The Vitamin Craze

By Namaste Staff Writer

When I was growing up, nobody took vitamins. Now, millions pop them every day and assume they are receiving a boost to their health.

But are vitamins all that they are cracked up to be?

I was in my early 30s before I started taking a multi—an expensive brand out of California that professed to draw all of its ingredients from natural organic sources.

These days, I don’t take vitamins.

Says Ron Garner, a health researcher, educator, author, and speaker with a BEd, MSc, and Diploma in Natural Health, “The body cannot utilize large doses of separate vitamins and minerals.”

If you begin taking vitamins after years of eating a poor diet, you may notice an improvement in health, as your body at last gets some of the nutrition it’s been lacking. But this boost in your feeling of wellbeing is usually short-lived. Before long, the body begins to object. “Synthetic or refined vitamins are toxic to the body,” Ron explains, “and it reacts to eliminate them.”

When I began taking vitamins, I noticed an improvement in my energy—for a while. Then it was back to status quo. I was dragging, often by mid morning, and certainly in the afternoon. I tried different brands, different doses. Always, the gain was only temporary.

Why was the gain not long-lasting? Ron emphasizes, “Supplements are not created equal! Nature’s vitamins heal. Synthetic vitamins stimulate, but do not heal.”

Ron’s approach flies in the face of popular wisdom. He states that “vitamins and minerals are meant to work together as a synergistic team. If high doses of a supplement are taken, a nutritional imbalance can be created in the body.”

Synergistic is the all-important word. For thousands of years, our bodies have thrived on foods that supply us with enzymes, vitamins, and minerals in a carefully crafted ratio. Upsetting that ratio isn’t smart.

You might think that if you take the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals your body needs, in the correct ratio, you are on solid ground. Not so. An isolated vitamin, even when chemists attempt to augment it with complementary substances, is not the same as vitamins set in the context of foods.

It’s fascinating to see studies of vitamins, such as beta carotene, not living up to the expectations we had of them in terms of fighting certain disease and degenerative processes. In fact, in the case of beta carotene, a study actually found that it may worsen some cancers. The reason is simple. Isolated vitamins aren’t what the body responds to best, especially if they are synthetic. The body needs to receive beta carotene in a synergistic arrangement for it to have a beneficial effect.

Everyone is going to tell you, of course, that their brand is manufactured by a method that makes the ingredients available to the body in the correct forms. Buyer, beware.

What I do these days is eat differently, and supplement only with products that are from whole foods. As Ron explains, “All fruits and vegetables, if grown in mineral-rich soil and ripe when picked, contain a wide and balanced range of vitamins and minerals. This is the natural way we are intended to obtain them.”

If you want foods that are rich in nutrition, there is a growing array of organic produce available today, coupled with produce that’s especially fresh because it’s sold through local farmers’ markets. Even if you can’t obtain organic or local produce, by reducing or eliminating canned and packaged foods, replacing them with vegetables and fruit, you will do yourself a world of good.

There’s much valuable information about supplements in Ron’s book Conscious Health—an entire chapter, in fact. You’ll discover how to supply your body with the balanced intake of foods it requires by using foods and supplements synergistically.