I have been taking some stuff can Juice Plus. Scientifically, I am not much on what is really there. I take 2 in the morn and 2 in the evening. It has been 4 months and (very unscientific information to follow) I have done some darn good racing. Including first place in an age group bi Sunday! They are gelcap and you have to swallow them with a meal. I am not a distributor, don’t have any to sell, make no money from the product and I don’t even work with the guy that sold it to me. I just want to go fast. I use a multi-vitamin called Myadec put out by Parke-Davis. One tablet a day.

I eat a balanced diet and probably get all of the necessary vitamins but just take the pills to be sure. I’m on the side of the studies that discourage using pills to exceed recommended daily allowances. If I want to load up on vitamin C, I’ll do it with citrus fruit. I use Juice Plus, too. Rather than a vitamin in the usual sense, Juice Plus is made from a broad range of fresh fruits and vegetables. You can do capsules (2 veggies and 2 fruits per day) and/or a powder that works like a more traditional supplement.

The powder has all of the stuff that the capsules do, but comes in a chocolate or vanilla flavorings that I mix with yogurt and fruit. For example, mix a couple of scoops of the powder with strawberry yogurt, frozen blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, and 8 oz of skim milk, and you get a massive shot of antioxidants and micronutrients in a good tasting breakfast. I can make it, eat it, and clean up the kitchen in 15 minutes, too. The company’s research says that the body absorbs the nutrients better when they come in whole form, so this is the next best thing to eating a bunch of different fresh fruits and veggies, some of which would be hard to keep fresh.

One possible downside is that to get it, a distributor has to set you up with the company. The best way is to be a preferred customer; the company will ship a 4-month supply to you then bill you in 4 installments and you get a better price right from the start. If you don’t need to change the order, you never have to talk to the distributor again. I got a distributor license from the company just to set up myself, family, and friends, and I do the preferred customer thing with them so that they get the stuff they need at a good price and I don’t have to mess with inventories or turn this into a part-time job.

We swallow our daily “dose” of vitamin pills for the same silly reasons people waft magnets over their morning beer: comfort and reassurance. My vitamins are in large speckled caplets from a family-size tub bought at Costco, and I also take a daily vitamin E softgel. Why do I take them? Why do you? Vitamin pills do NOT produce any detectable physical or operational response (in the sense of less pain, better visual acuity, greater strength, etc. etc.). Those who think vitamin pills make them feel physically better would do just as well on placebos. If they believe that they would “feel worse” if they stopped taking their multivitamin, they’re mistaken even if, by some incredibly improbable dietary quirk, they suffer from a vitamin deficiency of some sort. Such deficiencies are insidious, slow.

One could live for a surprisingly long time on pure intravenous glucose. Sure, there are very specific conditions and problems that are caused by deficiencies. On IV glucose you’d eventually suffer from scurvy, beri-beri, etc. The neurological and anti spina bifida benefits of folates have so satisfied investigators that our health infrastructure has mandated that certain foods be fortified with it, along with D. Healthy, low risk people like me (like you?) ritually take their vitamin pills, based solely upon advertising and with no evidence supporting the ritual.

At the breakfast table we examine those little pills next to our forks, and with all the confidence in the world swallow them and smile, uncaring that another dollar of our productivity has just gone down the tubes, so to speak. Why do we do it? It’s because taking vitamin pills gives us the feeling that we’re “doing SOMETHING” positive, and we enjoy feeling in control. IS THAT COMFORT THE SOLE BENEFIT OF TAKING VITAMINS? Regardless of how we feel, we convince ourselves that if we stop taking vitamins we’ll somehow suffer — even if there’s absolutely no justification (for 99.99% of us) for that belief. Physicians routinely recommend vitamins.

The alternative health people sell them by the truckload. We buy the smaller pills for our children, give them to our pets, spray the vitamins into our noses or mouths, sprinkle them over our food, carefully read the labels in the supermarket and buy the cereal with more Vitamin X. We’re hooked — and the addiction is 100% psychological. When the pill bottle runs out we even feel uncomfortable till the supply is replenished — and then after missing a day or two, how many do YOU take?

