vitamins the Orange Juice Company added to the orange juice?
Good question. Here is the part where the FDA fails the consumer.
The FDA checks the batch records to make sure the orange juice company actually adds the vitamin C.
What they do not check, is the potency (they live enzyme function – the raw factor) of the vitamins they add.
The FDA does not require the food companies or dietary supplement companies to use raw vitamins.
There is a standard, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) standard.
The same standard that the FDA requires the ingredients of drugs to meet.
It means the ingredients have been tested for potency and purity.
This is mandatory for drugs and voluntary for supplement and food companies.
So if a dietary supplement does not say USP, it is unverified by the FDA and no matter what the label says like freshness guaranteed, quality checked, lab certified etc.
If the label doesn’t say USP somewhere, it’s not USP, it is unverified, probably cheap Chinese Heat processed ingredients, unfortunately.
USP ingredients cost so much to use, the food company or supplement company, like Sport Formula, will print USP standard on the label somewhere.
Revelation #3
When you see “Vitamin Enriched” on a food label, this is a RED FLAG.
It really means: Contains Empty Calories That Store as Fat,
OR: Previously Stripped of All Nutritional Value.
OR: Avoid this food
You have probably heard, “Eat your vegetables raw, if you cook them, you lose something”.
By now, you should know what you are losing, right?
Of course you know, if you cook them, you lose the vitamins.
Killing the nutrients, renders them useless.
Sport Formula’s Cold Processed and RAW nutrients meet the USP standard and are tested for potency and purity.
Raw nutrients control the metabolism of proteins into new healthy cells, like muscles tendons and joints.
RAW vitamins speed up your metabolism naturally to burn calories into energy instead of storing them into fat.
What vitamins should I take? – Conclusion
In this article, we have explained how today’s foods are lacking in vitamins through various farming and transformation processes, and why it’s therefore important for some to supplement our diet with vitamins, if we already aren’t getting enough, from our everyday diet.
If this article was helpful, don’t hesitate to share it along ! Comment below if you have any questions or thoughts about the article.
