Search Results

It should be said upfront that this post is not to promote my birth story over others. There is no one right way to have a baby. Every mom is INCREDIBLE, no matter the method in which they became one. We’re all warriors, from those with vaginal births, C-sections, surrogate pregnancies, infertility battles, and adoption, just to name a few. Moms are amazing, no matter how they got to hold their babies in their arms. Period. This story today is my story..the story of how I chose to have a home birth with a Certified Nurse Midwife/Nurse Practitioner with a doula present and how amazing they were. I knew in my heart that I wanted to try this; it truly was the greatest decision I could have ever made to bring my second child into this world. Home Birth My first delivery at age 24 was in a birthing center, which was lovely and fine...it just wasn’t the experience that I’d imagined. I was cooped up in a room. I wasn’t allowed to eat (in case of a C-section) - so, I know that that makes sense and all, but as a Registered Dietitian, I know how important it is to nourish your body during the marathon that is labor and delivery. This drove me crazy that I couldn’t eat! I’d been up since 2 am the night before, and she wasn’t born until a little after 2 pm...that’s a long time without nourishment. The delivery itself was fine. I was thankful and excited that I didn’t use any medications. I love a challenge, and I was honestly really curious if I’d be able to manage. I know I was very lucky that I didn’t have very long labor...she was out in just 15 minutes of pushing. I give every Mama credit for how they birth, no matter with drugs or without - it’s HARD! The thing was...after the baby was born, I was left with her. A new mom, who was a mom for the first time, still recovering, bleeding, sore, and exhausted. I left with a baby who I was just getting to know, with no real assistance. I remember feeling like I’d been left to the wolves. Yes, I had my family around, but I was figuring out how to nurse, how to change diapers, and how to become a mom, all while I was trying to recover from my body literally being split in half to birth her. Again, luckily, nursing came easy for us, but she never slept. Like ever. I remember on my second night in the hospital, begging the nurses for some relief from a baby that cried and cried and didn’t sleep. I’d been up for days. They took her for 15 minutes, said she was crying too much and that they were really busy, and brought her back. I started crying too, exhausted and alone and staring at this sweet little baby, who just wouldn’t stop crying. I was discharged home the next day and was told to follow up in the office in 6 weeks. That was it. No support, no guidance, no real care for a new mom who also needed, no, desperately needed it! I had a 4th-degree tear, was wearing diapers of my own, and was exhausted beyond belief. The whole process is no joke! Thank goodness I had and have such a supportive family who helped me often. Not everyone does...I thought about that for a long time. What about those mothers who don’t have a lot of help; who are left to figure this all out, while healing from quite a bodily trauma...who is caring for the moms? I didn’t have another baby for eight years, almost to the day. I was diagnosed with an unlucky case of thyroid cancer when my daughter was just a baby and was told that I couldn’t have any more babies with the fear of such a high level of estrogen potentially fueling a return. I won’t go into how deeply this saddened me. That story is for another day. What did end up happening was the unexpected surprise of 6 years later, being told that it was safe. I could have another. I’ve always toed the line between western medicine and the “natural” world. I firmly believe that both have a place in total wellness. I really do. With the discovery of my second, very welcomed pregnancy, I knew that there had to be more support out there for mothers during the pregnancy and birth. Two of my very closest friends had given birth to beautiful and healthy babies within the year prior - both of whom had chosen to have a home birth with a Nurse Practitioner who also was a Certified Nurse Midwife. I’d heard stories of their beautiful, supported pregnancy and births along with the aftercare that followed. I didn’t think twice. I wanted this for my own pregnancy. Home Birth Midwife I met with Connie Kieltyka of Olivebridge Midwifery pretty early on in my pregnancy - our first meeting was a solid hour of her time, and that was just to sort of interview each other, along with my husband, to determine if this was the right choice. I was floored by how much time she took, how wholly and completely she listened to us, to our beliefs, needs, fears, and hopes. Her very impressive and intensive history working on OB/GYN units at hospitals as a Nurse and Nurse Practitioner, plus her long history of doing home births, had both of us sold without a doubt. We happily chose home birth. I was so thankful for the opportunity for something more than what I’d had before. Josh's favorite part of our meeting with Connie. Throughout my pregnancy, Connie regularly met with me alone and with my spouse. Each meeting was a full hour, if not more. She didn’t just examine and measure me. She asked how I was feeling, both emotionally and physically. She cared. She listened. I remember being floored by how supported I felt during my pregnancy. She let me borrow books, taught me labor techniques, and shared her vast wealth of knowledge with us. I was so impressed the whole time. She made me feel cared for, supported, and heard. At 37 weeks, I broke my foot walking into the accountant’s office to do our taxes. It was the worst, and because I was absolutely huge with a walking boot on, she helped me figure out how to stay in alignment to support my birth. She saw me weekly at that point and offered me so much help and support - I was in pain, and I remember she came to my own home to see me often. I will never forget that. I made it to 41 weeks with my pregnancy, and I was itching for the baby to come out. She would smile at me and help me through my frustrations at how far along I was with no baby. When the time came, she came to my house with a doula, named Cayenne, with her. I had never worked with a doula before, and I was quite curious about what it would be like. I had a tough delivery, as I just wasn’t in proper alignment due to the boot-wearing, and it didn’t help that my little guy was “sunny side up,” as they call it. It was slow-moving and I was struggling with the pain in my foot and of course, labor. We chose our bedroom to birth in, and Connie turned the lights down low and turned on soothing folk music. They set up a tub in my room and together with my family, it became our little birthing den for the next 10 hours. Connie and Cayenne worked expertly around each other...Cayenne would come behind and skillfully hold my hips and back when I contracted to completely ease the pain as I worked through it, allowing me to allow my body to relax and open up as it needed to. Connie watched closely from across the room, allowing me to labor on my own and in the way I needed to, only stepping in to do some quick monitoring of the baby as she needed. The best part - she encouraged me to eat small snacks, and I cannot even begin to tell you what a difference that made in my mood and endurance during my birth. I’ll never forget when she suggested I try the tub at around 6cm dilated. I wasn’t sure about the tub, but I was curious and definitely wanted it there. She had me get in, and I have to tell you...she totally knew that I was about to head into the deeply painful transition period and that I needed a rest before that happened. The moments in the water were pure magic to me. The labor pain all but stopped. I was able to have about a half-hour of pain relief and peace. The music was playing softly (the song “Wagon Wheel” played a lot throughout that day, and when I hear it now, I’m always sweetly brought back to my birth), the lights were low, and I was able to have a few popsicles and recharge. When I came out, my body jumped right into the transition period, and Connie knew just what to do. While it was absolutely challenging to have a sunny-side-up baby without medications, I was able to focus and work through it due to Connie’s never-ending support and guidance. Little Parker was born in the very early hours of the next day, and it was truly one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I was surrounded by family, my husband, Connie, and Cayenne, and I knew I had what it took to get him out and bring him earthside. Connie stayed for a few hours, making sure that I was well examined, and Parker was examined and weighed/measured. She gave me a few stitches from a small tear (FAR better than my first birth - both babies weighed the same, but with the calmness I’d felt with this birth, I was able to take my time and only tear slightly - such a relief!). She made sure our new little family unit was settled, and she left only when I felt ready. She came back the very next day to check on me, to check on my nursing and if I needed help. She was always a text or phone call away. Connie came back to check on us regularly in those first weeks, and I always felt like someone had my back and was making sure that I had support. She even could tell that I’m totally a hype person and that I’d be up and cooking/cleaning and doing things right away. She took matters into her own hands and told my husband, Josh, that I needed to stay in bed for two weeks. I was like, WHAT?! I only lasted about four days in bed, but oh my gosh, I was able to rest, relax, and heal, while getting to know this beautiful little boy that I’d just birthed. I cannot imagine a greater gift. I know that homebirth isn’t for everybody, and I respect that fully...what I do know is that homebirth changed me forever, and this time, in such a positive and happy way. I felt like I was able to do things as I needed to and not on someone else’s timeline. Both Connie and Cayenne were so generous with their time that day/night, and I will always be grateful to them for giving me such a gift. My little boy is now almost 4.5, and I can still remember this experience like it was yesterday because it had such a beautiful impact on me. Don't forget to check out the rest of our pregnancy center , with lots of great articles on everything from choosing a good prenatal vitamin to healthy eating for fertility ! Home birth questions and support If you have questions about home birth, please email us at   info@rooted-nutrition.com ,   and we will be happy to help!

