Vitamin D

Vitamin D: How to Determine Your Optimal Dose

by David Rostollan, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/027345_Vitamin_D_sun_exposure_blood.html


(NaturalNews) In the wide world of supplements, vitamin D is the superstar. For the last few years, this humble nutrient has been featured prominently in allopathic and alternative circles alike. It has basked in the rays of media publicity, and has survived an onslaught of scientific scrutiny. And while such widespread publicity is often good cause for skepticism in the realm of health and medicine, vitamin D appears to be the real deal. Whether we`re talking about heart disease, cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, or Alzheimer`s disease, the "sunshine vitamin" delivers benefits unseen before our time (1).

Given the remarkably powerful benefits of vitamin D, many find themselves wondering how to actually go about obtaining it. We know that vitamin D is good for us, but how much do we need, and where do we get it? Most people know that sunlight is somehow involved in vitamin D production, but is sunlight alone sufficient to produce the incredible results demonstrated by recent vitamin D research? What about supplements? There are so many different preparations - with doses ranging from 400 IU to 50,000 IU - that it can get a little confusing. Are such supplements necessary, and if so, how much should we be taking?

Everyone is Different

One might suppose that this question is as easily answered as saying, "Everyone needs to spend 15 minutes in the sun every day." Or, "Everyone needs to take x amount of vitamin D per day." But it`s not like that. Not at all. There are a multitude of variables unique to you that determine how much vitamin D is required on a daily basis (2). And because there are so many individual variables, it really is impossible to recommend a single amount for everyone. Fortunately, however, there are many circumstantial clues to look for that will suggest whether you need to be paying better attention to your vitamin D status. Furthermore, personally optimizing your vitamin D level is fairly easy and inexpensive.

Are you at risk for vitamin D deficiency?

-How much sun exposure do you get every day?
-Where do you live? Above or below the 35 N latitude line? (3)
-What is your age? Over 40?
-Is your skin light, dark, very dark?
-Are you overweight?
-Do you have a chronic illness?

How do each of these factors affect vitamin D status?

Sun Exposure: Catching some rays each day is definitely desirable, and healthy young people can usually get the vitamin D they need from around 10 to 30 minutes of sun exposure per day - depending on their location and the time of year. Most adults in today`s modern world, however, do not even attempt to get this much sun exposure - much less achieve it. But even if they did, would it matter, or are there other variables standing in the way?

Location: Vitamin D is produced in the skin from a cholesterol derivative when we are exposed to UVB radiation from the sun. However, because of the axial tilt of the earth, the further north one lives, the less the sun`s UVB rays will be able to activate vitamin D in the skin. So sun exposure does not necessarily equal optimal vitamin D status if you`re living in the wrong location. Living down south is better, of course (south of the 35 N latitude line seems to be the best), but there is still more to consider.

Age: Say you do live close to the equator, or are significantly below the 35 N latitude line. That`s a good thing, and it probably helps. If you`re around 35-40 years old or above, however, you`re likely losing the ability to activate sufficient levels of vitamin D in your skin, even in the unlikely event that you`re getting adequate UVB sun exposure (4).

Dark Skin: What if you have dark skin? If you have a lot of pigment in your skin, this is going to shield you from the UVB radiation you need, and you`re probably deficient in vitamin D.

Weight: Vitamin D requirements are also relative to body weight. If you`re overweight, your body requires more vitamin D than if you are not overweight. If you get a lot of sun, but are on the heavy side, you`re probably still not getting enough vitamin D.

Chronic Illness: Chronically ill? Have cancer? The body demands more vitamin D when you`re sick, and is probably using it up faster than you can get it from the sun.

When one considers that many Americans are victims of not just one but many of the above drawbacks, it becomes readily obvious as to why there is such a widespread vitamin D deficiency epidemic. Not getting enough sun is bad enough, but lack of sun exposure combined with being middle-aged, overweight, and chronically ill is an absolute disaster - and it is the devastating situation that many (most?) Americans find themselves in today.

Is Sun Exposure Really Not Enough?

Yes, sun exposure is a good thing, but too often, it`s simply not sufficient to achieve the kind of levels necessary for disease prevention and treatment. This applies even in places like Hawaii, where individuals get plenty of sun exposure, and the latitude is around 21 (5, 6). The role of sunlight should not be downplayed too much, however. If you`re healthy, young, and live in a subtropical region, then you might have sufficient vitamin D levels. In fact, some young people in the subtropics who get sun exposure all day long have levels between 80-100 ng/ml. This is incredible, and it means that sun exposure really does work provided the conditions are right.*

The point being made in this article is simply that not everyone is young, not everyone is healthy, not everyone lives in Houston, and not everyone gets enough sun exposure every day. It is those people who need to supplement with vitamin D. This also happens to be most people.

Blood Testing is Crucial

How do you know if you`re getting enough vitamin D, and how much is enough? The only way to know is by testing your blood. Fortunately, testing vitamin D, as far as blood testing goes, is pretty cheap. You can set this up with your doctor, order tests online and get blood drawn at a local lab, or order a vitamin D home test kit, whereby you simply order the test, prick your finger, send in the blood, and wait for the results to come back to you.

Here are some basic guidelines:

-Make sure you are getting the right test. You must test for 25(OH)D, not 1,25(OH)D. They look similar, but 1,25(OH)D is a measure of kidney function, and is not the test you want for measuring vitamin D levels.

-Ideally, your blood level should be around 60-80 ng/ml, as this allows the body to have some vitamin D in reserve, and it duplicates the higher levels found in young, healthy individuals who spend a decent amount of time in a sun-rich environment.

-Begin taking vitamin D at least eight weeks prior to being tested. This will help you customize your dose once you receive your test results. To determine a basic, starting dose, it has been suggested, as per Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council (7), that you take 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight. A person who weighs 150 pounds, for instance, would take 6,000 IU per day as a starting dose (150/25 = 6. 1,000 x 6 = 6,000). Do this for at least eight weeks, and then test. Perhaps this dose will put you in the ideal range, but there`s no guarantee since we are all so different, and have unique vitamin D receptor genotypes. The idea is to hopefully get somewhere in the ballpark with this method and then tweak your daily dose once the test results come back. If your results are still suboptimal, Dr. Cannell has estimated that each 1,000 IU increase in supplemental vitamin D will generally produce a 10 ng/ml increase in the vitamin D blood level (8). For example, if you have been taking 5,000 IU per day for 8+ weeks, and your results come back at 40 ng/ml, you would want to increase your dose to at least 7,000 IU (2,000 IU = ~20 ng/ml rise in blood level) to achieve a minimum of 60 ng/ml. Again, keep in mind that this is necessarily generalized, and additional blood testing every several months is recommended to further customize the dose appropriate to you.

