Part 1 - Lead and Cadmium in Vitamins?? What's Up with That??

I've been researching a lot lately about supplements trying to find the best products out there for my kids. Mainly for Dane because he was always sick. He was anemic at age 14 months following a "major" virus, and at one point he had chronic sinusitis. Luckily, he's better now! When he was anemic, the pediatrician had me give him a multivitamin as well as an iron supplement. I also learned not to give milk at meals (it interferes with iron absorption) and to add some type of Vitamin C (fruit or juice) at every meal. The Vitamin C helps you absorb iron better. So that's when I started giving my kids a daily multivitamin.

Do I or my child need a supplement?

For children and infants - they need a Vitamin D supplement of 400 IU according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Carol Wagner, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina, says that "We know more about vitamin D than we did even five years ago. Because of lifestyle changes and sunscreen usage, the majority of the population shows signs of deficiency as determined by measured vitamin D levels in blood.”

For adults - yes according to Dr. Mark Hyman who wrote UltraMetabolism. Dr. Peter Libby, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. David Ludwig, director of the Obesity Program at the Children's Hospital in Boston, are both supporters of Dr. Hyman's work.

For ALL adults, Dr. Hyman reccomends you take the following 3 supplements:

1. Multivitamin & multimineral combo (92% of Americans are deficient in AT LEAST 1 or more essential vitamins and minerals.)

2. Calcium, magnesium, & vitamin D supplement (this is in addition to the D in the multi vitamin because most American adults and children are now deficient in this super important vitamin)

3. Omega-3 supplement (Dr. Hyman recommends only taking this from a "reputable company." You don't need to take this one if you are one of the lucky 1% of Americans who gets all the Omega-3's from their diet!!!)

This information also follows the guidelines published in The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Can't I just get all my nutrients from food?

Yes, if you eat a VERY WELL balanced diet of 4,000 calories per day. Do you want to do that??

According to the nation's leading epidemiologist, Gladys Block, a deficiency of vegetable and fruit intake can be catastrophic. She states that, "it is likely that substantial public health benefits and disease reduction could be achieved if consumption of fruits and vegetables were greatly increased over the low levels seen in the United States and other industrialized nations." She also states that, in the United States, "the population's intake of these foods is remote from recommended levels."

To be continued...