Deanna Bramble
Author & Clinical Nutritionist
Supplements & Nutrients
The best possible nutrition would include raw fresh plant based foods. While that is not adaptable yet for all humans to choose…the closer our choices are to this raw diet on a daily basis, you are telling your body you love it, embrace life, and want the most energy you can have. The more disease we can prevent before the need to cure the better.
Our bodies love vitamins in their natural state and are the most absorbable into the body in the natural food state. It always bewilders me when people who switch to a plant based diet seem to get more aware of nutrients and supplements, as if they are now losing something they used to get. Living plant based foods will double (if not more) your nutrient intake because living plant foods are the highest nutrient dense foods you can put in your body. You have just given your body the best boost in nutrients, minerals, enzymes, and vitamins it could ask for. When you switch to an animal product diet you lose a ton of minerals, enzymes, vitamins, calcium, and your body starts begging for nutrients.
Synthetic Supplements: Your body cannot absorb synthetic vitamins like supplements companies try to convince you. All vitamins are not created equally. Your body knows the difference even though synthetics are made to trick the body. Natural nutrients are absorbed because we are biologically programmed to to absorb naturally occurring compounds. Isolated chemical or synthetic nutrients the body will try to convert to a usable substance. Fifty percent of the synthetic vitamins the body automatically renders useless. Chemists will claim they look and act exactly the same comparing the molecular structure under microscopes.
Nature gave us the promise of good health, not doctors, and pharmacists. Naturally occurring nutrients and whole food supplements are best if you decided to supplement. Nutrition operates as an infinitely complex biochemical system involving thousands of chemicals and thousands of effects on your health, it makes little or no sense that isolated nutrients taken as supplements can substitute for whole foods. Supplements will not lead to long lasting health and may cause unforeseen side effects. The dangers of the western diet cannot be overcome through supplements. While it is hard to make 100% good choices the entire day, week, and month be careful of the vitamins you buy in stores. Most just pass through the body and never break down or cause side effects.
Under our current lovely law a vitamin may be labeled as natural if it has 10% of it genuinely natural, plant derived ingredients. The other 90% can be synthetic. Just as if a product has one component of the recipe that is organic, it can be labeled organic. These are horrible deceptions. Make sure any pills you purchase do not contain Gelatin (highly toxic). Cellulose coating or pressed is best.
VITAMINS: Where to get them in your diet
Vitamin A or beta carotene: Look at the study that was conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston on lung cancer beta carotene. They stopped it in the middle of the study because the people who were taking the beta carotene had doubled the amount of cancer growth in their lungs as the people who did not (From Dr. Brian Clement at Aliveraw.com). Vitamin A is found in hemp, green sprouts, avocado, sea vegetables, carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, cantaloupes, pink grapefruit, apricots, and spinach.
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine): wheatgrass, sweet potatoes, spouted peas, sprouted corn
Vitamin B3 (Niacin): Sprouted wheat, spelt, kamut, sea kelp, and dulse
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): Pecans, sprouted seasame seeds, avocado, apples
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine): Sweet potatoes, wheatgrass, mango, Brussels sprouts
Vitamin B-12 deficiencies- Vegans have a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of B-12 deficiency whereas meat-eaters have a 1 in 2 chance of heart disease (etc). The liver stores three years of B-12. Extremely small amounts of B-12 are required and it is very easy to supplement with a supplement once a week if that. B-12 deficiency is a weak argument considering the odds. B-12 comes from organic soils and raw vegetation. It is recommended by Dr. Brian Clement for everyone to take a bacterial form of B-12. He also recommends that everyone take Blue-Green Algae. B-12 can be found in wheatgrass, raw green veggie juices, raw tempeh blue-green algae.
Vitamin C: 98% on the market is a dangerous chemical called Ascorbic Acid and is not vitamin C. The labs have tried to pass it off as this for years as vitamin C. It is a highly over processed chemical that has no use in the human body. You can get plenty of absorbable vitamin C from fruit and veggies. Citrus fruit, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, guava, kiwi, red peppers and most fruit and veggies have Vitamin C.
Choline: Onion Sprouts, broccoli sprouts, cauliflower, grapes, ripe tomatoes.
