“Of course, it is controversial whether we should be taking vitamins at all. Recent studies have indicated that taking a multivitamin will not protect you from heart disease or cancer. And experts maintain that if you eat well, you do not need vitamin supplements.” Read on

By Lesley Alderman

F.A.C.T. Comment:

This reporter is on the right track, though not as far along as we would like. In F.A.C.T’s experience, promiscuously popping supplements, as so many are doing these days, is a waste of money and potentially harmful to your health!

Supplements have become big business, but most are poorly absorbed because they’re extracted from their natural setting, i.e., food or synthetically manufactured, and loaded with additives — binders, preservatives, dyes, etc. — which waste precious bodily energy in extra elimination efforts. When nutrients are isolated from the essential synergism Nature has created, the body will steal from other tissues and bones in its attempt to metabolize competently. This can cause serious deficiencies over time.

Hi-dose or megadose supplements use nutrients (usually synthetically produced, e.g., ascorbic acid instead of natural Vitamin C) as drugs for short-term symptom relief. They are unbalancing and antithetical to the whole idea of natural healing.  As Hippocrates said, “All excesses are inimical to Nature.”

The typical rational for all these pills is that the soil has been so depleted of nutrients due to chemical fertilizers, monocropping, etc., that food is not enough.  We strongly disagree! Food is what the body is best adapted for over thousands of years. A well-balanced plant-based, preferably organically grown diet will gradually restore the proper nutrient balance. Gradually is the key word. Nature works best in a gentle, unhurried way.

If an individual is found to have a specific vitamin or mineral deficiency, there are high quality food form supplements which may be helpful for a short time until the diet brings about the correction. Also, as we age, the body tends to produce fewer digestive enzymes, so we generally recommend a good digestive enzyme supplement before meals, especially for cooked food.  Osteoporosis, the big bugaboo these days, can actually be caused by isolated calcium in supplements because the body robs from the bones to find the other elements needed for absorption.  But Nature is no dummy! Calcium is so important, Nature has made sure to provide this mineral in ample amounts throughout the food supply. The problem is often weak thyroid function, which negatively impacts one of the big jobs of this gland: to facilitate calcium metabolism. Because abnormal thyroid function is so common in today’s polluted environment, we suggest periodic thyroid testing. A hypo or hyper-thyroid can be normalized by good quality glandular supplements or Armour’s Thyroid, a natural substance.

In short, our suggestion: know what your looking for when you venture into the supplement section of your grocery store, but spend the bulk of your food dollars on good food!

What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air — or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves? Read on

By Nicholas D. Kristof

F.A.C.T. Comment:

This OpEd piece was the most emailed New York Times article in the 30 days following publication-and deservedly so!

The research, accumulating over the last 50 years, was first presented to the public-at-large in a fascinating 1996 book, Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn, ph.D., with a forward by Al Gore.  Dr. Colborn, a zoologist, was the first to really tie together all the weird wildlife deformities and abnormal behaviors being reported around the world: turtles born without eyes, birds with extra beaks, gender confusion in the way males and females related to their young, and on and on. Ms. Colborn discovered that the common denominator in all the cases was exposure to synthetic chemicals, particularly organochlorines, ubiquitous in plastics, pesticides and many other “essentials” of modern life.  Minute amounts of these chemicals can mimic hormones in our bodies and, thus, interfere with the normal course of development — with potential effects on virtually all aspects of bodily function. They were given various labels, like “endocrine disruptors, “estrogen mimics,” “gender benders.”

Dr. Colborn warned that it was only logical that humans, too, were being affected. Unfortunately, the public was skeptical, Congress did nothing and here we are over a decade later with more evidence and no substantial change in public policy. Perhaps now the public, more attuned to the increasing rates of hormone-related cancers and man’s impact on the environment re: global climate change, is ready to listen and demand action. So bravo, Mr. Kristof. You may have ignited a movement!