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Welcome to part four of All About Cholesterol. If you have not read parts one , two , and three , we recommend starting there. In part four, we will discuss supplements to support the cardiovascular system. Supplements that support healthy cholesterol levels We often get asked about supplements that can help to support healthy cholesterol levels. As we explained in part one , we think it is better to focus on keeping your arteries healthy and reducing oxidative stress. The more, the merrier does not apply to plaque buildup. Red Yeast Rice ANd CHolesterol The cholesterol supplement we get asked about the most is red yeast rice. Nearly all red yeast rice supplements contain a type of statin similar to the compounds found in cholesterol medication. While red yeast may help to support healthy cholesterol levels, it has never been shown to reduce heart and stroke risk. It has many possible side effects, such as cognitive issues (brain fog, memory, etc.), a worsening of the omega-six to omega-three ratio , reduced coq10 production, muscle aches, and more. So, while most red yeast rice supplements are marketed as natural, they are not without risk. In addition, many red yeast rice supplements are often contaminated with an aflatoxin called citrinin, which can cause various health issues. We do not recommend using red yeast rice supplements. Niacin and cholesterol Another supplement we get asked about is niacin (as well as no-flush niacin). While niacin may increase HDL levels in clinical studies, it does not appear to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. It also has a lot of very unpleasant side effects. We recommend against using niacin supplements unless recommended by your doctor. Hawthorne and cardiovascular health Hawthorne is a well-known and fantastic herb for cardiovascular health. It contains antioxidants and flavonoids that help to support a healthy cardiovascular system. The leaves, flowers, and berries all have different benefits, so choose a product with all three to get the most benefits. Coq10 and cardiovascular health Coq10 (ubiquinol and ubiquinone) is an antioxidant produced in the body that helps to support healthy energy levels and muscles. Certain medications, such as statins and a few blood pressure meds, can deplete coq10. In addition, health conditions like diabetes, kidney, and liver diseases can deplete coq10. When taking a coq10 supplement, make sure it is the trans-form and take it with a meal that has a good amount of fat for best absorption. Beef heart is the richest food source of coq10 and makes a great way to get some in your diet. So what are our favorite supplements for cardiovascular health? Rosita Cod Liver Oil and heart health The first supplement we recommend is unrefined cod liver oil . This incredible oil helps to support healthy arteries, a healthy omega-six to omega-three ratio, and so much more. You can read more here about why we recommend whole-food fish oil over traditional, heavily refined fish oil. If you are only going to take one supplement to support a healthy cardiovascular system, this is it. Cacao and heart health Next up is low heavy metal, high polyphenol cacao . Cacao helps to support healthy oxidative stress levels and helps to support healthy arteries and circulation. It is also one of the richest food sources of magnesium, which is very important for cardiovascular health, and most people do not get enough of it in their diet. High polyphenol cacao supports a healthy response to stress by promoting relaxation and calm. It is rich in a host of compounds that help to support the nervous system. A great way to enjoy it is to have a cup of ceremonial cacao before meditation. It is a genuinely incredible food! Many cacao products have high levels of heavy metals and are produced using child slavery. It is very important to get an ethically sourced and clean version of cacao, especially if you are taking it daily. You can read more about that here . Glutathione and heart health The third on our list is GPX . GPX contains: Alpha Lipoic Acid Vitamin C Glutamine Milk Thistle Quercetin A special form of Selenium A special form of Cysteine These ingredients help support healthy antioxidant levels and glutathione production, Ginkgo and grape seed extract for arterial health Vascuselect contains three powerful antioxidant ingredients: grapeseed extract, mango, and ginkgo leaf extract. They are packed with antioxidants, which support a healthy heart, circulation, and arteries. Bergamot and cardiovascular health Last but certainly not least is bergamot . Bergamot (Citrus bergamia) is a great alternative to red yeast rice. Unlike red yeast rice, it does not significantly deplete coq10 but promotes healthy levels in the body. Bergamot polyphenic flavonoids are key to its beneficial effects. We recommend using the same raw material and dosage used in the clinical trials to get the most benefits because not all bergamot products have the same profile. Many bergamot products are made with bitter orange or kaffir limes, despite being labeled bergamot, which will not give the results you are looking for. Choosing one that is properly tested and manufactured is very important. Bergamot essential oil is not the same thing as whole bergamot. Never ingest essential oils . Check out our blog on bergamot to learn how to choose a good bergamot supplement. Cholesterol questions and support We know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions, don’t know where to start, or need support, we are always available to help. Drop us an email anytime at info@rooted-nutrition.com ,   and we will be happy to help you on your health journey!

Our first It’s Not Real blog was very popular, and we have gotten a lot of requests for a second one, so here it is! Supplements that are not what they seem Thousands of supplements do one of the following: Claim to be something they are not. Claim to contain things that do not exist. Lie about what's in the product. Use misleading packaging and marketing claims to trick people into believing a product is something that it is not without outright saying it. Those practices are wholly unethical and, unfortunately, are becoming much more common. Fake Whole food supplements First up are these "Wholefood" Minerals: Looking at the label, you would think a product called Wholefood Minerals would only contain minerals made from food. You can see where this is going. We contacted the company and asked them what food the magnesium glycinate was made from, and this is the response we got: "Our supplier has stated that the origin of glycine used for the synthesis of magnesium bisglycinate is synthetic.” So, how is nearly all magnesium glycinate made? Magnesium carbonate (primarily made from mining magnesite) is reacted with the amino acid glycine, forming magnesium glycinate. No food is involved. You can decide for yourself if you think that's a whole-food mineral. I want to make clear that while we prefer and recommend genuine whole-food supplements , synthetic and isolated vitamins and minerals can have benefits in some instances. It is the labeling of them as whole food that is the problem. Making people think a product is a whole-food supplement when it is not is what we have an issue with. MSM from pine BARK Next up, is MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane). Many companies claim to sell raw, organic, pine lignan, pine spruce, pine-sulfur, or plant-derived MSM. This leads people to believe that the MSM they are getting is extracted or taken directly from pine trees or plants when this could not be further from the truth. No MSM is made that way. All MSM is made from DMSO, which can be made from various sources, such as corn oil, pine bark from paper mill byproducts, or petroleum byproducts. Even if the DMSO is made from wood byproducts, none of that original plant material remains in the DMSO. So, how is DMSO made? Currently, DMSO is produced primarily via one of these methods : "1, methyl alcohol dithiocarbonic anhydride method: take methyl alcohol and dithiocarbonic anhydride as raw material, with γ-Al 2o 3as catalyzer, first synthesizing dimethyl thioether, then use nitrogen peroxide (or nitric acid) oxidation to obtain dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). 2, nitrogen peroxide method: take methyl alcohol and hydrogen sulfide as raw material, generate dimethyl thioether under gama-alumina effect; Sulfuric acid is reacted and makes nitrogen peroxide with Sodium Nitrite; The dimethyl thioether generating and nitrogen peroxide carry out oxidizing reaction at 60-80 ℃ and generate thick dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), also have directly and are oxidized with oxygen, generate equally thick dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO); Thick dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), through underpressure distillation, obtains refining dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). 3, methyl-sulfate method: methyl-sulfate is reacted with sodium sulphite, make dimethyl thioether; Sulfuric acid reacts with Sodium Nitrite and generates nitrogen peroxide; Dimethyl thioether and nitrogen peroxide carry out oxidizing reaction, obtain thick dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), through neutralizing treatment, obtain refining dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) after distillation." As you can see, there is nothing plant-based, raw, or organic about this process. One company we contacted, which claimed to sell plant-based MSM, said that their MSM was technically plant-based because the petroleum byproduct the DMSO was made from was technically from plants because petroleum was created through plant material breaking down over millions of years. By that logic, everything could be called plant-based. I'm surprised they did not call it animal-based since dinosaurs also turned into oil. These companies are out of control. All commercially available MSM is synthetic and created through a chemical reaction of DMSO and hydrogen peroxide. Since all commercial MSM produced comes from DMSO, and all commercial DMSO is produced synthetically, the origin of the DMSO is insignificant. Claims that the MSM is plant-based because the DMSO was made from pine bark or corn oil is nonsense. Fake Whole Food Magnesium Third is this “whole food” magnesium powder: Based on that labeling, you could not be criticized for believing that the bottle contained magnesium made from whole foods. Unfortunately, that is not what it is. The product does have a thirty-five milligram blend of four foods that naturally contain a very small amount of magnesium. That is a very, very tiny amount of food. However, if each scoop contains 350 milligrams of magnesium and only thirty-five milligrams of food, all of that magnesium will undoubtedly not come from that thirty-five milligram blend. So, where is it coming from? If you look at the other ingredients, you can see where we marked the words magnesium carbonate. So, what is magnesium carbonate? Magnesium carbonate is obtained via the mining of the mineral magnesite. It’s made from rocks, not food. Based on that, should this product be labeled Magnesium Whole Food Powder? Low Quality Matcha Next up is matcha powder. Matcha is a type of green tea, generally sold as powder or capsules. It typically comes in small containers and costs significantly more than regular green tea. The above product retails at $34.99 for eleven ounces, which seems to be a great deal and is much less expensive than other ceremonial-grade matcha powders. So what’s going on here? Well, if you look at the supplement facts panel, each serving is five grams, which is five thousand milligrams. If you look further down the supplement facts panel, each serving contains one thousand milligrams of matcha green tea. The other four thousand milligrams are brown rice solids. This means that eighty percent of the product is brown rice solids, and only twenty percent is matcha. Only 2.2 ounces of the eleven ounces of this product is matcha. It's definitely not as great a deal as it first appears. Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide Last up is "food grade" hydrogen peroxide. I cannot stress enough how horrible it is to label hydrogen peroxide as food grade. No hydrogen peroxide is safe to be ingested. It is incredibly dangerous. Hydrogen peroxide ingestion causes massive amounts of oxidation. Large amounts of oxidation is the last thing you want in the body. At low dosages in the short term, it can cause: Stomach pains and cramps Difficulty breathing Body aches Chest pains Burns Bloated stomach Nausea As dosages get higher and the longer a person takes it, it can start to cause: Caustic injuries to the throat and stomach Lipid peroxidation This can lead to a whole host of issues, such as kidney damage, Parkinson's, asthma, cell membrane damage, and much more. Severe gastric distention, resulting in the need for a nasogastric tube. Nebulizing hydrogen peroxide is becoming popular on social media, which is one of the worst things a person can do, especially to children. It can cause: Inhalation Pneumonitis Asthma attacks Pulmonary irritation Eye irritation Over the long term, it can: Increase the risk of seizures Reduced cilia motility and viability Increased risk of cerebral infarction and cerebral embolism There is zero evidence that ingestion or inhalation of hydrogen peroxide has any benefits, and there is a lot of evidence that it is hazardous. It will NOT treat COVID-19, help your immune system, cure a cold or flu, help someone beat cancer, or do any of the insane claims made for it. In fact, it will do the opposite. For example, COVID-19 causes massive amounts of oxidative stress over a short period of time. In some cases, it generates an amount of oxidative stress that would typically be made in the body in a year's time, in just two weeks. Adding a massively oxidizing substance, like hydrogen peroxide, will make the complications from COVID-19 far worse. Please do not put hydrogen peroxide in your child's nebulizer! Supplement Questions And Support If you have questions about whether a supplement or vitamin is what it claims to be, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will be happy to help!

