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A Comparison of Nutritional Supplements

Hi, this is Gail Stolzenburg, professional health coach, author of “One Minute to Health”, and publisher of Fitness & Nutrition Newsletter. You requested information on how the leading nutritional supplements compared with each other. At the end of this message, I've included an excerpt from The Comparative Guide for Nutritional Supplements by BioScientist Lyle McWilliams. Before you check out the comparison of Nutritional Supplements, here is some background information from Dr. Ray Strand:

Nutritional Supplementation

The most important lifestyle change that each and every one of you needs is actually the simplest to achieve. You merely need to begin taking what I refer to as cellular nutrition. This is consuming nutritional supplements that provide all the nutrients to the cell at optimal levels (those levels shown to provide a health benefit in our medical literature) and allowing the cell to decide what it does and does not need. This concept of nutritional supplementation not only allows you to correct any nutritional deficiencies but also allows you to bring all these important micronutrients needed by the cell back to optimal levels.

My book, "What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You" Thomas Nelson (2002) details the problem of oxidative stress and the solution, which is cellular nutrition. I am only able to review the highlights of that book at this time; however, I would encourage all of you to get this book so that you can learn in greater detail about the health benefits that nutritional supplementation offers. This book is available on this web page's book store.

Oxidative Stress

The scientific medical literature is beginning to show us that the root or underlying cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer dementia, and even insulin resistance is due to oxidative stress. As I shared with you in week four's training, oxidative stress initially attacks the capillary bed within the muscle. This creates vasoconstriction (narrowing of the arteries) of the capillary bed, which makes it more difficult for insulin to pass from the blood stream to the cell where it is able to perform its job. But what is oxidative stress?

As our body utilizes oxygen needed to sustain life itself, occasionally a charged oxygen molecule is produced called a free radical. This oxygen molecule has at least one unpaired electron in its outer orbit, which gives it an electrical charge. This electrical charge creates a highly-reactive oxygen molecule that has very rapid movement in its quest to find an additional electron from any source nearby. If this free radical is not readily neutralized by an antioxidant, which has the ability to give this free radical an additional electron and render it harmless, it can go on to create even more volatile free radicals, damage the cell wall, vessel wall, proteins, fats, and even the DNA nucleus of the cell.

However, we are not defenseless against this attack by these free radicals. Our bodies actually make antioxidants and we are able to get additional antioxidants from our foods - primarily our fruits and vegetables. It all becomes a matter of balance. You want to have enough antioxidants available to handle the number of free radicals you produce. If you don't, then oxidative stress occurs and your body is damaged.

The number of free radicals you produce is not steady or constant. There are many situations and conditions that increase the number of free radicals you produce. Excessive emotional stress, excessive exercise, pollutants in our air, food, and water, cigarette smoke, medications, sunlight, and radiation all cause us to make excessive free radicals. Because of our stressful lifestyles, polluted environment, and poor diet, the medical literature has shown us that supplementing our diet with a wide variety of different antioxidants and their supporting minerals and vitamin B cofactors offers us significant health benefits.

Health Benefits of Nutritional Supplements

• Enhance the immune system
• Enhance the antioxidant defense system
• Decrease the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer
• Decrease the risk of arthritis, macular degeneration, and cataracts
• Decrease the risk of asthma and hay fever
• Decrease the risk of Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, and many other chronic degenerative diseases
• Improved sensitivity to your own insulin and it helps release fat

Again, I would encourage you to read, "What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You” and “Healthy for Life” to learn about all the health benefits that nutritional supplements offer you. However, in this message I am going to focus on improving insulin resistance and why nutritional supplements need to become an integral part of your new healthy lifestyle.

The Postprandial State - How the Intake of Food Affects Your Health

You are learning that the way you and I eat has a significant influence on our health. Food becomes either your greatest ally or your greatest enemy. The decision is really yours. Medical research is now beginning to show that it is not the fasting state that is critical but instead the period of time that occurs shortly after the meal - called the postprandial state. Whether you are diabetic, overweight, apparently healthy young adult, or a normal, active child, how and what you eat is critical to your health.

