Obese women that supplemented with a multivitamin lost an average of seven pounds more than women using a placebo.

I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as a diet drink or diet pill that will help you lose weight.  There are only two things that will help you lose weight and that’s moving more and eating less.

Yet as much as I believe diet and exercise to be the most important elements to any weight loss program, a new study finds that women—obese women, to be specific—are able to lose more weight if they supplement with a multivitamin as well.

Researchers found this to be the case after a conducting a six-month study that involved 87 Chinese women.  All of the women were obese and were randomly assigned to one of three groups:  a placebo group, a multivitamin group, or a calcium group, where they supplemented with 162 milligrams of calcium every day.

After 26 weeks of observation, the researchers found distinct differences among the women.  For starters, the women taking the multivitamin lost an average of seven pounds more than women taking a calcium supplement and about 7.5 pounds more than women taking the placebo.  What’s more, there were distinct differences in the women’s measurements, as the multivitamin supplementing women had more significant reductions in waist circumference.

Commenting on their study, the Harbin Medical University researchers said, “The results suggest that, in obese individuals, multivitamin and mineral supplementation could reduce body weight and fatness and improve serum lipid profiles, possibly through increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation.”

Their study will be published in the print version of the International Journal of Obesity.

Now, notice the researchers’ word choice:  They say that the results “suggest” multivitamins “could” help people lose weight and that the weight loss was observed among “obese individuals.”  That wasn’t by mistake.  Because if they were to say definitively that multivitamins help all people lose weight, that would be a huge story and would be the top story of evening news broadcasts and news disseminating websites everywhere.

They’re merely stating that a multivitamin “may” help certain people lose weight by initiating greater energy expenditure.  This may be because the cells have the nutrients they need to stoke the body’s metabolism that they didn’t have before.

But the importance of taking a multivitamin daily is important for other things as well.  On the go lifestyles tend to adversely affect our nutrition, so multivitamins give our bodies the vitamins and nutrients they need that we’re not getting from high quality food (sadly, only one in five people get at least five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day).  Even people who are extremely conscientious about what they’re feeding they’re body every day fall short here and there.  Multivitamins pick up the slack.

There are many great multivitamins out there, but the one I’m taking currently is Ola Loa (It’s a good idea to switch up your multivitamins now and again).  Unlike most multivitamins, which are pill-form, Ola Loa is a drink mix.  I prefer drinking my multivitamins because 1) it tastes good and 2) the vitamins and nutrients are better absorbed by the body’s cells when in liquid form as opposed to tablet form.

But as LeVar Burton of “Reading Rainbow” likes to say, you don’t have to take my word for it.  Go to Ola Loa’s web site and send away for a free sample.  I know you’ll go back to them again and again for all your multivitamin needs.

I’m in no way affiliated with Ola Loa and I don’t earn any commissions from my recommendation.

Sources:
swansonvitamins.com
energeticnutrition.com

Karolinska researchers find children taking multivitamins at an early age were less likely to have developed food allergies.

Taking a multivitamin may be kids’ best defense from forming a food allergy.

According to recently released findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, when researchers looked at kids who had taken a multivitamin before their fourth birthday, they found that they were about 40 percent less likely to have a food allergy compared to their fellow sub-4-year-olds that did not take one.

One caveat, though:  The findings were only applicable to kids that took a multivitamin before the age of four.  For the rest of the 2,400+ kids observed, there was no difference in food allergy incidence and multivitamin use.

The study is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and performed by researchers from the Karolinska Institute.

The prevalence of food allergies among kids today is a confounding issue for many health professionals.  Twenty years ago, food allergies were few and far between.  That’s not the case today, as an estimated 20 percent of all kids—and 5 percent of all Americans—have at least one food allergy.    In fact, since 1989, there’s been a 400 percent rise in food allergies, mostly from things like wheat, eggs, shellfish, milk, and the mother of all food allergens, peanuts.

The question, of course, is why?  Some suggest it’s due to the prevalence of genetically-modified soy; others, referring specifically to the prevalence of peanut allergies, think it’s due to the way in which peanuts are prepared and processed, dry roasting them instead of boiling them (In China, where food allergies are far less prevalent, peanuts are predominantly eaten boiled).

To me—and to just about every one else in the natural health world, for that matter—it’s clear as day why there’s been an upswing in food allergies:  food ingredients.

The best illustration of this is with soy.  In 1996, in an attempt to make the soy crop more profitable and last longer, soy was genetically-engineered; in other words, its DNA was tampered with to extend its shelf life.  And it just so happens that in this same year, there was a 50 percent rise in soy allergies, cracking into the Top 10 list of food allergies for the first time.  It’s remained there ever since.