Moringa Oleifera is a tree native to the Himalayas that has been cultivated for thousands of years. Its cultivation has spread worldwide from India and Africa to South and North America. Benefits of Moringa Powder The moringa tree leaves are one of the world’s most nutrient-rich foods. They contain ninety-two distinct nutrients and all nine essential amino acids — including methionine and cysteine — compounds rarely found in plants. It has a higher nutrient density than other green vegetables. Moringa leaves can be consumed fresh, dried, or powdered. It’s a great way to add some green vegetable nutrition to your diet. Moringa leaf contains: All nine essential amino acids: Phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, and histidine Twelve of the thirteen essential vitamins: A, C, E, K1, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), biotin (B7), folate (B9), & cobalamin (B12).  Ten of the fifteen essential minerals: Potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, iodine, and selenium Because of its low water requirements and fast-growing cycle — moringa can be harvested only four months after planting, and every forty-five days after that — moringa is ideally suited to combat malnutrition in drought-prone areas. With higher yields per acre than corn, rice, and wheat, as well as deep roots that help stabilize and enrich soils, moringa is most deserving of its moniker, the giving tree.  When done right, moringa can be a powerful tool in the fight to improve food security, soil fertility, and livelihoods everywhere it grows. moringa LEAF CAPSULEs - Ethical Issues If you have read anything I have written in the past, you know ethical issues are important to me, and this extends to moringa. Unfortunately, growing, processing, and harvesting a lot of moringa is anything but ethical. There are several significant ethical issues with moringa, two of them being of particular importance. The first is fair wages and pay. Unfortunately, many small farmers are taken advantage of and paid next to nothing for their crops, while companies resell them for big profits. We want farmers and laborers to be paid fairly so they can live dignity-filled lives. The second is excessive pesticide use. Often, moringa is grown with significant amounts of dangerous pesticides that leach into the groundwater of poor villages and expose the farm workers to extremely high levels of them as companies take advantage of a lack of regulations and enforcement in those countries. These can lead to drinking water containing unsafe levels of pesticides. Moringa can and should be farmed without the use of synthetic pesticides.  Good moringa should be sustainably farmed using   regenerative agriculture practices  and heirloom seeds. This ensures the highest quality moringa that improves the soil and the environment. It also means the people growing it and water supplies are protected from excess runoff and pesticides. Building soil health also helps improve the local water table, which is especially important as a lot of moringa is grown in dry climates. Moringa Leaf Powder - Quality Control As with other supplements, many quality control and testing procedures must be done to ensure that moringa is safe and properly made.  The first is heavy metals. Many moringa supplements contain high levels of heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium. This is because moringa pulls significant minerals from deep down in the soil, and sometimes, large amounts of heavy metals are part of it. So, ensuring that any moringa powder you take has been appropriately tested for heavy metal content is essential.  The second is bacterial and fungal contamination. Much moringa is grown in less-than-optimal conditions, and contamination with bacteria, such as E. coli, salmonella, and coliform , often from human or animal waste, is a big problem. We have seen many test results on moringa products that contained coliform bacteria, and the companies have continued to sell the product. Moringa powder should not contain coliform or other harmful bacteria.  The third big quality control issue is adulteration. Many moringa products are adulterated with cheaper ingredients, such as plants   like   M. stenopetala, M. hildebrandtii , or M. drouhardii .  It’s essential to know the source of your moringa. It can be nearly impossible to know where most moringa comes from because most companies buy moringa from middlemen who mix moringa powder from various suppliers. Instead, you want moringa from companies that partner directly with the farms and do not buy from middlemen. This direct trade relationship is also much better for the farmers as they are paid more for their hard work, and no middlemen take a cut. The fourth issue is color. We purchased a lot of moringa products while working on this project, and most of them were simply the wrong color. Good moringa powder should be light and fluffy with a vibrant green color. This is one of the most significant markers of high-quality moringa. It means it was harvested, dried, and processed correctly. Nearly all of the moringa we bought was brownish and dull, the hallmarks of old or poorly processed moringa. Moringa powder should look like the one on the left. The more vibrant green the moringa powder is, the better and more beneficial it is. Low-quality moringa is often dull, pale, or brownish—typically due to poor harvesting and cultivation techniques or high-heat sterilization. Moringa Leaf Supplements - What should you look for? We did not sell moringa for a long time because we could not find one that met our ethical and quality standards. After a long search and lots of lousy moringa, we finally found a brand that: Uses heirloom seed moringa Is grown with regenerative agriculture Works directly with  farmer coops to pay them a fair price Is slavery-free Is grown without the use of harmful pesticides Is not sterilized, irradiated, and fumigated Gives back to the community by helping to improve the nutritional status of local children. All too often, products are made that extract value from the local community without giving anything back. It should not be that way. Tests each batch for heavy metals, bacterial contamination, and pesticide residues Is a light, fluffy powder that is a vibrant green color how to take moringa leaf powder Start with a 1/2 tsp and work your way up to 2-3 tsp/day. It can be mixed in smoothies, juices, yogurt, soups, and other foods and beverages. Can be made hot or cold. NUTU Moringa We are very excited to partner with Nutu . Nutu  produces what we found to be the most amazing farm-to-bottle whole-food moringa supplements. They work directly (no middlemen) with women-led cooperatives in West Africa to bring you this incredible moringa. They are working with the farmers to build a sustainable and fair value chain. They help the farmers apply the regenerative principles of permaculture and sustainable agro-forestry. Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan environmentalist who began a movement to reforest her country. The Green Belt Movement also aimed at organizing women in rural Kenya to plant trees, combat deforestation, restore their main sources of fuel for cooking, generate income, and stop soil erosion. With over 51 million trees planted and over 30,000 women being trained, Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Nutu is helping to honor and expand on her incredible work. Nutu Moringa produces moringa that: Is grown with synthetic pesticides Tested to be free of harmful levels of healthy metals, like lead and cadmium Contains no harmful bacteria Is not sterilized Is not irradiated Is not fumigated Is not irradiated Their moringa leaves are hand-harvested from their stems just after dawn, then washed and dried immediately in sterile facilities, protected from the effects of moisture, sunlight, and oxygen. Nutu Moringa works with Forest and Life , a social movement that fights deforestation in Africa. The effects of deforestation, which has been rampant throughout Africa, have been devastating. They include water scarcity, malnutrition, the decimation of local economies, and a profound reduction in biodiversity. The cultivation of moringa oleifera, a fast-growing tree that thrives in precisely those drought-prone regions where the sting of malnutrition is felt most, has been instrumental in the reforestation of Africa, all the while providing  a powerful source of nutrition  to the people of the region and invigorating local economies.  Over the last ten years,  Forest & Life  has planted hundreds of acres of moringa trees across Africa, nourishing the population, creating jobs, and restoring biodiversity to the landscape. It’s an incredible organization! Pictured above are participants in the Nuta school lunch program. These talented, lovely, and kind-hearted women come several times each week to local schools, where they cook and distribute food to students. A few big scoops of Nuta moringa powder are added to the pot to ensure that the students, who would otherwise go undernourished, get plenty of nutrition! Here are some of those happy kids who get nourishment from the program! Moringa is an incredible plant. When done right, it can nourish you, improve the environment, and uplift many people's lives. It’s time for you to enjoy its fantastic benefits! Moringa Leaf Supplements Support We know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions about moringa supplements, 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 , or   book a free call ,   and we will be happy to help you on your health journey!

We get asked a lot about raw maca, so we thought it would be a good idea to answer all the questions in one spot. For the people of Junin in Peru, maca has been a food and remedy for over 2000 years. If you ask any Incan descendants how to prepare maca, they all answer the same: “ It must be cooked or boiled to extract the medicine.” So why, in our Western culture, are we suddenly changing 2000 years of tradition and deciding to consume raw maca powder? Is Raw Maca Root traditionally consumed? Maca is a root vegetable that is 70% carbohydrate with a high starch content (similar to a potato). As such, it has been traditionally cooked in ways similar to that of potatoes or starchy foods. The whole fresh bulb or dried bulb is either boiled in a soup or grated into fine pieces and boiled as tea or porridge. Stories say that the Inca would boil and consume up to 200 grams of maca per day via these traditional methods, with the local people claiming that sites like Machu Picchu were built with the power of maca. Recently, maca has been ground into powders (fresh and dried) to increase surface area and allow easier inclusion into various meals. It is a favorite additive to Inca Tea (boiled cinnamon, cloves, dried fruit, and maca in water), one of the most popular ways to drink maca in Junin. Those from the region who want to eat their maca straight in milk use pre-baked or heat-activated maca powder. Incan tea is perfect on a cold, rainy April morning. What is Gelatinzed Maca? One of the biggest misunderstandings regarding maca is that gelatinized maca is often confused with gelatin due to the similar spellings of the words. Gelatinized maca does not contain gelatin or have any association with gelatin. Gelatinizing is a name for heating a starchy product to reduce starch content, making it more viscous. Don’t worry; gelatinized maca is 100% vegan. Gelatinized maca is simply raw maca that has been put through a short (<10 sec) high-pressure steam to sanitize, kill off things like bacteria and mold, and make it far better for your gut and digestion. More recently, gelatinized maca has been called “activated maca” as it has been heat-activated, and this prevents confusion for vegans and vegetarians who are put off by the word gelatinized. Gelatinzed Versus Raw Maca Raw maca is like a sponge for mold; the longer it sits in humid conditions, the more mold it attracts. The problem with the type of mold that loves maca is that it produces highly toxic chemicals called aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and can have serious long-term negative health effects on your body and gut bacteria, even in tiny doses. The only way to kill this mold and protect it from the formation of toxins is by cooking maca to sanitize it, as the Inca have done for centuries. The safest form of maca is commercially called gelatinized maca or activated maca, which has gone through high-pressure steam to kill the mold and sanitize it. In addition, gelatinized maca has a sweet, caramel flavor and tastes much better than earthy raw maca. So when it comes to gelatinized maca vs. raw maca, gelatinized maca has some clear benefits. Mold growing on raw maca produces cancer-causing aflatoxins, which is why it must be cooked. Does cooking Raw maca Destroy Nutrients? It doesn’t. This is one of the most common misconceptions about maca and a lack of understanding of maca biochemistry and its mode of action. Almost all clinical studies demonstrating the positive health benefits of maca have been performed with maca prepared traditionally (boiling or heating in water) or with heat-activated or extracted maca. From this, it is evident that the active medicinal components are not denatured with heat, and new studies suggest that heating is necessary for producing various beneficial metabolites. Dr. Gustavo F. Gonzales, who heads the Department of Biological and Physiological Sciences and High Altitude Research at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, stated in his comprehensive biochemical review of maca: “The process of preparation of maca is important to obtain adequate biological effects. Traditionally, maca is boiled or extracted in alcohol before it is consumed. In experimental studies, an aqueous extract of maca is only effective after boiling pulverized maca hypocotyls in water….The boiling process seems to increase active metabolites.” Why raw maca should be cooked To understand this, you must understand the reason we consume maca. Maca is an incredible remedy. It helps to keep us healthy and our system in balance. The main bioactive inside maca that gives it these amazing benefits are unique to this plant and are called macamides. There are 17 known macamides, each of which works directly with your endocannabinoid and endocrine system to produce the positive health benefits of maca for your body. “The science has shown that the bioactive macamides in maca are heat-activated molecules.” Their biosynthesis occurs from the breakdown of the heat-sensitive glucosinolates (1) in the fresh maca bulb (Scheme 1). During the initial drying of maca post-harvest, there is hydrolytic processing of lipids and glucosinolates and a subsequent release of significant amounts of free unsaturated fatty acids (9, 10) and a key biochemical called benzylamine (7). Both of these compounds are precursors of, and whose accumulation correlates well with, the synthesis of bioactive macamides (11, 12, 13). It is now known that the coupling of fatty acids with the benzylamine intermediate (7) is a thermodynamic process (i.e., it requires heat). "So it seems the Inca were right, and the evidence now suggests that heating maca makes it more potent and bioactive. It also demonstrates that when it comes to traditional medicines, it pays to ask the people with 2000 years of experience how to prepare it.” Raw Maca and THyroid health Maca is a type of cruciferous vegetable in the Brassica family, a species often contraindicated in those with thyroid issues. However, traditionally, maca is consumed by chopping, sun drying , and cooking the roots , which breaks down the glucosinolates often found in Brassica plants, which protects the thyroid from being exposed to them. Cooking maca does not change the nutritional quality of the product. Primarily, chopping and heating reduce the activity of myrosinase, which produces isothiocyanate, which is often avoided by those with thyroid conditions. Isothiocyanates are believed to reduce iodine uptake into the thyroid as the gland is more selective for these molecules than iodine. Therefore, maca should always be cooked . It is, thus, important to use a gelatinized maca for those with thyroid issues. In Peru, yellow maca is commonly used to support a healthy thyroid. It is sun-dried, boiled into teas, broths, porridge, or soups, and taken daily. Raw Maca basics Raw maca accumulates mold that produces toxic aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are cancer-causing molecules that attack our gut biome and can remain in the raw maca powder unless cooked. Eating raw maca is risky and can cause serious harm to your health and upset your gut biome. In essence, it can do more harm than good. Raw maca root contains high levels of starch (amylose and amylopectin). Starch can often be hard to digest if eaten raw and may give some people symptoms such as bloating, gas, distention, and abdominal discomfort. Maca has always been traditionally cooked or heated, and studies show that the health benefits of maca powder are not diminished by these processes; if anything, they are enhanced. The active components responsible for most of Maca's benefits are heat-activated. So, if you are eating raw maca, you may not get the desired health benefits, and may suffer from some bad side effects. Seleno Health analysis demonstrated that a commercially available sample of raw maca in New Zealand had 2x higher bacterial concentrations and 8x higher mold concentrations than their activated (pre-cooked) sample. Raw maca is a health risk and does not need to be taken. The texture and flavor of activated (pre-cooked) maca powder are sweeter, caramel, and palatable. Raw maca has a more tart taste and often forms grainy starch sediments in solution when it’s not cooked, creating an unpleasant texture and flavor. If you want maca for your smoothies, activated maca has it all and a much nicer taste. what Maca Should you use? Simply put, it is best to buy activated maca or gelatinized maca, as it is safe, potent, and tastes better. It does not need cooking but can be cooked more if required. This follows the tradition and the science and the way it has been done for 2000 years – cooked. If you want to learn more about Maca, click the below button to head over to our Ethical Maca Center! Do you have questions about Maca and need support? We know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions about maca, email us at   info@rooted-nutrition.com ,  or schedule a free call . We will be happy to answer any questions you have!

