The 10 worst toxins hidden in vitamins,
supplements and health foods
I'm
absolutely shocked at how many people don't investigate what's really in the
products they swallow. When something is sold as an herb, vitamin, superfood or
supplement, they think it's automatically safe. And while the natural products
industry has a truly remarkable safety record -- especially in contrast to the massive number of deaths
caused by pharmaceuticals -- it
still suffers from a lot of hidden toxins that are routinely used
throughout the industry.
I know this because I've been natural food
retail store owner and buyer for well over a quarter of a century. Our stores
were industry leaders in quality supplement distribution since the early 1980’s. I've walked the floors of countless trade
shows, spent tens of thousands of dollars on what was seemingly (at the time)
products based on “good science” and sat through endless quality control meetings
sponsored by manufacturers. Yes…I
learned the hard way over many years how to discern quality from deception. When I look around the natural products
industry, I see examples of super honest, high-integrity companies like
Nature's Path and Dr. Bronner's. I also see an alarming number of cheats,
crooks and charlatans who are only involved in the industry to profit from the
explosion of interest in health supplements. In truth, some nutritional
products are downright dangerous to your health. My role is to help you tell the difference between products that are GOOD
for you vs. products that might actually be toxic. Because ultimately, I want you to be healthy, vibrant, intelligent and
active. I want you to enjoy life and improve the quality of your life.
Be prepared to be shocked in reading what
follows. After reviewing this list, you will probably throw out quite a few
products in your refrigerator and pantry. Very few people are willing to tell
you the truth revealed here, so some of this may come as a complete shock (see
#1 and #2, below).
#1) Maltodextrin (from GM corn)
Let's
start out with the big one first: If you pick up a natural product and the
ingredients list says "maltodextrin," chances are very high that the
maltodextrin in the product is derived from Monsanto's GM corn.
Virtually all the maltodextrin used throughout
the natural products industry is genetically modified. Products that are
certified USDA organic, however, are not using GMO maltodextrin.
The non-GMO, non-corn replacement for
maltodextrin derived from GM corn is tapioca maltodextrin, and you'll find tapioca starch / maltodextrin
in many certified organic, non-GMO products. Corn maltodextrin should be
avoided unless it's certified USDA organic. Look for tapioca maltodextrin
instead (or no maltodextrin at all).
#2) Vitamin C / acorbic acid (from GM
corn)
Here's
another whopper that's sure to open some eyes: Nearly all the "vitamin C" sold in
vitamins across America right now is derived from GMO corn.
This means that many of the supplements sold at the
worlds largest natural foods retailer, the vitamins sold on many .com online
retailers and even the the pills at your local pharmacy, and especially the
products at the grocery store are (nearly) all routinely made with genetically
modified vitamin C. It's typically called "ascorbic acid," and nearly
100% of the ascorbic acid used in the natural products industry is derived from
GMOs.
Sourcing non-GMO vitamin C requires you to go
outside the United States. There is no existing supply chain of certified
organic, non-GMO ascorbic acid available anywhere in America (at least not to
my knowledge). You can't even run batches of non-GMO ascorbic acid production
in the USA because all the facilities are contaminated with residues of GM
corn.
Rest assured that all those cheap "vitamin
C" pills sold at retail are derived from genetically modified corn.
#3) Hexane-extracted soy and rice proteins
Nearly
100% of the "natural" soy proteins sold in the USA are extracted in
China using a hexane extraction method. CLARIFICATION: The primary manufacturer
and distributor of brown rice protein in the USA, which imports brown rice
protein processed in China, insists that hexane has never been used in the
extraction of their product, not in the conventional brown rice protein nor their
organic brown rice protein. This manufacturer does, however, confirm our
original reporting which stated that hexane is typically used in rice protein
extraction. As stated on their own website:
The only complete, organic, raw protein source from brown rice, our rice
protein is enzymatically extracted from multiple layers of the whole grain
versus the more
typical rice protein which is hexane-extracted from only the bran layer. Our hexane-free, non-GMO, Prop 65 compliant,
Gamma Oryzanol-rich whole grain Oryzatein powder is available with many
options.
This article, of course, never mentioned any
brand name or importer name associated with brown rice protein. It merely
stated the fact that brown rice protein is typically extracted with hexane,
which is true. I know this from several sources, including sources in Asia who
confirm that brown rice protein is being extracted with hexane by some
manufacturers in China. For the purposes of clarification, the conventional
brown rice protein imported into the USA by one particular manufacturer is not
extracted with hexane, according to their documents. It is, however, still
grown in China and processed in China. If I were to consume anything grown in
China, I would make sure it was certified organic and lab tested to reveal
levels of aluminum, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and lead. This is true across the
board for all food products from China, not just brown rice protein.
