Another reason to be cautious about supplements
How many bottles of half-used supplements are on your shelves? Tell me.
I’ve got so many I bet it’s between 100 and 200. I’ve been told for years and years to take this and that and the other thing. I would try, but more often than not, I’d forget.
Now I’m not trying to say that herbs and certain supplements can’t be helpful on occasion. For instance, I do advocate for using digestive enzymes when you eat cooked foods, and a good probiotic if you’re not consuming cultured and fermented foods regularly. When someone is sick, I find goldenseal to be excellent for killing viruses and bacteria, both. Cascara sagrada is great for constipation.
But you rarely know how long to take supplements. A month? A year? Your whole life? Also, most people telling us to eat the pills are the same people who SELL the pills. Ever heard the saying, “When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail?”
What I’m saying is that even the most health conscious among us WAY overdo pill purchasing and then wonder why we can’t afford whole plant foods. My lazy susan, my box of pills in the upstairs closet, and my cabinets are full of literally thousands of dollars of supplements. I got sick of it a long time ago and pretty much just quit buying and eating them.
How about you? How many bottles of half-used supplements do YOU have?
Since we threw out all our herbal bottles with expired dates on them, we don’t have too much
But there’s still a cabinet full!
The only time I could ever take supplements (herbs) regularly was during pregnancy, and even then it was probably only 25-50% of the time.
Also, I wish I had known about the hot pink smoothie back then! My midwife wanted all her clients to drink beet and carrot juice daily. I did not have a juicer, so I tried shredding them and eating them in salads. It tasted good, but the hours of chewing and munching soon grew old. And of course the green smoothies would have made for an even better nutrition pregnancy.
Actually, I haven’t bought any supplements. I looked at doing Fruit and Juice Plus, but they were cost-prohibitive to me. Maybe having ten in our family is a benefit in this way…we do healthy food only, no pills!
Can you recommend a digestive enzyme? There are so many, what to look for?
how many half bottles…2..2…2 many! DS was dx w/ autism- although probably more adhd. and we have done MANY things- some w/ success..but we just plain forget or they do little good. we did just try some enzymes w/ some success…but again it is difficult to remember EVERYTHING. when i did reimbursement last year I relized i had spent $700 ON MYSELF (I had / have ideopathic anaphalyxis and finally decided that I HAD to go the nutrition route.) the supps had so much stuff in them i wonder if that wasn n’t part of the problem!!! have been juicing for awhile but just looking at smoothies. can a regular blender do the job OK??? i just don’t have it in me to buy another appliance at the moment as we spent a pretty penny on the juicer..
Hi Amy — I’m not a professional but I do have an opinion.., LOL I’ve burned through an actual smoothie maker. The greens literally busted the bottom of the jar! I am on to my next blender & while it does blend my smoothies fairly wel… I know without a doubt they would be so much better with the Blendtec. For example I have to rid any part of the stem all the way through the middle. Much more than the leaves & I get something a bit more than smooth. Same goes with apple peels, but that’s not consistent.
If a cheap blender is all you can afford… and believe me I know — we have 7 in our family on a very tiny income — then you can still mix your green smoothies however expect that these general blenders will not last long. I believe I’ve only had the last one for 3 months & it’s beginning to sound terrible. I usually blend one blenderful daily. AND if i’m going to blend with beets… I’ve got to sliced very thin first or it comes out as chunks —
Happy Smoothing — from one cheap blender user!! LOL (though I really really look forward to the day I can somehow get a Blendtec… hmmm & a dehydrator…. and a water system that will make my water acid/alkaline!! — I think that’s it, for now LOL)
~Blessings,
Kelly
Yeah we have a few supplements but I usually only take them when I am feeling undernourished or something. For example around the start of my period, I sometimes take a B complex vitamin which helps me with the pain and the emotional rollercoaster that I can sometimes be. But I agree that at a certain point you may be taking too many supplements- especially if you haven’t been nourishing yourself/family with fruits and vegetables. Loads of people seem to want to fix their poor diet with pills. It is just attacking the problem without understanding the cause. (That is what drives me crazy about doctors sometimes)
Okay so i have no idea what a probiotic is or digestive enzymes-can someone dumb it down for me? lol-oh and don’t even get me started on cheap blenders-grrrr