Good for You, Good for Our Earth

First the Environmental Working Groups identified 12 most pesticide ridden fruits and vegetables, then the David Suzuki foundation listed the 12 cosmetic chemicals to avoid and just this week Consumer Reports followed suit by identifying 12 dietary supplements, which they refer to as their “dirty dozen”. It isn’t a surprise that Consumer Reports would choose to review herbal dietary supplements, as they are estimated to be worth more than 5 billion in sales, and continue to increase in popularity. With that much money to be made, one would think that there would be regulations in place to ensure safely to consumers. We have laws around the sales of over the counter pharmaceutical drugs and alcohol, as most of us know too much of a good thing, is never a good thing! Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of people wonder whether they should be taking a daily multivitamin.  Any health professional that has been following the research on multivitamins over the years, will not be able to give you a straight answer to that, and for good reason. There has been conflicting research, some of it stating multivitamins help to prevent certain diseases, some of it concluding it makes things worse. Medscape Medical News outlined two conflicting studies, one showing a 33% decrease in breast cancer risk associated with multivitamin use and yet another observed a 19% increased risk of breast cancer associated with multivitamin use. While the debate rages on, I recommend not worrying about taking a pill as there is no one multivitamin that will give you all the 10,000-100, 00 phytochemicals that you receive from eating whole foods. 1000′s of studies have shown that a diet of unprocessed whole foods when eaten in moderation helps to prevent cancer and other chronic disease. That you can be sure of!