There has been a big trend of promoting vitamin IVs or shots as a panacea and the best way to improve your vitamin levels quickly. You can find them everywhere, from health food stores to spas and mobile clinics. I’m not talking about standard b-12 injections from your doctor or using vitamin C infusions for sepsis in the hospital, but cocktails of various vitamins and compounds, like the menu below, for everyday use: No one-time shot of vitamins and amino acids will make you extremely skinny; they must stop with the malarky. Vitamin Injections They are touted as a cure-all for everything from boosting the immune system to providing an energy boost, making more collagen, weight loss, curing the flu, treating cancer, and so much more. It sounds fantastic, right? Are those claims accurate, though? Normally, a person gets their nutrients from food. Food comes with various co-factors and other compounds, all neatly packaged together, that help the body utilize nutrients better. Infusions of synthetic vitamins lack all those crucial compounds and the synergy (holism) that comes with them. Humans have evolved to get their nutrition from food, which is the ideal way to become nourished. The body does not store most vitamins, so they are needed daily to keep everything working well. For example, vitamin C has a short half-life and is rapidly cleared by the kidneys (even when given via IV). This is why eating vitamin C-rich foods every day is essential. Even better is to get some of those foods at different times of the day to help keep levels up. Because of its rapid clearance, a once in awhile vitamin C infusion or shot will not keep levels up for very long. All that happens is a short-term spike in blood levels until the kidneys can clear it. There will be no dramatic increase in collagen production or a boost of the immune system. Just expensive urine. We found several companies that sell vitamin C infusions that claimed the levels stayed high for 2-3 weeks. Yet, none of them provided any references to support this claim. Most studies show a clearance time of thirty minutes to six hours . After that, levels rapidly begin to return to normal. So, grabbing a quick vitamin C shot will not increase your vitamin C levels for long. Does that sound worth the money, time, or getting stuck with a needle? You can say the same thing for all the other vitamin infusions and shots these “wellness” companies offer, from alpha lipoic acid to most B vitamins. However, I don't want to bore you with pages and pages of dry science, so I'm not going to go through the pharmacokinetics of a bunch of vitamins and compounds. If you want that, send us an email, and we will be happy to send you that data. It’s not just us saying that IV vitamins are not worth it. The American College of Clinical Pharmacy concluded that: “There is no evidence that the benefits of IV vitamin infusions outweigh the possible risks.” In addition, rapidly raising the blood levels of specific vitamins or electrolytes in people with health issues, such as kidney or heart disease, can cause significant problems. If you have health issues or take medications, please consult your doctor before getting them to avoid problems or drug interactions. One of the biggest concerns with vitamin infusions and shots is that often, they are prepared under conditions that are less than ideal and with significant quality control and safety problems. Are vitamin injections safe? For example, the FDA inspected one of the largest and most popular compounders of vitamin infusions, Olympia Compounding Pharmacy. Here are some things they found : From January 1, 2021, through February 16, 2022, fifty-nine lots of products were out of specification. Many had significantly more or less of the ingredients than claimed. Others failed to reconstitute in the time they were supposed to. In addition, the company’s internal testing found bacterial contamination in many lots, and they still released the product for sale. The FDA found significant issues with the company's internal testing, environmental, and safety SOPs, from violations to inadequate monitoring. When they recieved a complaint about a product about a quality control problem with one of their products, they failed to implement procedures to prevent it from happening again. This is one of the worst: “According to your Quality Manager, your firm lacks stability studies for erectile dysfunction, vitamin, vein care, IV therapy, and anti-aging sterile injectable drug products. Your firm did not conduct studies to demonstrate specifications including but not limited to potency, endotoxin, sterility, and container closure integrity remain suitable throughout each product's shelf life.” It is essential, especially with injectable products, to know how long they are safe and will remain sterile. Their internal study showed that their glutathione injection failed stability testing at the three-month mark, but they continued to manufacture and sell the product with a 3-4 month shelf life. We highly encourage you to read the full report to understand how many issues there were and how bad it was, as we covered a small amount. This company makes the IM (intramuscular) vitamin shots being given at a popular health food store near our company; yikes! Is this the kind of company you want to get injections from? Unfortunately, most of the clinics offering vitamin infusions and injections will not tell you who is making the products they are using. This lack of transparency is another reason to avoid them. In addition, it is very rare for companies to provide a full and complete ingredient list with amounts for their injections. You should never take injections or supplements without knowing the entire ingredient list. Vitamin infusion quality control problems Check out some other things the FDA found when inspecting multiple vitamin infusion and shot suppliers and clinics: "Personnel in street clothes with ungloved hands filling drug products intended to be sterile into syringes outside of an ISO-5 classified area. These drug products were scheduled for shipment to patients across the country. Personnel performing sterile drug compounding within the ISO-5 classified area failed to sanitize or change gloves after contact with non-sterile items including a face mask and trash can. Personnel in the ISO-5 classified area moved rapidly and blocked first pass (clean) air in the vicinity of open sterile units, increasing risk of product contamination. High efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters located in the ISO-5 classified area and cleanroom were discolored and/or damaged. The ISO-5 classified cleanroom workbench where sterile drug compounding occurs was constructed of laminated wood which was peeling. A heating vent located below the ISO-5 classified hood was visibly dirty and had no filtering device attached. Hazardous drugs were handled without providing adequate containment, segregation, or cleaning of work surfaces and utensils to prevent cross-contamination. Stock solutions intended to be sterile were exposed to lesser quality than ISO-5 classified air after the stopper had been punctured multiple times. Use of expired active pharmaceutical ingredients to prepare drug products intended to be sterile." “In February 2021, FDA was made aware of a 50-year-old female patient who was hospitalized and treated for suspected septic shock with multi-organ failure after receiving an IV-vitamin infusion in her home. The patient’s blood cultures grew Pseudomonas fluorescens, a gram-negative bacterium. The IV-vitamin infusion was compounded by Age Management Institute Santa Barbara.” “FDA collaborated with multiple state regulators and conducted an inspection of the firm during which several deficiencies involving insanitary conditions were observed including, but not limited to: Lack of a certified ISO-5 classified area for sterile compounding. Contamination in compounding areas including peeling paint, stained work surfaces, visibly dirty equipment, and air vents with dust and grime. Difficult to clean equipment and surfaces such as carpeting in the IV storage and mixing room. Standing water in a refrigerated storage area used to store sterile vials. Use of expired active pharmaceutical ingredients to prepare drug products intended to be sterile.” These are just a few of the many quality control problems with vitamin injections and infusions; it would take many pages to detail all the examples found. Unfortunately, many of these companies seem to think that quality control is just a phrase, not something that needs to be done. Do you need vitamin injections? Vitamin shots and IVs like these are really just a good way for companies to make lots of money on products with very high profit margins. You don’t need them. Instead, use that money to buy yourself some nourishing whole foods. Your body will benefit more from a bag of oranges than an infusion of vitamin C for a fraction of the cost. Don’t fall for the marketing gimmicks. Vitamin shot questions Do you have questions about vitamin shots, infusions, or injections? Feel free to e mail us at   info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will do our best to get you the answers you need.

