The supplement aisle of any supermarket or natural grocery store can be overwhelming. There are hundreds of products on the shelf, all claiming different benefits. Some are labeled with a letter of the alphabet, others are named after a tree root, and some seem like they belong on the spice aisle.

With an industry so big and so confusing, it’s alarming that there are still no strict regulations for these over the counter products. This has been an on going health frustration, leading doctors and legislators to speak out.

In 1994, President Clinton signed the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This placed dietary supplements as a subcategory of food. Therefore supplements can go to market without submitting proof of safety or efficacy to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 17 years later, this law remains despite the stories of harm and the urging of physicians for change.

Read Full Post >

By Michelle Schoffro Cook for Care2.com

Choosing a healthier lifestyle can be as simple as alkalizing your body, which may sound complicated but it really isn’t. Basically, acid and alkaline are opposite sides of the biochemical spectrum. Ideally, your body should be slightly alkaline, but most people’s bodies are excessively acidic due to high stress levels, a diet high in meat, sugar consumption, and other acid-forming habits. While supplements are not a substitute for a healthy diet and lifestyle, they can assist you in making your body more alkaline.

1. Green Food Powders
There are many different kinds of green powders, primarily made from spirulina or chlorella algae and the juices of various types of grasses: barley, wheat, or alfalfa. These ingredients might seem like a recipe for swamp water, but add a teaspoon or two to water, juice diluted with water, or a smoothie and you’ll be surprised how good they can taste. More importantly, they help alkalize your body, thereby promoting greater energy, improved resistance to illness, and less pain. If you don’t like one type, choose a different kind since there is a significant variation in taste between various green powders.
Read Full Post >

Are you bad to your bones? There is a growing trend in the United States and Canada: calcium and vitamin D deficiency. Bone mass reaches its peak around age thirty so calcium and vitamin D are critical in helping you to prevent breaks or fractures down the road. As important as strong muscles are to your overall health, bones are what hold us together. Otherwise we’d just be a puddle on the ground. I’m hoping I can shed some light on all the benefits that calcium and vitamin D have to offer.

What is vitamin D and why do I need it?

Vitamin D is key in helping to produce strong bones. It also helps absorb calcium from the intestines so that is why you find so many products with the two in combo.  The current recommendation depends on age, but for a woman age 18-30 you are looking at around 600 internal units (IUs) per day.  Our bodies naturally convert vitamin D into a usable form from midday sun (between 10 am and 2 pm).  People like me who live in northern parts of the world and get to see old man winter usually do not get enough midday sun to make our own vitamin D.

Read Full Post >

If you’re faithfully taking your daily multi-vitamin, you should be proud of yourself. You’re doing a good thing for your body and your overall health, right? Unfortunately, you may not be helping yourself as much as you think.

A recent MSNBC article reported that many of the vitamins and supplements on the shelf are not as nutritious as they claim and, in some cases, they are more potent than they claim.

The FDA has strict guidelines and regulations for prescription drugs, however there is not process for regulating vitamins and supplements. The only testing on these products is done independently. ConsumerLab.com and its researchers conducted a test on 38 multi-vitamins and published their findings this week. The tests concluded that eight products contained too few of the specific nutrients, two contained more nutrients than the label stated, and three simply had improper labeling.

Read Full Post >

The Baby Food Diet has taken Hollywood by storm but as more Americans who want to lose weight are jumping on the jarred, pureed food bandwagon, nutrition experts and parents are questioning whether the diet is safe and effective.

“Meeting adequate nutritional needs while following a diet that promotes eating small portions of low calorie pureed foods isn’t so easy,” said Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, nutrition expert for FoodNetwork.com and mother of three. “Jars of baby food vary from 15 to 100 calories so it can really be up to the dieter to mix and match various food groups to meet dietary needs.”

While eating baby food alone can put a person at risk for certain vitamin and nutritional deficiencies, there are variations to the diet that can make it healthier, more accessible and more sustainable.

Read Full Post >