OUCH!

“Hey, have a safe 4th.”  “Hey, have a safe one.”  What is it about the 4th of July that compels people to always tell you to be safe?  Do they really think without their helpful reminder, that you might accidentally set off some bottle rockets in your shorts?  Or perhaps they are talking about that other 4th of July staple – BBQ grilling.  Are they telling you to make sure you grill the burger thoroughly on both sides so you can avoid the nasty E Coli or even this mad cow?

Really Mad Cow

 Whatever it is, I was told by several people to have a safe 4th.  And you know what?  I should have listened.  But more on that later.

At Fantasy Healthball, we are all about good health and the well-being of our Fantasy Healthball community (which you are one of since you are reading this blog!).  As you can read on our website, we think good health leads to happiness in all parts of life.  We care about our readers, the readers of our site, our blog, the Fantasy Healthball devotees who play our game, and the whole Fantasy Healthball community.  A few posts back, we reminded you to figure out ways to decrease stress in your life during these difficult economic times.  In this post, we have a quick word about safety. 

There is a reason NFL players wear pads.  Think of the meanest, nastiest, current NFL player you know and I can guarantee he wears big pads just like everyone else.  Safety doesn’t mean wimpy, safety means thinking about what you intend to accomplish and then putting some things in place that will help you get there.  Couple things happened this week that made me dwell on safety.  First, I bought my first great pair of running shoes ever.  For running shoes, I typically go down to the big box mart and buy whatever is on the best sale.  I usually wear them until they fall off me in shreds and long past when it feels like I have no foot protection left in them.   This week, as I turn 41 years old, I realized it was time to get smarter.  I went to our local specialty shoe store and had the crackerjack owner dissect my feet and running style until I walked out with the perfect running shoes for me.  If you have one of these places within 100 miles of where you live, it is worth it.  You can find a shoe basically made for your specific foot and running mechanics.  I hope my knees and joints thank me and continue to perform for many decades to come.  I make a Fantasy Healthball pledge to replace them once a year and show some respect to this aging machine I live in (my body). 

Okay, second safety episode this week.  While mountain biking near my house, I tried for the first time an extremely steep section of trail full of long ruts and covered in slippery gravel and rock.  I made it up with a series of small bursts like a blue painted Mel Gibson screaming “freeeedooom!!” while charging the opposing army.  On the way down, I did a “full on endo” which is an over-the-handle-bars- end-over-end-flying-flip where my bike landed on me and ultimately stopped 10 yards further down slope.  It looked exactly like:

  

So here is the point.  We care about your body, you should too.  If you are injured, your ability to exercise and burn calories is greatly reduced.  Today, I have a wrist injury, bruised ribs, and a pretty shoulder rash that looks like someone ran out of red ink on their Spirograph.  I won’t have a decent exercise anytime really soon.  So I’m going to pay even more attention to what I put in my mouth, keep control of my calorie intake, and go for some non-body-jarring walks.  A public service announcement from Fantasy Healthball:  exercise, eat right, and take good care of your body, it is aging and deserves it.  Oh, and one more thing, “have a safe one!”  — Jim Ballard

Black and Blue Division? Not Anymore.

Independence Day.  4th of July.  Fireworks.  Cookouts.  And around Fantasy Healthball, the celebration includes the heralding in of Training Camp Month.  July is the month all NFL teams begin Training Camps and officially the countdown begins to Kickoff 2009!  As the time for camps approach, we thought we would take a look around the divisions and see what may be in store this upcoming season.  We will start this week with the NFC North.

The NFC North, formerly the NFC Central.  Long known as the “Black and Blue” division.  Why ‘Black and Blue’?  Because these teams have been known for hard-hitting defense and punishing power running games for years and years.  But what is that we see as we gaze toward 2009?  Big, fast receivers and big-time quarterbacks now populate the division.

The biggest splash this off-season was made by the Chicago Bears acquisition of Jay Cutler.  Cutler is a Pro Bowl quarterback and the Bears will re-tool their offense from “we run getting off the bus” to “we’ve got a quarterback with a cannon arm and we’re not afraid to show it off.”  Expect Devin Hester to catch more than a few deep bombs from Cutler this season.  But we at Fantasy Healthball feel the biggest fantasy impact will come from TE Greg Olsen.  Olsen will catch 8-10 TD’s this year from Cutler.  Mark it down.