While we herbalists love lots of plants, each and every one of us has a few herbs that we are especially fond of. One of mine is Elderberry. I could go on about it for hours and hours. From the simple beauty of it growing in a backyard to stories about bubbling pots of it on the stove while making syrup - like when I got distracted and returned to a purple kitchen! I have so many wonderful memories of this plant, from teaching friends to make the syrup to yelling at my mother for eating the unripe berries (Do not eat the unripe berries, mom or anyone else!!!!). Last year my son Parker even got to try his first elderberries from Grandma's (whom he calls Gram Cracker) backyard. From my mom to my son, elderberry runs in our veins. Parker and Gram Cracker creeping from behind the bushes. It is an incredible plant and has been used by Native Americans and Europeans alike for many, many years. There are actually two main types of Elder, American (Sambucus nigra sbsp. Canadensis) and Black Elder (S. nigra sbsp. nigra). They are considered to be subspecies. Most people are more familiar with the Black Elder, but both have a long and rich history of use. There have been many articles on the health benefits of elderberry, along with a lot of research. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to share articles or scientific papers with you, but the benefits and quality control of Elderberry are for an article for another day. As you can see (or if you want to hear someone talk about a berry for four hours, just let me know), I am a huge elderberry fan. Are Elderberries healthy? Over the last month or so, I started to get emails and see posts from people saying that you should avoid elderberry or elderberry will make certain conditions worse, and I became very concerned. They were saying that it could cause a cytokine storm. Was Elderberry not as safe as I previously thought? Was it making certain things worse? Now, as with every herb, food, or drug, there are always going to be some people who have an allergy to it or have a specific reason they should not use it. No herb is right for everyone. Anyone saying that one thing is right for everyone or a cure-all is not someone you should take seriously. However, what was being written and said was nothing of the sort of normal disclaimers that are given, such as: You should always talk to your doctor before starting any new supplement or medication and inform them of any supplements and medications you are using. Instead, it was basically slander of a plant. Parker does not approve of plant slander; it makes him very angry. Does Elderberry Cause a cytokine storm? I was pretty upset about my boy Elderberry getting beat up for no reason other than it was becoming popular, or they just wanted some clickbait to get eyes on their website or social media postings. My initial instinct was to come out swinging and be a bit of a jerk about things because I was feeling pretty emotional about it. I called a few herbalist friends, and they talked me out of doing that. Over the same period of time, they had gotten the same emails and seen the same posts. Thankfully many herbalists and practitioners have started to push back about this and have begun putting out papers, such as this and this , about why these posts and blogs were wrong. Buckle up and put your thinking caps on because it gets intense from here on out. Before we continue, let's go through Science and Research 101. Just because something happened in a test tube or petri dish does not mean that it will happen inside a person. This is a very important point. For example, many things will kill bacteria, cells, or viruses in a petri dish but would not have this same response in the human body for a variety of reasons. Another substance may seem effective at killing viruses in a petri dish, but if a person ingested enough of that substance to have an effect on the body, it could make them very sick or kill them. Chlorine bleach is a great example of this. It is a great disinfectant, but you would not want to ingest large amounts of it to kill a viral or bacterial infection in your body. Just because something happens in animals or lab rats does not mean it will happen in people. Lab rats are often bred specifically to be more prone to get a certain disease that is being researched, for example. Rats and other animals often have different metabolic and other pathways than humans do. While animal research (setting aside ethical issues for a moment) is a step in the process for many substances, conclusions should not be drawn from this and automatically applied to people. Clinical trials in people must be conducted properly and be of a proper length of time and size. There are too many parts of a clinical trial to go through all of them here, but if you would like to view the whole process and how it should be done, you can view it here . If you are trying to determine what a particular substance does, you would want to do a clinical trial using only that substance. If you gave three different things at the same time, you would not be able to draw a conclusion on only one of them unless you had an arm of the trial where each one was separate. When dealing with herbs, you also need to ensure that the material used in the trial is properly manufactured and tested. You would be amazed at how many clinical trials on herbs are done using adulterated or contaminated products. You would not be able to draw any conclusions about an herb using a product like that. While there are other things to consider, those are four good points to keep in mind. Anyone who claims to care about good science but ignores those four points either does not understand how it works or cares more about likes on a page (and their ego) than about good research and education. Yes, all scientists are that adorable. Ok, now on to the meat and potatoes of the issue. The study that is being referenced in order to support the claims of elderberry worsening or causing a cytokine storm is this . This was a study on human monocytes. Blood was drawn from 12 healthy subjects. Then adherent monocytes were separated from PBL and incubated with various elderberry preparations. That's fancy talk for a test-tube study. Nearly all of the articles and social media posts making claims about Elderberry causing a cytokine storm referenced (if they gave any references at all) this study over and over. We should not make conclusions about the effects on people of any herb, drug, or food from a single test-tube study. Any good researcher or scientist would tell you that. Many of these were written and made by people who know very well how science works and know that conclusions on what would happen in an actual live human being should never be drawn based on a study like this. I spoke to and corresponded with many people involved with plants, herbalism, and medicine (everyone from doctors to pharmacognosists), and no one I spoke to, or the people I spoke to had spoken to, had been able to locate any evidence of elderberry causing a cytokine storm or making a cytokine storm worse. Could a properly done study exist, and all of us just missed it? I suppose it's possible but not probable. One study was found that specifically tested a preparation containing elderberry and two other herbs in relation to its effects on cytokines: In this study, the preparation was being used as part of a study to test the effectiveness of anti-cytokine therapy on atherosclerosis. This was a two-year, double-blind, controlled trial. It did not find any examples of the preparation causing a cytokine storm or worsening an existing cytokine storm. Now keep in mind we should not draw conclusions that elderberry would have that effect on its own because we would need to do a clinical trial on elderberry by itself to see if it had that same effect as the compound used in the study. I reference this study to show one of the only papers we could find that showed the effects of something that contained elderberry on cytokines in live human beings, not test tubes or lab rats. Often mentioned in the same articles and posts was a theory that kept being repeated, but remember, just because something is repeated over and over does not make it true. This theory states that because elderberry could sometimes stimulate certain cytokines, it would cause or make worse a cytokine storm in someone. This theory fails to consider that elderberry, like all herbs, is much more than a single compound. You have to take into account the effects that all the other compounds in the preparation or plant would have on the body as well. Someone cannot just decide that only one compound is going to have an effect because it fits their narrative and ignore what all the other compounds do. Yet, that is exactly what people pushing claims of cytokine storms caused or made worse by elderberry have done. Even PolitiFact could not find any evidence that elderberry caused or worsened a cytokine storm, and the Facebook page that started and spread this whole nonsense has since been taken down. You mess with the other plants, and you mess with the Mandrake. You are probably wondering why I am being so vague and just using the word cytokines and not other terms. The FDA limits what can be said about herbs and other supplements, So certain words, phrases, and claims cannot be said without getting you into a lot of trouble. Whether this policy by the FDA is good, bad, or meaningless and why it is this way is a debate for another day and article. Herbalists care deeply about the people and plants they work with. I, and other herbalists (obviously, there are some bad herbalist eggs, just like in any group), would stop using an herb in a heartbeat if given good evidence that it was dangerous or could be harmful in a way that it was commonly used. Elderberry and cytokine storms - Proof Of claims If you or someone you know has properly done human clinical trials showing elderberry causes any of the harmful things being claimed, such as cytokine storms, I and a whole lot of other people who have been searching for these studies would really love to see them. Please email it to info@rooted-nutrition.com so we can see it and pass it along. Herbs and plants have given tremendous benefits to human beings, and every passing year we discover more amazing things or learn more about the history of an herb. Scaring people away from using such an incredible herb that has so many benefits to try and score social media points or to inflate your ego is a terrible thing to do, especially if you know that the claims you are making have no actual scientific backing to them. Is every herb right for every person or in every situation? Of course not. Ask any good herbalist, and they could tell you many herbs that would not be appropriate in a particular situation or for a particular person. For example, you would not want to give licorice to someone with high blood pressure. This could cause a dangerous spike in blood pressure, leading to a whole host of problems. What I hope everyone takes away from this article is to stop relying on sound bites and social media for health information. It is simply not set up in a way that can properly convey scientific information properly. When it comes to internet searching, stick to cat pictures and silly memes. Have a question about your medication? Ask your doctor or pharmacist. Have a question about your car? Ask your mechanic. Have a question about science? Ask Bill Nye, the science guy. Have a question about an herb? Ask an herbalist. Having an existential crisis and wanting to know the answer to life, the universe, and everything? The answer is 42. It always has been, and it always will be. For a great guide on the clinical usage of elderberry, click here . Here is a little video from our friends at Norms Farms showing some of the elderberries growing on their farm in North Carolina. Warning: Southern Accent Present Check out our favorite elderberry syrup here . This article is not meant to replace the advice of your doctor or healthcare practitioner, nor is it meant to be taken as medical advice.