The prevalence of food allergies is one of the main reasons why I’m so passionate about natural health.  Because I firmly believe that if food wasn’t so packed with additives and preservatives, there would be no such thing as the “Big 8.”  In case you didn’t already know, the “Big 8” represents the eight most common food allergies.

Reform in the food industry is likely years, if not decades, away.  In the meantime, take some preventative action by getting your kids onto a multivitamin as early as possible.

There are LOADS of multivitamins to choose from.  But in my personal opinion, there’s no multi that’s better than Ola Loa.  Only this is not a multi you take, this is a multi you drink.

The nutrients in multivitamins are absorbed by the body more efficiently when they can be dissolved in liquid.  And while there are other multivitamins on the market you can drink, Ola Loa stands above the rest because their multivitamin is more than just vitamin C and sugar.  Theirs contains all the active ingredients that every multivitamin ought to have, including amino acids!

And unlike a pill, where only 10-20 percent of its contents are absorbed by the body, the absorption rate is 78 to 88 percent higher with Ola Loa, according to Physician’s Desk Reference.

Try it for yourself, and feel the difference!

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
abcnews.go.com
allergykids.com
en.wikipedia.org

A recent study suggests that multivitamins assist in the anti aging process.

Have you noticed the onslaught of negative press regarding traditional takes on health lately?  From the notion that exercise doesn’t rev metabolism, to antioxidants doing nothing for the body, to the benefits of fish oil being nothing more than a figment of the imagination (I’ll address this in a future article), it’s enough to drive a natural health nut, well, nuts!

Propaganda like this is a real shame.  It confuses and disappoints the average person who has been striving to get healthy, leaving them skeptical of their methods and wondering whether it’s all been worth it.

I know of many people, for instance, who have taken a multivitamin for years, but decided to stop after it was reported that they bring no benefits to the body.  Sure, there’s some legitimacy to the notion that some multivitamins aren’t as good as others, but I flatly reject the notion that they’re nothing more than water pills.

And the National Institute of Environmental Health agrees with me, as a study of theirs indicates that those who supplement with a multivitamin tend to live longer, or have what they call a younger “biological age.”

You’ve probably heard of the body having a biological clock, but we also have a biological age, which is basically a fancy way of describing the age of a body’s cells.  Scientists are able to determine a body’s biological age by looking at things called telomeres.

Telomeres are DNA strands found at the end of chromosomes that progressively shorten as the body’s cells age.  The shorter they are, the more advanced in age the body’s cells are.  Cells are constantly multiplying, so it’s natural for the body’s cells to eventually die (called apoptosis), but ideally, you want the body’s healthy cells to stay that way for as long as possible.

So when researchers compared the telomeres of those who supplemented with a multivitamin regularly with those who did not, they found that those who supplemented had telomeres that were more about five percent longer than the non-multi users.  In other words, those that supplement with a multivitamin have a cellular structure that’s in a younger state.

To be fair, there were some aspects to the study that require further review.  For instance, it was a study that only included women, and since males and females have different cellular structures, the findings might be different in men.  But among women, the researchers were able to make the appropriate adjustments to their findings based on what nutrients the women were high or low in (via food frequency questionnaires).

The study is published in The American Journal of Nutrition.

It’s estimated that 35 percent of the population supplement with a multivitamin.  That’s great, but it could be higher – much higher.

That doesn’t mean those that don’t supplement should go out and get any old multivitamin.  A recent ConsumerLabs.com report found that 30 percent of the multi-vitamins tested in their labs had ingredients that were above or below their dosage listed on the bottle.  For instance, one multivitamin had half the amount of folic acid it claimed to have, and 30 percent of the calcium.

Personally, I use the multivitamin made by Nature’s Way.  It’s called “Alive!  Whole Food Energizer.”  You can get a complete breakdown of its benefits and ingredient listings here.  I also use Ola Loa, which is a drinkable multi vitamin. I have no financial ties to Nature’s Way or Ola Loa, LLC.  I simply use these brands because I believe in the products and believe them to be among the best multivitamins on the market today.

To keep your body’s cells alive, go out and grab a bottle of Alive! today.

Source:
nutraingredients.com
calgaryherald.com

Head to any “Health” section of your favorite news website and you’re likely to find a headline that says multivitamins don’t work, that their perceived benefits are just that, and that they have no impact on one’s avoidance of killer diseases like heart disease and cancer.