The Packers return a Pro Bowl quarterback themselves in Aaron Rodgers.  Brett who?  Rogers helped ease that pain by throwing TD after TD and giving the Packers continued aerial muscle in their attack.  With Greg Jennings healthy and entering his 2nd year full-time with Rodgers, expect this dynamic duo to make many fantasy owners happy all season long.

The Vikings are still pursuing Brett Favre at QB, and that still has possibilities.  If that comes to fruition, expect Bernard Berrian, now in his first full off-season with the Vikings, to show off the deep threat ability that landed him his huge free-agent contract with the Vikings one summer ago.  Another passing game threat will be newly drafted RB/WR Percy Harvin.  Harvin is a sure-handed, versatile player that just may make a major impact on this Vikings offense in ‘09.  All this, and we haven’t even mentioned Adrian Peterson, their All Pro running back.  With Peterson, the Vikings will have no problem keeping opposing defenses focused on stopping the run first, keeping all their receivers available to make plays.  The only question is who will be the trigger man.

Even the Lions can boast at the QB and WR positions this year.  The Lions used the #1 overall draft selection this year to pick Georgia QB Matt Stafford.  Stafford immediately becomes the face of this struggling franchise.  And with a terrific young receiver in Calvin Johnson, Stafford has some tools to work with immediately.  There will be growing pains for sure, but we expect the Lions to roll out their new top investment and let him fill Ford Field with spirals. 

It seems the only thing ‘black and blue’ this year in the NFC North, may be opposing defenses trying to figure out a way to slow down their suddenly potent passing attacks.  When you’re preparing for your fantasy football draft this year, don’t be afraid to load up on the quarterbacks and receivers in the North.  — Jeff Hagen

From Mini-Camp to Training Camp

In cities all over America, NFL teams are conducting Mini-camps this month.  What are Mini-Camps?  They are an official opportunity for NFL teams to start preparing for the upcoming season, prior to the official Training Camp which will begin in July.  The Mini-camp is essentially a long weekend whereby both team veterans and newly drafted players can meet with coaches and begin learning new plays and strategies to be used in the upcoming season.  They take small steps, one-by-one to prepare for the weekly grind that is the NFL season.  They don’t just show up in September without any practice and expect to perform at peak level right away.

This pattern makes good sense for all of us as we prepare to play Fantasy Healthball in the upcoming season.  If you have been taking time away from recording your Health Points, perhaps allowing yourself some slack in your daily health habits, consider conducting a one week Mini-Camp to get back into the swing of it.   Perhaps you’ve been considering a new health challenge?  A mini-camp is just the ticket you need to try it out before we start up for good in September.  

Take next week and the first week of July to run as Mini-Camps for Fantasy Healthball.  Get yourself re-acclimated to scoring yourself every day.  Then during July and August, string together 3 or 4 consecutive weeks as a Training Camp or Pre-Season effort.  By the time Season Kickoff rolls around on Monday, September 7th, you will be ready to roll and you can expect to perform with good consistency right from Week 1! — Jeff Hagen

Mental Health Day

I learned an important lesson in high school the day I skipped school to go with my friends to see “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”  The redundancy of the message was clear enough for even this high schooler to figure out – every once in a while it is important to take a mental health day.  A day unlike the normal routine.  A day where you do things you WANT to do and take time off from the normal world where you do a whole lot of things you HAVE to do. 

If you think of the stereotypical American vacation, you probably think of a station wagon driving through a national park with the next stop “the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?”  But our post today is to remind you that a vacation can also happen in a day, “a vacation day,” a mental health day.  And with a global pandemic, a severe recession worse than most of us (unless you were around when “Gone with the Wind” was a new release), jets falling into water, almost 10 million people receiving unemployment, nuclear weapon testing, shootings in museums, well, you get the picture, we all could use a little break now and then. 

Yesterday, I took such a break.  I took Friday off.  Here is what I learned:  if you are living with an unusual amount of stress, you should figure out how to do it too.  And don’t just sit on the couch and watch re-runs of the Beverly Hillbillies (okay, go ahead and do that, that “Granny and Jethro” are such a hoot!), but even better than that, we recommend focusing on your health and well being.  A correction back to a new normal if you have gotten off track.  I started with a long mountain bike ride.  Actually, it wasn’t intended to be quite so long but I got lost in the middle of a state park and it added 45 extra minutes to my ride.  The getting lost part was a great diversion from my day to day office job.  While lost, you have to consider what happens if you stay lost – could I catch that jack rabbit for dinner?  Could I start a fire with my stainless steel canteen and some rocks?  But I digress.

