I'm struggling getting enuff of what i need... lots of exhaustion fatigue etc etc wondering if anyone has experience with the Garden of life RAW vitamin supplements... they have such a variety of things wondering what is neccessary... what works... is it worth the cost... the good the bad the indifferent... I appreciate any imput you may have...

love laugh and dream

What is your current diet?

about 80% raw mostly veg cutting back on sweet fruits due to the acidic nature it creates in my body...medium to low fat...

Do you eat a wide variety of foods?

Have you ever used a tracker like fitday to get a vague sense of what you normally eat, and what you could possibly be missing? (It won't tell the whole story, but it's a great start!)

It would also be very easy to work in other whole foods for supplementation, e.g., spirulina in a smoothie, sprinkle kelp dust into everything.

I'm assuming those are whole-food vitamins, basically? I just get very leery, I have read so many studies about regular inorganic mineral supplements being toxic in the long term, vitamins not working their magic when isolated from everything in the whole food... which is why I say, depending on what you're looking for, you may be able to spend the same amount on whole foods and get more.

How do we make a sluggish car run better?
It is not by adding more to it, what is needed is a tune up, a cleanse, to get the digestive system works properly, to increase nutrition absorption.

I second the suggestion to use an online nutrition tracker like fitday.com to see where you are actually falling short and if you can tweak your diet to ammend that.
As for the whole food supplements, that's a brand I've used and think is pretty good.
This summer I've got plans to harvest wild berries and weeds to dehydrate and powder to make our own green food supplement for use in winter when local super foods are scarce. If I could grow morninga here I'd use a lot of it fresh and for drying, you may want to look at that as a supplement source.

luvyuu,

I take them and they are the first multivitamin I have actually felt working; same for their probiotics. Expensive, but unlike many things, worth the cost. I agree that you need to keep track of your macro and micro nutrient intake in a more formal way, though. Good luck.

Do vitamins really work or is it more of a placebo effect?
Vitamins do not have the symbiotic relationships between elements that are in raw food, the most important being raw organic water.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2012 03:36PM by madinah.

Chemical vitamins? I don't think so, how does the body even recognize that as anything useful? What we're talking about here though, as plainly stated, are concentrated whole foods which are of course useful nutritionally speaking. They are generally taken with water as well. If it doesn't work for you, don't take them, I do find them helpful however, particularly for the kids, particularly since we live in an area that has been very over farmed and is lacking in quality soil.

Children do not need vitamins, they have a clean body that is efficient at processing food especially when the parents know about raw food. We are old running cars we may need help, children are shinny new cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2012 04:18PM by madinah.

Nope, they don't need vitamins. That's why we're talking about concentrated FOOD. If you wish to continue ignoring that fact you might want to start another thread about chemical vitamins. That's not what this topic is about.

I personally don't feel it necessary to be told by you or anyone else what my children do or do not need as I am the one feeding them and tracking what they eat. I highly doubt you are qualified to hand out definitive advice about diet, even if you were a certified nutritionist you certainly have not evaluated anyone else's diet and lifestyle to make proclamations about what they may or may not need. That's a dangerous thing to do.

madinah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do vitamins really work or is it more of a placebo
> effect?
> Vitamins do not have the symbiotic relationships
> between elements that are in raw food, the most
> important being raw organic water.

They most certainly do and can work but you are right vitamins have synergistic and symbiotic relationships with other nutrients and phyto-chemicals, so we don't always get the same effect as taking isolated synthetic vitamin C such as ascorbic acid than we do an orange or a wholefood vitmain C source such as amla which has the supporting bioflavonoids which help absorbtion.

But for someone critically low in a certain nutrient they can be of much help. Someone who is extremely deficient in magnesium, iodine, zinc etc will find it nearly impossible to raise their levels with food alone.

Wholefood sources are always preferred.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

coco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nope, they don't need vitamins. That's why we're
> talking about concentrated FOOD. If you wish to
> continue ignoring that fact you might want to
> start another thread about chemical vitamins.
> That's not what this topic is about.
>
> I personally don't feel it necessary to be told by
> you or anyone else what my children do or do not
> need as I am the one feeding them and tracking
> what they eat. I highly doubt you are qualified to
> hand out definitive advice about diet, even if you
> were a certified nutritionist you certainly have
> not evaluated anyone else's diet and lifestyle to
> make proclamations about what they may or may not
> need. That's a dangerous thing to do.