Vitamin D: Best source is sun! Sunflower green sprouts, almonds, filberts, pine nuts, and avocado
Folic Acid: Try broccoli sprouts, garbanzo beans, all leafy lettuce greens, black eyed peas(not the band)
Vitamin H: Sesame tahini, almonds, walnuts, hemp seeds, filberts
Vitamin K: Sea kelp, broccoli, kale, cabbage, alfalfa sprouts
Omega 3’s and 6’s:
While Fish does contain Omega’s, the fish actually do not produce Omega’s. They get it from eating plankton and algae. Which, we can eat directly as well. Walnuts, raw Chia Seeds, and Flax seed are some examples that also contain these vital Omega’s.
Beware of Fish Oil- The only reason fish oil is known as an accepted source of Omega 3 is due to extensive marketing and lobbyists of the fish industry. When rancid fishmeal and rancid fats are fed to fish in large quantities on fish farms, fat degeneration develops. The fish oil is carcinogenic.
MINERALS
Zinc: It is wise for vegetarians to include plenty of zinc-rich foods in their diets, but the levels of zinc found in the hair, saliva, and blood of vegetarians are typically in the normal range. Zinc deficiency would be particularly harmful in pregnant women, but studies of pregnant women have consistently found no difference in zinc status between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Great sources for zinc include: Mung bean sprouts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, wheat grass, and spelt are good sources of Zinc.
Copper: Plant based diets tend to be higher in copper, which overrides any reduced rate of absorption from phytates. Vegans, in particular, consume considerably more copper than meat-eaters. Nuts and shitake mushrooms are great for copper.
Magnesium: Plant based diets are typically so much higher in this crucial mineral that plant based eaters consistently show markedly higher serum magnesium levels than do meat consumers. Dark leafy greens, nuts, seeds, sprouts, and whole grains are good sources for magnesium.
Phosphorus: kelp, dulse, beans, peas, blue-green algae, and sea vegetables.
Potassium: sprouted whole grains, beans, peas, green juices,bananas, coconut water, kiwis, oranges, nuts, seeds, avocado.
Selenium: Try citrus, whole grains, and brazil nuts for this mineral
Calcium: Calcium in dairy (raw or organic) cannot be absorbed into our body; instead it draws calcium, iron, and minerals from our bones to neutralize the acidity of dairy products. Dairy will leave you with lower energy, increased cancer cell growth, and a weakened immune system. For more information read: Deanna's blog on dairy myths. Hundreds of studies have found plant based eaters to have healthier bones, more positive calcium balance and less osteoporosis than meat-eaters as well as less heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes, and substantially longer life spans. Calcium loss is due to eating animal products and acidic foods that the body cannot neutralize fast enough. Most calcium supplements come from chalk, oysters, coral rock, eggshells, and other non-organic sediments and non-living mineral sources. This does not fill our nutritional needs no matter how well it is marketed. Dark leafy greens, sprouted beans, pea greens, raw corn, and green juices are better choices for calcium.
Iron: Plant based diets are much higher in vitamin C, and vitamin C greatly enhances iron absorption. Lentils, chickpeas, greens, sea vegetables along with the list below are good sources of Iron. Do we need meat and animal products for Iron? It is actually reverse. Dairy takes iron from our system. "Steak has 1.9 milligrams of Iron per 100 calories and Spinach has 11.3 milligrams per 100 calories" (Diet For A New America by John Robbins PG-298). Most vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes have more iron than any animal product. "For years our schools have been providing “nutritional education” materials by the dairy counsel and meat industry, which compare the iron levels of different foods according to their weight. Intentionally or not, this has served to make meat appear unfairly advantageous when compared to vegetables and fruits, because the latter are high in water content, and the weight in the plant foods dilutes their figures when so calculated. Iron Absorption is greatly assisted by the presence of Vitamin C. The lack of this vitamin can prevent the body from effectively using the iron it is given. Fresh Veggies, sprouts, and fruits are the best sources of Vitamin C; whereas meats, dairy, eggs, fats and sugar have none."(Diet For A New America, By John Robbins PG-299).
We are just learning now how fast many nutrients from vegetables and fruits are lost after picking or cutting. A head of lettuce just picked from the garden will have many more nutrients if eaten right away, than a head of lettuce on a truck for several days and in a warehouse. In an ideal world we would all have backyards and grow our own food, but try to buy local organic plant based food as much as possible for higher nutrient content.
Chlorella algae, nourishes and rejuvenates the body's cells for optimal health. Ounce for ounce, Chlorella contains three times more protein than beef, chicken or fish.