Click here for our latest update on collagen peptides! You can find collagen in almost everything these days, from powders and protein bars to collagen water (yum?). What is collagen, and what does it do? Collagen is the main structural protein found in the skin and other connective tissues. Collagen is a hard, insoluble, and fibrous protein that makes up one-third of the protein in the human body. It gives skin strength and elasticity. There are at least 16 different types of collagen, but 80 to 90 percent of them belong to types 1, 2, and 3. These different types have different structures and functions. Collagen is secreted by various cells, but mainly by connective tissue cells. It is found in the extracellular matrix. This is an intricate network of macromolecules that determines the physical properties of body tissues. A macromolecule is a molecule containing a large number of atoms. With age, collagen weakens, leading to wrinkles and cartilage problems. In the dermis or the middle layer of skin, collagen helps form a fibrous network of cells called fibroblasts, upon which new cells can grow. It also plays a role in replacing and restoring dead skin cells. Some collagens act as protective coverings for delicate organs in the body, such as the kidneys. With age, the body produces less collagen. The structural integrity of the skin declines, wrinkles form, and joint cartilage weakens. Women experience a dramatic reduction in collagen synthesis after menopause. By the age of 60 years, a considerable decline in collagen production is normal. When choosing a collagen supplement, there are many important factors that must be taken into account: ethics, sourcing, quality control, processing, and the composition of the final product. What are most collagen supplements made from? While most people believe that collagen supplements are made from bones or other edible parts of an animal, the vast majority of collagen supplements are actually made from the inedible and indigestible parts of animals like the hide of cows or the scales of fish. These parts are very cheap for companies to buy, allowing them to make a huge profit while charging you a premium price for materials they get for next to nothing. How are most collagen supplements made? For food or nutritional purpose, collagen is broken down into gelatine which can be broken down further into hydrolyzed collagen. The processes involved in processing hydrolyzed collagen are demineralization, extraction of collagen to gelatine, enzymatic hydrolysis to obtain hydrolyzed collagen, ion exchange, ultrafiltration, bleaching, evaporation, sterilization, and finally, drying. This heavy processing essentially yields a powdered blend of amino acids, far from the whole food or natural product claims that most companies make. Without this heavy processing, it would not mix well into cold beverages because many of the naturally occurring compounds are not water-soluble. Real bone broth collagen (most "bone broth" powders are not real bone broth) is a great option for looking for a powdered product. Some companies claim to use parts from grass-fed animals, although many are derived from regular feed-lot cattle. While grass-fed is generally better for you and the environment, a product that is so processed and only has a few isolated amino acids left is not going to provide any of the normal health benefits associated with grass-fed animal products because all of the other compounds have been removed during the heavy processing. Where do most collagen products come from? There are two main sources of collagen products (a few collagen products are derived from chicken sternums, but this represents a very small part of the market). The first is conventional feedlot cattle hides from the United States. We all know the problems of the use of factory farms in the United States, such as animal welfare, environmental issues, and human health. Guess who owns one of the top-selling types of this type of collagen in the United States? CLOROX, the bleach company! They own the Neocell brand (as well as Rainbow Light vitamins, Renew Life, and Natural Vitality, the makers of Natural Calm magnesium): The second is cattle hides from Brazil. While grass-fed cattle are usually better for the health of the animals, the environment, and people, in this case, it is most certainly not. In Brazil, massive amounts of the Amazon rainforest are being cut down to make room for cattle to graze. This is creating an environmental catastrophe. Cattle ranching is responsible for almost 80% of the deforestation rates of the Amazon. Many of the massive fires being set there are to make grazing land for cattle. The rainforest is far too important to all of humanity and the native peoples who live there to be cut down for short-term profits. Once it is gone, we can never get it back. Boycotting all beef products from South America and Brazil is one of the easiest ways to help preserve the rainforest. No matter how good the quality of a product is, if it creates profound ethical or environmental issues, is it really worth it? Guess who now owns the number one company selling collagen products from South America ? Nestle, one of the worst corporations ( users of child and slave labor around the world and stealer of clean drinking water ), just purchased the Vital Proteins company . Remember, Nestle already owns the following vitamin companies already: Garden of Life Pure Encapsulations Douglas Labs Minami Genestra Seroyal Persona Solgar Natures Bounty Sundown Puritans Pride Ester-C Osteo Bi-Flex Wobenzyme Orgain And a lot more! There is no reason you should have to compromise your ethics, health, or the environment to get good collagen or any other supplement . Rooted Nutrition has proudly always been and always will be a Nestle-free zone! Where does ethically sourced collagen come from? It comes from grass-fed cows that graze on lush pastures. These pastures exist without the need to clear-cut forests to create them. The cows are not pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. The animals come from a country with strict animal welfare and environmental laws that are actually enforced. It should also have laws that ensure farmworkers are paid a fair wage and are treated well. When looking for a country that met all of these ethical requirements, New Zealand and Australia were the only ones that actually checked all the boxes on our ethics checklist. The other countries that met these requirements did not produce the whole-food collagen that we were looking for. whole-food collagen Real whole-food collagen is minimally processed. It should be made from whole, edible animal parts - not scales and hides. It is not acid washed, bleached, demineralized, or ion-exchanged. It should be tested to ensure it is free of BSE (commonly known as mad cow disease). Australia and New Zealand have never had BSE, whereas Brazil recently has had cases. It should also be tested to ensure it is free of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides. It should be tested to ensure it does not contain high levels of heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium. Many collagen supplements actually have a problem with heavy metal contamination. The collagen should be traceable from the farm where the cows were raised to the processing facility and finally to the factory where the product is bottled. The process of making whole-food collagen is quite simple. Protease, an enzyme, is applied to remove the non-cartilage parts of the materials while in water and dried at low temperatures. Nothing is added, and nothing is taken away. That’s it. Much much different from conventional collagen products. It was incredibly difficult to find collagen products that were truly whole food, as opposed to just claiming to be. A whole-food collagen product should contain all the naturally occurring compounds present in the whole food, not just a few amino acids. Some of these compounds, depending on which type of collagen it is, include: Collagens Amino acids Bioactive Growth Factors: IGF-1, TGFßI & Cartilage Derived Growth Factor (CDGF) Glycosaminoglycans | Proteoglycans Chondroitin Sulfates Much more When you use heavily processed and refined collagen products, you lose out on nearly all of these wonderful compounds and their benefits. Why take the collagen equivalent of white bread and miss out on all of the benefits true whole-food collagen has to offer? There are different types of collagen. Each has different uses. Type 1 is best for bone health. Type 2 is best for joint and immune health. A blend of types 1 and 3 is best for hair, skin, and nails. Types 5 and 1 are best for gut health. Ethics and quality permeate every part of what we do at Rooted Nutrition. We truly believe that you cannot have one without the other. We will never force you to make that choice. If we find out that one of the companies or products we sell starts doing things that affect quality or ethics, we will stop selling them. We do not have loyalty to any brand or company. If you wish to learn more about collagen, on everything from how it's made to which one might be best for you, our collagen center is the place for you. We are so proud and excited to be able to offer you whole-food collagen supplements that support your health without compromise! Check them out . Collagen Questions And Support Check out our Ethical Collagen Center   for lots of great information on collagen. If you have questions about collagen and collagen peptides, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will be happy to help!

We had such an overwhelming response to our scariest advice blog that we decided to do part two. We were flooded with questions that people had about various recommendations being given online. While we are not able to get to all of them in articles like this, here are five that really stood out. We wanted to address the ones that seemed most dangerous to us. Terrible health advice Are hydrogen peroxide enemas safe? I know you talked about the dangers of nebulizing hydrogen peroxide, but what hydrogen peroxide enemas? Way back in the day (when your parents walked both ways, uphill, in the snow to school), hydrogen peroxide enemas were used to “treat” fecal impaction, blockages, constipation, and many other things. They are making a comeback, with proponents saying they can get rid of yeast, parasites, worms, toxic colon buildup, and much more. Hydrogen peroxide enemas are actually quite dangerous and will not cure any of those things. They can cause chemical rectal burns, chemical colitis, bowel perforation, bloody diarrhea (please note this is not your body expelling toxins, as one website claimed it was), colon rupture, and in the worst cases, necrosis of colon tissue. In addition, this will not make your gut microbiome healthier; it will actually kill off a lot of your good bacteria. Here are a few references as to why you should not use hydrogen peroxide enemas: 1 , 2 , 3 . Is taking antibiotics or medications sold for fish at the pet store and online Safe? Pet stores often sell antibiotics and other medications, for use in fish tanks such as tetracycline, amoxicillin, and many more. These are used to clear up infections that fish get. While they may have the same or similar names as medications your doctor may prescribe, they are often in different forms and dosages that could make it easy to overdose and get very sick. In addition, quality control is often lacking in these over-the-counter pet products, and they could contain dangerous impurities or additives that could make you very sick. Overusing medications meant for fish can lead to antibiotic resistance and infections that could worsen from taking the wrong medication. Different infections respond to different antibiotics; your doctor is the best person to help you know which antibiotic you should take. You should only take antibiotics that are prescribed to you by your doctor, in the dosages and frequency that they wrote the prescription for. Please do not take fish pills. Here are a few references on why you should not take fish medication: 1 , 2 . Unfortunately, too many people are using these because they cannot afford to go to the doctor and pay for the medications, which is just another indication of how horrible our healthcare system is. No one should have to resort to questionable medications and treatments because they do not have access to healthcare. Are tapeworms a safe way to lose weight? So I admit I was a bit surprised at this one, but after looking into it, the tapeworm diet is actually making quite the comeback. I get it; losing weight is not easy, and the hope for a quick fix will never end. I just don’t think tapeworms are really the way to go. While tapeworms are illegal to sell in the United States, many online vendors will ship them in from outside the country. Tapeworm infections can cause: Abdominal Pain Nausea Bloating Diarrhea Weakness Vitamin Deficiencies Malnutrition Anemia Lethargy Gut lining damage And so much more I never thought I would have to say this, but please do not eat tapeworms to lose weight or for any other reason. Just FYI, tapeworms can get up to 30 feet long. Imagine having a worm that size in your body! In case you want to read for yourself, here are some references on why you should not give yourself a tapeworm: 1 , 2 , 3 . Is it ok to put essential oils directly on your skin? Unfortunately, certain essential oil company distributors often tell people to put them directly on their skin. This is terrible advice. Some companies claim that their essential oils are “therapeutic-grade, " making them safe to put directly on the skin. As I have said previously, there is no regulation of the term “therapeutic-grade,” and any company can put it on their oils. It does not indicate purity, safety, or effectiveness ;it is just a marketing term. No matter how pure an essential oil is, it should never be put directly on the skin. Essential oils should always be diluted before use. Putting essential oils directly on the skin can cause burns, redness, itching, hives, contact dermatitis, and swelling of the skin. In addition, using lots of undiluted essential oils can result in photosensitivity, liver, nervous system, kidney problems, and much more. While a localized reaction on the skin is easy to spot, internal problems related to absorbing too many essential oils through the skin often take some time to notice. Essential oils have many wonderful properties, but please do not ingest them or put them undiluted on the skin. Here is a great article on why you should not put them directly on your skin. Does cocaine help with COVID-19 symptoms? I thought we would end on a funny one. A client of ours from South America sent this to me; he thought I might enjoy it, and he was right. He told us that a lot of people have been saying that cocaine is very effective in helping to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The theory is that it would sterilize the nostrils, preventing the virus from spreading and replicating. Now I get it: cocaine smells really great, but I’m guessing it’s not going to be an effective COVID-19 preventative or treatment. Questions and support about online health advice If you have questions about health advice you see online, email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and our superstar staff will be happy to help!