What Kind of Supplements Should I Use?

In order to achieve consistent and predictable results, it is important to use the proper carrier form of vitamin D supplements. The absolute best form is an oil-based vitamin D preparation. Dry preparations, like tablets and capsules, should be avoided. Vitamin D is fat soluble, and needs to be taken with fat in order to be properly absorbed - hence the oil-based recommendation.

Oil-based versus dry preparations aside, there are two common types of vitamin D: Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol). You will need to avoid supplementing with vitamin D2 (9), which is a synthetic product made by exposing certain plants to ultraviolet radiation. D2 is not what the human body naturally uses, and compared to D3 it falls far short in terms of efficacy (of course, D2 happens to be what many vitamin D prescriptions are made of). D3 is what your body uses and prefers. No prescription necessary.

You can buy D3 in oil-based softgels, or, if you don`t like taking pills or have trouble doing so, you can get it in liquid drops.**

Summary

Vitamin D status is important year around, but whenever fall and winter are upon us, the importance of evaluating this vital nutrient is even more urgent. In summary, here are the steps you should take if you are wanting to optimize your vitamin D level:

1) Start taking oil-based vitamin D3 according to your body weight, as explained above.

2) After at least 8 weeks, have your blood tested by a good lab. There are home finger-prick test kits that are also very good.

3) Remembering that the goal should be blood levels of 60-80 ng/ml of 25(OH)D, adjust your vitamin D3 dose to achieve this level. Each 1,000 IU increase will generally lead to a 10 ng/ml increase in blood levels.

4) Recheck blood levels every several months to make sure you are still in the optimal range and taking the proper dose.

*It is beyond ironic that for quite some time now, everyone has been encouraged by the "authorities" to avoid the sun in order to keep from getting cancer, yet it is that very sun exposure that would help in avoiding cancer in the first place! "Avoid midday sun, or you`ll get melanoma!" we`re told. But melanoma is mostly triggered by UVA rays from the sun - not UVB. When is cancer-causing UVA exposure the lowest? Right around midday. When is UVB exposure the highest? Also right around midday. A high UVB:UVA ratio (high UVB and low UVA) is the best for creating vitamin D in the body, and this occurs when the sun is highest in the sky - exactly the time (ironically) that is often suggested to be avoided.

**Supplementation is not recommended for everyone. Certain conditions, such as sarcoidosis and some lymphomas, can produce excessive amounts of vitamin D, and in these instances, one should move forward cautiously under the supervision of a healthcare professional.

R-ALA

Supplementation Of ALA


Alpha lipoic acid from supplements is rapidly absorbed, rapidly
metabolized, and rapidly cleared from plasma and tissues, suggesting
that it should be taken in divided doses throughout the day, rather than
in a single daily dose. Recommendations for the use of alpha lipoic acid
as an antioxidant can range from 50 mg/day to 400 mg/day. In the only
published study to examine the antioxidant effects of alpha-lipoic acid
in healthy humans, 600 mg/day for 4 months significantly decreased
several biomarkers of oxidative stress compared to baseline [22].
However, the antioxidant effects of lower doses have not been well
studied in humans. Recommended dosages of alpha lipoic acid as an
antioxidant can range from 100mg to 300mg daily, which could set you
back between $10 and $30.

Deficiency of ALA

ALA deficiency has not been described, suggesting that humans are able
to synthesize enough to meet their needs for enzyme cofactors [23].
Though ALA so far appears to be safe, the long-term effects of large
supplemental doses are unknown.

Side Effects

Alpha Lipoic Acid has few if any side effects [24]. Very high doses have
been known to cause nausea and upsets stomachs, and excess doses can
lead to low blood sugar levels. On the brighter side, ALA can sometimes
lead to a general relaxing and mild feeling, and lead to a better
overall feeling of well-being [24].

Summary

Supplementing with alpha lipoic acid can result in measurable gains in
both strength and muscularity.* Taking ALA before and during a work out
will increase performance and help shuttle nutrients faster to your
muscles.* Alpha lipoic acid plays a big role as one of the best
antioxidants available and is beneficial to the human body.* Therefore,
alpha lipoic acid could be very beneficial in your quest for muscle
growth.*

Long Slow Distance Training

Training is no guarantee of health
by Mark Sisson

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Endurance training is antithetical to anti-aging. So it amazes me when guys in their 40s and 50s who are training for a marathon or Ironman suggest that doing so will keep them young. It won’t. You may feel like a stud now with your shaved legs and your magic marker biceps tattoos, but endurance training speeds up the aging process almost as fast as watching TV, drinking sodas and eating potato chips. Actually, in some cases, it speeds it up even faster.

I know, I know, you’ve been told that exercise is the great panacea -- the fountain of youth -- and that the more you do, the greater the benefits will accrue. Well, science has started to prove that concept wrong, and I suspect the evidence in support of my thesis will accumulate exponentially now that the first generation of Frank Shorter "psychophants" has started dropping. There is a middle ground where there's a perfect balance of diet and exercise that will lead to the longest, most productive and "youthful" existence possible. But it certainly isn't found in endurance training. That said, I do think there are ways (some legal, some not) to mitigate the damage and extract the healthiest life possible if you do choose to train long and hard.

First, if I may, a little history lesson:

Humans were just not designed to work for extended periods of time at 80-90% VO2max. Our evolutionary blueprint, the last draft of which was completed well over 10,000 years ago, set us up as great slow-movers and occasional fast sprinters. Our two primary energy systems are: (1) fat-based, which allows for long slow steady walking across the Savannah (or the Queen K after dark); and (2) ATP-based, which gave our ancestors 20 seconds of balls-out sprint speed to escape the charging saber tooth tiger (or let grandma lift the '67 Ford truck off gramps when the jack failed). We just weren't designed to operate at high revs for long periods of time. Doesn’t mean we can't, we can, but it's at an appreciable cost that I will explain shortly. It just means we weren't evolved to. Even our hunter-gatherer ancestors probably relied more on superior tracking skills and walking than they did running for hours or days after their prey. In fact, the energy costs of doing the latter were so high as to almost guarantee extinction. (Imagine your predicament when you run after an antelope for four hours and he gets away. Now you not only don't have any food, you’ve used up all your glycogen and, oops, there’s that frikkin' saber-tooth again, licking his chops.)

