Tag Archives: Multivitamin

Careful of Your Supplements

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OxyEliteYesterday it was reported that Aaron Rathy was forced to return his silver medal in Wakeboarding at the Pan Am Games because of a supplement he mistakenly took.  He  picked up some OxyElite Pro from GNC which contains Methylhexaneamine and is a banned substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2010.

 

While athletes are fully aware of all the things they cannot take, they really need to make sure of what they put into their bodies.  The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport actually recommends athletes not take any supplements because of things just like this.

While there are many supplement companies that offer NSF Certified for Sport, I’m proud to have the opportunity to represent one.  Nutrilite provides a few NSF certified supplements like DoubleX, Concentrated Fruits and Vegetables and it’s Daily Multivitamin.  Perfect Water also listed as NFS certified.  I’m not saying you need to buy our stuff however this is one of the reasons why we have great retail success with local athletes, they can trust the supplements listed here won’t negatively impact them.

Get What You Pay For?

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vitaminsYou know many people say you get what you pay for and I think to many people dismiss that statement.  I’m Scottish and a lot of my friends know I’m quite frugal when it comes to making purchases, however I am willing to spend a little extra for a better product or service.  I’ll do my research, I’ll read reviews and get feedback and if it’s worth it I’ll buy it.  Sometimes those #1 products you see are not all they are cracked up to be.

I’ll take multi-vitamins for example because I’m pretty passionate about supplements and have taken an interest in figuring out what is good and what isn’t.  For those who follow the many things out there about multi-vitamins will know recently there has been some news about toxic substances found in certain multi-vitamins like Centrum.

Sodium Selenite and Sodium Selenate are classified dangerous and toxic to the environment by regulatory bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, however they are the primary forms of the mineral sold on the mass market. Actually most mass-market vitamins contain chemicals that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) does not allow in public drinking water.

So the logical question is how can companies use this? If its banned by the EPA in drinking water how can this be allowed?  What I’ve been reading is there is question on if it’s really toxic or not.  If you check out governmental toxicology reports you’ll be able to see that both forms can be carcinogenic and genotoxic and may contribute to reproductive and developmental problems in animals and humans.  It goes on and on but honestly who wants to even put something in your body that is in question?  I’d think the answer there is simple.

The main reason why sodium selenite/selenate are used by some vitamin manufactures over safer, more beneficial forms of selenium is because it’s more profitable to use raw materials of lower quality. Hence why I said “you get what you pay for”.  Sad how companies that are supposed to help you with your health basically don’t give a shit and are worried about the all mighty dollar.  I’m not surprised but again as I said, you get what you pay for.

Basically the moral of the news reports and write ups are take a good quality multivitamin ever day.  Don’t cheap out on the Flintstones or “#1” Centrum vitamins, your basically saying your health isn’t worth a few extra dollars.

I’m proud to represent the largest Multi-Vitamin and Supplement in the world that plants, grows, and harvests its ingredients on it’s own certified organic farms.  Nutrilite guarantees what’s in the bottle is actually in the bottle and makes it VERY easy to find out what the ingredients are, unlike some companies that hide it or make it very difficult to find.  Yes we carry a premium brand multi-vitamin/multi-mineral but we also have other multi-vitamins that are cheaper and are of highest quality.

Do your own research, there is a ton of information out there and just make sure you are watching your health, that’s all I ask.

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

Vitamins for Pre/Pregnancy/Post

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So some may or may not know but Lindsay and I are trying for a little one and with that we need to make sure she’s taking the right vitamins and supplements.  Its funny how “they” say we need to supplement when we are trying for kids, while we are with child and also afterwards. Hmmmm wonder if they have something there?  In case you have not caught my sarcasm I’m saying YES you need to supplement.  To be honest you need to supplement if your not trying for children, however that’s not the topic here today.

I started doing some research online and from most of the articles I read the two main vitamins/supplements that need to be taken are Folic Acid (Folate) and Iron. Folic Acid will give you a less likely chance of having a baby with serious problems of the brain or spinal code.  Its also said you should take Folic acid 3 months before getting pregnant because these problems happen very early in pregnancy.  You can do things like eat:

  • Green leafy vegetables (like spinach)
  • Foods in the cabbage family (such as broccoli)
  • Some fruits (including oranges and bananas)
  • Milk
  • Grains and organ meats (such as chicken livers (GROSS))

However as mentioned in a lot of articles I read its VERY difficult to obtain this amount 0.4mg of folic acid a day in your diet.  This is why it’s recommended to take a multi-vitamin.