High Blood Sugars Following a Meal (Hyperglycemia)

After you have eaten a high-glycemic meal, your blood sugars rise very rapidly creating significantly elevated blood sugars referred to in the medical literature as hyperglycemia. Ceriello, et al. has shown that this elevated blood sugar in your blood stream actually produces a significant rise in the number of free radicals you produce. These excessive free radicals cause significant oxidative stress to the fine single-cell lining of our arteries, called the endothelium. There is not only evidence of increased oxidative stress following this type of meal but also significant depletion in our antioxidants trying to combat all these excessive free radicals.

These findings have not only been seen in diabetic patients but also in normal, healthy individuals whose blood sugars are elevated but are still in very normal range. The oxidative stress created by this hyperglycemia causes damage and dysfunction of this fine lining of our arteries, which is referred to as endothelial dysfunction.

Endothelial Dysfunction

Physicians and researchers are beginning to appreciate the fact that heart disease is NOT a disease of cholesterol. Over half of the patients who suffer a heart attack, actually have normal cholesterol levels. Cardiovascular disease (coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease) is the result of a low-grade inflammation of your arteries - not a result of too much cholesterol in your blood stream. Native LDL cholesterol is not the "bad" cholesterol, but instead it is the "oxidized" or "modified" LDL cholesterol that has been damaged by these excessive free radicals. Therefore, the excessive free radicals produced following a high glycemic meal not only damage the endothelial lining but also oxidize this native LDL cholesterol. The oxidized or modified LDL cholesterol creates even more free radicals and further damage to the endothelium, which leads to what is known as endothelial dysfunction.

The inflammation that is produced by this oxidative stress to the lining of our arteries attracts in a certain type of white cell called a macrophage in an attempt to clean up this mess. The macrophage slips into the space just under the endothelium and starts gobbling up the oxidized LDL cholesterol and after awhile literally become stuffed with this modified LDL cholesterol. Once a macrophage becomes stuffed with fat it is then called a foam cell. This foam cell not only creates more free radicals and additional oxidative stress but it also attaches to the vessel wall and leads to the beginning of "hardening of the arteries". This early plaque is purely an inflammatory lesion and is the result of oxidative stress caused by the elevated blood sugar following a high glycemic meal. This lesion can even be found in young children and adolescent children.

The endothelial dysfunction that results from the chain of events detailed above not only leads to hardening of the arteries but also a reduction in the endothelial derived nitric oxide. Nitric oxide a substance actually produced by the endothelium itself and causes the arteries to relax and dilate. However, the high blood sugars following a meal causes a transient loss of nitric oxide and your arteries literally go into spasm (vasoconstriction).

This is the beginning of insulin resistance. The transient high blood sugars following a high glycemic meal creates excessive free radicals that not only oxidizes LDL cholesterol but also damages the endothelium and reduces the production of nitric oxide. The small arteries located in the capillary bed of the muscles then go into spam and make it more difficult for insulin to pass from the blood vessel to the cell where it is needed to lower the blood sugar. You may also recall that insulin actually is a stimulant for increased nitric oxide production, which in normal circumstances dilates the capillary bed and increases blood flow to the muscle. This high blood sugar cancels this normal affect of insulin and leads to insulin resistance. Of course, the beta cells of the pancreas need to make more insulin to compensate for this newly acquired insulin resistance.