But our bodies are among the best in Nature at adapting to hostile environments and self-destructive lifestyles. It's that capacity to adapt that allowed our ancestors to pass along their DNA blueprints to us, but it's also what allows us to today to weigh 500 pounds when we overeat a little, or allows addicts to thrive on a 60 Vicodin a day, when the rest of us would die taking 10. During the Irish potato famine, many went from living on nothing but 14 pounds of potatoes per person per day to living on nothing but seaweed and shoe leather for months. Now that’s what I call adaptation. But, I digress.

Back when the concept of extended games playing was invented -- long before Dan Empfield was even born -- it was a natural alpha male thing to want to test the endurance of one guy against another. And because the first real endurance games probably only happened after the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 years ago, you could say that it was largely because of access to these new-fangled high-carbohydrate grains that we could first fully explore our adaptive endurance mechanisms. You could even argue that grains and sugars fueled the endurance fire as our early frat-boy ancestors attempted to one-up each other every generation until today, where we have type-As doing triple-ultra Ironman and Marathon de Sables back-to-back. Sure, they burn a little fat here and there, but most of it is based on a maladaptive second-rate carbohydrate energy system that was never contemplated in the original design prototype! OK, enough endurance history. What does this have to do with aging?

Turns out that carbohydrate metabolism is an inefficient and costly way to locomote, especially if you intend to operate at high revs for long periods of time. Your muscles and liver can only hold 500-600 grams of precious glycogen (stored glucose) at any one time. Even for a well-trained runner, that’s only about two hours worth of fuel when you’re cranking sub-sixes. So it behooves an endurance athlete to consume lots of carbs -- the simpler the better -- and to accelerate the burning of fatty acids if s/he chooses to continue training and racing. And that's where the philosophies of endurance training and anti-aging agree to disagree.

The requisite high intake of carbohydrates to provide fuel requires that an enormous amount of insulin be produced and circulated to help store it. Chronic high blood insulin levels promote inflammation. Anti-aging scientists will tell you that insulin is one of the best markers of longevity in all animals… that the less you produce (type 1 diabetics notwithstanding) the longer you live.

Chronic high-level training naturally depletes glycogen, which causes the body to release the adrenal hormone cortisol to cannibalize muscle tissue in order to help make new glucose (gluconeogenesis). Besides tearing down valuable muscle, chronic cortisol release carries with it a litany of negative effects. It suppresses immune function, which opens the door not only for short term upper respiratory infections, but may leave the door open for longer term, more serious issues (asthma, cancer, heart disease [which we know has a strong inflammatory component]). Chronic cortisol release also reduces calcium uptake by bones, and it's not surprising that so many runner/triathletes -- especially women -- have low bone density. Anti-aging experts will tell you that among elderly, low bone density is a pretty accurate predictor of mortality. Break a hip bone when you're older and your chances of dying skyrocket.

Speaking of cortisol, not only does training and racing tend to produce it, but even the training meals can produce it. A meal high in sugar and other simple carbohydrates can cause a dramatic rise in cortisol (as part of an insulin-adrenaline cascade). That's one reason why sugar is known as a powerful immune suppressor.

The beta-oxidation of fats during heavy training generates oxidative fallout (also known as "free radical damage") at a rate that is often 20 times what you generate at rest. Oxidative damage of cellular constituents such as DNA, proteins and lipids can result in progressive destruction of cells and tissues. This oxidative damage is believed to be a contributing factor to many diseases including cancer, heart disease and aging in general. Your body has natural antioxidant systems designed to keep pace with your normal low-level fat-burning systems (walking and at rest) and even your occasional ATP-based "life or death sprint" systems, but it really wasn't designed to compensate for hours of high-level aerobic performance. Oxidative damage to cellular DNA is usually cleaned up by the immune system, which destroys damaged cells, but if your immune system is compromised, it may set the stage for major problems later on. The cumulative effects of oxidative damage are visible on the faces of many long-time mileage junkies, but it's the damage underneath that most aggressively counters any anti-aging efforts.

Lean mass in general is one major defining predictor of longevity. The concept of dying of "natural causes" is, in reality, better described as "dying from organ failure due to loss of organ reserve and lean tissue." Organ reserve (the functional capacity of any or all organs necessary to support life) and skeletal muscle mass tend to increase or decrease together depending on the stimulus or lack of it. So, as a rule of thumb, anything you do to build muscle generally tends also to build or improve other tissue, including vital organs (heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, etc). Similarly, anything you do to diminish muscle tends likewise to have a negative effect on organ reserve. We call it "atrophy." Of course, the old adage "use it or lose it" has significance here, since it is presumed that by moving about, by doing work and generally being "vital" you give your body a reason to "adapt" to the work. Furthermore, because your muscles are generally fed either directly or indirectly by those organs, they are also called upon to adapt and stay vital. Stay in bed for a few weeks and you'll lose both muscle mass and organ reserve. If you are young, you can build both back with diet and minimal exercise. If you are old, it's often the beginning of the end.

Generally, exercise is a great way to increase muscle mass and, hence, organ reserve. We were, after all, designed to move. The difference is that our DNA blueprints were fine-tuned to have us operating optimally when we walk long distances, sprint like hell periodically, move occasional heavy loads, climb trees and generally tap into our fat-based energy system and our ATP-based energy systems. The benefits of true low level activity are many: We develop an extensive capillary network to bring fatty-acid fuel to each and every muscle cell, we up-regulate the production of fat-mobilizing and fat-burning enzymes which take fat out of storage and present it to the mitochondria for combustion, we improve cardiac muscle efficiency and cardiac capacity and we increase natural internal antioxidant levels. As for the ATP-based system, intermittent heavy loads do increase muscle mass very effectively, also stimulating growth hormone release, as well as improving insulin sensitivity and promoting bone density. The net effect of surviving that run in with a saber tooth tiger was that you got stronger and better adapted to do it again next time.

The problem with many, if not most, age group endurance athletes is that the low-level training gets out of hand. They overtrain in their exuberance to excel at racing, and they over consume carbohydrates in an effort to stay fueled. The result is that over the years, their muscle mass, immune function, and testosterone decrease, while their cortisol, insulin and oxidative output increase (unless you work so hard that you actually exhaust the adrenals, introducing an even more disconcerting scenario). Any anti-aging doc will tell you that if you do this long enough, you will hasten, rather than retard, the aging process. Studies have shown an increase in mortality when weekly caloric expenditure exceeds 4,000.

That's why I stopped racing and training ten years ago and why I prefer hiking, sprinting and weight-training today. But what's a competitive type-A to do if s/he wants to kick age-group butt in Kona and NOT fade away prematurely?