It’s the spookiest time of the year, so we thought it would be good to go over some of the scariest questions we have been getting asked this month based on some very dangerous advice being given out online. Conspiracy theories can be fun, like Lizard People ( including totally human Ted Cruz, the Zodiac Killer) or Hollow Earth (one of my personal favorites); however, they start getting into extremely dangerous territory when that advice can cause serious harm or even kill. Terrible health advice While we get thousands of questions each month, some stand out more than others. Let’s jump right into some spooktober questions. MMS - Miracle mineral solution - Is it safe? Are MMS (miracle mineral solution), sodium hypochlorite, sodium chlorite, and chlorine dioxide products good to take? Years ago, when I first looked into MMS, I was shocked that companies were actually selling this for human consumption. There seems to be an uptick in interest in these products. Companies recommend that these compounds be mixed with citric acid, lemon, lime, or orange juice. The chemical reaction between citric acid and sodium chlorite forms a type of bleach. You should never ingest bleach, no matter what anyone says. Regardless of what companies claim, this stuff is bleach, plain and simple. It is incredibly dangerous and can cause a host of health issues. It often causes vomiting and diarrhea, which companies like to claim shows that it is working. This could not be further from the truth, it is your body getting sick. Sometimes people claim they see parasites coming out in their stools when that is actually part of their intestinal lining that is being expelled from the damage caused by ingesting bleach. It can cause acute liver failure, intestinal damage, stomach lining issues, lung problems, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration, and much more. Please do not drink bleach; it is never a good choice an d is not a cure or treatment for any disease. Here are some good references as to why you should not drink these things: 1 , 2 , 3 . Whatever your health issues, bleach is not the answer. Is turpentine safe to take internally? Turpentine is getting a resurgence in recommendations from certain online websites for treating a variety of health issues. Turpentine was used in the past for a variety of health issues. However, its dangerous and harmful effects far outweighed its benefits. Often people will use things in desperate times or when nothing else is available, but it does not mean we should continue using those things. Turpentine is very dangerous, whether the traditional kind or the clear gum spirits (no matter what companies or people may claim about purity, all turpentine is poisonous). There is no safe form of turpentine. It can cause a host of health problems, such as: The mouth, throat, and food pipe may have a burning sensation or burns; this may affect the eyes, nose, and ears. Severe burns, which can result in perforations along the gastrointestinal tract. Swelling of the throat, which can lead to speaking, swallowing, and breathing difficulties. Breathing difficulties due to substance inhalation that may be severe; coughing, and choking. Vision abnormalities, including vision loss Blood in vomit and/or stool Burning sensation on the skin, including skin burns Bluish discoloration of the skin on the lips and beneath fingernails Pain in the abdomen/stomach Urination difficulties; blood in the urine (hematuria) Renal failure A sudden drop in blood pressure (hypotension) Weakness and collapse Often people and promoters claim that they see parasites or worms coming out in their stools when they take turpentine. Unfortunately, these are actually parts of the intestinal lining being expelled because of the turpentine. This can cause permanent damage to your intestinal and stomach lining. Please do not ingest turpentine; it is poisonous. No matter what companies or websites claim, there is no safe way to ingest turpentine and no safe turpentine products on the market, no matter what claims of “purity” they advertise. Here are some good references on why you should not drink turpentine: 1 , 2 , 3 . No matter what your health issues are, turpentine is never the answer. It's truly frightening that people are being told to drink dangerous industrial solvents. Is over-the-counter ivermectin from the feed or pet store Safe to take? Ivermectin is a prescription medication that is used to treat certain internal and external parasitic infections, as well as certain skin conditions. It is also used in farm animals to treat certain internal and external parasites. If your doctor prescribes ivermectin for the treatment of one of those parasites, you should follow their instructions and take it as directed. The dangers of ivermectin come from people buying the kind that is meant for farm animals and taking large dosages of it. Over-the-counter ivermectin that is sold for farm animals is much more concentrated and in a much higher dosage than what would be prescribed for people. It is very easy to overdose on it. Self-medicating with a powerful prescription drug, at dosages meant for a two thousand-pound horse, will never be a good idea. A lot of people are getting very sick from overdosing on ivermectin. In some cases, it can cause the intestinal lining to be damaged, and in extreme cases, parts of the lining will actually come out in the feces. Many people think they are pooping out worms when it is actually their intestinal lining. In addition, ivermectin overdose can cause nausea, vomiting, confusion, hallucinations, tremors, and in extreme cases, coma or death. While ivermectin has real benefits for certain conditions when used as prescribed by your doctor, no one should take medication that is meant for farm animals, as it can have serious and very dangerous complications and is very easy to overdose on. Here are some good references on why you should not take over-the-counter ivermectin: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . Please talk to your doctor before taking ivermectin in any form. So many people are taking ivermectin from the feed store, creating shortages for horses and other farm animals. Is it safe to inhale or ingest hydrogen peroxide? When most people think of hydrogen peroxide, they think of the bottle that they have in their medicine cabinet that comes out twice a year when they need to use an antiseptic. Unfortunately, some famous people have been promoting it for dangerous uses. For years, the very bad advice about ingesting "food-grade" hydrogen peroxide has been going around despite that being a terrible idea. There is actually no such thing as "food-grade" hydrogen peroxide; it is just marketing. Hydrogen peroxide can have some very bad health effects, such as tissue damage and inflammation, but lately, some truly horrible information has been going around telling people to inhale or nebulize hydrogen peroxide. I was truly shocked when I saw this being recommended. It is so incredibly dangerous. It can cause severe tissue and lung damage if this is done, as well as a lot of lung inflammation, which is definitely not a good idea in these times. If someone has a respiratory illness and they nebulize and inhale hydrogen peroxide, it can create an extremely dangerous situation. Please do not do this. Here are some good references as to why you should not nebulize hydrogen peroxide: 1 , 2 , 3 . Whatever your health issue is, ingesting or inhaling hydrogen peroxide is not the answer. Is it safe to ingest essential oils? While we have gotten this question a lot over the years, lately, it has come up a lot more. You should never ingest essential oils. There is no such thing as “therapeutic-grade” essential oils. There is no regulation of the term. Any company can claim their essential oils are “therapeutic-grade.” There is no level of purity or testing that can make them safe to ingest. Any company claiming their oils are safe to be ingested is not one you should trust. Even small amounts of them can cause significant poisoning. Ingesting essential oils can cause serious damage, including burns, to the esophageal, stomach, and intestinal lining. There is no safe way to consume essential oils. There are no properly done clinical trials showing they are safe to ingest. Just do not do it. Here is a great explanation from the Australian Department of Health explaining the risks. Essential oils do have many wonderful uses; just don't ingest them. Is inserting garlic vaginally helpful for yeast infections? Listen, I’m an herbalist. I love herbs and plants. I married an Italian woman; garlic is my jam. However, the vagina is no place for a clove of it. Please do not put garlic in there. Garlic can contaminated with a bacteria from the soil called clostridium botulism (the bacteria that causes botulism). It thrives in an anaerobic environment. The vagina is an anaerobic environment. You do not want a vaginal infection from this bacteria. In addition, it can sometimes get stuck or break apart in there, creating quite a nightmare. Please do not insert anything vaginally, from garlic to jade eggs, that is not meant to be there. Save the garlic for your pasta sauce. An amazing plant and culinary superstar, but not made for vaginas. Whenever I write articles about things that are popular on the internet at the time, I often get called a shill for big pharma or a sheep of the FDA. I do not have any stake in or own any stocks in pharmaceutical companies. I have never worked for a pharmaceutical company or government agency, nor have I ever taken money from them. While I understand people (and rightfully so) being suspicious of the FDA and pharmaceutical companies, please know that I have no connection to any of them and am not trying to cover up any cures or suppress any information. I am just an herbalist who gets really worried and concerned when I see lots of people doing things that could hurt them and upset when I see people who know better giving out dangerous advice. Questions and support about online health advice If you have questions about health advice you see online, email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and our superstar staff will be happy to help! Firefighter Parker says Happy Halloween!

