Full Transcript 0:00 200 milligrams of calcium carbonate or tricalcium phosphate, not great forms of Calcium, and 18 milligrams iron in the same tablet. 0:09 Now that's a problem because calcium blocks iron absorption. 0:13 Research out of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that as little as 165 milligrams calcium in a meal cut iron adsorption by 50 to 60%. And these 0:23 tablets have more than that. 0:24 So they're putting two minerals in one tablet that compete with each other. 0:28 You're paying for both, and one of them is getting in the other's way. 0:32 Welcome to Vitality Radio, the podcast that helps you make sense of natural supplements and thrive without pharma drugs. 0:39 I'm Jared St. 0:40 Clair. 0:55 Welcome to Vitality Radio. 0:56 I'm Jared St. 0:57 Clair, and today we're doing something I've wanted to do for a long time. 1:01 And I am calling this episode, Read the Fine Print. 1:04 There may be more like this, but we are going to start at the top. 1:08 We're going talk about multivitamins and what you really need to understand when you're looking at a multavitamin label. 1:15 Particularly, we aren't going be so kind to what are probably the two most popular multvitamines in this country. 1:23 quite possibly the world. 1:24 And I'm going to explain exactly why, not by the front of the bottle, but by The Supplement Facts Panel. 1:29 We're going get into why these are such bad products that not only are they a waste of your money, they are harming your health, 1:41 and not improving it. 1:42 So we're gonna get in to that. 1:44 Along with it, we are going talk about some of key supplements that are also sold independently and drug stores and grocery stores across the country that 1:56 you should never take. 1:57 So we're gonna get into those things today on this episode. 2:00 I think it's gonna be a pretty interesting one for you. 2:08 It made me remember just how bad some of the products on the market are. 2:13 So we're going to talk about two products, Centrum Adults, specifically kind of a standard Centum. 2:19 We're gonna talk Kirkland Signature Daily Multi from Costco. 2:23 And if you are already convinced that these are products you don't want, That's okay, because this show can still be for you because we're going to talk 2:31 about the specific elements that are in there and why you don't want them in any form, not just in your multivitamin. 2:39 And I'll also help you, I think, understand what to look for in a really good multavitamins in the process. 2:46 Now I picked these two because, as I said, they're probably the two most popular multvitamines out there. 2:51 I have seen them on lots of countertops when I visited people's homes. 2:56 I don't say anything unless I'm asked, but we see big giant displays of these at Costco. 3:02 We see them at Kroger and Walmart and all these different places. 3:07 And they're making a lot of money selling these products, even though they sell them for relatively cheap, because I am telling you, 3:13 they don' t cost much to make. 3:15 So this isn't really a me versus them or my vitamins versus. 3:19 This is more of a, as I said, read the fine print. 3:23 I want you to understand by the end of this episode, what the parentheses mean, wrapped around a lot of these nutrients, 3:29 the key importance of certain elements that should not be combined, things that SHOULD be combine, but in much better ratios, 3:38 or should be a combined period, which in some cases these supplements do not. 3:42 And we're not really comparing these two, I'm just picking these apart so that you can understand all these things better. 3:50 So first, let's talk about who actually makes these products. 3:53 Centrum has spent its entire life inside of what I would consider to be one of the most evil empires in the history of world, 4:03 big pharma. 4:04 It launched in 1978 out of leaderly laboratories, a pharmaceutical lab growing out cancer research done way back in 1950s. 4:13 Pfizer then owned it after buying Wyeth in 2009. In 2019, Pfizer folded its consumer health business I think that's hilarious what they call it, 4:25 consumer health business from Pfizer. 4:27 Okay. 4:27 Into a giant venture with GSK, that is GlaxoSmithKline, another pharmaceutical giant. 4:34 That joint venture was spun off in 2022 as a company called Halion, which owns Centrum Today, right alongside Advil and Sensodyne Toothpaste. 4:44 because Pfizer sold off the last of his stakes in 2025. Now I want to jump in to just before we get into it. 4:50 I got a well, first off, I wanna thank a bunch of people for suddenly starting to comment on some of my YouTube videos. 4:57 i haven't been paying as much attention.I wasn't getting a lot of comments. 5:00 Thankfully, Jessica who edits this show and keeps an eye on a lotta things for me has noticed a few things. 5:07 And one of the things that she noticed was someone who is a very well-meaning listener that I very much appreciate. 5:14 her comment right in front of me. 5:15 I wasn't actually planning on making it part of the show, but she works in a medical office, I think, and if you're listening and you know who I'm talking about, 5:24 that I am talking to you, then I apologize. 5:26 You should have grabbed that comment before I recorded. 5:31 But yes, she took some very kind, I would say, objection to my essential trashing of Big Pharma. 5:39 Her belief is that Big pharma does good and also not so good. 5:44 And I don't disagree. 5:45 However, i do think when we weigh the two things out, that there is far more harm being done by pharma than there's good I believe that with all my heart. 5:55 I think I've got plenty of evidence to back that up. 5:57 So as I am trashing these products, which I don't normally like to do a show where I just trash things, but sometimes they deserve it. 6:06 And I'll never do it just for the sake of trishing. 6:09 I want to. 6:10 Do it for. 6:10 The sake. 6:11 Of education. 6:12 But if there's a takedown needed, then a take down will occur. 