Given carte blanche to take advantage of all that medicine has to offer, I would aggressively consume antioxidants during my training (10-20,000 ORAC units per day), I would increase the amount of healthy fats (omega 3-rich) in my diet to 50% of total calories and I would only consume quality complex carbohydrates during my training. In fact, I would calculate my carbohydrate requirements on a daily basis and not exceed them. I would use simple sugars (e.g., gels) during long rides and races only to the extent they are necessary. That means I would do most of my training without them, saving them for races. I would work closely with a trained anti-aging doctor to monitor my fasting glucose, fasting insulin, free and bound testosterone, liver enzymes, cortisol, DHEA, hematocrit, ferritin and other parameters.

I would incorporate therapeutic amounts of testosterone (yes, I know it's illegal, but I'm giving you the best-case scenario), to balance out high levels of cortisol when I have gone to the well too much. (On a side note, I find it doubly ironic that Floyd Landis was allowed to take thyroid hormone because of his exhausted thyroid and cortisone because of his necrotic hip, but was not allowed to take testosterone during training. If he had been allowed the testosterone, it's quite likely he would not have required the other two meds! And I believe he did not take testosterone).

I would take at least 6 months away from training each year and focus on building lean mass and recovering from the prior season. Under those conditions, I am fairly certain that I could mitigate most of the damage done by any unnatural endurance endeavor I elected to do -- such as IM and marathons -- despite the known consequences.

Now, what does all this mean for the generation of us who bought into Ken Cooper’s "more aerobics is better" philosophy? Is it too late to get on the anti-aging train? Hey, we're still probably a lot better off than our college classmates who gained 60 pounds and can't walk up a flight of stairs. Sure, we may look a little older and move a little slower than we'd like, but there's still time to readjust the training to fit our DNA blueprint. Maybe just move a little slower, lift some weights, do some yoga and eat right and there's a good chance you'll maximize the quality of your remaining years… and look good doing whatever you do.

The Health Ranger Answers Common Questions About Nutritional Supplements

What is the biggest myth about nutritional supplements? You've often wondered about that haven't you? There is a lot of hype about supplements out there. There's also a lot of effort to discredit certain supplements like vitamin E. We will talk about vitamin E in a future show. This natural vitamin can be found in nuts and seeds. Unfortunately, the conventional medical industry is trying to discredit it scaring people into not taking vitamin E.

The fact is the tests that they are running are using a synthetic form of vitamin E, not the natural form that exists in nature. That is why they are getting bad results. We will talk about that in more detail later.

In my opinion the biggest myth about nutritional supplements is in thinking that you can still live a lousy lifestyle a poor health lifestyle smoking and avoiding exercise and eating junk foods, fried foods, and many animal products and so on, and yet you can somehow counteract that with a few nutritional supplements per day. This is the biggest myth in my opinion.

People think they can go out and eat fast food all day long. They can abuse their bodies and then if they take one multi-vitamin a day somehow it is going to counteract all that. That is just nonsense, folks. That is the biggest myth nutritional supplements do not make up for all the other behavior. If you are smoking cigarettes, for example, the single best thing that you can do for your health is to quit smoking not take vitamins.

Now, of course, if you smoke and you take vitamins the vitamins are going to offer some protection, but not nearly as much as if you were to just stop smoking. If you were to do both that is if you were to stop smoking and start taking the right nutritional supplements then you would have really good health happening at that point. You would have a lot of protection for the organs and the cells and tissues in your body. That is what you want to do.

I have seen people who think well I am going to go out and eat all this junk food. I'm going to avoid exercise and avoid sunlight so they are not getting the vitamin D and then they are taking pharmaceuticals. They are getting all the negative side effects of those pharmaceuticals the anti-depressants, the statin drugs, the cholesterol drugs, the blood pressure drugs and so on, and then they think "Oh, well I will drink some green tea today and I will take a cheap multi-vitamin that I bought at Costco or Wal-Mart."

They think that is going to counteract all that. It just does not work that way, folks. A vitamin does not excuse you from the responsibility of acting with integrity with your own health. If you want to be healthy, you have to engage in regular exercise. You have to eat right that means you should make food the foundation of your health.

I mean unprocessed food. Healthy, fresh produce, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and nutritional supplements that is the way you are going to get the maximum health benefits and actually prevent disease. That is the number one biggest myth about nutritional supplements in my opinion.

Not all supplements are created equal

All right, let's go onto the next question. People ask me this one all the time. Where is the best place to buy nutritional supplements? That is a good question. People see vitamins on sale at Walgreens or pharmacies or Wal-Mart or other retail outlets and they wonder what is really in these supplements.

Well, the answer is really quite simple. If you are buying vitamins at retail, and you are not buying them at a health food store or a health food section in a grocery store for example, most of what you are buying is probably garbage.

It is probably useless garbage, and I say that as an advocate of nutrition. I take many vitamins every single day. I eat many superfoods every day. I would not dare touch those products sold at Wal-Mart or Walgreens or Costco or Sam's Club any of those. I would not touch those. You know why? Because I read the ingredients on them. In my opinion, they are garbage just garbage.

I will give you an example. I was at Costco one time. I saw a big bottle of fish oil supplements, and we all know that fish oils can enhance health. They help prevent heart disease. They are rich in Omega-3 oils and a very healthy supplement if it is a quality supplement, but I looked at this particular product and I read the ingredients.

It said this "each capsule contained only 4 mg. of actual fish oil extract and the rest of the capsule was filled with soybean oil and one bottle I saw was actually made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which means it contains trans fatty acids that actually damage your heart health.

Here was a supplement being sold as a benefit for cardiovascular health that said it contained fish oil, but if you look inside what it really contained was trans fatty acids, which are poison for the heart. It is just crazy to think that people are going in there and buying those pills, taking them home, eating them, and thinking that they are helping their heart when in reality they are poisoning themselves in my opinion.

I saw that at Costco. I think they have since changed the formula because of all the bad publicity about trans fatty acids and hydrogenated oils but just the fact that they used to carry that is a good clue that tells you that you probably should not buy your vitamins at Costco. You probably should not get vitamins from a general store.

Good quality comes from good sources

Now, if you go into a health food store that is a completely different picture. There you are going to find the quality vitamins, the quality supplements, and the ones that I would openly recommend. You are going to find many companies there making good quality supplements. New Chapter is one company that does a good job but you know where the best values are for vitamins? They are actually found online.

That is because the online companies can sell direct to consumers, and they don't have to have the huge markups of the retail establishments because health food stores, of course, have to mark-up their products to stay in business. That is perfectly acceptable and I really do support local health food stores. I hope you go there and support them as well because we need those. Sometimes, when you want a great deal on the right supplement, the best place to go is online.