High Fatty Meal

Plotnick, et al. reported a study in the JAMA, which also looked at what happened to our arteries following a high fatty meal. In fact, they gave their subjects an Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin, and 2 hash brown patties (900 calories and 50 grams of fat - primarily saturated fat or partially hydrogenated fat). They then checked the function of their arteries (endothelial function) in their forearms with the use of an ultrasound machine. The arteries of these patients went into spasm for 4 hours following this single high-fat meal. Again the degree of spasm noted during this study was associated with the level of triglycerides following the meal and not the level of triglycerides prior to the meal. The researchers documented the cause of this arterial spasm and endothelial dysfunction was the result of oxidative stress caused by the high-fat meal. This spasm did not occur with those individuals who were given a low-fat meal. On the surface, this study supports the use of a low-fat meal. However, as you have learned earlier, the decrease in the amount of fat you eat is replaced by an increase in the amount of carbohydrate (usually high glycemic carbohydrates) you eat. It seems that you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don't. However, realizing that both the high glycemic meal and the high fat meal leads to increased free radical production and oxidative stress offers you hope and a solution.

Antioxidant Supplements - The Answer

As you are learning throughout the Healthy for Life Program, you need to be combining good low-glycemic carbohydrates, with good fat, and good protein in each meal and snack so that you don't even spike your blood sugar. The fat that you will be eating will be primarily good fat (omega-3 essential fats and monosaturated fats). These fats actually decrease free radical production and inflammation. However, it is important for you to realize that consuming antioxidant supplements with each meal not only protects your arteries but is essential for great, vibrant health and of course fat loss.

Dr. Plotnick reported that when optimal levels of vitamin C and vitamin E were given along with the high-fat meal, this endothelial dysfunction was prevented. Also, there have now been several studies that have shown that supplemental vitamin C and vitamin E are able to reverse this endothelial dysfunction caused by the elevated blood sugars in diabetic patients and patients with coronary artery disease.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is the best antioxidant located within the plasma or blood. It also has the ability to easily neutralize the superoxide free radical that is created by hyperglycemia and elevated triglycerides. When vitamin C is given in supplementation to diabetic patients who already have significant endothelial dysfunction, endothelial function as well as nitric oxide function significantly improves. Dr. Levine also demonstrated that when vitamin C was given to patients who were suffering from coronary artery disease that their endothelial dysfunction was reversed. Dr. Levine concludes that vitamin C effectively restores the normal release and function of nitric oxide and also prevents the oxidation of the LDL cholesterol.

Vitamin C also has the ability to regenerate vitamin E and the potent intracellular antioxidant - glutathione. Dr. Ceriello appreciates the fact that antioxidants work together in the body and it is hard to separate them out and try to study them individually. He states, "these antioxidants act synergistically in vivo (in the body), so as to provide the organism with a greater protection against radical damage than any single antioxidant can provide by itself." It therefore, becomes important to look at all these studies as showing just a glimpse of the total picture that is actually occurring inside the body.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is the most potent antioxidant within the cell membrane. In fact, several studies have shown that vitamin E is able to incorporate itself into the wall of the LDL cholesterol and help prevent it from becoming modified or oxidized by excessive free radicals. Dr. Paolisso, et al. also reported that optimal levels of vitamin E not only helped reduce the oxidative stress created by hyperglycemia and elevated triglycerides in the blood stream but it also improved insulin function. Vitamin E not only helps glucose transport but also improves the pancreatic beta cell response to glucose and its subsequent production of insulin.

Chromium Supplementation

Chromium levels are not only critical for the proper functioning of insulin but also for fat and glucose metabolism in the body. Most diabetic patients are very low in chromium and several studies have looked at giving these diabetic patients chromium in supplementation. In fact, now chromium is routinely added to intravenous nutrition solutions used for very ill diabetic patients because of the results of these studies. Depending on the degree of insulin resistance or diabetes, individuals with insulin resistance tend to lose their ability to convert chromium into a usable form. This problem along with the fact that this relative chromium deficiency appears to get worse the worse the insulin or diabetes mellitus makes supplementation of chromium essential. There is also strong evidence that the intake of high glycemic carbohydrates increases chromium loss.