We are often asked about homeopathy, so I thought it might be time to write about it. However, this article is not about what homeopathy is or its various claims; instead, it will be about something that never gets talked about when discussing homeopathy but needs to be. I want to clarify that homeopathy and herbalism are two very different things despite being often lumped together. This is one of my biggest pet peeves as an herbalist. Regardless of how you feel about homeopathy, it has nothing to do with herbalism.  Homeopathy and quality control If you have ever read anything I have written about the supplement industry, you know I deeply distrust corporations and never believe what they say without looking into it, and neither should you! We do a lot of testing and research to verify claims and product quality. For example, suppose a company claims that a product is Echinacea 500 mg capsules. In that case, I can send those off to a lab (shout out to our friends at Alkemist Labs , who we love for third-party and independent herbal products testing) and have the capsules tested to make sure they meet label claims and are free of contaminants and adulterants. I can also dig into the raw material sources and investigate whether they were produced in ethically and environmentally friendly ways. These are all essential steps in ensuring that a product is made correctly. While homeopathic products are not regulated as dietary supplements or considered supplements by the FDA (they are classified as homeopathic drug products), I believe the same high standards we apply to supplements should also be used on homeopathic products. We all want to ensure that any homeopathic products we consider carrying meet the label claims, are free of adulterants and contaminants, and are produced in ethical and environmentally friendly ways. I'm sure we can all agree on the importance of these criteria. One of the most popular homeopathic remedies is Arnica 30c. Let’s say we decided to start carrying an Arnica 30c product. The first step would be to do the initial research and weed out any blatantly unethical companies (like  Nestle-owned brands ), then whittle it down to a handful of companies. The next step would be to ask each company for details on their sourcing of the arnica and their internal test results on a recent batch for things like potency and contaminants. This would also allow us to see if they were using the correct testing methods and testing for everything they should be. Then, if those all checked out, order a few bottles anonymously to send away for our own testing. We always order under a fake name and different address because companies will often send you special batches if they know you will test them, so it always looks good, even if the regular batches may not. Herbalist warning: please do not ingest non-homeopathic arnica; it is a poisonous plant, and you will get very sick! Before I go on, ask yourself, "Would I want Rooted Nutrition to carry a product they had not done research, testing, and quality control on?” I hope you all said no to that!  Is it possible to do quality control testing on Homeopathic products? What if I told you that quality control and testing on a product like Arnica 30c were simply impossible? You would probably say, “What do you mean it’s impossible?” Due to the dilutions done with homeopathic products, such as Arnica 30c, any lab that tested it would not find any arnica present. So we cannot know if it is Arnica 30c or 200x or 200ck, etc, or if the right product was packaged in the bottle. We would have no choice but to trust that the companies are telling the truth. That is just not acceptable to us. There is enough information available regarding corporations worldwide that everyone should know that blind trust in them is a terrible thing.  We contacted multiple large, well-known homeopathic companies, and none could provide a reproducible and verifiable way to ensure that label claims were met. We would not allow this from any supplement company and do not feel homeopathic products should get a free pass. So until someone shows us a scientifically validated test to verify the label claims, we have no choice but to continue not to carry homeopathic products. To unquestioningly trust homeopathic corporations would be a colossal mistake and completely unethical of us. Do you know a way to do proper testing on homeopathic products?  If anyone knows of a validated testing method, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com ; we would love to know about it and look into it. My cat, Princess Kevin McCatlister, napping in the mint.

The placenta is considered sacred by many societies, and often there are elaborate rituals surrounding it. In 2010, medical anthropologists analyzed the traditions of 179 ancient cultures and found that 109 of them had placenta rituals, including burials, incineration, intentional placement, or hanging from a tree or other location. The placenta has enormous cultural and spiritual significance around the world. What is Placentophagy? Placentophagy is the act of consuming part or all of the afterbirth following parturition (childbirth). Many mammals practice placentophagy, particularly herbivores. The reasons for this are not entirely known, but it could be for nutrition or to prevent predators from knowing that there is a newborn animal. There are a few reports of human placentophagy, but it is unknown how widespread the practice was or if they were isolated cases. Here are a few examples: I n 1556 a traveler to the Americas claimed to have witnessed Native American women eating the placenta right after giving birth . In 16th century Germany, it was common to add a piece of placenta to a new mother's first meal because it was thought to reduce her bleeding. Various cultures did and do eat animal placenta. That practice is well documented and often fits with the practice of not wasting any part of an animal. Many cultures have soups and stews that combine blood, fetal animal, and placenta. You can still get these dishes in many small rural villages. In Shanghai, deer placenta soup is still very popular. Great Plains Native American tribes would make a stew prepared from fetal bison calf with placenta given to expectant and nursing mothers. What Benefits to people claim to get from placenta eating? Here are just a few of the claimed benefits of eating placenta: Increased energy Soft, supple skin Reduction in dry, crepey skin Support for postpartum health Lactation support Fertility and conception support Improved mood Positive outlook Pain reduction Hair growth Menopausal support And much more Chinese medicine has long used placenta for a variety of reasons as well . Unfortunately, there are not any good studies on the consumption of placenta after birth, as it would be tough to conduct a large-scale, correctly done study of this nature, as you can imagine. So most of the claimed benefits are based on anecdotal reports. What does the placenta do? The placenta is made up of fetal membranes, naval (umbilicus), and the amniotic sack. It supports the growth of the fertilized egg into an infant. The fertilized egg comes out of the fallopian tube as an embryo. When it reaches the uterine wall, some cells embed themselves. These cells will grow to form the placenta, while the ones that remain in the uterus will become the baby. The placenta actually develops on its own as part of the growing baby; nerve cells, it functions without being controlled by the mother! The placenta has to perform the work of multiple organs to support the growing baby. It functions as the baby’s lungs to supply oxygen, the kidneys to remove waste, and the immune and gastrointestinal systems. It also works as an endocrine system by secreting hormones and growth factors. Those compounds also help to support a healthy stress response in the mother. What an incredible organ! During birth, a mother will lose about 10% of her blood supply (cesarean section blood loss can be much higher). It is one of the reasons many mothers feel so tired after giving birth. It makes sense why many mothers say they feel much better (increased energy, less bleeding, and an improved mood) after consuming placenta because it supplies many of these compounds (stem cells, growth factors, hormones, etc.) and nutrients (heme iron, b12, amino acids, essential fats, etc.) that were lost during childbirth. While the cord is cut immediately after birth in hospitals, many midwives feel that leaving the placenta attached for a time after delivery allows more nutrients and beneficial compounds to flow to the baby through the cord and nurture the infant. Full disclosure, we did this with baby Parker. Baby Parker Does the placenta contain lots of nutrients? More and more women consume their placenta after birth because they believe it provides many benefits. Midwives often offer it as a service after home births, and many businesses specialize in placenta preparation and encapsulation. Here are just a few of the nutrients it contains: Heme Iron Heme iron is much more bioavailable and effective than non-heme iron. In addition, it is gentle on the stomach and does not have the side effects of traditional iron supplements. To learn more about it, check out our blog article, All About Iron . Zinc Copper Vitamin D B Vitamins, including b12 Selenium Vitamin E Corticotropin-releasing hormone(CRH) Placental opioid-enhancing factor(POEF) Hormone-Releasing Neuropeptides, Cofactors & Precursors Placenta Specific Proteins, Stem Cells & Hormones (Prolactin and Oxytocin) Various other hormones and compounds It’s clear that it is very nutrient-dense. Is placenta eating safe? The question that most people have is, is it safe? While it may be easier when things are black and white, this is one of those gray areas. Let’s take a look. The Mayo Clinic writes, “ Eating your placenta after giving birth (placentophagy) can pose harm to both you and your baby .” Their reason for this is: “ These preparations don't completely destroy infectious bacteria and viruses that the placenta might contain . ” Web MD states, “While there doesn't seem to be any proof that eating your placenta can help you, there is some proof that it can hurt. If you eat it "fresh" or raw, it might spread infection. Even processing your placenta by putting it in capsules might spoil it with bacteria or viruses.” In 2016, the CDC found a case of Late-Onset Infant Group B Streptococcus Infection Associated with Maternal Consumption of Capsules Containing Dehydrated Placenta . They felt that the “Consumption of contaminated placenta capsules might have elevated maternal GBS intestinal and skin colonization, facilitating transfer to the infant.” This was a case of a commercial placenta processing company producing capsules that were contaminated. According to the CDC, “Heating at 130°F (54°C) for 121 minutes is required to reduce Salmonella bacterial counts by 7 log10.” All of the information and data we could find stating the dangers of eating placenta came from the risk of contamination while preparing it for consumption or insufficient processing that did not kill off the group B strep bacteria in the placenta. All of the cases we could find of people getting sick from eating it came from contamination of the placenta during processing or because the mother was infected with group B strep bacteria. There are a number of case reports of this happening, so it is a very real risk. This contamination puts not just the mother's health at risk but also the baby's as well, as these contaminants can be passed through to the baby while breastfeeding. Does all of this mean that the practice of placenta eating is entirely unsafe? Not necessarily, but it does speak to the critical task of ensuring that there is no bacterial contamination of the placenta and the importance of proper processing and handling. Never eat raw placenta, and never eat another person's placenta, as there is a real risk of passing blood-borne diseases. What should you do if you want to consume your placenta? Most hospitals will not allow you to take your placenta home, so if you want to do this, you will most likely need a home birth with a midwife . Connie is the best! The first step is to have a conversation with your midwife. Talk about what the process entails, their recommendations, and if they think it might be a good fit for you. If all of that points to yes, you should set up a plan for what you will do with the placenta after giving birth. It will involve how you store it until it can go off to where it will be processed. We do not recommend home processing as most people do not have the proper home setup to prevent contamination. What should you look for in a placenta encapsulation service? Where should you have it sent? We suggest asking your midwife about where they recommend sending it. If they do not have a recommendation, contact a few places and ask them some questions, such as: What steps do they take to prevent and protect the placenta preparation from contamination? What temperature and length of time do they heat it for? What is their process, from start to capsule? Do they have any tests or proof showing the absence of bacteria contamination? This is a big health decision and should not be taken lightly or flippantly. If you find a place you feel comfortable with, share this information with your midwife and ensure they are on board with the company or person you are using. Not everyone who wants to do this will be able to find a good place to do it for them. Don’t go with a questionable place just because you want to do it. You want to be 100% certain it is safe. It’s not worth the risk to you or your baby to use a place that does not do everything right. We understand that is a hard decision, but if you cannot find a place that will guarantee it is safe, we recommend making an alternative plan for the placenta. Placenta Burial One option is it bury it under a small sapling tree . Many believe that the placenta is sacred, and this is a great way to honor that. Other options include making a placenta print or having an amulet made. Parkers Placenta Grass-fed Placenta Capsules What if you want the nutritional benefits of placenta without the risks? There is no question that the placenta is packed with a ton of nutrition. I don’t think many people would disagree (they are getting smacked if they do) that giving birth takes a lot out of a mom mentally and physically (Check out our article, A Guide to Postpartum Support , for more helpful tips.) So, understandably, they would want something packed with nutrition to help them recover. So what’s the solution? NXGEN Wholefoods Grass-fed placenta capsules These capsules are packed with all those nutrients and compounds found in the placenta and grass-fed liver for added nutritional benefits. The placenta is dried using a slow, freeze-drying process that preserves many nutrients and compounds lost during the traditional placenta cooking and drying process, which involves a lot of heat. It is produced from regeneratively farmed cattle in the Lake Eyre region of Australia. The raw materials and finished product are tested to ensure it is free of bacterial contamination and other possible contaminants. It allows you to get the nourishment and benefits that placenta offers without the risks. Hopefully, this article helped to answer your questions about placentophagy. Don’t forget to check out the rest of our pregnancy center for more helpful pregnancy and postpartum support! Placenta Consumption and Encapsulation Support We know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions about placenta supplements, consumption, or encapsulation, email us at   info@rooted-nutrition.com , or schedule a free call . We will be happy to answer any questions you have!