Buying them directly from those companies, I know many of these companies. I have interviewed over a hundred so some that I recommend are www.WellnessResources.com that is a good one. Jon Barron has a company called www.BaselineNutritionals.com.

There are superfoods available at a company called www.GoodCauseWellness.com. There is a great company making drinkable vitamins. You just mix their powder with water and it is high quality stuff very high end. They are called Ola Loa, and you can find them at www.DrinkYourVitamins.com.

By the way, I haven't been paid to promote any of these companies. You know I don't do that. I do not take money from these companies. I do not earn any money on the sales of these products.

I am just recommending them because I know them. I know that they are good quality supplements. These are the same things that I take myself, and these are what I recommend. In many cases the best place to get your supplements is online.

By the way, you can see many of my reviews of which supplements I recommend right here on www.NaturalNews.com. We have recommendations from time to time. None of them are paid recommendations.

It is all just honest independent unbiased information about what I think is best for supporting your health, for preventing disease and so on. Where is the best place to buy supplements? The answer is that some places sell garbage and I would not recommend it even to an animal. Other places sell very high-end supplements. You have to be able to tell the difference.

Keep reading and I will teach you how to look for some of the key ingredients. In fact, we are going to cover that in the next segment coming up here. We are also going to answer the question, "What are the best nutritional products for kids?"

It is tough to get kids to have a lot of great nutrition sometimes, is it not? They don't want to eat the things that you want them to eat. I know how that works but before we get to that, I want to give you a tip here on how to check a vitamin supplement for the right ingredients and there is a trick there is a secret that I will share with you right now.

How to determine quality of supplements

If you have a piece of paper be ready to write this down. Every multi-vitamin on the market contains a vitamin called "B-12." You have heard of B-12, right? It is a very important vitamin.

Well, there are several different forms of B-12 and the form of B-12 that appears on the vitamin label tells you a lot about whether that company is using quality ingredients or cheap ingredients. If you pick up any vitamin bottle anywhere in retail, at a health food store or anywhere just look at their form of vitamin B-12.

Here is the form you don't want to see. It is called cyanocobalamin. The way to remember this is that it begins with cyano, which is like cyanide. Cyanide is a poison, right?

This cyanocobalamin is a cyanide molecule joined with cobalamin. This becomes a form of B-12 that is used by all the cheap vitamin companies out there. This is the cheap form. You don't want this in your body not in my opinion.

Look for it, if you see cyanocobalamin as the B-12 then you know that is not really a high-grade nutritional supplement. It is probably a cheap supplement. They probably have cheap forms of all the other ingredients too.

I would not personally recommend it. I would not take it. However, there are other forms. The two forms you want to look for are methylcobalamin and hydroxocobalamin.

Now these two forms methyl and hydroxo are far more expensive because they are more advanced forms of this vitamin B-12. They are more readily available to your body. Your body can use them without having to donate energy to the chemical reaction that is necessary to free them from their current chemical bonds.

I don't want to get too technical but the bottom line is that these forms of cobalamin or vitamin B-12 actually donate energy to your cells instead of stealing energy from your cells. Have you ever taken a cheap vitamin supplement and then you felt tired afterwards? That's because many of the forms of the B-vitamins actually steal energy from your body in order to be processed by your body. You don't want that, and you certainly don't want cyanide molecules in your body.

You want the B-12 that is called pre-methylated or methylated. That is where you get the methylcobalamin or the hydroxocobalamin. Those are the things to look for. Again, you can go to any store a health food store, a grocery store any place that you might buy vitamins.

You can pick up that bottle, look for the vitamin B-12 on the label, and find out what form of B-12 it really is. If it is cyano, you don't want it. Leave it on the shelf. If it is hydroxo or methyl then you do want it. That means it is a very high quality nutritional supplement.

Now, of course, this does not tell you everything about the supplement. This is just one aspect of it, but it is a good clue. It tells you whether the manufacturer of that supplement is actually putting money into it because the methylated form of B-12 costs, I think $5,000 or $7,000 a kilogram more than the cyano form of B-12.

I mean some of these costs $12,000 a kilo just for the raw material. That is very, very expensive. Twelve thousand a kilo that is a lot of money. You have to look for the quality ingredients and they are going to cost money but if you are spending your money on vitamins then, of course, you do want those quality ingredients.

How to turn your kid into a nutritional powerhouse

All right, now let's move onto the question of what are the best nutritional products for kids as this is always a challenge. I hear it all the time. People say, "Well, Mike, the stuff you recommend my kid won't eat it or they won't drink it. What can I get my kids to eat or drink that is actually good for them?"

Well, fortunately there are some wonderful products on the market now just for kids. One out there I will recommend called "Amazing Grass" funny name but it is based on a mineral-rich grass complex with chocolate flavoring.

It is available as a powder and it is a superfood powder with lots of vitamins and minerals in it. You can find that at www.AmazingGrass.com. Again, I am not paid to recommend these companies. These are just companies that I know about because I have done the research.

Another product that I really recommend is called "X-Balance." It is just the letter "X" with the word "balance" after it and it is made by a company called "SGN Nutrition" and you can find it on a website called www.EmeraldBalance.com. I actually did an interview with the president of that company the founder a woman named Jan Lovejoy. She will be on my radio show later. Our exclusive live interview will be running on The Health Ranger Show.

Her product is one that I have actually used for a long time but it is delicious. It is a great formula for kids. It's like chocolate milk. It's a powder in a canister and you just mix it in with whatever milk you are drinking.

It is called "X-Balance," and it is delicious. I actually gave some to a neighbor where I live who had some children, and they loved it. It was just the perfect product.

There is another company out there called www.SimplyHealthyKids.com. They make a brand new product. You are going to be the first to hear about this. No one has ever reported on this yet because I just tasted the samples about five days ago.

They are not even on the market yet. In fact, when you go to their website, you might not find these yet but they are chocolate treats for kids that are rich in Omega-3 oils. Now how rare is that?

You see Omega-3 oils are very difficult to get kids to eat because many times they are in the form of fish oils and kids don't want to drink cod liver oil. They aren't going to buy that especially not today's kids. They want something that tastes good. They want something that to them seems like candy.

Health food your kids will beg for

Well, this company, www.SimplyHealthKids.com, has created this candy. It is like a chocolate morsel but it is rich in Omega-3's because it has Chia seeds inside. It has this healthy chocolate, this cacao powder and then it has Chia seeds and it is sweetened with Agave nectar. It is low glycemic. It is great for kids. I am, in fact, going to be recommending that product down the road with a feature article and all that.

