Vitamins & supplements for humans

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Hello Country folks,

Even though most of the food that we eat is our own or we know where it came from, we still supplement our diet with a multi-vitamin, and extra C & B when it's cold & flu season. Are we over-doing it? Am I just spending money - making expensive urine? Or are there others that take vitamins in addition to a complete diet?

Also I have a friend who takes organic flax seed oil for high cholesterol. I thought it tasted like turpentine. I've read recent posts regarding grinding seed and mixing it with cereals. Does the ground seed have a bad taste too?

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), January 23, 2002

Answers

If you put the organic flax seed oil in a little orange juice, it won't taste so bad. Think they use the ground seed in bread, among other things, comes out tasting alright. As to whether you are overdoing it on the vitamins and food supplements, I would say yes, but the jury is still out.

-- fred (fred@mddc.comf), January 23, 2002.

In re: to the flax seed, we have a vita mixer. I use the DRY container to grind the flax seed. I like it in Oatmeal, or I put a TBSP. in my protein skake in the am. People do not realize they need these oils. The drs. have restricted our diets, cuz of the cholesterol scare. This didn't come into play until '79. Now we are seeing more deminta related diseases, because of this. As for you over doing on Vitamins, just be sure your body is absoring them, & you aren't just passing them in your stools. I am learning alot about Calcium too. There are ALOT OF DISEASES because we aren't getting the right calcium or enough in our diets. Hope this helps. I listen to the radio almost everyday, to Dr. Walleck. I wasn't aware that if you didn't have minerals your vitamins aren't doing you any good.

-- Donna (fjcoalco@webtv.net), January 23, 2002.

I grind up flaxseed in a coffee grinder just before I use it (I have a separate one for coffee use only) and then mix it into a homemade smoothie with banana, juice, yogurt, and fresh or frozen berries. A tablespoon of seeds, ground up, equals about a teaspoon of the oil. It is just a different nutty taste--if you like, add a drop or two of vanilla to the smoothie.

Part of the problem with using the flaxseed oil is that it goes rancid very quickly, and you might have tasted some that was a bit past its prime.

You can't just eat the seeds because your digestive tract doesn't break them down, so you get no benefit from them. So, grind them up just before you use them, and you can add them to quick breads and other baked goods, or sprinkle some in cereal. Hope this helps.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 23, 2002.


Ditton on grinding up the seeds. Whole seeds will keep for about a year. After grinding they don't keep long. Every few days I grind some in coffee grinder, put in jar and refrigerate. I just add a spoonful to glass of water & drink.

Now research shows that walnuts have an oil similar to cod liver oil. Know of M.D. who eats LOTS of walnuts. Bet he doesn't tell his patients to do it. I'm sure all nuts & seeds have these properties.

Also know of doctor at hospital who told a nurse there who had cancer, to eat lots of foods with color! Now we know that they are loaded with antioxidants. Bet he doesn't tell patients that either.

Good supplement right now for us is to pick whatever is green in the garden, kale, celery leaf, etc. and put in blender with water. Strain and you have lots of vitamins & minerals & enzymes, etc.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 23, 2002.


Dr. Richard Duboise, who works with AIDS/HIV patients has done several studies. Unless you are diagnosed as being deficcient, you should not take additional supplements. Easting 5-10 servings of RAW fruits and vegetables (and the right ones) is all you need to do.

The principal is to consume whole food, not bits and pieces, which is how vitamines are derrived. They need the benefit of the other vitamins to work properly.

-- Wendy A (phillips-anteswe@pendleton.usmc.mil), January 23, 2002.



Flaxseeds are supposed to be high in Omega-3 oils, a good thing if you aren't into fish. As well as for lowering cholesterol, some people have had luck with it alleviating some dry/itchy skin conditions.

If I remember, I also take a multi-vitamin, but that's about it.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 23, 2002.


I think that you could cut your vitamin intake in half, a dialy multi- vitamin every other day will reduce the expensive urine syndrome. Adjust this and other supplements in accordance with you situation/health. There is a good site at, The Cooper Aerobics Center, http://www.cooperaerobics.com, that is considered one of the most knowledgeable in the country on nutrition, exercise and sports medicine.

Flax seeds also contain prussic acid and different varieties contain different amounts, so some varieties are said to be better tasting than others.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002.


Maybe because it's I'm older than most of you, but I am never going to be without vitamin supplements. I can tell a distinct difference in my energy and optimism level when I take the supplements. I get them only from a "natural food" store, and I take a multivitamin and mineral supplement, B's, C's, E's, zinc, kelp, calcium/magnesium, a flax oil capsule, and others, depending on what I've recently read!

I'm convinced of their effect on my health and sense of well-being. Didn't I read somewhere that the brain uses 40% of the vitamins taken in?