If you are mentioning your children in your post, we will reply to that. We all have children. You brought into the discussion how yours eat popcorn and take vitamin and writing that children do not need vitamin is not a command to yours



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2012 06:31PM by madinah.

coco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...we're
> talking about concentrated FOOD. If you wish to
> continue ignoring that fact you might want to
> start another thread about chemical vitamins.
> That's not what this topic is about.

madinah,

I can assure you that this supplement had a pronounced and real effect on my systems, likely because it is just a very, very concentrated whole food smoothie in a capsule, rather than a collection of synthetic vitamins in stearate.

Tamukha,
I would like to try them, especially those times when I travel.
You got a good point.
Why do you thing their vitamins are better than the competion?

Tamukha... which ones are you taking... i'm looking at the probiotic the multi for women and maybe the green powder or the protein powder... wonder if it's all neccessary... i've just been so very weak lately and would like a boost... and i found a place online to order for cheeper then in the store cept the probiotics... silly have to order them in batches of 6... cause they need to be special ordered... so i'll have to pay store price for those... but man are they pricey...

love laugh and dream

Does anyone know the process that they use to derive the vitamins and minerals from wholefood. I can't seem to find the information and on the labels of some of their raw products im sure i see synthethic chemical names for vitamins and some minerals.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

I just took a looki and it mentions it has chromium.

[www.mynaturalmarket.com]

That's probably what gives people the boost of energy.

Panchito Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> That's probably what gives people the boost of
> energy.

And the large amounts of B vitamins for energy.

The one you linked Panchito actually looks like a decent multi-vitamin/mineral on paper. I may give it a shot, i prefer to just use various green, herb and other wholefood powder mixes.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

That's the brand we take, I have found it excellent. Whole raw food, concentrated. I could do it myself in my dehydrator if I had the time to assemble and formula. They are doing a great job of it already though, I like to support a company like that and a store that carries their products. There's an abundance of raw specific products at that place.

ok the multi vitamin says it has probiotics in it... but they do not come chilled like the seperate probiotic comes so does this make them non viable??? what's the point of putting them in if they aren't going to work? any thoughts on this???

love laugh and dream

Many probiotic strains are stable at room temperature.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2012 06:34PM by powerlifer.

so is there any point to getting a separate probiotic???

love laugh and dream

What about JUICING for large intake of various vitamins/minerals? I cannot believe that any powders or tablets have the bio-energy that touches juice.

If you like it and you think it's meeting your needs and you have time for it every day, go for it. It doesn't work for me though. I have busy mornings, busy days (there are 3 of us that I'm caring for, it's a lot of work), I don't always have access to fresh everything I'd need to meet that a whole food multi or green powder provides and I sure don't have time to research what I'd need to combine and in what amounts to get the things I think we need.
I'm not a big fan of juice without the fiber anyhow. Now and then but not all the time. Dehydrated food is easy to take with a glass of water

don't currently have a juicer ... and quite honestly can't afford to get one and it's expensive to get all the produce to juice... I know these vitamins and powders can be expensive too... it's why I'm trying to figure out what is needed and what is not...

it seems to me though ever since i have been raw i have felt much weaker then I have in the past... and I would like to make sure i'm getting all the nutrients i need... some things are better... some things are worse... and some things haven't really changed...

love laugh and dream

luvyuu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it seems to me though ever since i have been raw i
> have felt much weaker then I have in the past...

Raw food is not as calorie dense as cooked food. Calories is energy! Raw foodist have to eat a lot more volume. The whole trick of raw food is the BLENDER not a juicer. A blender shrinks everything thing down and makes the food 'feel' more calory dense. It also help to gulp down meals in those practical days when fast meals re needed (more practical).

RAW vitamins are created using probiotic methods. I highly recommend these vitamins. I also drink lots of smoothie and juice, but I use the vitamins here and there to fill in any nutrient deficiency gaps. My partner is 8 months pregnant and she was anemic 2 months ago. we started doing parsley smoothies, and using the RAW prenatal and RAW iron pills. Her blood iron and b-12 went up to perfectly normal! I highly recommend the raw brand to people. Just don't let it replace juicing/smoothies!

Id still love to know the proper process but i can't find the information anywhere.

Culturing and fermenting wouldn't produce 1000% of various vitamins which makes me think that they are synthetic even though they state raw.

Generally if something is natural i.e wholefood it is hard to determine the exact amount of each nutrient because each batch differs and varies in nutrient levels, so im finding it hard to believe that it is not synthethic based especially the vitamin B12.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]