Aloe is a great plant with many uses. From soothing your skin to comforting your gut, aloe is your friend. Unfortunately, there are some considerable problems in the aloe vera market. Problems With Aloe Vera Supplements Adulteration, poor processing methods, oxidation, compound spiking, thickeners, and unnecessary preservatives plague nearly all aloe products. I hope you are ready for some at-home chemistry work because you can see a lot of (unfortunately, not all) aloe problems at home. So, bust out those test tubes. Preservatives in Aloe Vera Juice - Sodium Benzoate And Potassium Sorbate When looking at aloe products, first up is the ingredient list. Many contain unwanted preservatives such as potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate. These are unnecessary and only needed because of lazy manufacturing and processing techniques. There are much better ways to preserve aloe without using these ingredients. Some companies claim they have to use them to prevent mold growth, but that is bunk. A small amount of citric acid or organic lemon juice can be used to stabilize properly made aloe juice without the use of any preservatives. Just say no to aloe with added preservatives. Aloe Vera Juice "active" ingredient spiking Another labeling issue to look for is added “active” compounds. Companies add things like polysaccharides for two purposes. First, to make people think that it is better because it has more of whichever compound they are adding and to make the product appear to have higher levels of a compound when testing. Isolated compounds do not function the same as a constituent when it is part of the whole food. It's pure marketing. Some companies also add additional compounds because their heavy processing damages fragile components. Aloe is great on its own; it does not need its levels of polysaccharides or other compounds artificially increased. Say no to spiked products. Aloe Vera Juice Thickeners Avoid products with added thickeners, such as carrageenan, xantham gum, and guar gum. They make the products appear gel-like, and the companies like to claim that it is somehow better; however, there is no proof that it's better. It also allows them to reduce the amount of aloe in the product. Those thickeners make people think the gel is just the filet out of the aloe life in the bottle, which is not what it is. It's heavily filtered and processed aloe mixed with thickeners, so say no to aloe with added thickeners. What color should aloe juice be? Next up is the color of aloe juice. It should look similar to the inside of an aloe leaf, with perhaps a few flecks of green. You only want the inner part of the leaf used in your aloe juice, as the outer leaf contains some compounds, such as aloin, which can cause some real problems. It should contain bits of pulp floating throughout it. Your aloe should not be brown. Brown aloe means that it has been oxidized because of poor processing and manufacturing. It is one giant red flag that shows a company does not understand how to process and manufacture aloe properly. Some companies call their brown aloe juice golden in color because they use some of the sap under the leaf. I don't know about you, but brown and golden are very different colors to me. Time for your first science experiment. Cut open a fresh aloe leaf and see if you notice a big brown area on the inside of the leaf. You won't find it unless your leaf is old and dead. Aloe juice is not brown because of some sap; it's brown because of oxidation. Those companies are full of s**t. It often happens with companies that do not make or grow their own aloe. If you cut into an aloe leaf and it was brown inside, you would rightly throw it away. The same applies to your aloe juice, so say no to oxidized aloe. That's not golden, Carol, it's brown. Should aloe vera juice taste like spring water? Your aloe should not look and taste like spring water. Clear “aloe” means that it has been distilled or very heavily processed. Some companies even advertise their aloes as fractionally distilled. This process removes nearly all beneficial aloe compounds, leaving behind just low-sulfur water. That’s why it tastes like spring water. A recent independent test of a popular fractionally distilled aloe showed it contained none of one of the most important compounds found in aloe. Much of aloes benefits come from it being a digestive bitter. Without that taste, you lose those benefits, so you should also avoid aloe in pills. So say no to aloe that tastes like water. Aloe vera powder Never buy powdered aloe. The processing required to turn it into a powder is harsh and damages many of the fragile, beneficial constituents. Aloe vera juice adulteration Get ready for your next science experiment. This test will show whether your aloe has starch adulteration, usually maltodextrin. You will not see this starch listed in the ingredients list, as it is a very common adulterant. It's done because it makes the product appear to have higher levels of polysaccharides when tested, which helps poor-quality raw materials pass inadequate quality control testing. Grab a glass jar or test tube and pour 15 ml (that's half an ounce in freedom units) of unflavored aloe (you cannot use aloe with fruit juices added) into it. Then you will need to add five to seven drops of this iodine (regular iodine drops cannot be used for this type of test) and shake it up. If the aloe turns purplish, it's adulterated with starch, most likely maltodextrin. What should you look for in an aloe vera juice or supplement? First up is the source. Aloe juice should be traceable back to the farm it came from (check out our farm-to-bottle project to learn more about why this is so important), and the company should be the one making the aloe from leaf to bottle. Don’t buy from companies that don’t make their own aloe. Aloe juice should be made simply. No heavy processing or drying of the aloe. The processing plant should be located right on the aloe plantation to ensure freshness, to prevent nutrient loss and oxidation. Aloe juice should: Be similar in color to the inside of an aloe leaf, not brown or clear, with bits of pulp in it Contain no more than a trace amount of aloin Be unfiltered and contain some sediment Not have any added thickeners Unpasteurized, unheated, and non-irradiated Be transparent about the processing method Not have added preservatives, such as sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate, just a bit of citric acid or organic lemon juice. Not have added polysaccharides or other compounds that seek to artificially boost the levels of certain constituents. Be traceable back to the farm it came from and the facility it was made in Be packaged in dark glass, not soft plastic. While clear glass is better than soft plastic, light can degrade many of the nutrients and beneficial compounds found in aloe, so dark glass is best. Free of added starches and maltodextrin adulteration Be entirely made from the Barbadensis species Not have added water Not be concentrated or from a concentrate Made from fresh aloe inner leaf, not the whole leaf Not be made from dried, reconstituted powder Not be decolorized - Decolorization is a heavy filtering process that removes harmful compounds. However, it also removes a number of beneficial compounds as well. Better initial fileting and handling of the aloe leaf removes the need for decolorization. Be grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides in a way that protects the environment and improves the soil. Be made from only mature four-year or older plants. It takes time for the beneficial compounds to form and get to a concentration that offers benefits. Young plants simply do not have high enough levels. Be grown by farmers who are paid a fair price for their crop and harvested by laborers who are well taken care of The Most Incredible Aloe Vera Juice We searched for an aloe vera supplement in the United States that met all of our criteria, but we simply could not find one. So, we had to look outside of the country. After an exhaustive search and testing many aloe vera products, we finally found one . NaturAloe Aloe Vera Juice comes from a plantation in the beautiful Andalusian region of Spain. It is biodynamically grown and Demeter-certified . Biodynamics is a much stricter standard than organic farming and requires the soil and planet to be well taken care of. Andalusian aloe plantations are the oldest in the Western world and perhaps the last to still have non-hybridized aloe vera plants. The aloe is produced on demand, not stored in tanks for long periods of time, where it can lose much of its potency and become oxidized. Here is how they produce it: The leaves (only from plants that are at least four years old) are cut at the rate of 3 or 4 per foot and processed within 24 hours of picking. They are brushed, washed, and peeled meticulously to eliminate aloin, a laxative substance. The pulp (called mucilage) is crushed and pressed to extract the juice, following a special protocol. A small amount of organic lemon juice is added to stabilize the juice and prevent mold growth. Bottling is done immediately to avoid any alteration and oxidation of the product. No heating or pasteurization No filtering The end product is just whole, raw, fresh juice that retains all of its beneficial properties. It doesn't get any better than that! The video is in French, but you can see the whole process from the leaf to juice. Aloe Juice Support Hopefully, this article answers all of your aloe questions. However, if you have any questions about our aloe supplement, email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will do our best to get you the answers you need.

Stop eating my food. Are you a cow? You might think that's a strange question to ask someone, but if you have been buying most greens powders with ingredients such as wheatgrass, barley grass, and alfalfa, you've been eating cow food. Greens without the grass But aren't those greens super nutritious? While they have a bit of nutrition, they are in those greens powders because they are super inexpensive to grow and produce. This allows companies to make large tubs of powders for next to nothing and have huge profit margins. More nutrient-dense plants like lacinato (dinosaur) kale, Swiss chard, spinach, collard greens, and mustard greens have much more nutrient density than grass but are much more expensive, so it's more profitable to fill up the tubs with grass and just a tiny pinch of the more nutrient-dense green foods. While cows love the taste of grass, most people don't. That's why most green powders are filled with questionable sweeteners and flavorings (artificial and "natural") to cover up the grassy taste. In addition, most green powders are spray-dried or dried at high temperatures, which can lead to an off taste and a significant loss of the nutritional value of the foods. This can damage the greens, and then companies need to add emulsifiers, such as lecithin (often extracted with hexane and acetone), to make the powder mix easier. Greens powders should be free of added sweeteners or flavorings ("natural" flavorings are not natural) and gently dried at low temperatures. Most greens powders add fillers like FOS, Inulin, flax, and pectin. While they may claim benefits from those ingredients, they are just cheap fillers that allow the companies to use far fewer green foods, greatly increasing their profits. Look for green powders free of fillers and that only contain green foods and other vegetables or fruits. Grass Free Greens Powder Simplicity is best for green food powders, but unfortunately, most manufacturers have decided that marketing is more important than making a great product. Many products contain twenty or more ingredients. One popular brand has over fifty ingredients. While this may look good on the label, the amounts of nearly all ingredients are too low to be beneficial or have any effect. This is an example of a common practice in the supplement industry called fairy dusting . While it is excellent for marketing purposes, it's just a waste of money for the people purchasing it. Look for green powders with only a handful of ingredients to ensure you get enough of each to benefit. Your health is too important to leave up to the marketing departments of big-name companies like Nestle . Farm to table greens powders Do you know where all of the ingredients in your green food come from? I'm not talking about the country of origin but the actual farms. Every country has good and bad farms, so knowing where the ingredients are grown is very important. The best greens powder producers tell you where each ingredient comes from, right down to the farm. Check out our Farm To Bottle Project to learn more about the importance of knowing where all the ingredients in your supplements come from. A company should be proud of its sources, not try to hide them. Most companies do not grow or produce their ingredients. They buy bulk powders from middlemen. These middlemen often combine ingredients from various suppliers in many different places, making it impossible to know where the ingredients come from or how they were grown. Look for greens powders from companies that grow and dry their greens or get them directly from the farmers, not bulk powders from middlemen that they slap their name on. The quality of the ingredients matters greatly. Many companies use old, yellow, and brown leaves that lack nutritional value but are cheap and great for marketing and profits. It does not matter if the ingredients have no real value left; they can still be listed as an ingredient on the label. Another common practice is to use only commonly discarded parts, like stems, which have very little nutritional value. However, using just the stems is very profitable and adds lots of bulk. Companies can still list Swiss chard as an ingredient, even if they use the stems and none of the leaves. However, the buyer pays the penalty because they get a green powder with little nutritional value. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell from the label whether the company just used stems. You want your greens powder to be made with freshly harvested whole greens, not just the stems, which are processed and dried quickly after harvesting to have the highest nutritional value. Most nutrients hate light, which causes them to lose their nutritional value. Green powders should be packaged in dark containers, not clear ones, to prevent the loss of essential nutrients and compounds. Greens powder without fillers and additives We are very excited to offer a number of Greens Without The Grass powders so you can get the most nutrient-dense green foods without the grasses, fillers, sweeteners, and flavorings found in nearly all greens powders. We grew tired of seeing green products full of grass, fillers, sweeteners, and flavorings. We were sick of companies refusing to tell us where the ingredients came from. We wanted something better. All the green foods and vegetables used in the products are grown using biodynamic, organic, and regenerative agriculture on small family farms. No synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides are ever used, and every ingredient is non-GMO. These farms represent everything good farming should be. Soon after harvesting, the greens are washed to remove debris, dirt, and leaves that do not meet strict standards. Different greens require different processing methods in order to help you get the most nutrition from your powders. For example, certain greens contain lots of goitrogens and oxalates, so steaming and blanching them before gently drying, dramatically reduces the amount of those present. Other greens may not have lots of oxalates and goitrogens so they would not require those steps. Using the correct method for each green is the best way to go, rather than a one-size-fits-all method. After drying, the greens are gently milled and packaged. That's it! Unlike most green powders, which taste like a freshly mowed lawn or cover up the taste with sweeteners and flavorings, Greens Without The Grass products taste fresh and vibrant, with grassiness or grittiness. One heaping teaspoon supplies a whole serving of dark, leafy green vegetables. They mix easily into smoothies or other beverages without emulsifiers like lecithin. You can also bake with them or add them to sauces to easily increase the nutritional content. They are the easiest way to get your greens every day without cooking or cleaning up. Plus, unlike those greens and containers of spring mix sitting in the back of your fridge waiting to be thrown away, Greens Without The Grass powders will last for over a year in your cabinet, provided they are kept cool and dry. We continue to search for more green powders that meet all of the standards and will add them to our shop as we find them. Greens without the grass support If you have questions about greens powders, feel free to email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will be happy to answer any questions you have.

