The Importance of Vitamins

When my children were infants our pediatrician prescribed vitamin drops that included vitamins A and D as well as being a multiple. They contained 5000 IU of vitamin A, and there was no furor over these vitamin drops. Nothing happened to my children because of it and both of them are now healthy adults.

They also had real food, including raw milk, and lots of vegetables and fruit. They ate butter and broth made from bones, and homemade bread and real yoghurt.

Their vitamins were good brands we did not buy at the grocery store of other of the low cost box stores.

You do get what you pay for in vitamins, and they do benefit your health, even at levels well beyond the too low RDA levels. Remember that RDA levels are very arbitrary and too low for therapeutic benefit. Now days you want good vitamins and good levels because of all the issues with health care and you want them to be able to help you support your health.

It is good that Consumer Lab is doing this testing, but it is also at a time when Big Pharma and the FDA are trying to get you to believe you don't need vitamins for health or they are tainted.

This philosophy could not be further from the truth.

Over the years as the health market became cluttered with every kind of product we've always stayed with out tried and true clean and hypoallergenic vitamins. We know what is in them and we know they are effective.

Report warns of problems with multivitamins
Thu Apr 9, 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – More than 30 percent of multivitamins tested recently by ConsumerLab.com contained significantly more or less of an ingredient than claimed, or were contaminated with lead, the company reports.

ConsumerLab.com, based in White Plains, New York, is privately held and provides consumer information and independent evaluations of products that affect health and nutrition. According to the company, it is neither owned by nor has a financial interest in any companies that make, distribute or sell consumer products.

Several multivitamin products tested, including three for children, exceeded tolerable upper limits established by the Institute of Medicine for ingredients such as vitamin A, folic acid, niacin and zinc, according to the report posted on www.ConsumerLab.com.

For example, the Institute of Medicine sets a recommended daily allowance (RDA) of 1,300 international units (IU) of vitamin A for children ages 4 to 8 years and an upper tolerable limit of 3,000 IU. However, one multivitamin tested provided 5,000 IU of vitamin A.

In the short term, too much vitamin A may cause nausea and blurred vision, and, in the long-term, may lead to bone softening and liver problems.

Upper tolerable limits for niacin and zinc were also exceeded by some of the supplements for young children tested. Excess niacin may cause skin tingling and flushing and high levels of zinc may cause immune deficiency and anemia.

Tests turned up problems with some men's multivitamin products as well. Two of three men's multivitamins failed to pass testing. One contained too much folic acid, which may increase the risk of prostate cancer, while another was contaminated with lead.

Among four women's multivitamins tested, one provided only 66 percent of its claimed vitamin A; one of five seniors' multivitamins selected contained only 44 percent of its vitamin A; and among three prenatal vitamins, one was short on vitamin A.

Two out of five general multivitamins were short on ingredients: one provided only 50 percent of its claimed folic acid and the other was missing 30 percent of its calcium.

A vitamin water tested by ConsumerLab.com had 15 times its stated amount of folic acid, so drinking one bottle would exceed the tolerable limit for adults; less than half a bottle would put children over the limit, the company warns on its website.
http://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/Multivitamin_Multimineral_Supplements/multivitamins/