Adios, Supplements!

My supplements

I’m not sure why I have been taking so many supplements—more than thirty different ones!  I’m guessing it started when I worked in the Health and Beauty Aids (H.A.B.A.) department in Nature’s Oasis, one of the three best organic stores ever in Durango, Colorado. 

All employees in that department had to attend evening dinners and workshops from different supplement vendors.  Their dinners were catered to a meeting room, and they were always delicious.  After dinner, the representative would give us the research behind each product—like New Chapter’s “Bone Strength” product.  After months about that, I might have been “brain-washed” to believe I had to buy all those things.

Even when I quit that job, every time I shopped at Natural Grocer’s for my grocery items, I found myself going to the H.A.B.A. department to ask the employees what they recommended.  They said “This is what I take…”, and I bought it.

And then along came my friend who told me that I was obese.  No one in Durango thought I was overweight.  Even so, I was already on a diet to lose some weight.  He introduced me to Greger’s Daily Dozen, and, naturally, I put it in a folder.

One day, I was curious and not only read it, but I noted how many of those things I was already doing.  I smiled and decided to start following that diet instead.  That was four years ago.

I am at my ideal weight and BMI. I had to buy new jeans because I had lost so much weight—from 165 pounds to 136.  I went from size 14 to 8 for jeans and from XL to small/medium for tops.  Fortunately, now living in a town where you buy clothes from Walmart, there are many consignment stores. And here’s what’s especially cool:  I bought my favorite jeans (Jones of New York) and they were nearly new (just as the title of that store); they cost me only $4.00!  I had paid up to twenty dollars for that brand at the TJ Maxx in Durango.

And then I was diagnosed with osteoporosis.  My diet changed again, this time to the acid/alkaline diet from the Save Our Bones Program.

Because Greger’s was the healthiest overall diet that I knew about, I kept that one.  I also kept my blood type diet because it’s about health, too.  I am somehow managing to meet the requirements of all three.

The more I learned about the Save Our Bones Program, updated and now called the Osteoporosis Reversal Protocol, the more I wanted to stick with it.  There’s a whole section on which supplements are mandatory, like CoQ10 and chelated zinc.  There’s also a section about food sources for each vitamin people with osteoporosis need.  And so, I started this project about “eat your vitamins.”

I learned that by following Greger’s Daily Dozen, I am already eating those foods.  The trick is this:  am I eating enough of those foods to get my RDA for each vitamin?  So, naturally, I asked my friend if the Greger’s Daily Dozen met the needs for all mandatory vitamins.  He’s helping me narrow the field of supplements by emailing and citing parts of Greger’s book, How Not to Die so I could keep doing my research. 

Here’s what I have learned so far:

• Why some supplements, like multiple vitamins, should never be taken by anyone.
• That I am already “eating” many of my supplements.

Finally, I learned that even on Greger’s diet, I need to take :

• at least 2000 µ of Vitamin D daily in tablet form, not a capsule
• 250 mg of pollutant-free (yeast-or algae-derived) long-chain omega-3 or 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed every day for the omega-3, and
• 2500 mcg of Vitamin B 12

And the Save Institute recommends 1,000 units of Vitamin C .

When I finish this project, I will have a notebook with these sections in it:

1. the Save Our Bones/Save Institute charts for acid/alkaline foods,
2. current charts with the recommended RDA for my age and sex,
3. charts I created for the highest amount of each supplement in which foods, including how much of the vitamin is in what serving size,
4. recipes that meet the requirements of acid/alkaline, my blood type, and Greger’s diet,
5. and menus for at least three different breakfasts, and four each for lunches and dinners.

Till next time,

Please be kind to everyone you meet, for we all have our hidden sorrows. ~Tzaddi