There are a lot of awful corporations in the world, but some just really take the cake. Being a twenty-one-year veteran of the supplement industry, I come in contact with one more so than any other…Nestle. One of the first boycott Nestle posters from the 1970s Nestle is one of the worst corporations on the planet Nestle has gone to great lengths to keep all of the terrible things they have done from the public. They spend millions of dollars each year to make people think they care. What supplement companies does Nestle Own? Through acquisitions, Nestle is now the largest seller of dietary supplements in the United States. Yet, somehow people still believe that most supplement companies are little mom and pop operations. These are the supplement companies that they own: Vital Proteins Garden of Life Pure Encapsulations Orgain Douglas Labs Genestra Seroyal Pharmax Trophic AOV Unda Minami Wobenzyme Natures Bounty Solgar Osteo Bi-Flex Puritan’s Pride Body Fortress MET-Rx Dr. Organic Sundown Ester-C Go Healthy Egmont Better Health Company Nuun Hydration It is really strange to walk into health food stores and see all the talk and signage about how they care about the environment and people and see shelves packed with Nestle products. Clearly, it's all hat and no cattle. They own more food, beverage, and body care companies than you can count. They are constantly buying more companies, so more may have been added at this point. A history of the horrible things nestle has done For decades Nestle has been doing horrible things, this article is just a small sampling as it would take multiple books to detail all of them. Nestle Infant Formula scandal We start our journey in 1974 with the release of a report entitled, The Baby Killer by War on Want, an anti-poverty organization. In poor countries, Nestle advertised baby formula as being better than breastfeeding. They paid off doctors, healthcare professionals, and hospitals to promote this and to give samples to women after they gave birth, and to deliver products to new mothers when they left the hospital. They even dressed up their sales representatives as nurses when giving out samples, in order to make people believe they were health care professionals. The mothers soon stopped producing breastmilk and became reliant on the formula. In these poorer areas, the women could no longer afford the infant formula, once the samples ran out, and began to dilute the formula causing malnutrition. In addition, these areas often lacked access to clean water, so the formula was often mixed with unsanitary water. Between malnutrition and contaminated water, untold numbers of babies died. Before anyone can say, well that was a long time ago, thirty years later, Nestle is still at it, taking advantage of the poor, putting profits above mothers and babies. In Bangladesh , Nestle is committing the exact same crimes they did in the ’70s. Nothing has changed except the location. Recently Nestle was found to have had high levels of lead and arsenic in their baby food products (they own Gerber), and even though they knew this , they just left them on the shelf, no recall, nothing. Recalling them would have cut into the quarterly profits, and we can’t have that now, can we? Nestle water horrors The next stop on our journey is water issues. To list all of the awful things Nestle has done with water would take an entire book, so this is definitely not a complete list, just a small sampling of the horrors that one of the world’s worst companies has done. In 2000, Nestle persuaded the World Water Forum to change its designation of water to a human need instead of a human right. Is anything more of a human right than water? Below is a video of the CEO of Nestle talking about how water is not a human right and should be privatized. Nestle has tried very hard to get this video scrubbed from the internet, so please spread it around. In the small Pakistani village of Bhati Dilwan, the children are getting sick because of Nestle . Nestle dug a deep well, which caused the aquifer to drop near the village and is now depriving the local people of clean drinking water. Children are being forced to drink filthy water because if the aquifer was fixed, it would deprive Nestle of profits. In India , Nestle’s Pure Life brand was found to contain a cocktail of pesticides, including lindane, malathion, DDT, and chlorpyrifos. In Manderegi, Nigeria , Nestle built a water factory and promised to provide potable water for no less than a thousand local residents. As you can guess, they have not actually kept this promise. “Two years after the water plant started full-scale operations, residents of Manderegi and its environs continue to struggle with chronic water shortages as the stream that serves as an alternative source of water supply is contaminated with wastewater directly pumped from the Nestle’s water factory. Also, the channels for the release of the wastewater from the factory have created a gully erosion that has caused serious ecological danger destroying farmlands and access roads in the community.” In Canada , Nestle is basically stealing water from the First Nations People. While many of these people lack access to clean drinking water, Nestle pumps millions of gallons of water with expired permits and pays them nothing for it, despite it being a drought-stricken area. In Michigan, where the people of Flint are still having water issues, Nestle extracts 400 gallons of water every minute for only $200 dollars per year. Many of Flint’s residents pay more than that for contaminated water each month. If you want to take a deep dive into the corruption and horrible things that Nestle has done with water in the United States, this report is for you. Nestle and palm oil Palm oil is the next on the Nestle list of horrors. While palm oil production is already pretty horrific , Nestle takes it to a whole new level. A two-year undercover investigation filmed the top managers of " Kellogg's " and " Nestle " surreptitiously bragging about bribing the Minister of New Guinea to forcibly remove children from their parents, brutalizing workers to harvest palm oil and destroying the environment.” Nothing says we care like forcibly removing children from their parents to be brutalized and used as forced labor. Nestle and forced labor Next up is tomatoes because making any part of their supply chain not horrible is apparently too much. An investigation found that Nestle was buying tomatoes from Chinese companies in Xinjiang, China, where the concentration camps are located, and forced labor is incredibly common. Earlier this year, tomato products from that region were banned in the United States because of these issues. Last and probably the worst, although it is really kind of hard to rank these awful things, is cocoa. Nearly two decades ago, Nestle, as well as a few other companies, pledged to eliminate slavery from their cocoa supply chains. They have most certainly not done that. On the Ivory Coast in Africa, children aged 12-15 are trafficked from other countries and used as slave labor on the plantations that supply Nestle with cocoa. Injuries to children from the machetes used to harvest the cocoa beans are common. We chose not to put pictures or links to these as they are very gruesome. In addition, these children are being made to spray large amounts of dangerous pesticides on the chocolate, exposing them to countless health risks. According to Nestle: “The use of child labor in our cocoa supply chain goes against everything we stand for,” says Nestle’s Executive Vice-President for Operations Jose Lopez. “No company sourcing cocoa from the Ivory Coast can guarantee that it doesn’t happen, but we can say that tackling child labor is a top priority for our company.” It’s nice to hear that they care, but they have not actually done anything to change it. They have known about the problems for decades, yet continue to buy cocoa from plantations they know are using child slaves. With all of their billions, they could solve the problem if they wanted to; they just care more about profits than people. Perhaps if they cannot give up a bit of profit, they could raise the prices of their products. I’m sure most people would be willing to pay a little more to know their chocolate was not made by child slaves. In a black mark on the US court system, Nestle argued before the Supreme Court this year that they should be not liable for slavery being used in the growing of their cocoa because it happened outside of the United States. The Supreme Court agreed and ruled in Nestle’s favor. Not only is this a terrible ruling for victims of these horrors, but it also signals to other companies that as long as it does not happen within the United States borders, anything goes. What a terrible precedent to set and will encourage more suffering in the pursuit of profit. This is by no means a complete list of the horrors committed by Nestle. It’s doubtful that any of us will ever know the full extent of the things they have done. They have done terrible things in other industries, such as seafood (slavery, again, seems to be a trend) and much more. There were simply too many examples of disgusting behavior, I could not fit it all in one article. Researching and writing this article was not easy. Reading all of this is heartbreaking, especially because it does not have to be this way. Nestle could make lives better for all of the people involved with making their products and still make billions in profit. It is not just greed; it’s a form of psychopathy when executives are bragging about brutalizing people or subjecting them to slavery. There are a number of ways you can help to put a stop to this awful company. Boycott Nestle The first is to boycott their products. Just stop buying them, no excuses. There is no product that they make that you cannot get a version of from another company. This is the most effective thing you can do. By 1984, just seven years after the start of the first Nestle boycott in 1977, countless infant lives had been saved. It does make a difference. The second is to spread the word to your friends and family to do the same. Share this article, or others like it, on social media or anywhere else you can. The third is to support farmers and activists who are fighting them. For example: Didier Thouvenin is a farmer in Vittel, France -- home to one of Nestlé's massive water-guzzling projects. Together with other whistleblowers, he exposed that Nestlé was illegally dumping huge amounts of plastic and chemical waste, forcing it to admit to creating NINE massive dumping sites. But instead of cleaning up the mess and apologizing to local residents, Nestlé filed a legal complaint against Didier for trespassing! We know it won’t stop there -- there were 11 other activists with Didier that day, and Nestlé is famous for doing everything it can to silence opposition to protect its profits. Didier just told us he URGENTLY needs to secure a lawyer to fight back. If enough of us chip in, we can create a legal defense fund for Didier and other brave activists standing up to Nestlé. Here is the link to donate to their awesome cause. The fourth is to encourage your local stores to stop carrying their products. While big chains will not stop carrying their products unless people stop buying them, local stores may be more open to hearing the message and hopefully will want to stop carrying products with huge ethical issues. Don’t be afraid to say something. Rooted Nutrition always has been and always will be a Nestle-free zone. If you care at all about human rights and the environment, we hope you will join us in boycotting one of the worst corporations on the planet.