Let me cut to the chase.  I biked (exercise), had some great seafood (nutritious), got a massage (relaxed and mental health boost), and hung out with great friends (more mental health).  Those are the body and mental health things I did and today I feel calm, relaxed, happy, and newly prepared to face the world.  At Fantasy Healthball, we know these are tough times and we care about your well being.  So take our advice, take a break from the stress and the vending machine junk food.  Pick up that banana and bowl of blueberries.  Get some good exercise.  See a friend.  It is tough times out there, remember to take care of yourself.  — Jim Ballard

Guest Blog Post – Why Fantasy Healthball Works for me (Part 2 of 2)

And now, part II of Duff Beach’s post: 

The tools are more important than the game.  The great thing about Fantasy Healthball is that the lessons you learn in battle stay with you after the season ends.  I haven’t counted calories in a long time, but daily I think about what I’m eating and how it affects me.  When I eat ice cream (I won’t ever give it up), I think about it and understand its effects.  When I have that third beer while watching the game, I think about it.  When I’m traveling on business, I make sure I take a walk before I go to bed and I eat a salad rather than a cheeseburger.  There’s no rocket science here.  Instead there’s habit and understanding, two things Fantasy Healthball instills.

Fantasy Healthball is only part of the equation; it’s my offense.  A looming health insurance physical became my special teams.  Not because I really wanted the lower rates (I did), but because insurance companies base their rates (their risk) on odds.  It’s not unlike baseball.  Sure, the career minor leaguer, called up for two weeks who’s batting below the Mendoza line could hit the game-winning homerun in the bottom of the ninth.  It could happen.  And a guy my height, weight and cholesterol level could live to be 90.  But it’s not likely.  Just like you want the career .300 hitter who averages 40 home runs stepping into the batters box when it matters, the insurance company wants to insure someone who’s fit.  I looked at the odds (and the rates) and realized they weren’t good.  Caring about being there for my family is my special teams.

Defense wins championships.  Playing Fantasy Healthball by itself won’t make you healthy.  Caring about the outcome will.  I used the good offense to create my best defense; I got the tools I needed from Fantasy Healthball.  My defense is the will power: knowing that I needed to walk past the jar of candy on my co-worker’s desk, make the oatmeal instead of grabbing the donut, have tea at night rather than a brownie with ice cream.  It’s not always easy, but it’s working.

I’m not there yet, but for the first time in 6 years I’m closer to 190 than 200, and still moving in the right direction, marching down the field slowly, steadily, and without any gimmicks.  I’m insurable, I’m a little quicker on my bike and hockey skates, and on top of it all, I feel better about myself.  Thanks Fantasy Healthball: you showed me the way with a good, fundamental offense.  — Duff Beach

Guest Blog Post – Why Fantasy Healthball Works for me (Part 1 of 2)

A Fantasy Healthball “high five” to Duff Beach for writing in with the below.  We’ll post the rest of his letter in our next blog post:

You need three things to win at football: offense, defense, and special teams.  The same is true for me and my health.  Fantasy Healthball is my offense.

I’m your typical 35-year old weekend warrior.  Almost fifteen years out of college I found myself tipping the scales 30 pounds heavier than when I graduated (and 40 pounds heavier than my “fighting weight” from my post-college Army days).  Not good.  Literally since I’ve been 10 I’ve struggled with my weight.  I’ve never been morbidly obese, but I’ve always eaten too much, and, not surprisingly, I’ve been too heavy most of my adult life.

I’m something of an athlete, and when I was in the Army and running five times a week, I could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and stay relatively fit (and I don’t want to know what my cholesterol level was like), but whereas my eating habits stayed the same, the Army didn’t last.  There went the scales.  Playing hockey once a week wasn’t cutting it.  At just shy of 6 feet and weighing 215 pounds, I realized enough was enough.  I tried Atkins and immediately dropped back to 200, but I didn’t like it, and my wife thought it was crazy to eat that way (she’s probably right).  Back up to 215.  I started biking to work.  That got me back down to about 205, so I compensated by eating more.  Not long before I was back between 210 and 215.