There are really no practical methods of determining chromium status in the body. Therefore, chromium should be supplemented at optimal levels (at least 300 mcg daily) in anyone who has insulin resistance or diabetes mellitus. Dr. Richard Anderson, et al. saw a rapid drop in hemoglobin A1C levels, significant decrease in triglycerides along with an increase in HDL cholesterol, and obviously blood sugar levels with the use of chromium supplementation. What is very interesting is the fact that these same improvements were seen in nondiabetic control subjects, which leads me to believe that many of the control subjects were suffering from insulin resistance.

Supplemental chromium leads to an increase binding of insulin to the receptor sites of the cell due to an increase in these receptor sites. There is also evidence that chromium allows insulin to be more active and effective in doing its job. Chromium has also been shown to make the pancreatic beta cells more sensitive for the effective release of insulin. Dr. Anderson concludes that the overall effect of supplemental chromium is to increase insulin sensitivity, which leads to helping reverse of the metabolic syndrome.

Magnesium Supplementation

Magnesium plays a very important role in glucose metabolism within the body because just like chromium it affects both insulin secretion and action. It has been demonstrated in many studies that as people age their magnesium levels decrease. This phenomenon is seen in both the nondiabetic and diabetic patients who also suffer from increasing insulin resistance. Dr. Paolisso and his group studied giving these patients supplemental magnesium and found that this not only improved insulin secretion but also enhanced insulin action. They also found evidence that daily magnesium supplements improved the cell wall membrane and increased intracellular potassium levels. Daily magnesium supplementation again improved insulin resistance and all of its health consequences.

Other Micronutrients

Several other micronutrients have also been studied in patients with insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Godin reviewed the medical literature and found that there was strong evidence that supplementing these patients diet with zinc, manganese, glutathione, selenium, and vanadium improved insulin sensitivity. They point out that studies involving vanadium have drawn increasing interest over the past few years because of its ability to improve insulin sensitivity when given at optimal levels. Dr. Marfella, et al. found that supplementation with glutathione (a very potent intracellular antioxidant) actually reversed some of the negative effects of high blood sugars on our arteries.

Cellular Nutrition

In my book "What Your Doctor Doesn't Know about Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You" I lay out the medical evidence that demands a verdict - should you be taking nutritional supplements? The process of oxidative stress leads to significant increase in inflammation in our arteries, joints, lungs, and throughout our bodies. In fact, oxidative stress has been shown to be the underlying cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases. These are the who's who of diseases like coronary artery disease, stroke, Alzheimer's dementia, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, macular degeneration, Parkinson's disease, MS, and the list goes on and on.

Well, I conclude this book by sharing the fact that the best defense against developing any of these diseases is the use of cellular nutrition. This is providing ALL of the nutrients to the cell at optimal levels, which have been shown to provide a health benefit in our medical literature. This allows the cell the ability to take what it needs and bring these micronutrient levels back to optimal levels. Cellular nutrition enhances our antioxidant defense system, our immune system, and our body's repair system. This gives us our best chance of bringing oxidative stress back under control and protecting our cells, cell wall, vessel wall, DNA, proteins, and fats from this attack by these charged oxygen free radicals. Nowhere is cellular nutrition more important than in helping prevent or reverse insulin resistance and obesity.

Dr. Das wrote an editorial in Nutrition where he points out that there is a common thread between obesity, the metabolic syndrome, and inflammation. He believes that the metabolic syndrome is due to a low-grade systemic inflammation. This inflammation not only leads to insulin resistance and the harmful metabolic changes but is also related to obesity. There is strong clinical evidence that patients with the metabolic syndrome, which includes central obesity, have elevated blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNA-alpha), and interluekin-6 (IL-6). These are all markers of inflammation in the body. Well, I believe he is right and oxidative stress is the underlying cause of all of this inflammation.