Actually, I am giving that company an award a www.NaturalNews.com award for the best kids' superfood product. It is that good. Check it out. I hope that they have it in stock by now. I cannot guarantee it. It is not my company and it is somewhat early but you can check them out at www.SimplyHealthyKids.com and see if they have that ready or not.

Overall, the big news about this question in particular is what can I give my kids that is good for them? There are many, many products on the market now that really taste delicious. You don't have to settle for the junk out there.

There are many junk vitamins, children's vitamins that are made with artificial coloring chemicals derived from petrochemicals. Are you kidding me? You want to feed your kids petrochemicals made from oil? Give me a break. That is what the artificial colors are made from, by the way.

You don't have to settle for that anymore. There are great products on the market. Go to a health food store and ask them. What is great for kids? What do kids like?

There are food bars. There are these chocolate morsels. There are superfoods for kids that are outstanding they exist now. All you have to do is go out and ask for them and then try them and see what your kids will drink.

The kind of information that I love to share with you and in this article we have been talking about myths about nutritional supplements. We have been talking about what supplements to buy, which ones to avoid and what supplements are best for children.

Almost all disease is preventable

Someone asked me, "Why are some of these supplement companies using these cheap ingredients these days?" Well, the answer is and you will not believe this the drug companies are getting into the vitamin business. Yes, they are because the drug companies see that people are turning to nutrition to prevent disease.

They know that if people get enough good nutrition then they don't need pharmaceuticals because they don't develop cancer. They don't develop heart disease. They don't develop diabetes. Those diseases are not genetic, friends. They are not.

Medicine tries to scare people into thinking that they can't do anything to control their own health or their own diseases. That is just a scare tactic. That is an enslavement tactic, you might say, but it is not true.

Out of all the cancers, perhaps only 2% have any real genetic component. The other 98% of all the cancers that afflict people are completely preventable and in nearly all cases in my opinion curable. That is right, curable. We could eliminate 98% of the cancer in this country and in this world right now if we turned to nutrition.

Why Big Pharma wants to make your vitamins

Well, the drug companies have figured this out too and they realize that as more people take vitamins good quality vitamins and as more people eat superfoods and get sunlight and vitamin D and fish oils and all these things that their revenues are going to fall because fewer people will need pharmaceuticals, fewer people will be sick. These companies, they are not stupid. They want to make money one way or another so they are getting into the vitamin business, but they are not doing it in an ethical way, by the way.

They are getting into the vitamin business and they are creating cheap, low-grade vitamins that in my opinion do almost nothing to help keep people healthy. Now there are the conspiracy theorists out there who say this is on purpose that the drug companies are actually trying to keep people sick.

Frankly, that is not hard to believe. It really isn't if you understand how evil those corporations are and the complete lack of ethics that they operate under. It is not hard to believe that they would actually go out of their way and do something to poison the population or keep people sick.
That is not the position I am taking right here right now. We will leave that for another time. I am just saying matter of fact that those supplements, those vitamins made by pharmaceutical companies are low-grade supplements that really have virtually no health benefits.

High-quality supplements exist for those who seek them

If you want health benefits, you have to get supplements made by high quality companies, and they exist. You are going to hear about many of them right here on Natural News. In fact, we are going to be interviewing many of them. I have already mentioned half a dozen in this article that I trust.

These are companies that I use and recommend to my family and friends. Companies like www.WellnessResources.com, www.BaselineNutritionals.com, www.DrinkYourVitamins.com, and www.AmazingGrass.com, and there are many, many companies out there that you can trust. They actually have good quality supplements.

It is always funny when I hear people saying bad things about the supplement industry. I always think well they don't have the whole picture. Yes, there are frauds, hoaxes in this industry but at the same time there are real answers, and there are cures for cancer in this industry that exist right now. There are cures for heart disease and we will talk about them in detail in a moment.

Active people need natural salt

Let's move onto the next question here, which is what kind of nutritional support is best for people who work out.

Do you go to the gym? Do you walk? Do you cycle or jog? If you do anything like that you have special nutritional needs. We could actually dedicate a whole article to this but I will try to give you the answer here. Most people who exercise are malnourished period because they don't understand the need to replenish their body with the things that are lost through exercise.

The number one thing that people lose through exercise, and this is going to shock you because I know it goes against everything that you have heard out there in the mainstream media, but most people who exercise and try to eat healthy actually have a salt deficiency. Now hear me out on this. When I say a salt deficiency, I mean a natural, unprocessed salt deficiency. Yes, people are getting too much processed salt. That is just sodium. That is in all the processed foods. They get too much of that. I agree!

People are not getting enough full spectrum salt, the unprocessed salt that is enriched naturally with as many as 92 different elements, different minerals and trace minerals. You will find those in products like Celtic sea salt or there is a company called "Royal Himalayan Crystal Salt."

There are many unprocessed salts out there and that is what you are lacking when you are exercising. Do you know why? Because you are sweating out your salts, when you sweat it is salty, right? Have you ever sweated and it ran into your lips and you tasted it and it is salty? Right, because you are losing salt. Well, your body does not need Gatorade. You don't need cheap processed foods and beverages to replenish that salt. What you need is salt, unprocessed salt like Celtic sea salt. That is what your body really needs.

That is why a lot of athletes after they exercise they start craving salty junk foods. They start craving chips or pizza because cheese is really, salty. They start craving something that is salty. That is their body telling them that they need more salt.

After you exercise, you can actually replenish your body by simply putting some salt in some water and drinking slightly salted water preferably with some superfood powder in it. Some greens powder or a www.DrinkYourVitamins.com type of powder or some of these others that we will be talking about.

Then you are going to replenish the salts that you need and you are going to end those cravings for junk food. Athletes need to be especially aware and not just athletes. I mean anybody who works out, even if you are just walking up and down the stairs, and you are working up a sweat. Then you need some extra salt.

Now you might say "Wait a minute, wait a minute. My doctor said I have too much salt. I need to cut down salt in my diet." Well, if that is true you are eating too much processed food.

If you are getting too much salt in your diet then you are making the wrong choices on your food in the first place because the natural foods, the produce that you know you are supposed to be eating the fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, superfoods, natural beverages and so on, they don't have very much salt.

In fact, in my diet I actually have to add salt to my diet because if I don't I get into a state of salt deficiency very quickly because I am not eating processed junk foods. I would not even touch canned soup, which is very high in sodium.

I don't go to McDonald's and order French fries. You have to think about the big picture here. What does your diet consist of right now, and if it is too salty then you need to cut those processed foods out of your diet. You need to start doing exercise and supplementing with quality unprocessed salt. That is the way to find balance with your body and athletes need to know that more than anybody else does.

