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

Sugar on Steriods – the Artificial Sweetener Story

Okay, let’s start off with a Fantasy Healthball poll:

  

 Even if you checked “none of the above,” you may unknowingly be getting some of these products in food or drinks you consume on a regular basis.  Or you may know these by other names – Nutrasweet and Equal are “aspartame” and Splenda is “sucralose.”  Aspartame can be found in soft drinks, sugar-free chewing gum, yogurt, lemonade, and thousands of other foods and drinks.  Sucralose is in candy, breakfast bars, soft drinks, and thousands of other foods and drinks.

We call these sweeteners “sugar on steriods.”  Sucralose is about 600 times as sweet as table sugar.  It is about twice as sweet as saccharin or Stevia, over three times as sweet as aspartame, and four times as sweet as a yellow lab puppy.  Now that is sweet!

Stevia is the rookie joining the veteran artificial sweeteners.  Click here to watch a really good two minute video that recently popped up on our health news feeds on our blog.  Here is the article that goes with it.  The video says that artificial sweeteners may actually lead to weight gain.  It says, “When your body takes in something sweet, your metabolism revs up to start burning off the calories that usually follow.  But when the calories just aren’t there, your body could get confused and the next time you take in real sugar that metabolic response may not kick in.”  “The study seems to explain why some of the heaviest consumers of artificial sweeteners are some of the heaviest Americans.”

But the report points out it is just one study.  And there have been tons of studies on these products.  The FDA must approve these before they are sold in the US so all of these products have been deemed safe by the FDA.  But the studies continue.  Aspartame, for example, if you believe like I do that Wikipedia is the source of all the universe’s knowledge, was discovered in 1965 but there was worry it caused cancer in rats but it was finally approved in dry goods in the 1980s and for all foods in 1996.  But even 10 years later, one study still concluded its toxicity increased several malignancies of rats.  One rebuttal to the study said the researchers misdiagnosed lesions as malignancies.  I guess one man’s malignancy is another man’s lesion. 

With all that confusion and noise out there, here is some Fantasy Healthball logic for you:  Americans consume way too much sugar.  So what do we do when we realize that?  We make chemical sugar that is hundreds of times sweeter and market it to people who want to lose weight and have good health!  How about this crazy idea:  let’s just eat less sugar. 

Here at Fantasy Healthball, we can’t guarantee that if you consume lots of artificial sweeteners you will be safe or unsafe.  We think the jury is still out on these products and it can take decades to know their true effects with certainty.  Will you be perfectly safe?  Will you get cancer?  Will you grow a waddle and cluck like a chicken?  We don’t know. 

But what we DO KNOW is that it is healthier to keep sugar and artificial sweeteners to a minimum in your diet.  Drinking pure, filtered water gets you a refreshing drink without artificial anything.  We also suggest low or non fat milk, soy milk, 100% fruit juice (we love orange and apple), vegetable juice, tea, and our top scientists here at Fantasy Healthball (okay, it is me) are starting to look into Miller’s new 64 calorie beer, hmmmmm, more on that to come.  — Jim Ballard

Quick Weight Loss – Lose Weight Fast – No Work Needed – Heh Heh

If it promised that you could lose weight without changing your diet or having to worry about exercising, would you buy a product called Slim Fast, Perfect Slim, Super Fat Burner, or 3 Day Diet?  If you did, you would be buying a product that the FDA has on a list of “tainted weight loss pills” that may “put consumers’ health at risk.”  We have written before about magic beans that can make you lose weight fast, now we are finding that the FDA is getting more serious about cracking down on weight loss pills.  You mean maybe these things don’t work magic?  Huh?

Last month, the FDA, for the second time, expanded its nationwide alert about tainted weight loss products.  It was just December 2008 when the FDA had 28 products on the list.  The next month, the list grew to 41 products.  Now we are at 72!  It is like an auction.  28, 28, I’ve got 28 do I hear 41?  Yes, 41, 41, 41.  Oh, a bid of 72.  Okay 72, 72, do I hear 100?  Yes, the young huckster in the back flashing the sleazy grin bids 100!

The tainted products on the list are sold on the web, some retail stores, and beauty salons.  The FDA says they will do recalls, warning letters, seizures, injunctions, or criminal charges.  That sounds great to us, but meanwhile, they are still on the shelf or only a few clicks of the mouse away as people get ready for warm summer weather and wanted to fit into that bathing suit from last year.  So maybe you want to risk it and give Super Fat Burner a chance?  Well, how do you feel about (the FDA’s health risk warnings of) high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, or my favorite, “sudden death?”  Makes it sound so, so……sudden. 

So why the crackdown now?  Doesn’t the FDA always keep us safe?  The FDA regulates pharmaceuticals before they get to the consumer but they can only check out dietary supplements and diet pills once they are on the shelves.  Feel secure?  Is this a big deal?  How about $1.7 billion spent on weight loss pills in 2007?  Sounds like a big deal to us.  We think, at a minimum, you should be talking to your doctor about any supplements you are taking.  Better yet, cut that garbage out!!  Stop looking for magic beans. 

We can direct you to the “magic” substances that will make you healthier.  They go by arcane and mysterious names like “carrot,” “strawberry,” “apple,” “leafy greens,” and the like.  You can read all about them at a website that will never try to sell you something that will later appear on a FDA unsafe list.  Whole grains, fruits, and veggies, water, these and other foods are your ticket to great health.  Sorry 3 Day Diet, but weren’t not buyin’ it.  — Jim Ballard

Snack Cravings – Snacks to pack and snacks that lack

Snacks can get a bad rap, but can be an important part of your healthy diet.  If it weren’t for snacks, we’d be starving at meal times and more likely to over-eat.  Some of our favorite snacks are:  an apple, a banana, raisins, dried fruits, celery, carrots, an egg, low or no salt pretzels, crackers with hummus, yogurt, and a mozzarella stick (no, not beer battered).  Or just pick your favorite fruit or vegetable.  Watermelon, oranges, cantaloupe, grapes, the yummy list goes on and on and you need more of them in your diet. 

Sometimes you get cravings for food even when you are not hungry, just because you are bored.  Don’t eat because you are bored.  When you feel like you are about to eat when you are bored, think of Fantasy Healthball.  Read the sports page.  Watch a few minutes of Sports Center.  Go outside and throw a football.  Walk swiftly around the block.  Or just eat if you want to, but make it something snack-appropriate like your favorite fruit or vegetable. 

Overcoming cravings to us is about attitude.  It is like attitude like running the football is about attitude.  Are we gonna shove you back or are you gonna shove us back?  Who wants it more?  It is the same with cravings.  Control them instead of them controlling you.  If you really aren’t hungry, then make them wait until you are.  If you are hungry, snack smart. 

But what happens when you are at home watching TV and that new ad for a Big Mac or some new triple-double-bacon-four-cheese-special sauce-burger comes on and tempts you to jump in your car and go get one?  You must think Fantasy Healthball and play some defense!  That ad is like an offensive assault against your game plan.  Feel free to do some Warren Sapp-like trash talk to the TV:  “You ain’t coming after me…I’m too good…Get that weak stuff out of my house…Not in my house!…Not in my house!…DE-FENSE, baby!”  — Jim Ballard