As you may recall, it is strongly believed that oxidative stress involving the capillary bed (fine arteries) in the muscle is the initial insult that leads to the beginning of insulin resistance. The compensatory response to produce more insulin by the pancreatic beta cells as a means of controlling blood sugars creates hyperinsulinemia (elevated blood insulin levels). This in turn causes even more inflammation of our arteries which leads to further insulin resistance. The muscle tissue becomes insulin resistance first and causes us to store increasing amounts of glucose from our meals as fat in our abdominal fat cells (central obesity). As these abdominal fat cells grow and grow, they too start releasing inflammatory products and have been shown to increase these inflammatory products (CRP, TNF-alpha, and IL-6). The total result of this metabolic mess is that we are not only aging much faster than we should but also we simply can't lose weight. One of the main missing ingredients in reversing this entire process is nutritional supplements. I realize that I have thrown a lot of science at you and probably have your brain swimming in mush. But please hear me out. Learning to eat a healthy diet that does not spike your blood sugar combined with a modest aerobic exercise program goes a long way in improving insulin resistance and obesity. However, when you add cellular nutrition to this program the results are phenomenal. I have been applying these principals in my practice for over 8 years now and I am still amazed at the results I am able to achieve when patients put all of these healthy lifestyle changes - healthy diet, modest exercise, and cellular nutrition. In most cases, these lifestyle changes allow the patient to reverse this insulin resistance within 12 weeks and begin releasing fat at the same time. However, I want to focus for a minute on the most important aspect of this entire program - cellular nutrition.

Heart disease is an inflammatory disease of our arteries and not a disease of cholesterol. When you consider all of the consequences of developing insulin resistance - hyperinsulinemia, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, central obesity, high fibrinogen levels (you begin to clot easier) - you begin to realize that all of these complications result in increased inflammation in our bodies. Insulin resistance also leads to depleted antioxidant levels and increased susceptibility of our LDL cholesterol to become oxidized and therefore much more dangerous. Our arteries begin aging much faster than they should and we not only remain overweight but also begin to realize why so many years of life are being lost to obesity. In order to protect your health and at the same time lose fat, we need to literally attack the underlying problem - insulin resistance.

Nutritional supplementation has not only been shown to improve this depleted antioxidant defense system but also to improve the action of insulin. This leads to the discussion of what I am personally recommending to my patients to achieve this cellular nutrition. When you look at all the nutrients I am recommending you may become concerned about all the different vitamin pills you have to take in order to provide cellular nutrition. However, a few nutritional companies are now beginning to appreciate the science of oxidative stress and the importance of providing all of these antioxidants and their supporting B-cofactors, and minerals at their optimal levels. As you have learned, you want to be taking antioxidant supplements with each of your meals in order to prevent the transient oxidative stress that can be caused by the intake of fat and high-glycemic carbohydrates following those meals.

Now you are obviously going to be changing your diet to avoid these dangers; however, it is always better to take your supplements with food because they are absorbed better and tolerated better. Also, you will not be perfect in your diet, nor to you have to be, to achieve amazing results.

Pharmaceutical-grade Good Manufacturing Practices

There are a few very important criteria you need to consider before choosing a supplement. The nutritional supplement industry is basically an unregulated industry. The FDA looks at nutritional supplements as if they were a food. There is really no guarantee that what is on the label is actually in the pill. You need to select a company that manufactures their products as if they were an over-the-counter drug. These companies follow what is known as pharmaceutical-grade Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). This requires them to purchase pharmaceutical grade raw products and then produce them with the same quality control that a pharmaceutical company does. Nutritional companies are not required to do this but some of the companies are now strictly following these guidelines to give you and me the assurance that what they have on the bottle is what is in the tablet.

Complete and Balanced

Your nutritional supplements need to also be complete and balanced. What I mean by this is that they provide the optimal (not RDA levels) levels of several different antioxidants and their supporting B-cofactors (vitamin B1, B2, B5, B6, B12, and folic acid) along with the so-called antioxidant minerals (selenium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, chromium, and vanadium). When you begin to realize the significant health benefits you can receive from nutritional supplementation, you also begin to see the importance of a complete and balanced supplement that creates synergy.