Then I found Fantasy Healthball.  Was it the panacea?  Not exactly, but it was a huge step in the right direction.  It became my offense.  There are plenty of different offenses out there.  For me Atkins was the run-and-shoot: a gimmick that offered immediate results, but couldn’t work in the long run.  Fantasy Healthball is the pro-set, I-formation.  It’s not flashy, it’s not earth shattering, but it’s tried, true, and it works.  Not on its own; you still need defense and special teams, but it’s a reliable offense that moves the ball down field.

How did it work for me?  First, like a lot of sports fans out there, I don’t like losing.  Wearing my lucky t-shirt is of dubious worth for my beloved Wisconsin Badgers, but I can control my Healthball score.  If I’m playing, I’m playing to win, and that means adhering to my various Healthball goals.

Second, Healthball isn’t a deprivation system.  Instead of shocking your system, it’s a holistic, moderate approach to healthy living, not an instant path to short-term weight loss.  It’s built on the basics: exercise more, eat better.  That’s the other thing: it’s not necessarily eat less, it’s eat better.  Moreover, it’s not dogmatic.  You don’t have to do everything right every day.  If you’re going to compete with the best, you’d better work hard, but you can have your ice cream, a soda, miss some sleep.  Just don’t do it a lot.  Also, you set your own goals.  Different people need to focus on different things.  For me it’s food intake, but for others its exercise, or caffeine, or sodium, etc.  And finally, there’s Sunday — the day off (because I’m a college football fan, I adjusted that to Saturday).  By nature, I’m not an extremist.  Fantasy Healthball’s rational and moderate system works for me.

Third, and most important, Fantasy Healthball gave me the tools I’d need to compete in the big game.  There’s nothing like counting calories for a few weeks to really understand what you’re eating.  Seeing the difference between eating white bread and wheat, a Snickers bar and an orange, or an extra serving of steak versus an extra serving of brown rice.  And there’s nothing like tracking your exercise, sleep, drinking, and eating habits to show you where you’re missing out.  –  Duff Beach

The O-Line – Vitamin B

So we’ve covered vitamin and mineral basics, free radicals vs. antioxidants, and why you should Vote Yes on [vitamin] A!  And after A, comes…well…B!  The B vitamins were long confusing to me.  They made about at much sense to me as punting on second down.  First of all, all those numbers were confusing:  B1, B2, B3, there is no B4, but there is a B5, 6, and 7, but no 8, 10, or 11 but I hear about B12 all the time.  Calgon take me awwwaaaaay!  The other confusing part was the names:  Thiamin, Riboflavin, Pryidoxine, Cobalamin, not sure if those are vitamins or the names of friendly centaurs in a JRR Tolkien epic!

The good news is that the numbers aren’t used as much anymore.  My Trader Joe’s vitamins list the names of the B vitamins instead of the numbers (except for B6 and B12 which they list both for some reason – maybe because some people may still look for them by number) (by the way, the reason for the skipped numbers is that scientists once may have thought it was two different Bs but then realized it was the same or not a vitamin at all, so the numbering system got messed up over the years).  The other good news is that my daily vitamin supplement has all the B’s, so I don’t have to worry about memorizing their names.  They are all there in my vitamin tablets and the food I eat.  Here is what they do (with one food example each just to give you an idea):

Thiamin (B1):  nerve, heart, and brain functions, memory, convert food to energy (sunflower seeds)

Riboflavin (B2):  energy, energy, energy, helps growth and development (yogurt)

Niacin (B3):  all sorts of great stuff your body does behind the scenes, also releases energy, removes toxins (tuna)

Pantothenic Acid (B5):  breaks down fats, proteins, and carbs into energy; makes vitamin D, hormones, red blood cells (chicken leg)

Pyridoxine (B6):  makes amino acids into proteins and makes enzymes your body needs, immunity (banana)

Biotin (B7):  breaks down fats, proteins, and carbs into energy (peanut butter)

Folic Acid (B9):  helps cells grow, keeps arteries open, prevents birth defects and heart disease (lentils)

Cobalamin (B12):  breaks down fats, proteins, and carbs into energy; prevents heart disease, happy blood cells (clams)

Remember, the B’s are water soluble so you need daily doses and your body just flushes what it doesn’t need (you can overdo niacin and pyridoxine in huge doses).  While there are recommended daily allowances for B vitamins, most people get what they need from the foods they eat and/or through their daily vitamin.  B’s are everywhere:  meat, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, peanut butter, breakfast cereals, bread, oranges, peas, beans, whole grains, leafy veggies, nuts, bananas, potatoes, avocados, liver, oatmeal (we don’t recommend those last two combined in one bowl), salmon, clams, beets, cheese, and more. 