Vitamin C is getting a lot of press and attention lately. We have received hundreds of emails with questions about it over the last month, owing to what seems likely daily news and blog articles. So it seemed like the right time for a refresher on all things vitamin C. It’s a long article, but we tried to answer all of the questions we had been getting asked the most. The vitamin C gang says it's important to keep smiling because things will get better. The discovery of vitamin C Vitamin C was discovered by Nobel prize-winning Hungarian Biochemist Dr. Albert Szent-Györgyi. He was an incredible scientist, served in World War One, and was awarded the Medal of Valour. He first isolated the vitamin from the adrenal glands of animals and called it hexuronic acid. He would later rename it ascorbic acid. For years he searched for a richer source of this anti-scorbutic (which means preventing or curing scurvy) compound in order to continue his experiments. Finally, legend has it that to avoid eating the fresh paprikas that his wife had served as a side dish, Szent-Györgyi hurriedly left the dinner table and ran to his laboratory to test the paprikas for ascorbic acid content. Unbeknownst to many people, later in life, “He became a passionate advocate of government-sponsored cancer research after losing two close family members to the disease and spent much of his later professional life studying cancer at the cellular level at Woods Hole and for the National Foundation for Cancer Research. An outspoken opponent of military spending, nuclear weapons, and war in general, Szent-Györgyi was pessimistic about the state of modern life and expressed his sociopolitical views in his 1970 book, The Crazy Ape .” He was an incredible human being, and if you study or practice in the field of nutrition, health, or medicine, he is definitely one of the giants whose shoulders you stand on. Dr. Albert Szent-Györgyi Vitamin C, commonly known as ascorbic acid or ascorbate, is a water-soluble vitamin. Unlike many other mammals, human beings cannot make their own vitamin C and must obtain it from their diet. According to the NIH , this is how much vitamin C a person needs every day: There are times when a person may need a higher dosage, but that is a topic for another day. What does vitamin C do? Vitamin C is a workhorse in the body. It is used in many different ways and performs a number of different functions. Here are just a few of them; there are many more, though: An important antioxidant Collagen formation Wound and burn healing Increases absorption of iron from plant foods Immune system support This is a complicated topic because there is a lot of misinformation and misconceptions about vitamin C and the immune system. If you want to understand the way vitamin C affects and interacts with the immune system, check out this paper . The vitamin C gang works hard for your immune system. Make them proud by eating plenty of fruit. We at Rooted Nutrition believe that it is always best to get your vitamins from real whole foods whenever possible. Vitamin C-rich foods contain more than just vitamin C. They contain a huge variety of other beneficial compounds, such as flavonoids (sometimes called bioflavonoids). Dr. Szent Gyorgyi called these compounds “Vitamin P. " He found that these compounds supported and helped the body in ways that pure vitamin C (ascorbic acid) could not. While flavonoids are not technically vitamins, they do provide a variety of health benefits that you cannot get from pure vitamin C. So make sure to eat those fruits and vegetables every day. Ideally, you should consume 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. While they may seem like a lot, a serving is only half a cup of cooked or one cup of raw. So a large salad could easily contain four or more servings. Make sure to get a variety of types and colors each day. The vitamin C gang says, "No, you may not count ketchup and french fries as fruits and vegetables." I would not upset them if I were you. So the question we get asked most is, "Do I need to take a vitamin C supplement?" Well, the truth is that some people do and some people do not, just like with any supplement. For example, a Dietitian may recommend a vitamin C supplement for someone whose wounds are not healing correctly because they are deficient, while a person who eats ten servings of fruits and vegetables a day probably does not need one. What are the different types of vitamin C supplements? So, how do you choose which vitamin C supplement to use? There is a large variety of delivery formats and types of vitamin C to choose from, which can get pretty confusing. Let's start our journey with the different delivery options. 1. Gummies - Avoid these like the plague. “Gummy vitamins” are a bad way to get any vitamin, but especially vitamin C. The acidity of vitamin C, combined with the high sugar content of most “gummy vitamins,” makes it a nightmare for your teeth. I cannot stress this enough; there are NO good reasons to take gummy supplements of any kind. 2. Chewables - While some vitamins are ok in chewable form, avoid vitamin C in chewable form for the same reasons you should avoid vitamin C in gummy form. The acidity of vitamin C and the high levels of sugar in most chewable vitamin C products makes them a nightmare for your teeth. Plus, they tend to be full of unwanted sweeteners and flavorings. 3. Powder - Powdered vitamin C is a convenient option to add to foods or beverages. Choose one without added sweeteners and flavorings, even "natural ones. It is best to get whole-food vitamin C powder to make it easier on your teeth and stomach. Avoid getting water or moisture in the container, as it will cause it to clump up and result in the loss of some of the vitamin C in the product. 4. Liquid - Vitamin C is not stable in water. When left for just a few days, the liquid vitamin C products that are water or juice-based will lose their potency. If you do need to use liquid vitamin C, it is best to choose one that is oil or phospholipid based . Make sure it is also free of unwanted sweeteners and flavorings. It should also be packaged in glass, not plastic or foil packets, to avoid leeching from the packaging into the product. A better option would be a whole-food vitamin C powder . Just mix with water and drink as needed. Only mix what you need at that time. Don't make a whole bunch of liquid from the powder and leave it in the fridge, or it will lose its potency. 5. Capsules, Tablets, and Softgels - These are the most common forms of vitamin C delivery forms. They are a great way to take vitamin C. The best ones will be free of additives, fillers, and flow agents. Avoid those with added colors, flavorings, and sweeteners. 6. Packaging - Choose vitamin C supplements that are packed in dark glass or plastic. Avoid those in clear containers (no supplements should be packaged in clear containers), as the light will break down the vitamin C and cause a loss of potency. Avoid storing vitamin C, as well as other supplements and medications, in areas of high humidity, like the bathroom. The vitamin C gang says peel is the OG packaging. Who are we to argue with the experts? The second part of our journey is the various types of vitamin C. This is where things can get confusing, but we have the Vitamin C Gang to walk us through it. We've got this! Keep in mind that each type of vitamin C has its fans and proponents, we are not going to get in the middle of that fight, but we do have our favorites. We want you to have accurate information on all of them. The first category of vitamin C products is pure ascorbic acid. It is the starter material for nearly all vitamin C products. This product is generally made from some type of sugar or starch, such as corn, beet, or tapioca. It does not matter which type of sugar it is made from, as the final product contains nothing of the original sugar or plant source. While some companies may claim a version made from tapioca sugar or beet sugar is better, in the end, all that remains is pure ascorbic acid. So you can ignore all of the marketing claims when it comes to pure ascorbic acid sources. Nearly all of the pure ascorbic acid in the world is made in China using one of two processes . There is, however, one factory left in Scotland making pure ascorbic acid. Nearly a ll other ascorbic acid is now made in China because of an illegal price-fixing scheme perpetrated by the Chinese government and Chinese chemical companies. This caused nearly all of the other suppliers to go out of business. Ironically the companies were actually let off the hook and avoided any penalty for doing this because the Chinese government actually required companies to violate United States anti-trust laws. This is an incredibly unfair practice that caused many businesses to go under and the loss of many jobs while increasing the price of vitamin C for consumers. This type of behavior should be illegal but is an all too common practice by the Chinese government in many industries. Keep in mind that at dosages of 500, 1,000, etc., milligrams of vitamin C per pill, there are no natural or whole food options available. No matter what the marketing claims or the packaging looks like, these products are not natural or whole food. Here is a label example of a generic vitamin C 1,000 product. You can see in the supplement facts panel that it lists vitamin C (as ascorbic acid). The second category of vitamin C products is what we like to call the ascorbic acid plus category. This product contains the same type of pure ascorbic acid as the first category but usually has something added to it, such as rose hips, bioflavonoids, or small amounts of other foods. Proponents of this form of vitamin C claim that adding these ingredients improves the absorption and bioavailability of vitamin C. Many also claim this is a more "natural" way of taking vitamin C. There are several problems with these types of products. The first is that the amounts of these added ingredients are too small of a quantity to have any beneficial effect. In addition, they are often high-heat spray-dried or leftover waste products from industrial food processing, which can lead to a loss of nutritional value, or treated with solvents like hexane and acetone, which no one needs in their supplements and are detrimental to your health. Keep