What the industry really needs right now is a U.S. manufacturer of brown rice protein, for which a multi-million
dollar market already exists.
Hexane is a highly explosive chemical. It is not
only extremely hazardous to the environment; there may also be trace amounts of
hexane left remaining in the resulting protein products. My understanding is
that hexane extraction is not allowed in certified organic proteins, so if you
have a choice, go for certified organic instead of just "natural"
(which means nothing anyway).
#4)
High levels of Aluminum in detox products
Natural
News helped expose high aluminum levels (over
1200ppm) in a popular detox liquid, causing the main U.S. distributor to issue a
"recall" notice and provide over $1 million in refunds to customers.
The manufacturer of this product, Adya Clarity, intentionally and knowingly deceived consumers by mislabeling the product and
not mentioning the 1200ppm of aluminum it contained. The FDA seized some of the
products and ran its own lab tests, confirming the high
aluminum level as well
as identifying multiple labeling violations.
Adya Clarity is just one of many so-called
"detox" products containing alarming levels of aluminum and other
metals. Ingesting these in order to "detox" your body may be harmful
to your health. This experience also proves you can't always trust health products sold
through online webinars, where manufacturers can ignore labeling laws and fabricate
false claims. Buyer beware when it comes to metals in
detox products that claim seemingly magical results.
#5) Lead and arsenic in herbs from China
China
is the most polluted nation
on the planet (by
far), yet many fruits, vegetables and herbs are grown in China and exported to
North America for use in natural products.
High levels of lead and arsenic are routinely
found in various food, supplement and herbal products from China. I'm not
concerned about 1ppm or lower, by the way, of heavy metals like lead and
mercury. Even aluminum isn't necessarily a problem when found organically grown
inside foods that test at higher levels such as 150ppm. But when lead, arsenic,
mercury and cadmium get to high saturation levels (or are present in inorganic
forms), it makes the products potentially a source of heavy metals poisoning for consumers.
Astonishingly, many of the small and
medium-sized companies that import and retail products from China conduct no metals testing whatsoever. I know this as a fact because
I've talked to people doing this.
For the record, everything packed under my own
brand name (Health Ranger Select) and sold at the Natural News
Store is independently tested by us to ensure full product safety and
regulatory compliance.
#6) Inorganic minerals in cheap vitamins
Would
you eat iron filings and call it nutrition? The majority of people don't know
that most of the cheap vitamins sold today are made with iron filings.
"Scrap metal," almost.
The calcium found in cheap vitamins is often
just ground-up seashells, and magnesium is often sold as cheap magnesium oxide
which may be completely useless to your body's cells. If you're buying mineral
supplements, you may be wasting your money unless the minerals are in the right
form: Magnesium orotate or malate, for example.
When it comes to mineral supplements, you'll
often find trace levels of scary things like barium and lead in liquid
supplements, but these are typically at such low levels (ppb) that they are no
real concern. But the No. 1 best source for all minerals is, not surprisingly,
fresh plants. If you really want to boost your minerals, feed 'em to sprouts or
garden plants, then eat or juice those
plants. Your
body wants "organic" minerals from plants, not inorganic minerals
from rocks.
#7) Carrageenan?
The
Cornucopia Institute, a highly-effective food activism group that we've long
supported, recently published a warning about
carrageenan in
foods. Cornucopia says carrageenan is linked to "gastrointestinal
inflammation, including higher rates of colon cancer, in laboratory
animals."
It goes on to report:
Given its effect on gastrointestinal inflammation, Cornucopia urges anyone
suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms (irritable bowel syndrome/IBS, spastic
colon, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, etc.) to consider
completely eliminating carrageenan from the diet to determine if carrageenan
was a factor in causing the symptoms.
Personally, I have never had any problem with
carrageenan, and given that it's derived from seaweed, I also didn't mind the
source. And I've never had a problem
with it whatsoever. So from my personal experience, I don't see carrageenan as
a worrisome ingredient, but I do understand that some people experience it
differently, and it may be troublesome for people whose digestive systems are
more sensitive than my own.
For the record, I definitely don't consider
carrageenan to be anywhere near as worrisome as, say, aspartame, GMOs or MSG.
#8) Acrylamides
Acrylamides
are cancer-causing chemicals produced during the cooking of carbohydrates.