Iron is an essential element of human life. I think it’s time for it to get a little of the spotlight. Step aside magnesium and zinc; it's iron's time to shine. This article is pretty long, so if you don't feel like reading it and just want to know which iron supplement we recommend, click here . What are the functions of iron in the body? I ron has many uses in the body, including, but not limited to: Growth and development To make hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body, and myoglobin is a protein that provides oxygen to muscles. To make some hormones. How much iron do I need in a day? Those amounts are based on heme iron, the iron found in meat. If getting iron from plant foods, non-heme, nearly double the amount is needed because of the reduced absorption of iron from plant sources. What happens if we do not get enough iron in our diet? According to the NIH : In the short term, getting too little iron does not cause obvious symptoms . The body uses its stored iron in the muscles, liver , spleen , and bone marrow . But when levels of iron stored in the body become low, iron deficiency anemia sets in. Red blood cells become smaller and contain less hemoglobin. As a result, blood carries less oxygen from the lungs throughout the body. Symptoms of iron deficiency anemia include GI upset, weakness, tiredness, lack of energy, and problems with concentration and memory. In addition, people with iron deficiency anemia are less able to fight off germs and infections , work and exercise, and control their body temperature. Infants and children with iron deficiency anemia might develop learning difficulties. Iron deficiency is not uncommon in the United States, especially among young children, women under 50, and pregnant women. It can also occur in people who do not eat meat, poultry, or seafood; lose blood; have GI diseases that interfere with nutrient absorption; or eat poor diets. Get this cat some iron! Types of Anemia Anemia is a common health condition related to iron deficiency. However, most people are not aware that there are multiple types of anemia : Aplastic Anemia Aplastic anemia is a condition that occurs when your body stops producing enough new blood cells. The condition leaves you fatigued and more prone to infections and uncontrolled bleeding. Iron-deficiency Anemia The blood lacks adequate healthy red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body's tissues. This is caused by a lack of iron. Sickle Cell Anemia Sickle cell anemia is one of a group of disorders known as sickle cell disease. Sickle cell anemia is an inherited red blood cell disorder in which there aren't enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout your body. Normally, the flexible, round red blood cells move easily through blood vessels. In sickle cell anemia, the red blood is shaped like sickles or crescent moons. These rigid, sticky cells can get stuck in small blood vessels, which can slow or block blood flow and oxygen to parts of the body. Thalassemia (thal-uh-SEE-me-uh) An inherited blood disorder that causes your body to have less hemoglobin than normal. Hemoglobin enables red blood cells to carry oxygen. Thalassemia can cause anemia, leaving you fatigued. Vitamin Deficiency Anemia, sometimes called megaloblastic anemia A lack of healthy red blood cells is caused when you have lower than normal amounts of certain vitamins. Vitamins linked to vitamin deficiency anemia include folate, vitamin B-12, and vitamin C. Macrocytic Anemia A type of anemia that causes unusually large red blood cells. non heme vs heme iron There are two types of iron, non-heme which is found in plant foods, dairy, and eggs, and heme which is found in meat (meat also contains very small amounts of non-heme iron). Heme iron is absorbed at two or more times the rate of non-heme iron. So the best source of dietary iron is meat products. The Red Cross has a wonderful page where you can see foods that are rich in iron and how much each food has. Since heme iron is absorbed at two or more times the rate of non-heme iron, the best source of dietary iron is meat. When getting iron from plant foods, make sure to eat it with vitamin c rich foods like citrus fruits in order to help increase the absorption. Heme iron absorption is not affected by vitamin C. Eating lots of grass-fed liver and beef spleen is the fastest way to improve your iron levels. Foods rich in Heme iron The foods richest in heme iron are: Beef organs such as spleen, blood, and liver Red meat, such as beef, bison, buffalo, lamb, mutton, goat, elk, and venison Oysters and mussels Clams Sardines Getting iron from food is the best way to ensure that your body has what it needs to be healthy. Due to health issues or some life circumstances, many people are not able to get enough in their diet. In that case, most people often turn to iron supplements or, in severe cases, iron transfusions. What are the different types of Iron Supplements? Here is the thing about iron supplements, though, to put it bluntly, the vast majority of them they suck. Check out this list of side effects from iron supplements: Constipation Contact irritation Diarrhea Dark stools Gastrointestinal (GI) hemorrhage (rare) Gastrointestinal (GI) irritation Gastrointestinal (GI) obstruction (wax matrix products; rare) Gastrointestinal (GI) perforation (rare) Nausea Stomach pain Superficial tooth discoloration (oral solutions) Urine discoloration Vomiting Many of you who have tried iron pills in past can attest to many of these lovely effects. In addition to having all of those side effects, most iron supplements are just not very effective. The most commonly used iron supplement is called ferrous sulfate. It is often given at a dosage of 325 mg. However, each one of these pills actually only contains 65 mg of elemental iron. Iron labels are often very confusing. The total weight of the compound is 325 mg, but the weight of the amount of iron it contains is 65 mg. Usually, on the back or side panel of the product, you will be able to see this: As you can see from the label front, it says 325 mg, but in the supplement facts panel, it says 65 mg. Non-heme chelates such as gluconate, citrate, chelate, glycinate (also known as bis-glycinate), fumarate, and others. These are made by binding or reacting iron to or with various compounds such as citric acid (ferrous citrate), gluconic acid (ferrous gluconate), fumaric acid (ferrous fumarate), the amino acid glycine (ferrous bis-glycinate), and others. Polysaccharide-bound irons such as IPC (iron polysaccharide complex) are made by binding iron to various long-chain starches. Yes, that is a simplification, but do you really want a whole chemistry lesson? Protein-bound iron, such as IPS (iron protein succinylate), or rice protein chelate, is made by binding iron to a protein such as casein (a protein found in milk) or rice protein. Heme iron supplements such as heme iron polypeptide (HIP) are derived from the blood hemoglobin of conventionally raised cows and pigs. These are not whole food iron supplements as just select compounds have been taken from the blood hemoglobin. It is not simply dried blood as it is often marketed to be. Fake whole food iron supplements are a bit hard to pin down because they can take so many forms, but generally, they fall into three different categories. The first is made by feeding certain types of non-heme iron, such as ferrous sulfate or ferrous bis-glycinate, to yeast. They claim this makes the supplements more absorbable or more effective, but they offer no proof of this other than the occasional really poorly done "study." Feeding a non-heme iron to yeast does not suddenly change it into a whole food or make it better a better form of iron. This is just marketing BS. The second category of fake whole food iron supplements is those that contain a traditional iron supplement such as ferrous sulfate or ferrous bis-glycinate and are mixed with small amounts of food or herbs. There is nothing wrong with selling these formulas. It is only wrong when companies try to convince people they are whole food using misleading marketing or packaging. Nearly all of the time, these foods are in such small amounts, they exist only to make the label look good. You will often see these foods plastered all over the label even if they are just there in tiny amounts. You will often see phrases like food-based, whole food-based, whole food, or raw. Those phrases have no regulation on them, so they can be put on a product no matter what is them. The third type of fake whole food iron supplements are those that claim to be derived from a particular food, but that food has little to no iron, so it could not be made from that food. You can read more in-depth about the various kinds of fake whole food supplements on the market here . False advertising is wrong, and it is a real shame that companies, websites, and stores have embraced these completely misleading products in order to make a quick buck. Instead of giving people what they actually want, they would rather make a quick buck and sell them cheap imitations. While fake whole food supplements are the best selling (because people, and rightfully so, want whole food supplements) and the highest profit margin products in the supplement industry, Rooted Nutrition takes a strong stand against fake whole food supplements and will never sell them. Whole food iron supplements The last type of iron supplement is a true whole-food iron supplement. These could be non-heme or heme. They could be made from a variety of plant or animal foods. A true whole food iron supplement will be the whole foods, properly low temperature dried, sometimes concentrated and sometimes not, then ground and put into a pill. Nothing is added, and nothing is taken away. This is the way all whole-food supplements should be made. This article is getting long can you tell us which one to take? When looking for an iron supplement, we wanted it to contain multiple things in order to help nourish the body and improve the health of those taking it. Here are some things that we at Rooted Nutrition were looking for when we began our search for our ideal iron formula: Not have the traditional side effects associated with iron supplements. Be a true 100% whole-food iron supplement. Humans have evolved to get nutrition from food, not ground-up rocks. Be 100% heme iron or as close to 100% as possible. Heme iron is simply more absorbable and more effective than non-heme iron. Not just contain heme iron but also contain the other nutrients and co-factors, in their most absorbable and effective forms, needed for healthy blood and body. Including but not limited to: Folate (B9) (as folate, not folic acid, which can mask b-12 deficiency, certain types of anemia, and its symptoms) It is needed to synthesize red blood cells. Cobalamin (B12) (not cyanocobalamin) It is needed to synthesize red blood cells. Riboflavin (B2) It helps the body to absorb iron and tell it where to go (not the precise scientific terms, but an easy way to explain it). It helps to build red blood cells. Vitamin A (as retinol, not beta-carotene) It helps with the assimilation and absorption of minerals. Choline It helps to reduce the side effects of iron deficiency. Acts as a methyl donor in the methylation cycle. Be effective at improving the quality of life for those who need it. Be sourced in an ethical, sustainable, and environmentally friendly manner. Until recently, we did not really have a product that met all of these criteria. We were constantly having to come up with regimens or use formulas that simply could not provide a truly effective product without having a lot of side effects or having to compromise on the sourcing of it. Being forced to settle like this is not something I was very happy about. Despite searching for what seemed like hundreds of hours, we were unable to locate, for lack of a better term, a proper blood-building formula. Unfortunately, there just was not anything that checked all the boxes. My first question is always about the product's sourcing and quality control. All of the ingredients for this product come from a group of small family farms in the Lake Eyre region of Australia. This group of farmers practices regenerative agriculture. That was really great to hear because we already source a lot of products with ingredients from that region, so we were very familiar with the area and the farms. So it definitely checked our first box for sourcing and quality control. Secondly, we wanted to check on the processing to ensure that it was going to be a properly made whole-food supplement. Each ingredient is freeze-dried, ground into a powder, and put into a capsule. Nothing is taken away, and nothing is added. This is exactly what we want to see in a whole-food product. So, it definitely checked our second box for being a true whole-food supplement. Third, we wanted to know the ingredients of the product and whether they would supply all of the nutrients we were looking for to get a complete blood-building formula. After being sent the ingredients, I was very excited to find that they had concentrated sources of each nutrient we were looking for and more in the forms we were looking for as well. So it definitely checked our third box for a great, comprehensive formula. So, what are the ingredients in this incredible supplement ? Grass-Fed Beef Liver Rich in b12, choline, riboflavin, folate, riboflavin (b2), vitamin A, vitamin K2 (as MK-4), and many other nutrients and supportive compounds. Grass-Fed Beef Blood Blood is rich in coq10, b12, riboflavin, vitamin D3, and heme iron. Grass-Fed Beef Spleen Rich in b-12, niacin, potassium, and many other nutrients and supportive compounds. Spleen actually contains 5x more heme iron than liver does. It also contains vitamin C. While they might not sound delicious, these foods are incredibly nourishing. Around the world, cultures have prized these foods for their incredible nutrient density. There are no better foods to get the job done. There is simply no other formula like it on the market. No other blood-building formula can even come close to providing this level of awesome sauce. I am so excited to announce this incredible product, NXGEN Wholefoods Whole Blood . It is very rare to hear me say this, but I truly believe that this product is going to be life-changing for so many people. Now is the time to stop settling and suffering from inferior, side-effect-laden iron products. Now is the time to experience the energy and vitality that a true whole-food blood-building supplement can provide. Iron Supplement Support If you have questions about iron supplements, feel free to email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com ,   and we will be happy to answer any questions you have.