in mind that at dosages of 500, 1,000, etc., milligrams of vitamin C per pill, there are no natural or whole food options available. No matter what the marketing claims or the packaging looks like, these products are not natural or whole food. Adding a pinch of food or bioflavonoids does not make a product natural or whole food. Here is an example of vitamin C with rose hips added. You can see in the supplement facts panel that it lists vitamin C (as ascorbic acid) with 15 mg of rose hips. While it may look nice on the label to add rose hips to the product, this is a classic example of an insider industry term called " fairy dusting ." This is where an ingredient is added to a product to make the label look good, but not in an amount that does anything. Here is an example of vitamin C with bioflavonoids and other foods added. You can see in the supplement facts panel that it lists vitamin C (as ascorbic acid) with bioflavonoids and other foods added. This is another classic example of " fairy dusting ." While lemons, rose hips, and acerola cherries are all wonderful foods, 10 milligrams of each will not do anything. In the vast majority of cases, these types of ascorbic acid plus products cost more but do not add any additional benefits. If you are choosing between a product like this and a pure vitamin C product, you would be better off saving money and buying the pure ascorbic acid product. The third category of vitamin C products is the buffered type. You will often see names like Ester-C ( Ester-c is owned by Nestle, so F*** them ) , calcium ascorbate, magnesium ascorbate, potassium ascorbate, or sodium ascorbate. This is made by taking pure ascorbic acid and reacting it with a mineral. For example, reacting magnesium carbonate with ascorbic acid forms magnesium ascorbate. This process helps to buffer the ascorbic acid and make it easier on the stomach. There is no good proof that it leads to better health outcomes than regular ascorbic acid does. You will sometimes see it sold on its own or with added ingredients. The next category of products is called vitamin C fatty acid metabolites. You will often see names like ascorbyl palmitate and vitamin C ester (not to be confused with Ester-c). This is made by taking pure ascorbic acid and binding it to a fatty acid, such as palmitic acid. This process changes vitamin C from water-soluble to fat-soluble and makes it easier on the stomach. There is no good proof that it leads to better health outcomes than regular ascorbic acid does. You will sometimes see it sold on its own or without other ingredients added. The sixth type of product is called liposomal vitamin C, or as it is sometimes called, lypo-spheric. This is made by attaching the pure ascorbic acid to a phospholipid such as lecithin. This process makes it easier on the stomach. There is no good proof that it leads to better health outcomes than regular ascorbic acid does. You will sometimes see it sold on its own or without other ingredients added. You will often see vitamin C listed as ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate. In order to see if it is liposomal, you will often have to look at the nutrition facts panel and see if lecithin or phospholipids are added. Keep in mind that not all liposomal vitamin C products are fully liposomal. Often companies will mix regular vitamin C with phospholipids instead of truly binding them. Another issue with liposomal vitamin C is that it is often packaged in plastic or foil packages. It is not a good idea to buy an acidic liquid packaged this way because some of the compounds in the packaging may leach into vitamin C. When buying liquid liposomal vitamin C, make sure to look for it to be packaged in dark glass . Fake whole-food vitamin C supplements These are made by mixing ascorbic acid with a small of food and using terms on the label such as food-based, food-grown, nature-identical, and some fake ones even have the gall to label their abominations whole food. Often they will cover the label with lots of different vitamin C-rich foods. Other examples include feeding the ascorbic acid to yeast, which creates some Frankenstein's monster of a product, or putting on the label that the vitamin C is entirely from a specific food when they are spiking it with pure ascorbic acid. There are a huge number of these fake whole food products. Misleading the public with fancy packaging and confusing labeling is all too common and is a huge problem in the supplement industry. These are much more expensive than traditional vitamin C supplements with no added benefits. You can read more about these types of fake wholefood vitamins here . Example number one: On the front of the label, this product claims to be raw and whole food. The supplement facts panel says vitamin C (from a culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Saccharomyces cerevisiae is nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast does not contain vitamin C. What the company is doing is feeding the pure ascorbic acid to yeast. There is nothing raw or whole food about doing that. Not surprisingly, this product is made by a company owned by Nestle (Garden of Life). Check out this product: The label is covered with oranges; it says farm fresh ingredients and made with farm fresh ingredients. A person shopping at a health food store would not be crazy to think this vitamin C was made from oranges. Well, this product contains only a very small amount of orange, and the vitamin C is just pure ascorbic acid. No whole food vitamin C here. We recommend against buying any vitamin C in this category as there is no additional benefit for the extra cost, and we should all do as much as possible to boycott products that have misleading marketing, especially when it comes to our health. These fake food products are not vitamin C gang approved. Whole food vitamin C supplements Last but certainly not least is our favorite category of vitamin C products, true whole food vitamin-C supplements. A true whole-food vitamin C supplement is very simple. Foods rich in vitamin C are low-temperature dried or concentrated, then milled into a fine powder and packaged. Sometimes they are made from a single food and sometimes mixed with other foods. That's it; nothing is added or taken away. True whole-food vitamin C supplements contain all the naturally occurring compounds in the foods in their original state. It is important that these foods are low-temperature dried in order to ensure that there is little to no loss of nutritional value or damage to other beneficial compounds. With whole food vitamin C products, it is important that the foods are sustainably grown or responsibly wild-harvested. In addition, the people farming or harvesting these foods should be paid a fair price and be well taken care of. Here is an example of a true whole-food vitamin C product: The only ingredient is pure, refractance window dried Kakadu Plum flesh powder. We spent a long time searching for a whole-food vitamin C supplement that we felt would properly carry on the legacy of an incredible man, Dr. Albert Szent-Györgyi. He believed there was far more to vitamin C than ascorbic acid, and he was right. As he said in his Nobel Prize Speech: “At the time that I had just detected the rich vitamin content of the paprika, I was asked by a colleague of mine for pure vitamin C. This colleague himself suffered from a serious haemorrhagic diathesis. Since I still did not have enough of this crystalline substance at my disposal then, I sent him paprikas. My colleague was cured. But later we tried in vain to obtain the same therapeutic effect with pure vitamin C.” Dr. Szent-Györgyi was right that a pure crystalline substance would never have the benefit of real whole foods with all of their complexity. No matter how badly modern corporations want to distill food into its simplest parts and tell us it is just as good as the real thing, they will never succeed. After a long and exhaustive search of products around the world, we found an incredible little fruit that had everything we were looking for. Kakadu Plum Whole Food Vitamin C Supplements The Kakadu Plum is an amazing little fruit. It's packed with antioxidants and vitamin C. It has been a traditional food of the aboriginal people for thousands of years. Kakadu plums grow wild in three regions of Australia. However, the plums from the Northern Territory have much higher levels of beneficial compounds. We wanted to find a supplier that sourced their plums from this region and that we could trace back to the source as part of our Farm-To-Bottle Project . It was very important for us to find a supplier who took care to ensure the plums were sustainably harvested and that the people doing the harvesting were paid a fair wage. The flesh of the fruit contains much higher levels of nutrients and beneficial compounds than the seeds and skin, so we wanted a product made just from the flesh, even though products made from the peel and seeds are much more profitable. Another important factor to us was the drying method. Many vitamin C supplements are spray-dried or high-temperature dried, which causes a loss of nutrient value and can degrade the fruit. We also wanted a product that was free of fillers, binders, sweeteners, and flavorings, which are all too common in vitamin C supplements. Poor drying methods Made from the seeds and skin Spiked with ascorbic acid Sourced from regions that had lower-quality fruit Unethical harvesting and labor practices Not traceable, so we could not verify the sustainability or ethics of the products. Thankfully, we were able to locate a really amazing Australian Company, Nature2U , that checked all of our boxes. Nourishment can only come from real, whole foods. A freshly picked raspberry is more than a list of chemical compounds and will always be more than just the sum of its parts. Rooted Nutrition is proud to support the legacy of Dr. Szent-Györgyi and, hopefully, bring awareness to a man who is rarely given credit for his incredible work. Vitamin C SupplementS Support We know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions about vitamin C supplements, 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 , or   book a free call ,   and we will be happy to help you on your health journey! The world's foremost experts on vitamin C, the Vitamin C Gang!