I was hospitalized briefly about 9 months ago to check a potential heart problem (right bundle branch block) At the time, increasing vitamins C and E was strongly advised. I also take calcium with magnesium and a vision related complex called I -Caps, on the recommendation of my ophthalmologist. (I have had cataract surgery in both eyes, have macular degeneration in my right eye and a hint of it in the left). I also drink about 3 to 4 oz. of fresh carrot juice daily. I have noticed an improvement in my night vision especially with the carrot juice, but was cautioned against overdoing it.

I am betting it is all the sitting many people do while drinking beer all of the time. Amazing how quickly some vigorous activity can strip fat off. I can think of a couple of reasons. One might be the stuff they use to form the pills. Have you tried different types or do you just go with the cheapest brand at Walmart? Second B-vitamins are acidic. As far as the beer and brewers yeast upsetting the stomach, it is probably the war going on between the differing kinds of microbacteria in your digestive system. If you drink a little natural beer every day it actually helps your digestion by killing off harmful bacteria and replacing it with more helpful bacteria. Encouraging healthful eating habits early in childhood is important for maintaining these habits in adulthood.

The best way to get children to eat fruits and vegetables is to offer them often and to be a positive role model. The Food Guide Pyramid guides us on the number of servings of fruits and vegetables to eat every day. Fruits and vegetables have been found to help prevent a host of diseases by providing essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients, including antioxidants. While we all know it’s important to eat fruits and vegetables, more than 80 percent of us don’t consume the recommended 2-3 servings of fruits and 3-5 servings of vegetables each day. A registered dietitian can help you evaluate your eating habits and show you tasty and healthful ways to add fruits and vegetables to your daily eating plan.

What are antioxidant vitamins and why are they important? Our bodies are actually battlegrounds for infection and diseases. Normal body functions, such as breathing or physical activity, and other lifestyle habits, such as smoking, produce substances called free radicals that attack healthy cells. When these healthy cells are weakened, they are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancers. Antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, and carotenoids, which include beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein, help protect healthy cells from damage caused by free radicals.

One thing I’d suggest is to simply not worry too much about it. Unless you think your child is seriously underweight or your ped has said something. At my house – considering the personalities involved, including mine – stickiness can quickly turn into a control contest. That’s worse than just stickiness, trust me! And I think “hiding” the veggies is okay. *I* don’t happen to like certain raw foods, but I’ll eat them in a muffin or a casserole.

And for my picky eater, I even have to be careful of the “hiding.” I can’t just chop up apples and put them in muffins, for example – because there’ll be *things* in the muffins. But I could use applesauce. My picky eater also doesn’t like certain “mixed up” foods or foods that have somehow changed form… He loves those canned green beans, but wouldn’t touch a green bean casserole. He likes raw carrots, but not cooked. And while he likes tomato sauce, raw tomatoes are out of the question. I don’t know if this helps with food suggestions or is just consideration. I will tell you that my son’s stickiness has gotten less and less over the years. Or at least his picky targets change so much that I’ve lost track.

I’ve always laughed a the Total[*] cereal commercials, saying people should just take a vitamin and eat what they like. But… with a picky toddler who won’t take a vitamin without a struggle — I am wondering if a bowl of Total would do the trick? He recently weaned and doesn’t drink much cow’s milk now so I was browsing the supermarket for calcium enriched foods, and came across the Total which has calcium plus many other vitamins and minerals. Is there any reason why this is a worse plan than taking a vitamin? (He frequently eats plain bran flakes for breakfast, so I suspect he’d eat it.)

Jamie is underweight–he was a preemie and is still just barely on the chart for his age (and that only recently), but not horribly so. He also still nurses, so I’m not *too* concerned about his health, but I don’t want him to decide he doesn’t like a lot of things without even trying them, which is the point we seem to be getting to now, unfortunately. Jamie likes fresh and canned fruit, but veggies, no dice. We’ve tried everything from the jarred Gerber Graduates baby diced veggies to canned, frozen, fresh, raw–forget it.