Don't Buy These Supplements without Talking to Me First!
Jennifer Schmid
The supplement industry has seen astronomical growth this month. Why? Because people are frantically trying to avoid getting sick from a disease they are calling “COVID-19.”
As a mom of three teenagers and as a daughter with parents in their 70s and 80s, I can understand that. This is why we’ve been taking food-based supplements for years – because we see the positive benefits of daily organic, whole food nutrition. We get sick so much less often than our friends and my colleagues. We have more energy. We sleep better.
The problem is, as I’ve written before, not only can purchasing supplements get expensive quickly, but worse, it can be challenging to know exactly what ingredients are in those supplements and where they came from.
For instance, a beloved family member decided a couple of years ago to order some curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, from a questionable advertisement that he saw online. Soon after he started taking the product, he passed out for several seconds. A few days later, he passed out again.
His wife called me to ask my advice, and I asked if he had started taking any medications or supplements lately. Sure enough, he admitted that he had started taking this “curcumin.” It turns out the supplements were shipped from a country known for its lack of quality control, and there were no actual ingredients listed on the packaging or bottle label.
Who knows what he was actually consuming, but we can be assured that someone was laughing all the way to the bank.
In my eBook, Naturally Empowered: Staying Healthy with Superfoods and Stress Relief, I talk a lot about the importance of eating real food and supplementing nutrients when necessary.
There are four supplements you should never purchase without talking to me first, for the well-being of both your body and your wallet.
1) Vitamin D
Unless we’ve been supplementing, by early spring, most of us in the northern hemisphere are deficient in vitamin D, making us prime candidates for upper respiratory infections. This is why so many healthcare practitioners recommend supplementing with large doses of synthetic vitamin D, which can quickly get toxic. Plus, as I mentioned in my eBook, that D is manufactured from lamb’s wool that has been irradiated.
I don’t know about you, but this does not sound healthy to me. I would much prefer to get vitamin D from the sunshine in the spring, summer and fall and from whole foods in the winter.
Want to learn more about which whole food sources of vitamin D are right for you and your family? Sign up for a complimentary Discovery call here and receive a $50 gift card to purchase the same whole food supplements that my family and I take everyday.*
2) Protein Powder
I’ve talked to many parents who are lamenting that their grocery bills have gone through the roof this month. Having the kids home 24/7 means that they want to eat all the time! We’ve been dealing with this since September, when my two highschoolers switched from Waldorf to online schooling. Now my third is home from college, making it hard to keep up.
What has saved me from overspending on groceries is having a delicious high quality, organic, easily-digestible protein powder on hand that we can use to make smoothies or add to things like pancakes and oatmeal to make them more filling and nutritious. It’s important that we all get enough protein – especially my teenage son, who has grown six inches this year and still has several more to go – without breaking the bank on lots of meat.
Unfortunately, many protein powders are made from genetically-modified soy that has been treated with glyphosate, and/or they contain whey from ultra-pasteurized milk and can make people really bloated and miserable. As my family has also discovered, some of the soy-free plant-based protein powders taste funky or feel gritty, so no one in the house wanted to use them.
Want to know more? Sign up for a complimentary Discovery call here and receive a $50 gift card to purchase the same whole food supplements that my family and I take everyday.*
3) CBD/Hemp Oil
It’s hard not to feel stressed these days. I’ve made a point to turn off the news and ignore the headlines, which I swear are trying to make us even more stressed. No thank you! Being stressed weakens our immune system and makes us more susceptible to infection, inflammation and chronic disease, and a host of mental health symptoms.
Likewise, CBD oil has been all the rage for the last couple of years, and rightly so. In the proper doses, it can decrease stress hormones in the body, reduce inflammation and improve sleep.
You probably won’t be surprised when I tell you that all CBD and hemp oils are not created equally. In fact, if you buy it from the same company where my family member purchased his “curcumin”, chances are you may not be getting any CBD at all but rather mystery ingredients in a capsule. You also can’t control the amount of THC, the part of cannabis that can make you feel “stoned”, unless you purchase from a company that undergoes regular third party testing and works with the right farmers.
When purchasing CBD oil, you need to consider the following: a) How much CBD is actually in the product; b) Whether it is full spectrum or an isolate; c) The extraction method used; d) What carrier oil it comes in; and e) Whether it is THC compliant.
Those taking high-quality, organic CBD and hemp oil appreciate it for its ability to help stay calm rather than anxious, sleep well and boost immunity.
Not sure which CBD oil is right for your family? Sign up for a complimentary Discovery call here and receive a $50 gift card to purchase the same whole food supplements that my family and I take everyday.*
4) Detox Products
In today’s 21st century world, it’s almost impossible to avoid the toxins in our air, water, food, clothing, furniture, medications, cosmetics, cars… we are surrounded. For years the supplement industry has focused on products that “detoxify” the body from these poisons. You might see detox products as teas, pills made from “proprietary blends”, herbs, shakes, powders, and even expensive intravenous infusions.
I fully agree that we should use supplements that help our body safely eliminate these toxins, whether they are present in large doses or microscopic quantities. Our immune system can’t do its work efficiently against microbes like viruses when it’s trying to deal with these toxins as well.
Based on the scientific evidence, I prefer to use a product made from a mineral called zeolite. If you’ve been reading my newsletter or blog for a while, or you read my eBook, you’ve heard me sing its praises before. That’s because zeolite doesn’t strip your body of the healthy minerals the way some detox products do.
Again, when purchasing zeolite, you want to make sure that it is lab-tested for purity, doesn’t cause detoxing side effects like digestive upset or brain fog, and doesn’t require high doses to be effective, which can get expensive fast.
If I could only take one supplement, it would be zeolite. Luckily for us, we have access to everything we need to keep our body, mind and spirit healthy and resilient.
Navigating the world of supplements can be really confusing, especially in these crazy times, but you don’t have to go it alone. I’m here with my team of holistic wellness warriors to help you figure out what is best for you and your family.
Sign up for a complimentary Discovery call here and receive a $50 gift card to purchase the same whole food supplements that my family and I take everyday*.
Together, we will get through this.
Much love from my family to yours,
Jennifer
*Gift cards can be used on certain product orders of $75 and more.