Nutrition helps your body cope with stress

Well, here is the other thing that you need to know if you are exercising. The fact that you are pushing weights or doing cardio or whatever you are doing for exercise, it means that you are putting extra stress on your body.

Now that stress becomes a chemical or biological stress. It means that you have greater nutritional needs than someone who does not exercise. I have seen many cases where people exercise a lot but they don't supplement with the right nutrition and their body begins to break down and it rapidly age. Have you ever seen that?

Have you ever seen somebody in the gym who looks a lot older than they should because they over-exercise and they under-supplement? Think about this. If you exercise your body, you need to supplement your chemistry. Exercise and supplements need to go hand-in-hand because you have these extra stresses placed on your biochemistry so you need to supplement with superfoods, B-vitamins, minerals and trace minerals. You need more calcium and magnesium than someone who does not exercise.

You need more food than someone who does not exercise but you can't just give yourself raw calories. You have to have food with the nutrition present. This is my number one advice to anyone who is exercising out there that you need to be on superfoods.

Just every morning blend up a superfood breakfast, use some of the superfood products that I recommend as I mention on this website. Emerald Balance is one of them. I recommend Jay Robb's protein powders. He has the best tasting natural whey protein and egg protein on the market.

By the way, I am interviewing Jay Robb on The Health Ranger Show later on so you will hear that in a future episode. There are many great products on the market. You just have to go out there and get them and make them part of your habit because your exercise does not end when you leave the gym. That is just the beginning of your body's adaptive response. Does that make sense?

You can't respond. You can't build more muscle. You can't build a stronger immune system unless you have the raw materials that your body needs. You get that through superfood supplementation. You get that through quality vitamins, not junk vitamins. Not through the junk that you find out there in retail full of binders and excipients that you cannot even digest. I am not talking about that.

I am talking about the quality supplements that I recommend. The ones that I review, the ones you will hear about on this show. That is what you need. Hey, look I am 38 years old and I exercise sometimes two or three hours a day. I am in great shape.

Doing what healthy people do

When I was 30, I was in lousy shape. I was overweight. I was borderline diabetic. I was depressed. I was in chronic pain. I ate at McDonald's and I did not take vitamins.

Life sucked eight years ago for me. I turned that around using the same information I am sharing with you right here on this show. This is what works, folks! You know what they say, if you want to be healthy do what the healthy people do. It makes sense. If you want to be unhealthy, go do what all the unhealthy doctors do.

Many doctors out there are not very healthy. There are many people working at pharmacies who are not very healthy. There are many patients standing in line at the pharmacy that are not very healthy. If you want to have health like those people, go do what they do.

Do you know what they do? They take many pharmaceuticals. They avoid exercise. They eat like garbage. They don't take care of their bodies. If you want those results, go do what they do. It is a very easy recipe.

If you want outstanding results, if you want to have a mind and body that works for you, if you want to feel great, energetic, and optimistic about your future then do what the healthy people do, and I guarantee you the healthy people are all eating superfoods. They are taking high quality nutritional supplements, they are choosing their food very carefully, they are exercising, they are getting sunshine, and they are drinking clean water. They are not drinking tap water no way.

Do what the healthy people do if you want to get the results that the healthy people are getting. It only makes sense. By the way, there is no judgment in any of this. I don't care if you are in the worst shape of your life. There is no judgment on you whatsoever.

I used to be in that position. I used to be right there overweight, depressed, hopeless, following a terrible diet. It does not matter where you are now because you can always get to the next higher step tomorrow.

Taking health one step at a time

You can always improve your life one thing at a time. Even if you are the sickest you have ever been, even if you are on 12 different meds you can find a new level of health in your life by turning to nutrition and superfoods and exercise and sunshine and even things like positive thinking or prayer all of these things can work in your favor. You can turn your life around. People do it all the time.

It is just a process. You put one foot in front of the other. You make a new decision each day that you get up. You say today I am no longer going to drink sodas or today I am no longer going to have artificial sweeteners in my diet or I am going to give up eating red meat and steak and beef and hamburgers because I know how terrible those are for my health. You could say anything like that along those lines.

You could say today I am going to start drinking superfoods for breakfast every day or today I am going to start doing the nutritional supplementation that I know is good for me. Today I am going to make a change for the better and when you do that friends, you take control of your health journey from that point forward.

Instead of leaving your health results up to someone else outside of you who does not have your best interests at heart like a doctor or a corporation or an insurance company or a drug company. Instead of leaving your fate to these organizations, you take control of your fate. You make that journey your journey, and you control the outcome. That is what this show is all about it is showing you how to control your outcome, putting you back in the driver's seat, putting you back in control so that you can create the health results that you want.

You don't have to live in fear

Do you want to be free from chronic pain for the rest of your life? There is a way to do that. Do you want to reduce your cancer risk to near zero because the industry has you afraid that you are going to be diagnosed with breast cancer or prostate cancer someday? Do you want to be rid of that fear for the rest of your life?

There is a way to do that. I can show you how to do that. I can show you how to eliminate virtually eliminate all risk of cancer. Do you want to be free of diabetes? Do you want to have a healthy body weight? Do you want to look good and feel good?

You could do all that. It is all within your grasp. It just comes down to your decision of what you wish to do.

I am happy to share this kind of information with you. That is the potential that we have just through nutrition. Nutrition is amazing. It is Mother Nature's medicine. This is the medicine that God and Mother Nature intended for us to consume. These are the medicines that we are naturally compatible with.

We lived for thousands and thousands of years around these plants. Our ancestors lived around these plants and these medicines and that is why they are compatible with our bodies.

This whole system of western medicine conventional pharmaceutical medicine has not been around very long. It will not be around very long because it is a disaster. It is killing people. Do you realize that conventional medicine has killed more people in this country than terrorists by a huge factor?

Conventional medicine is killing 100,000 Americans a year. That is over twice as many Americans that died in the entire Vietnam War twice as many every year right here in this country killed by pharmaceuticals.

Those are pharmaceuticals that are approved by the FDA, but we can save that many lives through nutrition. Nutrition can turn that around and that is why I do what I do right here on Natural News. That is why I am glad to have you as a listener. I really hope you enjoyed the information we covered here today.

