Thanks for flagging the warning signs for us Chris – very useful.

I will continue to munch on cherries because I love them………

But I wont buy a super anti-oxidant supplement again!

@ Luke: I love frozen berries, always throw some into my yoghurt and let them defrost…… I still keep a bottle or Vit C and Zinc on hand for times when I feel a cold coming on but Anti-Oxidants aren’t a daily staple anymore and for good reason….

- Tim

I agree with Grok. The word supplement does not equate to substitute. Eating real food should be the starting point / baseline.

Meanwhile, probing, testing, and double checking via science provides useful information.

No one supplement can be a cure all, but at certain times and under certain circumstances different supplements may improve the probability of a positive outcome.

Ken Rogers

Real food does not include vitamin enriched cereals and bars. If it came from a bag or box, chances are it’s not real food. Newbies will be well served to read the last paragraph more than once

Thanks Samantha, I am glad you are enjoying it. Please subscribe and spread the word………

But I’ve learned in my nutrition classes that the supplements will have such high levels of vitamins and minerals like that because the body does a really poor job absorbing the nutrients from supplements like that. Even though it may have 1000 mg of something or sometimes you’ll see 300% of the DV your body really isn’t absorbing anywhere close to that. So when you eat that orange or pepper, hopefully as soon as possible after it is picked and not cooked too much, you will be absorbing the most of the nutrients it has to offer. It is hard for your body to break down vitamins (I think people say to break it up before you swallow it) and there are many different substances that your body will make into the nutrient you need, and some are more availible than others. For example heme and non-heme iron. Heme iron is much better absorbed. But if you have enough non heme iron (as vegans should if they are eating a lot of vegetables) you’ll still get enough… you just need a lot more!

Anyway sorry for the ramble! I think the biggest thing is do not take supplements and get all of your nutrients from whole, unprocessed foods!!

Even if supplements say they get their nutrients from whole foods, I don’t see how that could make them any more available because we all know that as soon as a food is harvested the nutrients already begin to diminish. Then when you cook them, even more are lost! So if they are just sitting there, not even close to being in their original state, so processed, and able to store in a container in the store and until you take them home and finish taking all of them, how is that even close to a real, honest nutrient from the source?!

@ Alyssa: Really good point you bring up, the truth is most people are suckered into buying products when they know very little about what they are buying and whether or not the product holds real benefits. As for supplements not being as effective as real foods it is something I strongly believe in and this has made me cut back on my supplement intake drastically in comparison to a few years back. Right now I am just trying to eat a nutritious diet and I occasionally take Brewers Yeast (something I want to post about soon) and the occasional Zinc/Magnesium other than that I maintain an open mind with supplements but still think they are largely useless…..