The Supplementation Problem and Our Supplement Recommendations

Written by Sarah C. Corriher

		Megafood, maker of yeast-based (fermented) vitamins, partners with Dr. Andrew Weil, which should come as no surprise. Why don't they feature pictures of the rotting yeast on the label instead?

We are constantly asked by readers which vitamins they should use.  For years, we have recommended that people choose food-based vitamins, because they have the potential to be much safer, and much more readily absorbed in the organic form.  However, we recently re-evaluated the multi-vitamins that are available, and came to the depressing realization that things have drastically changed since our original research. The changes in the supplement industry happened at a very fast pace.

The food-based vitamins that are currently available are actually worse than their synthetic counterparts.  Almost all of the food-based vitamins that we recently evaluated were fermented in yeasts and bacteria.  Usually these were genetically engineered yeasts and bacteria to make them toxic enough to accelerate their pathogenic life processes.  This manufacturing is a way to cheat using bacteria and yeasts to break the foods down instead of using chemicals.  In actuality, neither the process nor the end product is natural or food-like.  The biotechnology industry found a way to trick us all into making genetic engineering a part of our "natural" supplementation.  We wrote this report because we have had repeated calls from people who were having allergy problems or sicknesses that increased with increased multi-vitamin usage.  In every case, it was caused by one of the multi-vitamin products that was allegedly food-based, but which was not actually made from foods.  A diet of yeast will, in fact, attack the immune system to make both allergies and illnesses worse.  These so-called "multi-vitamins" are worse than no vitamins at all.

"The food industry has used genetically engineered bacteria and yeasts for more than 20 years to produce vitamins and nutritional supplements."

-- Agricultural Biotechnology, The University of California

People are actually ingesting rotten vegetable matter that is produced with biotechnology assistance, for health benefits.  Of course, the companies have not studied whether this fermentation process produces toxic byproducts, as most fermentation does, because the priority is profit.  Such studies would actually make them more liable, because until they have evidence that demonstrates harm, they can simply claim ignorance.  The few food-based multi-vitamin products which did not contain yeast had other questionable ingredients, such as oyster extract, various algae, and seaweeds.  These items should never be considered foods, and especially not health foods. The real foods in the "food based" supplements have been replaced with non-food bottom feeders from the oceans, and pond scum, which are known for a huge variety of toxins. Some of these vitamins will prove deadly for people with shellfish allergies, and the cause of death will never be traced to the vitamins.

We must reverse our prior recommendations about supplements, and we are now recommending synthetic vitamins instead.  In the past few years, a lot has changed in manufacture, and it is obvious that the biotechnology industry has made in-roads into supplement manufacture.  We previously recommended food-based multi-vitamins on the basis that synthetic vitamins are much harder for the body to absorb, and there is a chance of simply causing stressed kidneys when using high quantities of them.  However, there is no good choice for supplementation anymore, so it has become a matter of choosing the lesser of evils.  The current situation is that if one does not use the vitamins from the chemical industry, then he must instead use the "food" vitamins from the biotechnology industry, which are considerably worse.  While we hope and expect that this will one day change, this is the current deplorable situation.

The fact that we are reversing our position should help to explain why we are usually so careful not to make specific supplement recommendations.   Any recommendations that we make can become invalid weeks or months after making them, and hundreds of thousands of people could have read and acted upon those recommendations.

The most important long-lasting recommendation is to read the ingredient labels, and learn to spot the dangerous ingredients.  The following is a list of common vitamin ingredients that should always be avoided:

Yeasts, including brewers yeast. 
Algae, such as Spirulina and Chlorella. 
Mushrooms and other fungi. 
Organs, such as liver and kidneys. 
Seaweeds. Kelp is a common addition. 
Titanium dioxide 

The point is . . . get your vitamins from food.  Put foods in your body that give your body plenty of Vitamin C.  Let this C be the background or foundation to enduring health.  Make one third of your plate some green or high Vitamin C food.  That will provide the background that you need.  All the minerals you need will come in a delicious meal of a medium sized steak, a lightly stewed spinach, celery, or kale, and a second vegetable, say, sliced tomatoes or sliced sauteed yam.


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