Synergy

All of the studies in our medical literature will usually study only one or maybe two nutrients at a time. This is just the way research is done. They are looking for the magic bullet most of the time. Vitamin E and vitamin C are not drugs but simply nutrients that we should be getting from our foods. However, because of supplementation we are now able to get these nutrients at optimal levels you could never obtain from your food. Vitamin E is the best antioxidant within the cell membrane and vitamin C is the best antioxidant within the plasma or blood. Glutathione is the best intracellular antioxidant. Alpha lipoic acid is a great antioxidant within the plasma and the cell membrane; however, it also regenerates vitamin E and that intracellular glutathione so they can be used over and over again. Vitamin C also regenerates vitamin E. All of these antioxidants also need optimal levels of these B-cofactors and antioxidant minerals in order to do their job efficiently. When you put all of this together, this is called synergy and this is what makes cellular nutrition so effective.

It is amazing to me how many studies show that you can receive a health benefit from simply taking one of these nutrients in supplementation. The overwhelming majority of these studies involving supplements show a definite health benefit. However, occasionally a study that looks at just supplementing one of these antioxidant nutrients have shown a negative result. This is felt to be due to the fact that when you supplement just one nutrient by itself at these optimal levels that it can become a pro-oxidant, which means it can actually cause oxidative stress. By simply using the concept of cellular nutrition and provide all of these nutrients to the cell at these optimal levels, you not only enhance your body's natural immune, antioxidant, and repair system but you also are able to prevent any pro-oxidant affect produced by a single nutrient.

US Pharmacopoeia (USP)

It is also critical that your tablets dissolve effectively or it really does not matter what you have in them. Many nutritional companies do not follow what are known as USP guidelines. When nutritional companies follow these USP guidelines, it gives you assurance that at least your tablet is dissolving. The government is definitely getting more serious about trying to raise the bar on the quality of nutritional supplements in this country. The FDA is now looking into setting higher standards for the production of nutritional supplements. However, this is going to a few years to implement, if they are able to pull this off at all.

How Do You Select a Quality Product?

If you are serious about losing fat and protecting your health, I would not sell yourself to the lowest bidder. You are not going to get everything that you need by simply taking a multiple vitamin. Multiple vitamins are based on RDA levels of supplementation. RDA's were developed in the late 1930's and 1940's as the minimal requirement needed to avoid acute deficiency diseases like pellagra, scurvy, or rickettes. They have absolutely nothing to do with chronic degenerative diseases or insulin resistance. You need the optimal levels of all of these nutrients.

It is also difficult to find out which products follow pharmaceutical-grade GMP or USP guidelines. You almost need to call the company directly (even then it is hard to get a straight answer) or look at their web page. Nutritional companies that are international tend to have the higher quality products and those companies that follow these guidelines are usually very proud of this fact and willing to share it readily. If you get a lot of double talk, they usually do not follow these guidelines.

Why Nutritional Supplementation is so Important - Conclusion

I have covered a lot of ground in this training and I feel that it is important to summarize all the reasons cellular nutrition is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle when it comes to insulin resistance.

First, oxidative stress and inflammation are the initial insult that occurs in the capillary bed of the muscle and building up the body's natural antioxidant defense system helps bring this oxidative stress back under control.

Second, antioxidants, especially vitamin E and vitamin C, are able to protect the oxidative stress created by elevated levels of insulin, fat, and glucose in our blood stream following a high-glycemic or high-fat meal. Antioxidants along with chromium, magnesium, selenium, vanadium, and many other micronutrients enhance the release and action of insulin, which helps correct the underlying problem of insulin resistance.

When cellular nutrition is combined with a modest aerobic exercise program and a healthy diet, you have the absolute best chance of truly reversing insulin resistance and not only releasing fat, but lowering your blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and cholesterol levels. It will also raise your HDL cholesterol levels.