Commitment vs Interest

30 Lessons From My First 30 Years

by Scott Kustes author of Fitness Spotlight

1. Discussing nutrition in social gatherings is akin to discussing politics or religion. People identify closely with their food.
2. Don’t neglect your health and fitness to pursue monetary success.
3. If you’re in a bad situation (be that job, relationship, or otherwise), first take steps to fix it. If it’s beyond repair, do whatever it takes to get out of it. Life is too short to be miserable.
4. Maintain a few close friendships. I’d rather have 2 or 3 close friends than 50 mere acquaintances.
5. On that note, relationships (with friends and significant others) come and go. People change and grow. Enjoy the time you have with people and let it go when the costs to maintain it outweigh the benefits. Practice non-attachment. Read “The Way To Love” by Anthony De Mello.
6. Apologize quickly. Forgive quickly.
7. Let it go. It’s probably not worth dwelling on.
8. Call your mom.
9. Don’t let anyone crap on your dreams…most people are offended if you want to follow a different path (even if you aren’t an asshole about it). And don’t be an asshole about other people’s dreams either.
10. You make your bed, you lie in it. I’m not talking about sleeping.
11. Live in the present. The past is done and you can’t control the future. Plan for the future. Aim for goals. But don’t miss the present while planning for whatever is next.
12. There are very few facts. Most “facts” are just individual interpretations.
13. You can’t get rich quick, short of robbing a bank or hitting the lottery. I don’t recommend robbing a bank and your odds of hitting the lottery are slim (0.00000000512%)…any number that close to zero might as well be zero. I suggest you just get to working hard.
14. Find a hobby you enjoy. Don’t worry about making money at it. Just have fun with it.
15. Music trumps a movie any day of the week. Rock, classical, jazz, rap, or techno. Doesn’t matter…music, hands down.
16. Don’t spend your life doing things you don’t enjoy. Sure, we all have to attend the occasional wedding or funeral, but if you find yourself being sucked into other people’s idea of fun constantly and it’s not yours, say no. Say it often.
17. Take 90 minutes to watch these two videos: Steve Jobs Commencement Address at Stanford and Randy Pausch’s last lecture. If you’ve seen them, watch them again.
18. Eat high-quality food. If you drink coffee or alcohol, drink high-quality alcohol, high-quality beer, and high-quality spirits.
19. If you’re depressed, there’s probably a reason other than chemical imbalances. Fix it.
20. Meat won’t kill you. Neither will butter. Donuts won’t help though.
21. Just because you get older doesn’t mean you have to age. Here I am, 30 years old, as fast as I was at 18 and stronger, fitter, and healthier than I’ve ever been. I don’t buy the nonsense about how it’s all going to catch up to me at 30 (or 35 or any other age). Things change as you get older: recovery takes longer, injuries are more detrimental, and you can’t abuse yourself like you could at 21. That doesn’t mean you have to turn into mush.
22. Never stop learning. Step outside your comfort zone as often as possible.
23. Set goals, re-evaluate on a regular basis. Spend most of your time doing things that progress you towards those goals.
24. You work for you, regardless of who your employer is. If the demands are unrealistic, remember that you work for you. On that note, use all of your vacation days. They are there for a reason. Don’t let yourself be guilted out of benefits.
25. Don’t concern yourself with other people’s vision of your success.
26. Your health is the most important thing you have. Stay healthy and you’ll be better in every area of your life. Don’t sacrifice health for materiality.
27. Before you give advice, listen. Listen some more. Keep listening.
28. Selfishness is a virtue. Be selfish - take care of yourself first.
29. A relationship or career can’t make you happy, but it can make you miserable.
30. I hate to be cliche and quote a movie, but Andy Dufresne might’ve said it best: “Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.” Stop feeling sorry for yourself…no one else does.

So there you have it, thirty things I’ve learned in the past thirty years. Okay, to be truthful, I learned most of them in the last 5 years. Who knows what I’ll come up with in another decade.

Artificial Sweeteners are Continually Found to be Unsafe and Toxic

source: http://www.naturalnews.com/z027491_aspartame_sweeteners_health.html

(NaturalNews) A recent study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology in San Diego found that adult women who drink at least two diet sodas a day experience a 30 percent drop in kidney function over the course of a decade. Findings indicate that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose are the culprits in the rapid degeneration of glomerular filtration rates in the kidneys of those consuming excessive amounts of artificially-sweetened diet sodas.

Dr. Julie Lin of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and her colleague Dr. Gary Curhan conducted the research correlating artificial sweetener intake to kidney degradation, highlighting one of the many dangers of artificial sweeteners.

A 2005 study conducted by Dr. Morando Soffritti of the esteemed European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences and the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center confirmed once again what independent scientists discovered over thirty years ago; aspartame consumption leads to all sorts of illness and disease including cancerous tumors, lymphomas, leukemias, lesions in various organs, transitional cell carcinomas, nerve damage, seizures, and premature death.

Original approval of aspartame by the FDA involved questionable studies that were later investigated by the drug enforcement division of the Bureau of Foods. Though found to be faulty and ridden with errors, the FDA ignored both these reports and the slew of adverse event data that surfaced following aspartame's approval. Between 1974 when aspartame was approved and 1990, the number of brain tumors in people over the age of 65 had increased by 67 percent.

Similarly sucralose, a chlorocarbon popularly marketed as the artificial sweetener derived from sugar, has been implicated in severe chronic illnesses including brain and nervous system disorders, migraine headaches, cancers, and immune-system debilitation.

Though touted as safe, the chlorocarbon components of sucralose are verifiable toxins. Those who have experienced negative symptoms from sucralose often recover following the discontinuation of its consumption. Among other results, laboratory tests have concluded that long-term sucralose consumption shrinks the thymus gland, the biological source of the immune system.

According to Dr. Soffritti's research group, most studies alleging the safety of artificial sweeteners

Preferable options include natural foods like raw honey and raw agave nectar which are healthy, enzyme-rich sweeteners that work great in moderation. Natural stevia extract is another excellent option as it contains no sugar and no calories, and it is completely safe and suitable for those with a diabetic condition or for those who are looking to cut sugar intake.

Soda alternatives include stevia or fruit-juice sweetened soda water. Some stevia extracts are available in various flavors including root beer and vanilla, offering multitudinous options in creating quick, healthy beverages. Fruit juices mixed in soda water also offer a refreshing thirst quencher for those who don't mind a little natural fruit sugar every now and then.

There are plenty of alternatives to artificial chemical sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin but they are often difficult to find in processed foods. Chalk this up as another great motivation to pursue whole, healthy foods that are as close to their natural states as possible. like aspartame and sucralose fail to use internationally-recognized "Good Laboratory Practices" for conducting carcinogenicity bioassays and thus arrive at faulty, corporate-controlled outcomes. Rather than objectively seek results, the studies used to allege safety are often funded by the companies producing the additive in question.