The other main supplement I found was Iron.  This helps in the production of haemoglobin; prevents anemia, low birth weight and premature delivery.  Women’s bodies make a lot more blood when they are pregnant to support the growing baby, and as a result, the iron stores in the blood can get spread pretty thin.  Most women’s diets cannot get enough iron and with that have to supplement with a multi-vitamin

Lindsay and I already take a top notch multi-vitamin and a few other supplements where we are not getting enough from our regular diet.  Keep in mind we eat pretty healthy however even with that we need to supplement.  I wanted to see how our DoubleX stacked up to Materna which Materna says is the “#1 Doctor recommended prenatal multi-vitamin”. Glad they provide a link to where that study was done…

After comparing this is what I found:

  Materna Double X   Tri-Iron Folic
Vitamins        
Beta-Carotene 2500 IU 3750 IU +  
Vitamin A 1000 IU 1250 IU +  
Vitamin E 30 IU 75 IU +  
Vitamin C 85 mg 250 mg + 30 mg
Folic Acid (folate) 1 mg .4 mg/.4 mg (Double Dose) - .600 mg
Vitamin B1 (thiamine mononitrate) 1.4 mg 5.62 mg +  
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 1.4 mg 6.37 mg +  
Niacin 18 mg 20 mg +  
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hyrochloride) 1.9 mg 7.5 mg +  
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin 2.6 mcg 22.5 mcg +  
Biotin 30 mcg 150 mcg +  
Pantothenic Acid (calcium pantothenate) 6 mg 25 mg +  
         
Minerals        
Calcium 250 mg 375 mcg +  
Magnesium 50 mg 150 mg +  
Iodine 220 mcg 75 mcg/75 mcg (Double Dose) -  
Iron 27 mg 0 mg - 30 mg
Copper 1 mg 1 mg even  
Zinc 7.5 mg 7.5 mg even  
Chromium 30 mcg 60 mcg +  
Manganese 2 mg 2.5 mg +  
Molybdenum 50 mcg 25 mcg/25 mcg (Double Dose) even  
Selenium 30 mcg 50 mcg +  

 

So what does all that mean?  Well DoubleX happens to beat Materna in a lot of the vitamins and minerals.  However there are two main points to make.  The Folic Acid even at .4 mg (in a single dose of DoubleX) is enough as indicated by the Collage of Family Physicians of Canada.  The main area where DoubleX does fall is in Iron.  I believe the reason why DoubleX does not have Iron is because a lot of people have excess Iron.  We have a few customers that do have this issue and because of our Multi-Vitamin they are able to take it as there is no Iron.  However we do have a supplement that supplements DoubleX called Tri-Iron Folic.  It has the Folic Acid (Folate) and Iron required.  One last thing that DoubleX has going for it that was not compared here was the phytonutrients found in the 20 plant concentrates that DoubleX has.  No other Multi-Vitamin has that. 

Lastly Materna does not guarantee 100% what is inside the bottle and are synthetic based vitamins.  Nutrilite owns their own certified organic farms and guarantee what is inside the box is what’s inside the box.  I’d much rather use vitamins that are plant based over some synthetic crap.

So that’s my unprofessional, uncertified comparison and research I did last night.  I know we feel 100% comfortable with what Lindsay is taking and know when we do have a baby he/she will be well supplemented!

DoubleX

Edmonton Nutrilite Seminar

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WOW, what a truly amazing seminar put on by Amway Global and World Wide Dreambuilders.  We had a few guests show up at the seminar and were really impressed by the professionalism and information presented during the seminar.  There were some product stations setup so people could touch and smell the products and see what they are all about.  There were also lots of people there to help answer questions from all the guests that showed up.  The whole event was just really well done and and the gift bags everyone got… wow.  Some great gems in there for sure!