Getting your B’s can do all the above, and also help with depression, some negative effects of aging, high cholesterol, and immunity.  In a word, you might remember B’s as your “base.”  They are the basic vitamins that help your body to run its normal operations smoothly.  In Fantasy Healthball terms, they are like a good offensive line that allows you to run a successful offense!  — Jim Ballard

Stop Food Racism Now! Vote Yes on A!

ESPN’s Len Pasquarelli wrote this about the NFL’s diversity:

“Consider the most memorable moment of Super Bowl XL [in 2006]: On the touchdown play that secured a fifth Vince Lombardi Trophy for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a white quarterback born and raised in Middle America and drafted in the first round (Ben Roethlisberger) handed off to a black tailback from a small town in North Carolina who made the roster as a free agent (Willie Parker). He reversed the ball to a player with a Muslim-sounding surname but who was raised in the Pentecostal faith (Antwaan Randle El), who then threw it to a wide receiver born in Seoul, South Korea, (Hines Ward) to parents of mixed races, for a game-clinching 43-yard hookup.”

NFL teams are stronger when made up of players from all parts of the earth.  And at Fantasy Healthball, life imitates the NFL far more than the NFL imitates life.  In other words, your body is stronger when you fuel it with healthy foods from all parts of the earth, made up of all colors.  The more colors the better.  You need diversity for great health.

Carotenes are what give foods their vivid colors – think carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes.  Carotenes are the natural plant forms of Vitamin A.  You need both Vitamin A and carotene.  You may remember that Vitamin A is fat soluble, so it can store in your body.  Vitamin A helps fight infections and illness.  It helps your body’s defenses grow and repair themselves.  It is good for healthy eyes and cell growth.  You will find a load of Vitamin A in liver.  But if that is not your thang, you can also find it in American, Swiss, or cheddar cheese; eggs; skim milk; yogurt; swordfish; salmon; and many other foods.

You can also get your A through plant foods with carotenes.  Beta carotene is the majority leader of the carotenes.  You body converts beta carotene in your small intestine into Vitamin A.  If you have had plenty of Vitamin A, your body can regulate and store the beta carotene for use later.  The leftovers help fight off those nasty Free Radical Raiders.  That’s right, Vitamin A is an antioxidant.

 Where do you get ‘em?  Carotenes are found in most every fruit and vegetable.  Eat those, and you will be golden (no, not literally).  They’ll give you all the Vitamin A you need.  Vitamin A from animal sources include eggs, liver, poultry, milk, and dairy.  But those can be high in calories and cholesterol too, so the best way is fruits and veggies.  If you are a male over 14 years old, you need about 3,000 IU of Vitamin A a day.  In really large doses (over 25,000 IU daily), Vitamin A can be toxic so don’t go way overboard.  Beta carotene doesn’t have a recommended allowance but the suggested range by nutritionists seem to be in the 6mg to 15 mg range.  Just stick to eating it in your healthy foods and in your daily vitamin and you don’t have to worry about these ranges.  Wanna know how many fruits and vegetables to have in a day?  Check out this nifty on-line calculator. 

Here are some foods very high in beta carotene:  raw carrots, cooked sweet potatoes, cooked collard greens, apricots, cantaloupe, cooked kale, peaches, red peppers, cooked spinach, winter squash, watermelon, oranges, and tomatoes. 

So embrace diversity.  Eat your colors.  Vote Yes on A!  — Jim Ballard

Free Radical Raiders vs. the Antioxidant Giants

Giants vs. Raiders.  East vs. West.  But we we aren’t talking Eli Manning and Darren McFadden.  This is about an internal struggle you should know about. 

In our last post, we talked about how we need vitamins and minerals to stay healthy, grow, convert food to energy, defend against infection, and stay sharp and strong.  But another thing they do is act as powerful antioxidants.  We all hear that word all the time and we know it must mean something good because products promote how much they have of it!! 

The antioxidants are our Giants.  A proud team with a history of winning.  In your body, they are the enzymes that round up those nasty Free Radical Raiders and keep them from scoring – they neutralize them.  The Free Radical Raiders are mean, tough, and destructive (sound familiar?).  In your body, they are the unstable oxygen atoms that cause damage to your cells.  They are missing an electron from a pair and go around robbing other atoms creating more radicals.  Picture a large senior prom where everyone has a date but then a bunch of lonesome (yet handsome) singles crash the party and start stealing everyone’s dates.  Chaos ensues! 

