Natural Sources for VitaminsNatural Vitamins
Natural sources for vitamins...
Taking natural vitamins should be an important priority since they vastly superior to ones made synthetically.
For example, natural beta-carotene (the plant form of Vitamin A) has been proven in clinical trials to be far superior to its synthetic alternative. In one of these trials, which involved testing beta-carotene on tumors, the natural version was responsible for the tumors disappearing and yet the synthetic version had no impact at all.
This, to us, illustrates a great example of the superiority of natural vitamins. Natural Sources for Vitamins
As far as getting the vitamins themselves, you can either take supplements that use only natural vitamins (not synthetic) or you can try to get everything you need from the foods you eat -- which is what some people have in mind when they think about natural sources for vitamins.
However, be forewarned: it is rather difficult to get all the vitamins (and minerals) your body needs for optimal health from diet alone for two simple reasons.
The first reason is the most obvious: people living in the Western world usually live very busy lifestyles, which prevents them from eating perfectly balanced diets.
In short, we don't always have the time to carefully prepare and cook healthy meals, and fast food sometimes becomes an unhealthy but convenient choice.
The second reason we don't usually get enough natural vitamins and minerals is because the soil in which crops are grown nowadays are largely devoid of these crucial nutrients, which means that the vegetables and fruits themselves are now lacking as well.
For example, if you consider foods to be the best natural sources for vitamins consider this:
An analysis of a range of staple foods in Canada including potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, apples, onion, broccoli, etc, was commissioned by The Globe and Mail and CTV news.
Let’s use potatoes as an example. This is what the analysis found:
Over the last 50 years the potato has lost:
Of the seven nutrients analyzed only niacin levels had increased. The results were similar for all the 25 fruits and vegetables tested. One of the worst results was from broccoli in which ALL nutrients had declined measurably including niacin with Calcium down 63%.
The Globe and Mail and CTV used comparative figures from government researchers for the years 1951, 1972 and 1999. These earlier figures had been published in various scientific journals in the UK including the British Food journal. Release of this data in the US has been limited to a few alternative health journals.
Tim Lang a professor at the centre for Food Policy in England says as a further example of how our food has been degraded is that you would now have to eat eight oranges today to get the same amount of Vitamin A that your grandparents got from eating just one orange.
That's pretty shocking and discouraging, especially since eating fruits and vegetables used to be the best natural sources for vitamins.
So, what can you do about it?
Well, in our opinion, two things: you should eat as much organic vegetables and fruits as possible and avoid the mass commercialized ones.
Organic produce will generally be higher in vitamin and mineral content. Unfortunately, organic produce is much more expensive...but the extra cost is worth it.
The second thing you might want to do is consider taking a supplement that is made from natural vitamins and minerals.
Natural Sources for Vitamins
Although we here at Nutritional Supplement try to eat a lot of organic produce, we know that our diet is less than perfect sometimes. Which is precisely why we ourselves have researched and sought out the best natural vitamins on the market today.
After taking different supplements for over 10 years, our research led us to a product produced by a company called Xtend-Life Natural Products, based in New Zealand, and that ships world-wide to customers.
Their flagship product, Total Balance, was exactly the kind of broad comprehensive health formula we were looking for, made with natural vitamins and minerals, and other important nutrients for optimal health, such as enzymes, herbal extracts, amino acids, etc.
We have now been taking Total Balance for over 2 years now and are very pleased with this exceptional product.
It has also allowed us to save a lot of money over time since we used to buy 10 to 15 supplements separately, and now we only have to take Total Balance as our foundational product.
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