The notion that multivitamins don’t work is not some new mantra for the “multi-“mockers; it’s been a constant and consistent drumbeat played out for decades.  It’s why I rarely bother to read them when they make news because I know they’re just gobbledygook, filled with flawed testing procedures on flawed products (not all multivitamins are built the same).

But just for kicks, to see what new tricks the vitamin bashers have resorted to, I decided to read the most recent of put-downs.  This one was provided by MSNBC.

Not surprisingly, the piece stars off with the “breaking news” that multivitamins don’t provide the body with a multiplicity of benefits, the conclusions coming after “the longest study ever” on everyone’s favorite one-a-day.  But as I dug deeper into the article’s text, it became more and more apparent just how void of conclusiveness the study’s findings actually were.

For instance, while the beginning of the article points out the conclusions of the study’s lead author – i.e. that those taking and not taking multivitamins are at equivalent risks with regards to heart disease and cancer – you have to go to the middle of the article to find a bevy of caveats, noted by the study’s co-author herself.  For instance, the study was only observational; in other words, there weren’t any real scientific studies done on other variables that might have factored into their results, like what the women ate in the course of the study, what their exercise levels were and what their family histories were with respect to heart disease and cancer. 

Secondly, the study itself was somewhat restricted in timeframe, as certain forms of cancer often take years to develop.

Thirdly – a critique of the article rather than the study’s authors– the study was restricted to older women, yet the headline of the news article reads, “Multivitamins no cancer, heart help, study says.”  That’s a sweeping conclusion to come to when the study only tested one age bracket and one gender.

Fourth, in a statement that brings new meaning to stating the obvious, the study’s co-author, from the Huchinson Cancer Research Institute in Washington State, said this: “Whole foods are better than dietary supplements.” 

Gee, ya think?  Thank you Captain Obvious! 

I don’t know of a single natural health advocate – no credible one, anyway – who favors taking dietary supplements over eating whole foods.  After all, supplements are called supplements for a reason – they SUPPLEMENT one’s diet on the days in which one doesn’t get the proper amount of vitamins from whole food sources.

Fifth, Dr. Manson, the study’s co-author, almost goes back on her and her colleague’s conclusions when she says that multivitamins serve as a “form of insurance” for those occasions in which we don’t get the proper amount of nutrients from food.  Medical insurance protects us from having to pay exorbitant amounts when we get sick or injured.  But if multivitamins are of little worth, as this study suggests, why would she advocate using multivitamins as a form of insurance?

There are many other questions I’d like to pose – like what the diet plans were for these women, what medications they were taking and what kind of multivitamin they were using – but I think you get my drift.

We are all news consumers.  Headlines come from all directions – on screen, online, on radio and in print.  Because few of us can spend gobs of time reading a story in all its detail, news purveyors take out the flashiest parts of a story and post them either in the headline itself or in the first paragraph.  This is the classic case of putting style over substance – the “flash” that multivitamins don’t work up at the top of the article, while the substance (that multivitamins are still good to take) on the bottom.

If more people took time to read the full extent of a story and how the study’s lead author is very non-committal regarding the study’s findings, I think people would walk away with a different take on whether or not multivitamins are worth taking. 

But, as the saying goes, “If it bleeds it leads.”

Source:
MSNBC

Dr. Ames has stated to address this problem everyone should be taking a multivitamin and mineral supplement on a daily basis. His studies have shown these relations between vitamins and late-life diseases:

1. Low magnesium intake related to bowl cancer, low blood pressure, osteoporosis  and diabetes
2. Lack of vitamin D has been linked to breast, bowel and prostate cancer
3. Calcium deficiency has been linked to diabetes
4. Lack of potassium related to heart disease
5. Low vitamin B12 has been linked to multiple sclerosis

This is not the end of the Dr. Ames studies; he has also found that daily vitamins increase the energy and memory of elderly rats used for this study. This is significant information for our society which focuses so much on quick and easy meals that have been known to lack vitamins and nutrients which are required to live a healthy life throughout our elderly years.

When it comes to choosing the vitamins and supplements you need to increase your nutrients and get away from any vitamin deficiencies it is important to speak to a naturopathic professional before buying or taking any vitamins. There are so many different supplements on the market today that it can be easy to lean towards the cheapest bottle and hope it does its job but this can be quite dangerous to your health. Without taking the time to conduct proper research on what you are putting into your body there is a good chance you are not improving your health but possibly harming it.

Alive! Multivitamin is a great place to start with your research as many naturopathic professionals will recommend this Multi-Vitamin/Whole Food supplement to you. Research what is best for your current health conditions and your diet so you are enhancing your nutrients and health for your elderly years.