In our body, free radicals are created through natural processes and by the effects of chemicals and toxins like cigarette smoke or air pollution.  If left to multiply and create chaos, they can lead to cancer and heart disease.  So it is a battle between Raiders and Giants. 

So let’s say this is happening in your body right now, and it is.  And lets say, for this example, you are the head coach of the Giants (sorry Oakland fans, we’ll make it up to you in some other post!).  You want to do everything you can to prepare your team to win.  You want to blow out the Free Radical Raiders and overwhelm them.  How do you do it?  With your Giants.  And to bring us back to our last post, your Giants are vitamins and minerals – especially Vitamin C, A, E, beta carotene, and selenium.  Eat those fruits and veggies!

Here are some Fantasy Healthball recommended foods high in antioxidant Giants:  berries (cranberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberry, strawberry, etc.), broccoli, tomatoes, red grapes, garlic, spinach, tea, carrots, soy, whole grains, beans (red kidney, pinto, black, etc.) artichokes, prunes, apples, nuts (pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc.), cherries, plums, russet potatoes, grapefruit, oranges, cabbage, kale, peppers, beets, Brussels sprouts, barley, millet, oats, corn, raisins, and more.   Like any of those?  Work them into your diet.  And you’ll defeat those Radical Raiders.  Go get ‘em!   – Jim  Ballard

Vitamins Made Easy

Flintstones vitamins were introduced to the public in 1968, the same year Jeff and I were introduced to the public (born).  Though it would be a few years before I came to appreciate Fred, Barney (no, not the purple dinosaur), Wilma, and Betty, vitamins have always been a part of my life.  Flintstones added “gummies” vitamins a few years back but the concept remains the same, we all need vitamins and minerals to stay healthy, grow, convert food to energy, defend against infection, and stay sharp and strong. 

At Fantasy Healthball, we encourge you to eat a healthy diet, which, by definition will be packed with vitamins and minerals.  BUT, it won’t be enough.  Most of us can’t eat a good, balanced, nutritious diet every breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week.  And even if we could, would we be certain we were getting enough of every single vitamin and mineral our body needs?  Probably not.  So we have the solution for you!  Is it magic?  Is it a shocking new discovery?  Is it an ancient secret?  No.  It is simply called “taking your vitamins/minerals.”

Our next several blog posts will deal with the important facts you need to know about vitamins and minerals.  We’ll leave out the extra stuff and the hardcore science and just give you what you need to know about this great way to improve your health.

We recommend a daily vitamin.  There are all sorts of great options at your local grocery store, pharmacy, or health food store.  Personally, I take two tablets a day (which is the serving size) of Trader Darwin’s High Potency Multiple Vitamin and Mineral Sustained Release Dietary Supplement from Trader Joe’s.  If I’m feeling a cold coming on or if I’m about to be on an airplane or in a pre-school class, I might add their Zinc, Vitamin C 1000mg., and their Echinacea.  We’ll talk about all these and many more. 

First, what is the difference between a vitamin and a mineral?  A vitamin is an organic (has carbon) compound your body needs in small amounts for good health.  Minerals are inorganic elements (think iron or calcium) that your body needs to be healthy. 

Vitamins can be divided into fat-soluble or water soluble.  The fat-soluble vitamins (Vitamin A, E, D, and K) are stored in your body (mostly in fat tissues) and they don’t dissolve in water so you don’t necessarily need to get a supply of them every day.  Water soluble vitamins (Vitamin C and all the B’s) can’t be stored for very long, they dissolve in water, and any excess is carried out of your body regularly.  So you need a new supply daily.  Each vitamin has a recommended daily amount shown on most packages as the % Daily Value, or how much that tablet has of each vitamin as a percentage of what is recommended in a day.  For example, one serving size (2 tablets) of my Trader Darwin multiple vitamins has 5,000 IU of Vitamin A, which is 100% of the recommended daily value. 

We’ll get into the recommended amounts in future posts.  And we’ll fill you in on what you should know about all the vitamins and minerals.  But for now, just know that the American diet leaves plenty of room for improvement!   And one great way to improve it is to take a daily vitamin/mineral supplement.  Whether it is a tablet, capsule, liquid, or gummy, we give it a Fantasy Healthball high five.  More to come.  — Jim Ballard