DrBillToth-Blog

Good Morning Team – Each of us is an experiment of one. The facts are clear.

Fact One: Thanks to modern farming techniques – in general – today’s fruits and vegetables have much less nutritional content than the same foods we ate just 20 years ago. Estimates range from one tenth to one twentieth. Meaning the saying is now, “10 20 apples a day keeps the doctor away.” So if we are going to “try” to get our nutrition from food we’re going to have to eat a lot more than the “recommended” amounts in order to obtain proper levels of nutrition.

“Uncle Sam” recommends 3 cups of fruits and veggies per day. Dr Oz recommends 12-15 servings of both per day and Dr Cooper says; “5 is fine, 9 is divine“. (servings) (A serving is generally more than a cup)

Now I’ve worked from home for 14+ years and I’ve learned how to get to 5-9 servings pretty efficiently. Yet for me, 12-15 seems like having a full time job of preparing and eating fruits & vegetables. And for people who work outside the home…research shows the average adult gets 3 servings per day we can extrapolate that they’re just not making the time to eat right.

Therefore it makes “common sense” that we all must take a well balanced nutritional supplement.

Fact Two: Not all supplements are created equal. There are roughly 1600 nutrition companies making products for humans. And just because a product is popular, well advertised, “cheap” or “expensive” …doesn’t mean it’s good….or bad.

Now the maddening part. Even when one has access to actual research papers and side notes….rarely does one find specifically what fruits or veggies were used in a particular study, where they were grown, what their actual nutritional content was, if there were any pesticide or fertilizer residues on them when they were eaten etc etc.

And when it comes to studies on specific supplements like Vit A, C, E and so forth – rarely do the papers even mention what brand was used, was it a “standardized” product, were they natural or synthetic, were they stored at proper temperatures, taken with or without food, etc etc.

My point; now you begin to understand why CNN can report this week that product X will keep you alive forever and next week they’ll report that product X causes instant cancer.

So we are left with each of us being an “experiment of one”. What works for one person may or may not work for another. Your Health is your first Wealth and it is your “Response-Ability”

Live With Intention,
Dr Bill Toth

Good Morning Team – Much fuss has been made about what Dr Oz said or didn’t say on his show that aired Feb 22, 2013 entitled: ‘The Truth About Antioxidants’. The challenge is the “context”, meaning that the media has a tendency to treat every new scientific study as if no other research had come before and “Content” as in most people never look past the headline.

In this situation and as is the case with most headlines and prime-time talk shows, the first few minutes of this Dr. Oz episode captivates its viewers with sensational statements. However, if one watches past the opening five minutes, one finds that Dr. Oz is still advocating a rather common sense view….and the headline was designed just to get your attention.

What both doctors actually said and agreed upon, is that a select few antioxidants IF delivered as

isolated compounds

, in

very high doses

have been shown to increase risk in

specific populations.

In response to the question; “Do you want people to avoid antioxidants?” Dr Greenfield responds: “NO, I don’t think that’s the message here… Even people who are being conscientious about holding to a healthy diet probably aren’t getting all the nutrients they need including antioxidants.” Dr. Oz goes on to define his personal idea of an appropriate supplement as one that contains; “amounts of nutrients… that you could actually get if you had eaten the right foods…You want a regular dose that a human being like you or your ancestors would have naturally gotten from food.”

I also want to point out that the main study quoted by Dr Greenfield – the 1994 New England Journal of Medicine report on the effect of certain antioxidants in relation to lung cancer has been debunked multiple times over the years. Yet like a bad penny it keeps showin up!

In the currently available literature there simply is no evidence that natural beta-carotene, delivered in dietary amounts, blended with a full spectrum dietary nutrients increases risk for any disease.

The facts are clear – even if you eat all of the right foods you know you’re supposed to eat – thanx to modern farming techniques today’s fruits and vegetables have less nutritional content than the same foods we ate just 20 years ago. Therefore it makes “common sense” that we all must take a well balanced supplement.

Live with Intention,
Dr Bill Toth