27 Jun Robyn’s Top Picks in June – How to Stay Healthy

Ten years ago I did not believe in supplementing with vitamins and minerals, as I believed this should come from our diet. Three things have changed this: my age, the declining quality of perishable food and the increasing availability of organic and wholefood supplements on the market.

But, I still strongly believe that if you are going to supplement that you need to supplement right. There are a lot of brands of supplements out there that could actually do you more harm than good and so if you cannot afford to take good quality supplements then it is better to invest your money in more nutritional foods than poor quality supplements. If you consider that the very word, supplement it is all about “adding too” it makes sense that quality is so important here. Whatever supplements you choose to take, your body still needs to work hard to digest them and so it is actually possible to further increase the toxic load of your body by taking synthetically produced vitamins or by taking brands of supplements that have hidden nasties in them.

How vitamins are made

Real vitamins or wholefood supplements are the living ones derived from foods and that are maintained in their natural states. The vitamins found within these supplements are not isolated. Rather, they are highly complex structures that combine a variety of enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace elements, activators and many other unknown or undiscovered factors all working together synergistically, to enable this vitamin complex to do its job in your body.

But not all multivitamins are derived from natural nutritive sources. Many are synthetically derived simulations of real vitamins made in laboratories. The result is an isolated compound, which has been robbed of all of the extra accessory nutrients that it naturally comes with.

Why is this so important?

Nature does not produce any nutrient in an isolated form. The nutrients in foods are blended together in a specific way for maximum efficacy. For an isolated nutrient to work properly in the body, it needs all the other parts that are naturally present in the food too. That is why nature has not created a single natural food source that only has one single type of nutrient in it.

So if you take a synthetic supplement like an isolated compound of vitamin c that is trying to mimic the real thing, your body will try and make up for the “missing remained of the complex” but taking the complimentary nutrients needed from your body’s own stored supply. This is why isolated nutrients often work for a little while, and then seem to stop working. Once your body’s store of the extra nutrients is used up, the isolated nutrient can’t be absorbed as well and you have now potentially created a deficiency of other vitamins or minerals in your body. Not too mention that even though your body is now lacking vitamins it had to start with, it still has to work extra hard to deal with all the extra toxic solvents that are often found in synthetic supplements.

How ironic is it that in trying to be healthier and combat the high numbers of toxins in our environment we could actually be adding more by taking synthetic supplements?

So what should you do?

Choose to supplement with vitamins that are made from real food sources and have ingredients listing actual names of fruit, vegetables, grasses, oils and herbs that you recognize. Invest in ionic mineral supplements that the body can actually absorb. And take note of the products life story – has the utmost care has been taken in all phases of its production, from growing its ingredients, to manufacturing, testing for potency and quality control?

My top supplement picks

1. Multi-vitamin: Mineralife Daily Multiple

This amazing product contains almost everything you need to keep your family healthy and I cannot recommend it enough. If I could only take one supplement, this would be it! Mineralife’s power-packed blend of sea vegetables, aloe vera, cherry juice and wild honey is bursting with all the vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and minerals you need to a health-passionate household energized and healthy.

PS – A little tip when choosing mineral supplements is to opt for liquid minerals which are immediately assimilated into the bloodstream, which means they’re faster-acting and much more effective.

2. Vegan Omegas: Omega Pure Omega 3 DHA

Ever wondered where krill and then fish get their Omega-3s from? Well, it all starts with micro-algae, the original source of these health-giving essential fatty acids. Whether you are vegan or not, these are a great choice as the oil has been extracted from ponds in pristine conditions completely free of any ocean contaminants like mercury and dioxins. The cold-extraction of the oil means that the nutrient quality and bio-availability of the Essential Fats in Omega Pure is of the highest order. Omega Pure is also a perfect source of DHA/EPA for Vegans/vegetarians and is approved by the Vegan societies of the UK and SA.

3. Probiotic: Metagenics UltraFlora Spectrum

I believe that we stock an amazing array of probiotic supplements at Faithful to Nature and have used quite a variety but my favourite range at the moment is Metagenics. I am using the Ultraflora Spectrum at the moment which is a propriety blend of 30 million live organisms. I give the Ultraflora Children to my son. They taste so good that he can’t wait for his pink “sweetie” everyday.

4. Anti-oxidant: Viridian Olive Leaf Extract

I cannot praise the exceptional antioxidant potential of olive leaf polyphenolics enough. When a range of superior natural antioxidant products were measured for their oxygen radical absorbance capacity or ORAC (an internationally recognised laboratory technique that measures total antioxidant effect), Olive Leaf Complex was shown to have a value 400% that of Vitamin C, and also significantly higher than both grape seed extract and green tea extract. When compared to other ‘superfruit’ juices, such as Noni, Acai, Goji and Mangosteen, olive leaf antioxidant clearly demonstrated its power. It has a host of other benefits too but for us personally we have clearly noticed it’s immune boosting properties too.

5. Turmeric: Viridian Organic Turmeric

We take turmeric daily as a cancer preventative  daily. I am sold on its anti-inflammatory properties but truly it is beneficial to each and every organ. I have chosen to use Viridian as it has organic turmeric and a high count of 400mg per capsule, but if you are after count, Floraforce has a count of 500mg per capsule.

6. Worms and Parasites: Flora Force Parasite & Worms

We have found capsules easier to take than anything that needs to be mixed with water as we are already juicing and smoothing to the max as it is. I have been working with a functional medicine healer that uses live blood analysis as part of her tool kit and we were both amazed to see how quickly and effectively the Floraforce formula cleaned my system of pesky parasites. In my experience this stuff works and is a must for every household with dogs and kids!

7. Vitamin C: The Real Thing Ester-C Combo

We only take extra Vitamin C in the winter as the Olive Leaf Extract gives us great immune and anti-oxidant support but when we do add Vitamin C to our supplements, The Real Thing combo is what we reach for as I feel it offers great value in terms of price and quality.

8. Immune Booster: Mineralife Zinc

I have a 3-fold approach when anyone gets sick in our house and immediately start dousing the potential patient with these three immune boosting supplement. Zinc is involved in virtually every aspect of immunity and a boost really helps when you are fighting an infection.

9. All-in-One Remedy: Nova8 Immune Drops

This remarkable all-in-one remedy works to kill germs, fight off infections, promote healing and strengthen the immune system, safely and effectively with no synthetic chemicals.

Nova8 Olive Leaf extract brings you the powerful immune boosting properties of Olive Leaf Extract combined with a special combination of 8 homeopathic remedies designed to alleviate the unpleasant symptoms you may experience when you have viral infections such as a cold or flu

10. Great for Kids: Animal Parade DHA for Kids

I am currently only using the Omega tablets for my 4 year old Cassie but all of the Animal Parade supplements are high quality options that are easy to give to kids.

I keep the whole Pure Herbal Kids Remedy Set at home. Cassie gets a few sprays of the super strong every day and I use the other products on the rare occasions he starts to get ill. I have found them to be very effective.