The recent documentary, Seaspiracy, has a lot of people talking about the sustainability of seafood. Anyone who knows me is well aware of my love of fish oil and its benefits. It is so important to me that it be truly ethically sourced and produced, and it is only by ensuring true traceability from boat to bottle that can we achieve that. Our friends at Rosita have written a blog about the importance of sustainability in fish oil supplements. We wanted to share it with you because it is incredibly important. ROsita's Commitment to Sustainability "At Rosita, our ethos is to work with nature to create the highest quality, most sustainable fish liver oils available. From the line fishing of codfish in the pristine Norwegian fjords where we live to the harvesting of the livers to the extraction of the oil, every step of our method is sustainable and ethical. This type of cod liver oil is nearly impossible to achieve with the standard mass-production methods used by major brands, where heavy refining strips the oils of most of their nutrients. Here’s how we obtain our extra-virgin cod liver oil and why we do it the way we do. Rosita COD Liver oil Is Produced IN hArmony with nature Our extra-virgin cod liver oil (EVCLO) begins its journey in Norway, sourced from the pristine, crystal clear waters. The cod that we fish are wild, situated far from the farmed fishing areas, in their own sustainable cod stocks where they’re able to thrive. We’re committed to protecting these waters as best we can to support the delicate balance of the ecosystem and cause as little interference as possible. 1. Our wood-and-aluminum fishing boats are small and belong to us, meaning we can control the way we fish and ensure that correct processes are followed. Compared to larger commercial fishing vessels, our artisan boats cause minimal disruption to the environment and help protect the species. We put out long lines baited with slices of frozen mackerel or herrings, which enables us to carefully catch the cod without destructive trawling methods that cause the fish stress and physical damage. 2. We practice long-line fishing, using lines that are seabird-friendly rather than large nets that can harm or entrap animals and other bycatch. We also fish for deep-sea codfish in waters over 200 meters deep. Conversely, other commercial manufacturers often purchase fish on the open market or from brokers, which can result in a greater carbon footprint and no guarantee of freshness or sustainability. 3. We avoid overfishing by focusing on small-batch production and abiding by the strict fishing quotas set by the Norwegian government. 4. We believe in balance, so any unused catch, or offal, is thrown back to the seabirds. We give back what we take in a cyclical, organic way that is in harmony with nature’s delicate balance. Bengt Svensson and Kari Hanne Nyland, the founders of Rosita Raw, Unrefined Cod Liver Oil No harmful chemicals are used during any stage of the creation of our EVCLO, and our oil-cleaning process uses natural substances from the ocean and excludes harmful chemicals and heat. This natural method means that the delicate fatty acids and naturally occurring vitamins remain robust and intact. Once we catch our codfish, our fishermen carefully remove the hooks and begin to harvest the livers on deck. They carefully sacrifice the fish, remove the livers, and wash them in clean, cold water. The livers are then immediately placed under proprietary conditions to maintain freshness, and the meat and insides are separated for other uses whilst the livers are quickly ferried to shore. When the livers reach the docks, they’re carefully hand-inspected at Rosita’s zero-emission production premises, thereby avoiding any rough handling that could cause bruising or degeneration. Using an ancient Viking tradition, we use only the freshest livers that meet specific quality and weight. This means that the final livers are large, beautifully plump, soft to the touch, and have an almost cream-colored appearance, all of which indicate the health of the codfish they came from. The final step is to release the oil from the fresh cod livers, using an ancient, natural method for cod liver oil extraction. They create a gentle shift in temperature from the icy cold water that the livers are submerged into below-room temperature. This triggers the livers to release their natural oils and is done without any heat whatsoever, which protects the oil’s nutritional value. Immediately after the oil is released, it is very lightly filtered using only a very low temperature and gravity, which helps remove particles of liver tissue without refining the oil. Conventional procedures tend to use more aggressive measures, such as molecular distillation, which unfortunately removes most of the healthy, fat-soluble vitamins. Synthetic vitamins are routinely added by commercial producers to make up for this loss. In fact, most popular cod liver oil brands are purified to the point where the natural vitamin A and vitamin D3 are damaged or completely destroyed. Finally, they add a drop of rosemary and natural, GMO-free vitamin E to maintain freshness and bottle the oil in amber glass to extend its shelf life. The bottle is then nitrogen-flushed, and oxygen is removed to ensure safe shipping in all temperatures. They then test samples of each batch in a microbiological laboratory, which ensures each batch is certified to meet the strict European regulations for potency and purity. The result is 100% unadulterated, wild, and raw Extra Virgin Cod Liver Oil (EVCLO). How is cod liver oil produced? What usually happens with commercial cod liver oil production is that the oil comes from wild-caught and farmed pollock, haddock, or other fish species. In fact, the international production of cod liver oil is only regulated by one rule — the final product must match the specific EPA/DHA ratio found in raw cod liver oil. However, cheaper oils are often added to achieve the correct balance of EPA/DHA, and the oil is then bottled and sold wrongly as true Norwegian or Arctic cod liver oil. Commercial production companies usually use large trawlers that spend weeks at sea and fish in a manner that is damaging to the local environment. Often, the livers are collected and stored on the ship for days when they start to degrade. They are then ground up, heated, or cold-pressed mechanically to extract the oil, which destroys most of its nutritional value. The leftover cod liver meal is then shipped to Southeast Asia, where it’s used in the shrimp feed industry. In essence, the marketing term “cold-pressed” cod liver oil does not, in fact, mean that the liver is somehow raw or gently processed. In reality, it means that the oil is extracted cold from the liver before being heated up to high temperatures during post-extraction mechanical processing. ROSITA Cod Liver Oil Fishing Methods The wooden fishing boats are made water-resistant by using non-oceanic resources to ensure that the wood doesn’t deteriorate and the boats don’t degrade and sink, which would not be very sustainable! The keel and frames are traditionally made of hardwoods, like oak, while the planking is often made of softwood, like pine, larch, or cedar. Glue, screws, rivets, and nails are used to join these wooden components. Boiled linseed oil is often used to line the inside of the boats as it is mildew resistant. We also have some boats that are made of various materials, such as acrylic, aluminum, and stainless steel, with some made partly from fiberglass. They have alliances with artisan fishers who are extremely experienced and equipped with fishing knowledge passed down through the generations. This means that their fishing practices and processing procedures are rather traditional. Many of their techniques originate from ancient Viking times, tried and tested through and through. And you know what they say, practice makes perfect. The fishers use traditional, small boats with shelter decks for some protection from the weather. Seabird-friendly long lines are used, as opposed to destructive trawling methods. This is a more selective way to catch the cod and helps to ensure that by-catch is limited. It also limits the number of juvenile cod caught, as if a juvenile is caught, they can be released back into the ocean more easily than with other methods. The barbless hooks that they use shorten the time that the juvenile fish is caught and reduce the impact on the fish. Because of this, its chance of survival is increased when it is released, helping to avoid depletion of the cod population. How Stable is the availability of Rosita Cod Liver oil? Winters in Norway are long and harsh. They operate in some of the most rugged waters in the world, with steep mountains lining the deep fjords, rocky coasts, and vicious waves at times. As these waves can be very dangerous for their fishermen, they have to take a lot of care, and when conditions get too bad, the fishing and harvesting of codfish have to be postponed. As a result, there will be ebbs and flows in our cod liver oil production. As mentioned, their EVCLO is sourced using ancient fishing practices, which also determine what time of day fishing can occur. Along with this, there are quotas set by the Norwegian government to ensure Atlantic cod isn’t overfished, so Rosita cod liver oil supply is limited to protect the native fish stocks. In summary, there may be shortages of EVCLO due to numerous factors. However, these factors also make their oil that much more unique and sustainable. They take no shortcuts. Instead, they have expanded our production capabilities to become more efficient and have invested in a modern bottling facility. ROSITA COD Liver oil is farm to table Their wild codfish is caught with a high level of traceability, meaning they can trace it back to the boats exactly where each batch came from. This gives them the certainty that no unsustainable or unethical corners were cut to get the final product." Check out Rosita Real Foods , our favorite fish oils! Rosita cod Liver oil questions and support If you have questions about Rosita Cod Liver Oil or other fish oils, email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and our superstar staff will be happy to help!