Fried snack chips, for example, contain acrylamides. They don't have to be
listed on labels because they are technically not "ingredients." They
are chemicals produced during cooking or frying. Consuming acrylamides increases kidney
cancer risk by 59 percent.
The FDA has published an extensive reference
guide on acrylamide levels in foods, revealing that french fries have the highest levels of all.
But they are also present in prune juice and even breakfast cereals.
A bag of organic snack chips can have just as
many acrylamides as a bag of conventional snack chips. This is why fried snack
chips should be eaten only sparingly, or never at all. I'm guilty of eating
some of these chips myself from time to time, but I limit the quantity and make
sure I'm taking chlorella or other superfoods at the same time to counteract
the acrylamides.
Interestingly, it turns out that vitamin C blocks acrylamides from causing damage to your
body. But if your vitamin C is from a GMO source (see above), you may want to
rethink that strategy. Natural citrus juice, rose hips or even camu camu berry
powder is a much better choice of natural, full-spectrum vitamin C.
If you eat fried foods of any kind, make sure
you ingest a lot of vitamin C, astaxanthin and chlorella before and after your
meal or snack.
#9) Hidden MSG / yeast extract
Hidden
MSG is a huge issue across the natural products industry. Pick up almost any
veggie burger, and you'll find it's made with yeast extract, a hidden form of MSG (monosodium glutamate).
Yeast extract is unbelievably prevalent in the
food industry because it looks nicer on the label than "MSG." Most
people are trained to avoid MSG, but yeast extract slips by, so food
manufacturers put it into canned soups, dip mixes, snack chips, microwave
dinners and especially in vegetarian products, many of which are so loaded with chemicals and
additives that I won't dare touch them. Just because a food says
"vegetarian" doesn't mean it's healthy.
Hidden MSG is also labeled as "autolyzed
yeast extract" or "torula yeast" or even "hydrolyzed
vegetable protein."
#10) Fluoride in green tea
Green
tea is famous for being contaminated with high levels of fluoride. This is
frustrating, because green tea is phenomenally good for your health. It has
been proven to lower
"bad" cholesterol levels, and it may even help prevent cancer and
neurological disorders. It's probably one of the healthiest beverages you can
ever drink.
The tea plant that produces green tea just
happens to uptake a huge amount of fluoride from the soils. So when there's
fluoride present in those soils, the green tea will have a surprisingly high
concentration, sometimes as much as 25ppm.
An interesting article on this issue is found at
Toxipedia.org:
http://toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Fluoride+Content+in+Tea
While this fluoride in green tea might not be a
health hazard all by itself, the governments of the world seem insistent on
pumping even more synthetic, chemical
fluoride into
the water supplies, thereby creating a high risk for fluorosis. Adding green tea to the fluoride consumption
you might experience from tap water is a recipe for disaster: brittle bones,
discoloration of teeth and even cancer.
The final "dirty little secret"
of the natural products industry
Finally, there's one more secret you need to know about. Most
importers, packers, vendors and retailers of natural products foolishly trust
the lab results provided by the manufacturers and exporters!
So a typical U.S. company that sells, for
example, pomegranate powder on the internet may never conduct their own tests
for lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and aluminum. They will simply take the lab
tests provided by the manufacturer and consider those to be absolute fact!
This is extraordinarily foolish. Growers and exporters
routinely lie about their lab tests in
order to pull the wool over the eyes of importers, formulators and retailers.
The lab tests are easily faked or simply bought off in their home country.
Contaminated products can be easily sold and exported because the FDA doesn't
routinely check imported raw materials for heavy metals contamination.
On the good news side, I do know for a fact that
all the higher-end retailers such as Solgar, Nutraceutical and Country Life all routinely test their raw
materials for contaminants. I'm pretty
sure Gaia herbs (www.GaiaHerbs.com)
routinely tests all their batches, and I know that VitaCost, before it changed
hands a few years ago, was running their own lab to test raw materials on-site
(for their in-house formulations). But I also know smaller retailers absolutely do not test anything and are
far more interested in moving boxes than knowing what's really in them. I also
know that some operations are claiming to sell "organic" products
even though they do not have any kind of organic certification, and that's an
irresponsible practice that should be rectified. (Look for the USDA organic
logo when you buy "organic" products. If they don't have the logo,
they aren't really organic.)
So once again, buyer beware. You
need to be asking for lab test results on anything from China, and it's good to
ask for them on just about everything else as well.
AMV
Article written by Mike Adams,
Sources: NaturalNews.com
National Nutritional Foods
Association (NNFA)
The Real Vitamin & Mineral
Book
The Health Ranger (Mike Adams)
*Health Disclaimer: This information is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
