Hidden Toxins in Your Vitamins and Food

Can some of the vitamins and supplements that you take on a daily basis have hidden toxins within them?  How clean really are your supplements?  I found this question hard to answer as I did the digging.  It is always a good policy to know where your vitamins are being sourced and whether you trust the company and distributor of your products.  Do you know that the majority of vitamin C sold is ascorbic acid or a synthetic version?  It is also my understanding that most of it is sourced from China and is actually a GMO version!!  I find this unbelievable as I try very hard to avoid all GMOs.

Not only do some supplements have genetically modified ingredients, but often there are artificial sweeteners, artificial colors and other artificial additives as well.

Toxin Testing

I think testing is very important, but very few companies do independent testing with public disclosure.  Consumer Labs  says it is their mission to identify the best health and nutritional products through independent testing.  You can become a member to get their results on some nutritional products as they mainly do comparative product testing. 

However, I have not found a source currently who looks at the purity of the product besides Mike Adams, the Health Ranger at his Consumer Wellness Center Labs. According to Adams, there could be heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides and even pharmaceuticals in your vitamins and food.  These toxins he says can cause all kinds of disease.  He writes more about his findings in his book, Food Forensics.  See his book promo below:

“This food science project is about providing transparency to consumers so they can make informed decisions

about what foods they wish to consume or avoid.” Mike Adams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=116&v=sl1KQ2hvQpw

Here is the link to the first chapter of his book for your free review …CLICK  HERE.

To purchase his entire book Food Forensics, click here.

In this first chapter, he writes how he analyzed mangosteen powder from Thailand and it contained 11 ppm of lead.  Keep in mind, that there is no safe level of lead according to the CDC.  Adams, after publishing his findings was then blacklisted from several importers.  He continued his investigations and what he found was even more amazing.  Over and over again his lab found large quantities of lead, aluminum, tungsten, mercury, arsenic and other toxins in supplements, every day foods, superfoods, dog food, and even organic food!

So What Do I Do Now?

1. Be informed. Toxic exposure has become overwhelming today.  Not only are we exposed to toxins in our food, but in our environment as well.  Water, air and soil now have to be considered;  as well as the chemicals we put on our bodies has to be taken into account.
2. Avoid toxins as much as possible.  Will we avoid them all?  Definitely not, but strive to avoid them as much as humanly possible. And definitely stay away from products whose ingredients you don’t know or can’t pronounce (ie. hexane, carrageenan, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, MSG, hydrogenated oil, artificial colors and other fillers)
3. Eat organic, unprocessed and whole food supplements and stay away from known GMOs.
4. Know your supplier.  Often I research the companies before buying my supplements.  I even put their address into the search engine.  More often than not, I find that the address of many of these “companies” are a warehouse or even just a small office.  I never buy from these store fronts.
5. Read reviews.  Although reviews can tell you a lot about the product, many times consumers still do not understand enough about the product source.
6. Look for manufactures that are ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and NSF certified.  To get these certifications, a manufactures has to submit to rigorous testing.  MegaFoods is one such company.
7.  American Nutraceutical Association also has great information on the latest research for consumers.