Sometimes I look at a product and wonder, what in the name of Cthulhu is this? Bad formulators deserve to gaze upon Cthulhu and be driven mad. Poorly Formulated vitamins and supplements Having been in the supplement industry for over twenty years, I have seen a million products, but some take the cake for having no business to exist. I have worked behind the scenes and been involved in the formulation of many products, so I am familiar with how it goes, but sometimes I wonder how this got the go-ahead, the green light, the all clear?! When formulating a supplement, you want to use ingredients that complement each other, perhaps make other ingredients work better, but all moving towards the goal of making the formula work better at achieving whatever you want it to do. So when you see formulas with ingredients that go against the goal or that work against each other, you have to wonder what they were thinking. Unfortunately, a lot of companies have people in charge of formulating who either do not have the experience or knowledge to do it correctly or who are told to make it a certain way to increase profit or make it more marketable, not because it makes the best formula. Examples of poorly formulated supplements Without further ado, our first “What the hell is this formula?!”: This is called an NRF2 formula. They are sold with the claims that they support detoxification pathways, including phases 1 and 2 in the liver. Often, these formulas contain black pepper extract (very different from the black pepper you use in your food), also known as piperine. Piperine inhibits the phase 1 and 2 pathways. So if your whole formula is supposed to make those pathways work better, then why are you using an ingredient that inhibits the functions of those pathways? Either the formulator is unaware of this, or marketing wanted it in there because people believe it makes the turmeric work better. Regardless of the reason, this is a clear-cut example of a very poor formulation choice. Here is another example: DIM is an ingredient often sold with the claim that it reduces excess estrogen levels in the body. The pathway it works on is the phase 2 pathway. Once again, piperine is added, inhibiting the same pathway that the DIM is supposed to work on. Poor formulation at its best. This formula is being sold to support healthy thyroid function: This product contains raw maca. Raw maca inhibits thyroid function due to its high concentration of glucosinolates. Check out our blog article to read more about why you should never eat raw maca. Another example of some head-scratching formulation choices. This is a supplement that claims to improve iron levels in the body: This formula contains green tea, which inhibits iron absorption . Not really a great ingredient to include in an iron supplement, especially when these types of non-heme iron are already poorly absorbed. It also contains zinc which competes in the intestines with iron for absorption and can negatively impact plasma iron levels in those who are already lower in iron , who tend to be the people using iron supplements. This prenatal formula has iron and the omega-3 fatty acid DHA in the same pill: Omega-3 fatty acids, like DHA, are very susceptible to oxidation. Combining iron and DHA in the same pill is a terrible idea. When DHA is exposed to minerals like iron, it greatly accelerates oxidation . Eating oxidized oils is never a good idea. Whoever put this formula together overlooked an incredibly important detail. Hopefully, this article gave you some good information to understand that just because a product says it is good for something or has an ingredient list that looks great does not mean that it actually is. While we went through a few examples in this blog, there are a lot of different ways that products can be poorly formulated. Unfortunately, there are no simple tricks and tips we can tell you to help you avoid getting a formula that has no business existing. Hopefully, companies will take the formulation more seriously. Fingers crossed! Supplement formulation questions and support If you have questions about a supplement formula, email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and our superstar staff will be happy to help!

Every day, we receive hundreds of emails, chats, and questions. What stands out is how often we are asked about products that are not real or anything like what they claim to be. Now you might be thinking, how is this possible? Well, this is what happens in an industry that can pretty much do whatever it wants with impunity. Liquid Chlorophyll Supplements are not real. Let’s start with a very popular product, liquid “chlorophyll.” Chlorophyll is a pigment found in green plants and algae that you probably learned about in science class. Sodium copper chlorophyllin does not occur in plants, including mulberry leaves. Guess what? None of those liquid “chlorophyll” products contains chlorophyll as it appears in plants. They contain a semi-synthetic compound called sodium copper chlorophyllin, which has a different molecular structure than chlorophyll. This is how it is made: Chlorophyllin is extracted from natural sources such as alfalfa, spinach, and nettles or chemically synthesized from chlorophyll by replacing the magnesium ion with copper and adding sodium. The extraction process involves grinding the plant material, treating it with a solvent such as ethanol or acetone, and then precipitating the chlorophyllin using acid. Labeling these products as chlorophyll and making people think it is pressed from a plant and bottled is incredibly deceiving and should be illegal. You should not be able to label a product as something that it is not. If you want to take a chlorophyll supplement, it would be much better to use good quality algae supplements like spirulina, chlorella, and blue-green algae , which contain chlorophyll, not a semi-synthetic knockoff. Way Too many Mushroom Supplements Have No Mushrooms! Next up are mushroom supplements. Did you know many mushroom supplements don’t contain any mushroom-fruiting bodies, and yet they put pictures of them on the label? Most people would rightfully assume that a mushroom supplement with pictures of the mushroom-fruiting body on the package would contain what is shown in the image. Unfortunately, many, including the largest mushroom supplement maker, do not put this in. They grind and heat the grain block that mycelium (think of this as the roots) is growing and put it into a pill or sell it as powder. These products end up being nearly entirely made of partially digested grain starch. That is why reishi supplements made this way taste sweet, whereas if you taste a reishi mushroom, it is very bitter. Despite the picture on the box, it does not contain any reishi mushroom fruiting body. Just ground up mycelium spawn block. There is none of what is pictured on the box. If you open one of these capsules, it tastes sweet instead of the bitter taste you get if you eat reishi mushrooms. “In 1976, the FDA issued a statement in its Compliance Policy Guide, Section 585.525: Mushroom Mycelium – Fitness for Food; Labeling. It states: “Any food in which mushroom mycelium [sic] is used should be labeled to state that fact. Labeling should not suggest or imply that the food contains mushrooms.” It could not be clearer.” Unfortunately, the FDA has not enforced this policy. Until this policy is enforced, companies will continue to make these products with deceptive labeling because they are so cheap to make and the profit margins are so high. Hopefully, one day the FDA will step up and enforce the rules on these companies, but we are not holding our breath. Mycelium products are not real mushroom supplements, no matter how much they spend on fancy packaging and marketing. Fake Whole Food Supplements Another common theme we get asked about is supplements that claim a nutrient is from a particular food, but that food does not contain that nutrient, so it is not possible for it to be from that food. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as nutritional or brewers yeast, is often thought of it as containing vitamin b-12 because it is listed on the nutrition facts of most nutritional yeast products. However, that is because synthetic b-12 is added to it. It does not contain any naturally occurring b-12. This product lists its b-12 as methylcobalamin from saccharomyces cerevisiae, but that cannot possibly be when it does not contain b-12. So what is happening? The b-12 is made by feeding synthetic b-12 to the yeast. This b-12 certainly does not fit our definition of a whole-food supplement, despite what the label claims. This type of product labeling should be illegal, but when a massive company like Nestle owns you, you can do whatever you want. If you see any products labeled as b-12 from nutritional yeast, it is not what it claims to be. Check out this blog to learn about fake whole food supplements. Quinoa is a very popular grain. Recently a raw material supplier in the supplement industry started to capitalize on this. They created a powder that they claim is rich in natural b-vitamins. Well, many of the b-vitamins they claim it is rich in are not naturally occurring in quinoa (b12, for example), so how could they be selling a quinoa powder with those b-vitamins in it? Folic acid also does not occur naturally, only as various forms of folate. If the product is non-synthetic, as the label claims, where did the folic acid come from? The raw material supplier feeds the quinoa synthetic b vitamins while it grows to increase the vitamin content artificially. While they may put that the vitamins are derived from quinoa sprouts on the label, they are actually from the synthetic vitamins introduced into the process. This product definitely does not fit our definition of a whole-food supplement. “Fermented vitamins” are another one that comes up frequently. Fermented foods like kimchi, yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut are amazing foods with many benefits. These “fermented vitamins” are nothing like real fermented foods and do not provide the benefits that those foods do. These products are made by introducing semi-synthetic vitamin D3 into a fermenting tank with nutritional yeast and a few other things like molasses, then killing off the yeast and adding a few things. Labeling these products as fermented leads people to believe they are fermented food, which they are certainly not. Making these vitamins differs significantly from how fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt are made. If you ever made sauerkraut at home, you don't spend time killing off the yeasts and adding enzymes to burst the cell walls. It also takes weeks, months, or even longer to produce most fermented foods; it is not done in an afternoon like most "fermented vitamins" are. We are frequently asked about things that seem great, but digging a bit deeper leads to some disappointing information. Many companies claim a vitamin might be made from a particular food that does contain that specific nutrient. However, the amounts needed to produce a bottle of that product would be astronomical. So if it were really from that food, the finished product cost would be extremely high. Many companies are claiming to sell iron made from curry leaves. Curry leaves contain non-heme iron , about 2 milligrams per 100 grams or 3.5 ounces of fresh leaves . That product claims to contain twenty-seven milligrams of iron from curry leaves in 3 tablets, each with nine milligrams of iron. Each bottle includes ninety pills, for a total of eight hundred and ten milligrams of iron. The wholesale cost of that product is about twelve to thirteen dollars, which means it costs the company about three to four dollars a bottle to produce. This includes the raw materials, manufacturing, testing, quality control, bottles, labels, packaging, shipping, etc. If it takes three and a half ounces of curry leaves to produce two milligrams of iron, it would take about eighty-eight and a half pounds of curry leaves to produce enough iron for that one bottle. In India, where this raw material is made, if you buy vast amounts at wholesale, you can buy it relatively cheap, less than a dollar per kilo (2.2 lbs). However, it would still cost far more than three to five dollars to buy eighty-eight pounds of them, and that does not include the cost of extracting and producing the iron from the leaves. The math does not add up. So, you tell us it’s real or not? We guess that it’s not. This product claims to have a probiotic bacteria called Lactobacillus thermophilus. This bacteria does not exist. I'm not sure what we can say about this other than to avoid probiotics claiming to have bacteria that do not exist. Another fun one is companies claiming a nutrient that does not occur naturally is from a particular food in their product. Well, if that specific form of that nutrient does not appear in food, then either they are less than truthful about it, or the product is mislabeled, but either way, it’s certainly not what it claims to be. This product claims to have folic acid from lemon peel. Well folic acid is a synthetic folate not found in lemons or any other food. Food contains various forms of folate but never folic acid, so the product is mislabeled, or the claimed source is incorrect. They claim to have eight hundred micrograms of folic acid per pill and one hundred and eighty tablets per bottle, but they also put what the eight hundred micrograms of folic acid is “equivalent” to in terms of folate (1333 mcg), so they must mean folic acid. For the sake of argument, let’s say the product is mislabeled, and they mean folate. Well, one pound of lemon peel contains about sixty micrograms of folate . So each pill requires a little over thirteen pounds of lemon peel. That means producing one bottle of this would take over twenty-three hundred pounds of lemon peel. Can you imagine the cost of having a bottle of vitamins that requires over one ton of lemon peel to produce? They certainly would not be selling it for fourteen dollars. Another possibility is that synthetic folic acid is mixed with some lemon peel extract to make it look good. This product has some real issues. Way Too Many Probiotic Supplements Claim To Have Bacteria That Do Not Exist One of our favorites that we get asked about is products that claim to have ingredients that do not exist. Lactobacillus Thermophilus does not exist! It is most likely that the company mislabeled the product. There is a bacteria called Streptococcus Thermophilus. It is a huge red flag when a company is not able to properly label the bacteria in it. We could go on and on with examples of companies' actions that we wish did not happen in this industry. Unfortunately, the lack of proper regulation and loopholes is making this behavior, as well as many other hazardous practices, such as counterfeit supplements, more common. Supplement Support We hope this has been an eye-opening look at some all-too-common practices in the supplement industry! If you have questions about supplements, we are happy to answer them. Feel free to email us at   info@rooted-nutrition.com , or book a free call , and we will do our best to get you the information you need.