Are you beginning to see the overall picture? It is critical to truly understand what you are trying to accomplish and realizing the fact that the scientific medical literature supports what you are doing. I personally believe that providing your body with cellular nutrition is the most important aspect of the Healthy for Life Program. Taking your supplements is the easiest lifestyle change you need to make. It takes less than 1 minute of your day to accomplish this goal.

Comparative of Nutritional Supplements

an independent study compiled by BioScientist Lyle McWilliams

The 14 criteria on which the independent study was based are: completeness, potency, mineral forms, bioactivity of Vitamin E, gamma tocopherol, antioxidant support, cardiac health, bone health, liver health, metabolic health, ocular health, methylation support, lipotropic factors, inflammation control, glycation control, bioflavonoid profile, phenolic compound profile, and potential toxicities.

Leading experts Phyllis Balch, CNC; Michael Colgan, PhD,CCN; Earl Mindell, RPh, MH; Michael Murray, ND; Richard Passwater, PhD; Ray Strand, MD; Julian Whitaker, MD; Robert Atkins, MD; Terry Grossman, MD; Jan Higdon, PhD; Philip Lee Miller, MD and Life Extension Foundation, and Nicholas Perricone, MD recommended the daily intakes which were compiled into a blended standard.

Over 1,500 nutritional products were compared in U.S. and Canada and listed in the "Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements. On the scale of 1 to 100, here is how some of the products are rated in the 3rd edition of "Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements."

What you just read probably surprised you. I know it did me. If you are taking a product that's not listed, send an email to gail@healthcoachpro and I'll give you the rating or you can order The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplement by going to the shopping cart.

HOW SAFE ARE SUPPLEMENTS?

Two professional baseball players will sit out the first 50 games in 2009 because they violated the drug policy with supplements they claim were sold over the counter at GNC stores. NSF International is a non-profit "nongovernmental" organization which certifies supplements. There are only 15 companies on the safe list including the company, whose products our Health Coaching Clients use.

It is very difficult to determine whether a specific nutritional supplement is really beneficial, but here is what I’ve found to be the best ways to evaluate a supplement.

1. Is the product using Pharmaceutical Grade Good Manufacturing Practices? The U.S. Government lets manufacturers get by using a very low standard.

2. How is the product rated in the Comparison Guide for Nutritional Products? Only 3% of the 1,500 products evaluated were awarded top honors.

3. Is it tested by independent laboratories to confirm what’s on the label is in the bottle? Only 3 products in the Comparison Guide met the Gold Standard.

4. Is it certified to have no banned substances by NSF International? Many have murky claims about their content, but have banned substances hidden in the formula.

5 Are their claims backed up monetarily? Only one company offers a $1 million guarantee there are no banned substances in their products.

Here is a list of the companies Certified by NSF International as having no banned substances.

Some of the company’s products may have been excluded from the certification process.
• All Sports Endrance, LLC
• Appleboost Products, Inc.
• Back Nine Nutrition
• EAS by Abbott Nutrition
• Enzymedica, Inc.
• Infinity 2 Health Sciences
• LovateHealth Sciences
• Medical Research Institute
• Perfect Water & Essentials
• Platinum Naturals
• RedBull North America
• Somalife International
• Training Day
• USANA Health Sciences

The clients in my health coaching practice have chosen USANA Health Sciences products as the preferred nutritional supplements because they met all five of the criteria I listed above.

The USANA products are recommended in the Healthy For Life program and you can learn about the products yourself by going to http://freedomnow.usana.com or the Health Coach Shopping Cart at www.healhcoachpro.net. I’ve been taking the USANA products for over 15 years and in that period I haven’t had a cold, flu, sick day, or missed a day of work. And, I haven’t taken prescription medicine of any kind, not even an aspirin. I’m in better health today than I was twenty years ago. You know that True Health is a combination of actions including exercise, healthy eating, and stress management, but giving your body proper nutrition is a major part of optimum health.

I hope this information has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, contact me at gail@freedomnow.net.