Trigger warning: This article contains information that may be upsetting to some readers. Certain links contain pictures and information that are very disturbing. I want to make it very clear that this is solely about the Chinese government, not about the Chinese people. Violence and racism against people of Chinese descent are horrific and appalling.   I also want to say that there are many problems in the United States (and all other countries) that need to be addressed and are horrific in and of themselves. Criticizing the practices of a government does not mean you have anything against the people of that country, any more than criticizing the US president means that you hate America or Americans. Supplements from china China is the largest supplier of raw materials to the supplement industry by far. This is why we devote so much time to discussing it versus other countries.  The vast majority of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and herbs all come from China. Each year, the percentage of ingredients that come from China increases. So, it is imperative that we address human rights, environmental, and labor issues related to the supplement industry. There are other countries that we work to avoid buying products made with ingredients from. Still, China is committing atrocities and horrors at a level unseen in other countries, so it deserves more scrutiny. Whenever we purchase products with ingredients produced in China, it gives some money to the government in the form of taxes on those materials. So even if the ingredients are not produced problematically, it still funds the unethical behaviors. Human Rights Issues in China China has approximately three million Uighurs, out of eleven million, in concentration camps and is committing genocide : ​  “The truth is these are nothing less than modern concentration camps, complete with armed guards, forced labor, and barbed-wire fences. Inside, prisoners are indoctrinated with Communist Party propaganda, forced to renounce Islam, and have been forced to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of their religious beliefs.” ​ They are expanding and building more and more  of these camps: ​ “We have a saying in Hotan: If you go into a concentration camp in Luopu, you never come out,” said Adil Awut*, from Hotan City, who is now living overseas.”   “Yet, the buildup continues. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyzed 28 camps across Xinjiang and found they had expanded 465% in size since 2016, with the largest growth between July and September last year. Five camps in Hotan city and surrounding counties had at least doubled in size, with one camp increasing 2,469% between 2016 and 2018.”   "In a village in Luopu County, almost every home has a plaque on the door marking it a “model red star family”. These are families who have met requirements, including demonstrating “anti-extremism thought” and a “sense of modern civilization”." Many of them are forced to make products and raw materials for companies . This is one of the most important reasons to avoid buying products made with Chinese ingredients. It is nearly impossible to know which companies use forced labor and which are not due to fake inspections and certifications. ​Then there is the forced harvesting of organs : ​ "The organs of members of marginalized groups detained in Chinese prison camps are being forcefully harvested — sometimes when patients are still alive, an international tribunal sitting in London has concluded. ​ “Falun Gong practitioners have been one — and probably the main — source of organ supply,” the judgment read, while “the concerted persecution and medical testing of the Uyghurs are more recent,” using a different spelling of the minority group's name. It warned, however, that the scale of medical testing of the Uighur Muslims meant they could end up being used as an "organ bank." According to Human Rights Watch: "The consent of prisoners to use their organs after death, although required by law, appears rarely to be sought. In some cases, prisoners and their families are not even informed that the organs will be removed, although in others, the families are given cash payments. Since the prisoner's body is cremated immediately after execution and any last written will or statement can be censored by the authorities, moreover, family members have no way of ascertaining whether or not organs have been removed. The execution procedure prescribed by Chinese law (shooting in the back of the head), is sometimes violated in order to expedite harvesting of prisoners' organs. According to Chinese legal authorities, some executions are even deliberately mishandled to ensure that the prisoners are not yet dead when their organs are removed." ​ Harvesting organs while people are still alive and often without anesthesia or other pain relief is one of the cruelest practices imaginable. What is going on in Tibet is another awful scar upon the world .  Tibetan monks are routinely beaten, tortured, and killed . The list of human rights violations and awful practices by the Chinese government would take volumes to write. What we have described here is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn more about it, check out reports here and here . Save Uyghur is dedicated to freeing and getting justice for the Uyghur people. We highly recommend checking them out for more in-depth information on what is happening to the Uyghur people and supporting their work. Chinese Environmental Issues China is headed for an environmental collapse and calamity unlike anything we have ever seen : "The first time Li Gengxuan saw the dump trucks from the nearby factory pull into his village, he could not believe his eyes. Stopping between the cornfields and the primary school playground, the workers dumped buckets of bubbling white liquid onto the ground. Then they turned around and drove right back through the gates of their factory compound without a word. . . . When the dumping began, crops wilted from the white dust, which sometimes rose in clouds several feet off the ground and spread over the fields as the liquid dried. Village farmers began to faint and became ill. . . . Reckless dumping of industrial waste is everywhere in China. But what caught the attention of The Washington Post was that the Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Company was a "green energy" company producing polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world. We are using too many raw materials to sustain [our] growth ... Our raw materials are scarce, we don't have enough land, and our population is constantly growing. Currently there [are] 1.3 billion people living in China, that's twice as many as 50 years ago. In 2020 there will be 1.5 billion ... but desert areas are expanding at the same time; habitable and usable land has been halved over the past 50 years ... Acid rain is falling on one third of Chinese territory, half of the water in our seven largest rivers is completely useless, while one fourth of our citizens do not have access to clean drinking water. One third of the urban population is breathing polluted air, and less than 20 percent of the trash in cities is treated and processed in an environmentally sustainable manner ... Because air and water are polluted, we are losing between 8 and 15 percent of our gross domestic product. And that doesn't include the costs for health ... In Beijing alone, 70 to 80 percent of all deadly cancer cases are related to the environment. China's rivers suffer huge spills of all kinds of toxic chemicals - benzene, xanthogenate, aniline - every year. In north China, the Yellow River "is a catastrophe" and the 300-odd rivers that drain the North China Plain "are open sewers if they are not completely dry" in the words of Ma Jun, China's leading authority on the country's water crisis. According to a government report, the Yangtze River, the world's third longest, is seriously and irreversibly polluted. Long stretches are said to be in "critical condition," in places, too dangerous even to touch. Aquatic life has all but collapsed. Pollution and shipping wiped out China's legendary Yangtze Baiji dolphin while even common carp "are gasping for survival."  The 500-mile-long reservoir filling up behind the huge Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze qualifies as the world's biggest cesspool. In some areas groundwater is being irreversibly polluted as textile dyeing mills and other factories, looking to avoid fines for dumping their effluents into rivers, instead drill and pump them into the earth." This is but a small fraction of all the environmental issues facing China. To list them all out would require a book longer than I could ever hope to write. This polluted water, containing massive amounts of toxic chemicals (including some we have no idea about), is used to water crops, including “organic” ( non-organic ingredients labeled as organic is a huge problem with food exports from China ), food and herbs used in making supplements. While companies can test for many contaminants, a lot of toxic ingredients in the water, air, and soil are not tested for because they are not part of standard testing protocols. For example, many milk thistle supplements from China contain gasoline residue. Even if companies use the best quality control and testing procedures available, it would be impossible to test for all possible contaminants and ones that could be contaminating ingredients that we do not even know are there.   In addition, there are many contaminants and pollutants that result when several compounds are mixed together in an uncontrolled environment, like a lake or river . These are called secondary pollutants. Many of these have little to no research done on them and what their harm might be to people and the environment . Companies often choose ingredients from China because they are significantly less expensive and cheap, and dirty energy is one of the biggest reasons they are so cheap. Using dirty coal-fired energy is much cheaper than other forms of energy, but that comes at a great cost to the environment. We should be getting raw materials, whenever possible, from countries transitioning away from coal, not building vast numbers of coal-fired power plants every year .​ China is too polluted and getting worse by the day to produce sufficient amounts of clean raw materials to fill the massive demand from supplement and food companies. We think it's worth paying a few more pennies per bottle for better, more ethically produced ingredients. Supplement industry price fixing Another issue is illegal price fixing. Chinese companies are supported (and sometimes mandated) by the government and will often sell products at a loss to put competitors in other countries out of business and then jack up the prices once the other companies are gone. One great example of this is vitamin C : ​ "The defendants, Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co. and an affiliated company, North China Pharmaceutical Group Corp., said their conduct was required by Chinese regulations on export pricing. The Chinese government took the unusual step of filing papers in U.S. courts, saying the companies shouldn’t be penalized because their practices were indeed mandated by state industrial regulation." ​ China, in the late 1990's established the Vitamin C Sub-Committee under the Commerce Ministry, which included manufacturers and exporters, to prevent market disorder, according to Mahr. The Commerce Ministry even issued regulations requiring the subcommittee to limit vitamin-C production and set export prices to promote industry self-discipline and facilitate the healthy development of Chinese exports. This is terrible for consumers and bad for the industry. Check our blog, All About Vitamin C , to learn what to look for in a vitamin C supplement and meet the vitamin C gang. Adulteration of Chinese Raw Materials Quality Control and adulteration are massive problems in the supplement industry, but especially with ingredients from China. It is possible to get clean ingredients from China, but it is incredibly difficult. Ethical ingredients are a whole other story. While other countries, including the United States, have some quality control and adulteration issues, none even come close to the problems with ingredients from China. One thing to keep in mind is that many American companies are demanding such cheap raw materials that sometimes they cannot make them that cheap without adulterating them, so part of the blame is on the American companies who are putting profits above people. There are too many issues and examples to go through all of them, but here are just a few:   Adulteration of raw materials - Adulteration of raw materials can take many forms. One example is Bilberry .   Many bilberry products contain no actual bilberry at all. Instead, they are a combination of Chinese charcoal, amaranth red food dye (banned because of how dangerous it is), and black soybean hulls. ​ Contamination of raw materials - Heavy metals such as lead are common contaminants in Chinese raw materials. Twenty-five samples were screened for the heavy metals arsenic, cadmium, and lead. Twenty contained at least one heavy metal.   Eleven contained all three metal s . In many cases, if the product dose instructions were followed, the amount consumed per day would result in heavy metal consumption that exceeded safe levels. Many cordycep mushrooms  have wires with lead inserted into them to increase their weight. ​Herbicides and pesticides - Tests conducted by Greenpeace East Asia on thirty-six samples of Chinese herbal products exported from China and collected from stores in London, Virginia (near Washington DC), Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Milan, Toronto, and Vancouver, have revealed the following: Thirty-two samples (nearly ninety percent ) contained three or more kinds of pesticides. The record goes to Germany and Canada, where the samples of honeysuckle contained twenty-six and twenty-four different types of pesticides, respectively. Almost half of all samples (seventeen) contain pesticides listed as highly or extremely hazardous by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Some twenty-six samples showed pesticide residue levels that exceeded what the European authorities consider the maximum level for safety (MRLs). Pharmaceutical drugs are common contaminants. One health food store here in the Hudson Valley was even selling a Chinese herbal supplement that was found to have a prescription erectile dysfunction medication . Transhipping of Chinese ingredients Then there is the issue of transshipping . Ingredients grown in China will be shipped to various other countries and then relabeled as being from that country even though it was not. This is a significant source of adulteration. Check out this Netflix show to learn more about transshipping. ​ With all of these issues and others we could not get to, it is just not possible to guarantee that ingredients from China are pure, safe, properly tested, and ethically produced. The only way forward is to work towards a goal of avoiding all ingredients from China. ​ Supplement companies are not required to say where their raw materials come from, so you cannot know by looking at a label. Often, companies do not know where they come from because they buy from middlemen or because the ingredients are produced with materials from a lot of different suppliers. In addition, the source can change from batch to batch, and companies do not have to disclose this information. Supplements free of Chinese ingredients We are working so hard to avoid all products made with raw materials from China. Our Farm-To-Bottle Project is the best weapon in this fight. By buying whole food supplements from companies with their own farms or who buy directly from the farmers, wildcrafters, and fishermen, we can ensure that we know precisely where the materials come from and that they were ethically produced. I visit many of them each year to get an in-depth look at what's going on. Farm-to-Bottle  is the solution to transparency and ethical issues. ​ ​ It has not been easy trying to source products free from Chinese ingredients in an industry that is increasingly moving towards more of them. We are extremely proud of the effort we have made and will continue to work towards our goal.   Currently, we can definitely confirm that about seventy percent of our products are free of Chinese ingredients. Another fifteen percent, we are almost one hundred percent certain, but are waiting for more documentation and proof or working to replace with a source we can be completely sure of. The remaining fifteen percent may contain Chinese ingredients, and we are working to replace them or help the companies transition to non-Chinese materials.   Rooted Nutrition has a program that we offer completely free to companies who want to transition to ethically sourced, truly traceable raw materials. To date, this program has replaced countless questionable materials with ethically sourced ones. We consider this program to be a resounding success and hope it continues to grow strongly. ​ We hope to one day have every product we sell to be part of our Farm-To-Bottle Project .   We believe that products cannot truly be beneficial if they cause serious harm to people and the environment. We cannot continue to externalize the costs and harms caused by these products and pretend that the only thing that matters is that a finished product tests well.  ​ Look for this symbol on products in our shop , to show that it is traceable and transparent.  Product ingredient questions If you have any questions about our products, you can always email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we would be happy to help get you the information you need!