Why should I supplement with a superfood supplement?

It has often been said our best source of vitamins, nutrients and supplements is from the food we eat. If you are eating a properly balanced organic diet with a lot of raw fruits and vegetables then you are way ahead of the curve and probably feeling pretty healthy. But it is not always easy to get the proper nutrients we need on a daily basis for many reasons. Too busy to shop often for fresh organic fruits and vegetables, limited access to the broad range of foodstuffs we need for optimum health and many other reasons.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 11% of Americans meet the USDA’s guidelines for eating 5-9 servings of fresh fruit and vegetables daily. CDC data indicates:

• 93% of Americans don’t enough vitamin E
• 56% don’t get enough magnesium
• 31% don’t get enough vitamin C
• 12% don’t get enough zinc
• Many seniors lack B vitamins
• Many people are low on vitamin K, calcium, and potassium

In addition to our lack of eating enough fresh fruits and vegetables every day the same foodstuffs have been losing nutritional content over the decades.

In 2004, a University of Texas research team headed by biochemist Donald Davis, Ph.D., analyzed a USDA report on 43 common garden fruits and vegetables and found that almost half of the substances containing minerals important to good health had lost some nutritional value. Dr. Davis suggests one of the reasons for this decline is the result of the faster methods major agro-farm companies employed to grow high-yield crops to meet consumer demand.

So what is one to do?

Step 1: Go organic. One of the reasons many people do not go organic is because of price. Take bananas for example. I see non-organic bananas for sale at 79 cents per pound sitting beside organic bananas that are 99 cents per pound and most shoppers opt for the less expensive. Why? They do not realize that the organic bananas have more nutrients and significantly less pesticides as they are just looking at price. But the fact of the matter is you are getting significantly more nutrients while avoiding toxic pesticides and herbicides. And of course you are avoiding GMOs. By the way GMO bananas are currently in testing and are on their way to a supermarket near you soon. So yes organic fruits and vegetables are probably going to cost more...but you get a lot more for your money...and a lot less (pesticides).

In a report from The Organic Center organic foods have been found to have¹:

• Organic milk has 62% more healthy omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk
• Organic crops have higher cancer-fighting antioxidant levels
• Organic crops have 48% lower levels of the toxic metal cadmium than conventional crops
• Pesticides are found 4 times more frequently in conventional crops than organic crops

And of course organic crops are non-GMO. The devestating health effects of GMO plants are too lengthy to go into in this piece so we recommend you do a little homework. Search for the Seralini study and health effects of Roundup for startes. Read Seeds of Destruction and bookmark Institute for Responsible Technology

Step 2: Supplement your diet with a fantastic superfood. This is where we recommend Green Vibrance from Vibrant Health.

Green Vibrance supports the 4 foundations of health. Nutrition, Digestion, Circulation & Immune System.

The Benefits
There are a lot of ingredients in Green Vibrance: 73 in all. They were put together with care, in order to maximize the synergism among nutrients. The result delivers healthful nutritional support to the 11 body systems. Enjoy:

• More complete nutrition; a host of rare, scarce nutrients.
• Support for digestion and gastrointestinal function*
• Support for healthy circulation*
• More energy*
• Support for clearance of waste products of metabolism, detoxification*
• Support for neurological health*
• Support for cardiovascular function*
• Support for normal blood sugar and cholesterol*
• Support for immunity*
• Resistance to oxidative changes associated with aging*
• And some consumers swear they look younger

The ingredients in Green Vibrance were selected to support essential bodily functions without which life cannot be sustained. Cereal grass powders and juices (i.e. Certified organic barley, oat, wheat, and Kamut) deliver virtually all known nutrients and several uncharacterized co-nutrients of great value. For example, cereal grasses contain a hidden “growth factor” that causes young animals to more rapidly develop, growing larger, stronger, and healthier with robust immune systems. Those same cereal grasses allow mature animals (and undoubtedly humans) to repair bodily tissues more quickly. Organic alfalfa sprouts, organic broccoli sprouts, organic spirulina, soft-cell chlorella, stabilized rice bran, organic beet juice, organic parsley, organic spinach, organic carrot, green bean, zucchini and sea vegetables enrich the nutrient density and diversity of the primary food ingredients in Green Vibrance.

Their industry leading dose of 25 billion friendly probiotics, balanced by a rich combination of Bifido- and Lacto- bacilli from 12 strains in each serving of Green Vibrance bolsters the one system that must function well first and foremost above all others if health is to be improved or optimized. One must be able to digest food and transport nutrients into the body from the gastrointestinal tract before health can be sustained. The 12 strains of probiotics in Green Vibrance help assure a healthy G.I. tract by building and maintaining colonies of robust intestinal flora.

Chlorophyll from the green foods in Green Vibrance further supports intestinal health. Apple fiber from our certified organic whole apple powder plus sunflower lecithin help support elimination of heavy metals, cholesterol and toxins from the intestinal tract before they can be absorbed. To a lesser degree, they can perform similar tasks in the circulating blood itself.

Over eons of time, the liver became quite adept at denaturing, destroying and getting rid of unnecessary substances in everyday foods. Keep in mind that 40% of a plain old carrot is unneeded, toxic material. Your liver has no trouble handling that. But when it comes to detoxifying some of the modern chemicals which are absorbed by, and circulate through, your body, we believe the liver needs a little help. That is why we’ve added liver support ingredients.

Human metabolism is built on oxidation, which both keeps us alive and slowly pushes us toward the grave. The quiet damage to cells caused by necessary cellular oxidation defines the degenerative changes of aging. Oxidative damage is involved, too, in the progression of every known “disease of affluence” such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes and others. Certainly one’s personal genetic code and lifestyle also contribute.

Aging and degenerative disease are ubiquitous -- we all will encounter them in time. Nutritive antioxidants may diminish the severity and slow the advance of oxidative damage and.* Each serving of Green Vibrance delivers a powerful 960 mg of herbal antioxidants in addition to the beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and other antioxidants naturally present from the other plant components of the formula. These antioxidants, plus lecithin, soluble fibers, policosanol and other ingredients help support cardiovascular health.* A strong heart and clear arteries are essential to delivering nutrients to and removing waste from every cell in the body. Ginkgo biloba extract, grape seed extract, green tea extract pomegranate extract, and Silymarin (milk thistle) extract are all known to improve peripheral circulation.

The immune support delivered by Green Vibrance is found in its content of betaglucans, ImmunEnhancer™ arabinogalactans and Astragalus extract.* But let us not loose sight of the immune enhancing effect of a healthy digestive tract. 50% of your own immune cells are found there. Well nourished, vibrant cells, amply protected by the army of antioxidants in Green Vibrance, are themselves resistant to disease.*

Green Vibrance has always supported good skeletal health, undoubtedly due to its alkalinizing nature, bioavailable boron and CalZbone®, an extract of Cissus quadrangularis that has been clinically shown to improve bone mineral density. Beginning with version 9.0, Green Vibrance added another key nutrient for bone health: Vitamin D3. The vitamin D3 in Green Vibrance is a specially made material from an actual plant source, lichen. Green Vibrance is now safe for vegans.

The entire Green Vibrance formula was designed and balanced to help establish and sustain good health.

Vibrant Health gives "going green" a whole new meaning.

References:

1. http://organic-center.org/organic-fact-sheets/the-health-benefits-of-organic/