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), January 23, 2002.


Most supplements are in a fragmented state and not really natural. Foods (if grown naturally) have it all. If we consumed milk, eggs and meat from animals who were fed flax, green pasture (instead of hay and dried by-products), seaweed, etc., we would be much better off. Have been putting lots of kelp, bone meal, etc. into our soil. We give chickens & goats as much natural stuff as we can.

You can feel better with supplements, but sometimes they act as drugs since many are synthetic. For instance, synthetic C has never cured scurvy!! Had to be the whole food. I think the Hungarian researcher used peppers. Vikings didn't get scurvy because they had sauerkraut on board! Vit. C can stop a cold because it stops the inflammatory process, which isn't always a good thing. It is only one portion of a very complex thing.

When my daughter had baby teeth, she ate a lot of chewable Vit. C. It tasted like candy. Well -- it eroded those teeth. Discovered that it is highly acidic. We were told you couldn't get too much. Discovered that I would get canker sores when I had too much of it. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Too many fractionated vitamins/minerals can cause metabolic imbalance.

Even organically grown foods do not always have everything, so we are working very hard now in the garden!

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 23, 2002.


I have a pepper mill that I keep on the table to fresh grind some flax seeds on different things. I usually put it in my morning oatmeal. I hadn't noticed any flavor.

If you are trying to keep away colds, you should enclude Echinacea with your suppliments. My son and I have problems from allergies and chemicals but don't have problems with colds or flu. (Watch, I jinxed myself) My mother takes it now since her bad cold went away in a few days instead of lingering for weeks like it usually does for her.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), January 23, 2002.



Most of the food we eat is mineral defficient. Has been since the '50's ??? If you can get a copy of dead doctors don't lie, view it. It's a shocker. The human body is capable of living 120-140 years. Most people don't as they live in areas that are minerally deprived. A few cultures routinely live that long as they are in a mineral rich environment. Dannon yougurt took advantage of that by filming multiple generations together (son, father, grandfather, great grandfather, etc...). It had nothing to do with the yogurt. It had to do with the fact that the people raised crops in mineral rich glacier melt water.

It's one of the biggest reasons you give livestock a mineral lick block thing. Humans are far behind nutritionally.

Best minerals are in liquid form (high absorbtion rate). Pills that contain minerals are virtually worthless (low absorbtion rate).

-- Don Denhardt (desulfator@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.


My thought exactly Don. Our goats graze pastures, browse in the National Forest, eat the best grains, yeast culture, kelp and hay, and I still give them loose vitamins and minerals, along with vitamin shots! I also prefer to be the old lady like my mom, and not my mother in law, my mom takes vitamins and minerals, my mother in law doesn't. And who eats 10 servings of fruit and veggies that are grown organically daily? Take your vitamins, use minerals for healing yourself and for ails. Now what are you all taking flax seed for? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002.

Flax seed ground or flax oil,are made up of the 3 "essential" fatty acids. They are termed essential because the body cannot produce them. They are unsaturated fatty acids necessary for the normal growth and healthy blood, arteries, & nerves. Also, help keep the skin & other tissues youthful & healthy by preventing dryness & scaliness. May also be necessary for the transport & breakdown of cholesterol. Iput a TBPS. or Flax Oil in alittle Orange Ju. Or I put a TBPS. of ground Flax Seed in my protein shake. Have also put the Ground Flax Seed on cooked Oatmeal. It has a light nutty taste. Later Donna

-- Donna (fjcoalco@webtv.net), January 24, 2002.

Fish oils also have omega 3, but not everyone likes or desires to eat fish. Flaxseed then is a vegan alternative.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 24, 2002.

I highly recommend the book "Your Miracle Brain" by Jean Carper. She was the CNN medical correspondent for years. This book, written in 1999-2000 is a compilation of the latest research on the effect of vitamins on the brain. Bottom line, research shows that you can drastically reduce your chances of developing a variety of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's by taking vitamins, antioxidants, and Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil, flax seed oil, canola, olive).

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), January 24, 2002.


Be careful about Canola! Simply means Canada Oil. It is a hybrid of rape seed oil which is toxic. Please! Look it up on the internet for the downside. It's a way of selling an inferior product but is detrimental to your health.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 25, 2002.

BIG HUGE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!!! Like Wendy said "unless you're deficient". The huge vitamin industry would go bankrupt trying to sell their crap to me. Chelation is another fallacy; cooked out vitamins, does no one any good at all.

Canola is a huge waste of money. Oh, it's great for the ND & Canadian farmers, but it's horrible tasting and doesn't do much for your body. "Crisco" the ole standby is still far and away the best.

Herbals:

If, and I say, you want to boost your immune system, take liquid echinacea augustifolia. For infections: balsammodendron myrrha, goldenseal or oregon grape. For those of us with prostate problems, a combination of saw palmetto, nettle root and pygeum relieves the pain and discomfort.