I was blown away with a lot of the information we were given and even as we’ve been building our business we still learnt a lot of good stuff.  Stuff like what are phytonutrients?  To describe, the term "phyto” originates from the Greek word meaning “plant.  Therefore phytonutrient simply means nutrients from the plant.  Phytonutrients are natural components of plants that offer benefits to your health, therefore, fruits and vegetables are rich sources of phytonutrients.  So how do these phytonutrients enhance optimal health? 

  • Fruits and vegetables contain important sources of key nutrients such as potassium, dietary fiber, folic acid and Vitamin A, C, and E.
  • The best phytonutrients come from organic farms.  Plants raised organically have abundant amounts of high-quality phytonutrients.

Here is something fun for you to participate to see if you are actually getting enough Phytonutrients. 

Phyto Your Daily Phytonutrient Snapshot

Click on “Your Daily Phytonutrient Snapshot”

 

Some cool facts that really set us apart from the rest of the world in the area of dietary supplements

  • A leader in dietary supplements for 75 years
  • First multivitamin/multimineral in North America
  • Nutrilite is the Only global vitamin and mineral brand to grow, harvest, and process plants on its own certified organic farms

Here are some pictures taken from last nights event.

EdmontonNutriliteSeminar-XSShot 

This is the XS Energy Shot which is not available in Canada yet.  Health Canada takes forever to approve something.  So it’s pretty much contraband haha :)
10,000% of your daily B12 intake!

 

Here is a visual representation of what you get in the concentrated fruits and veggies product that we have.

EdmontonNutriliteSeminar-FrutsVeggies
EdmontonNutriliteSeminar-Calcium

Check this out, in the pills you see here, that’s how much calcium you get. 4L worth!
Not getting enough calcium? Might want to look at this.

Are you drinking energy drinks?  Want to see what our competitor has for sugar compared to what we have? XS has 0g’s of sugars, Red Bull has 27g’s of sugar! GROSS!  Oh and by the way XS has 0 Carbs and Red Bull has 28g’s.  What would you rather put into your body?

 EdmontonNutriliteSeminar-XSSugar

Why Supplement?

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So we sell supplements, it’s no secret.  We market for Nutrilite as part of our business and Nutrilite is THE largest online supplement and vitamin store on the web.  They are 15x’s larger then GNC which is the next leading competitor.  However putting that aside the question remains why the hype on supplements?

Why Supplement?  Because knowing what you should eat isn’t the same as what you actually do eat. Most people know it’s essential to eat fruits and vegetables, healthy proteins, whole carbs, and cold-water fish. But, of the 81% of North Americans acknowledging that a healthy diet is important, only 20% eat well every day, according to a 2006 study by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CNR).

Did you know that a full, healthy, active life required more than 45 essential nutrients every day?  And, even with your best intentions, it’s difficult to always eat a healthy balanced diet, one with variety and an emphasis on plants.

Supplementation can fill in the gaps in your diet, because it’s difficult to get all the nutrients you need from the food you eat. Especially if you’re not eating well, day in and day out.  That’s why leading medical journals recommend that all adults take a multivitamin, DAILY.  Yet the CRN study reported that only 41% of its study participants regularly took a multivitamin.

Knowing how important supplementation is, that’s why we choose Nutrilite products to help provide our body with the nutrition we’re probably not getting from our diet alone.  Lindsay cooks very well and always tries to give us the full nutrients we need but we NEVER get everything we are supposed to get.  Nutrilite supplements contain organic plant-based ingredients which is awesome.  Nobody else can guarantee that and nobody else can guarantee 100% of the ingredients in it’s supplements.  So when we use our supplements we want to use the best.  Even if we quit this business tomorrow, I’ll find the closest place to buy Nutrilite because it is the best.

I checked the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition site and found this interesting fact from an October 2008 new release.”Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence of the importance of a daily vitamin D supplement for Canadians, only 20 per cent report taking a single vitamin or mineral supplement and four in 10 Canadians take a multivitamin supplement.”  That’s just plain ignorance on our part.  We are told all this information yet people continue to ignore it.  Vitamin D is HUGE for Canadians especially during the winter.  I can tell you without taking it I feel so lethargic.

So do your own research but it’s clear that even with best intentions we are not getting what we need out of our food these days and we NEED to have supplements.  We just happen to partner with the best of the best!