Use only the liquids, which get into the bloodstream quickly. I once did a study on how long it took for the various tablets and capsules to break down and release their medicines. Using a 50:50 mix of water and vinegar (milder than stomach acid), the first to break down and dissolve was an L-lysine tab in two hours; the longest was a Tylenol capsule six hours. That's longer than necessary to fix what's wrong with you. It's passed thru the stomach and into the intestines, where it does no good.

But be careful and use an herbal guidebook for all the negative aspects. Use the services of an herbalist, not just the guy/gal down at the health food store.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 25, 2002.


GT: re omega 3 fatty acids. Actually any farm raised fish doesn't count. They have no omega 3 in their bodies. These are fish raised in ponds and fed dried nuggets (read Purina chows).

Only wild fish have fatty acids. These would be wild salmon and trout. Nothing that was pen raised, like pond raised, that is fed a chow mix. Only wild foraging fish have the omega 3.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 25, 2002.


Thanks Matt, but I'd still rather eat flaxseed, lol.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 25, 2002.

Hey Matt! Some of what you say makes a lot of sense. Look at the salmon in stores -- if you see a lot of white rings in the flesh, you know they were fed junk food. Wild salmon doesn't have it.

However, forget the Crisco -- just another of the refined products that is detrimental to our health. Learned years ago that the best fats for cooks is pure butter and virgin olive oil. Have never found a good reason to deviate from that.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 25, 2002.


Well, we can push further back to Lard, if you want. Lard and bacon grease have been used since the first cave woman figured out it tasted good.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 26, 2002.

Matt, the Good Book says not to eat the fat or blood of an animal and I'll stick with that. It's in there for a reason! Lard isn't soft like butter, at room temperature. Don't imagine it will break down in the body very easily.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 26, 2002.

HV: That's not exactly what the book says. Read Leviticus 11:1-26. http://www.biblelife.org/space1.htm#food Matt

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 26, 2002.

Matt, read Lev. 7:23 "...Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat."

Here's a quote from book entitled: What The Bible Says About Healthy Living, by Rex Russell, M.D.--

"Although the flesh of clean animals is designed for our health, God did issue some precautions. Although cows (and oxen) were pronounced "clean" in the Designer's plan, we recall that their fat and blood were not to be eaten. Not only is the hard "cover fat" in many animals a repository for chemical toxins and parasites, but we have also learned of its danger as a plaque former in arteries and a cancer former in the colon and breast."

Leviticus 11 does say that pork (includes bacon) is not to be eaten.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 27, 2002.


No but this reference specifically says which is and which is not to be eaten....http://www.ucg.org/articles/clean/animals.html

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 27, 2002.

Matt, that website sounds like an offshoot of the old WCG.

Been there, done that.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 27, 2002.


Don't know. I'm not a member.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 27, 2002.

HV: What is WCG? Is butter considered animal fat? I know the doctors consider it as such. What about the fat that comes off of meat when it is cooked, just drain or is that just referring to visable animal fat? What changed your mind about being a vegetarian? Thanks! Marie

-- Marie (Mamafila@aol.com), January 28, 2002.

Hello Marie.

WCG is a religious organization, a cult in my opinion. To me, a cult is any religion that has you believing that without them you're unacceptable to God. They provide the rules (not necessarily biblical) and you must obey.

No, butter is definitely not a biblically prohibited fat. --

Prov. 30:30 "...churning of milk brings forth butter..." Isa. 7:15 "Butter and honey shall he eat..." Gen. 18:8 "And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed..." (Abraham feeding angels)

There are many more scriptures about butter.

I remove all the meat fat I can. The bible does refer to the "fatted calf" and I think that after being pastured, they were fattened a bit with grain, more tender. I always cool the drippings and throw away the fat.

I became a vegetarian, being young and "idealistic" and thinking it was a Godly thing to do. Some people/religions can convince you of this. Even after severe nutritional deficiencies I didn't change. The change came because of my wanting biblical truth and I no longer believed vegetarianism was a biblical command. I do not condemn vegetarians because they feel they are pleasing God. I just personally feel that one has better health if they don't go overboard on any unbalanced diet. My main focus is on good quality foods, the way God intended.

I don't believe we should be heavy meat eaters. Depends on lifestyle. I love a lot of veggie food -- too much meat, dairy, grain, can cause acidity. Fruits & veggies balance things. It's nice to go on juices or mainly fruits & veggies sometimes, especially during summer.

The bible says that he who is sick eats herbs (vegetarian food) and he who is well eats all things (all things he determined to be edible, obviously). I can't even imagine eating a steak when I have the flu!!

God bless your search for truth.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 28, 2002.


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