6:17 So I. 6:17 Want to just preface this with. 6:20 Right. 6:21 I get it. 6:21 Not all big pharma is bad. 6:27 There is black and white in everything. 6:29 And there's plenty of gray and plenty nuance as well. 6:33 Take social media. 6:41 The concept for this show came from a YouTube video that I watched from Dr. 6:46 Berg. 6:47 Many of you are probably familiar with him. 6:49 And I liked what he was doing, talking about some of these ingredients and thought I'd do my own take on that. 6:54 But, you know, there's a lot of crap on social media. 6:56 There's. 6:56 A lot. 6:57 Of crap. 6:57 On YouTube. 6:58 Great stuff in both places too. 7:01 AI, the same way, right? 7:02 Everybody's scared of AI. 7:04 I'm not sure we shouldn't be scared, but AI has some positives and plenty of negatives. 7:10 So when I say that big pharma is one of the most evil empires, I guess I'd say it the same way as I do with social media. 7:16 Social media I think is the one most of evil empire. 7:18 There's a lot of really really bad stuff with Social Media but it's not all bad. 7:22 And I would say the thing about pharma. 7:24 That being said, I do believe with all my heart, and there's a reason I take the stance that I when it comes to pharmaceutical companies making vitamins that, 7:33 I don't want my vitamin money going to those people. 7:36 And this is evidence as to why that is in at least part of why. 7:41 That is okay. 7:42 So let's talk about it. 7:44 Centrum loves to call itself. 7:46 The number one doctor recommended and number 1 pharmacist recommended multivitamin brand. 7:53 And honestly, that tells you exactly how much nutrition training most doctors and pharmacists get if that's actually true. 7:58 I don't know where they get those numbers. 8:04 and doctor's offices, but it does give you an idea. 8:07 If they're actually recommending Centrum, they don't know what makes a good multivitamin. 8:12 Pretty simple. 8:13 So let's go to Kirkland. 8:15 To be fair, the bottle carries what's called the USP verified seal. 8:19 That's not a bad thing. 8:20 And that means an outside lab confirmed the tablet contains what the label says and breaks it down the way it should. 8:26 that's worth something. 8:27 It's honest labeling. 8:28 Centum also labels honestly. 8:29 The problem is you got to know, what in the product to understand whether that honest labelling is telling you it's a good product or a bad product. 8:38 And we don't know who makes Kirkland. 8:40 Costco's very, very secretive about who make their private label and for good reason. 8:46 I don' blame them from a business standpoint, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is also a drug company. 8:50 Probably is. 8:51 Let's talk about the marketing and really kind of what the supplement facts look like to the untrained eye. 9:00 I guess that's maybe the best way to put it. 9:02 A lot of 100 percents in the RDA column, some 200 per cents in RTA column. 9:07 And if you are not aware of how the idea works, we can talk that in a little bit. 9:12 You may think, well, 100% is exactly what I need. 9:15 That's great. 9:18 In the supplement facts panel is part of the information. 9:22 And in the case of these multivitamins, there's also called an ingredients list underneath that looks almost like a food ingredients, 9:28 and that's where a lot of truth actually lies. 9:31 Because ingredients are listed by weight, heaviest first, like how much is in there, right, descending order. 9:36 So the first four or five tell you what most of this supplement is, in this case. 9:42 Here's Kirkland's Dicalcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, Potassium Chloride Calcium Carbonate. 9:48 Syntram's Calium Carbonade, potassium chloride, dibasic calcium phosphate, magnesium oxide. 9:55 Basically the same four ingredients in a little bit different order. 9:58 chalk, salt, and rock. 10:01 That is quite literally the bulk of this tablet. 10:05 Now let's talk about magnesium oxide because it's the perfect example of a label that looks potent and delivers very little. 10:11 Magnesium oxide is about 60% elemental magnesium by weight By comparison, magnesium disglycinate is like 11% by weight. 10:22 So, it's a lot easier to get a more magnesium in the product using magnesium oxide. 10:27 It's also substantially less expensive to put magnesium dioxide in there. 10:32 This means the manufacturer can put a bigger number. 10:35 Kirkland has 100mg of magnesium and their multivitamin. 10:38 The Centrum lists 50mgs. 10:41 That's a lot of magnesium in a multivitamin because those magnesium takes up a ton of space. 10:46 But in the case of Magnesium Oxide, it's not so much. 10:50 Let's talk about absorption. 10:51 A study from 2001 comparing magnesium forms found that roughly 4% of magnesia is absorbed in adults. 10:59 4%. So 50 milligrams. 11:00 100 mg, 2 mg or 4 mg. 11:06 It's a pretty small dose in terms of how much you're absorbing. 11:10 In 2003, there was a study from the University of Reading in England that found that magnesium oxide did no better than a placebo over 60 days. 11:18 The number on the label and the number in your body aren't even in the same neighborhood. 11:22 People ask me often why Ultimate Vitality Multi doesn't have more magnesium in it. 11:27 Well, this is why, because magnesium bisglycinate, my preferred form, is only, depending on the source, between like 11 and 14% elemental magnesium. 11:39 To get 100 milligrams of magnesium glycate, you need about 700 milligrams a powder, which means that we would have to give you an entire additional capsule 11:47 of multi just to get to a hundred milligrams magnesium, that's why magnesium is part of my vital five, not just wrapped up into my multivitamin. 11:57 So to get three to four hundred milligrams like our vital five magnesium bisglycinate, which is 400 milligrams in three capsules, 12:05 it takes well over 2000 milligrams of magnesium just to give you that 400 mg. 12:11 So you have two choices. 12:12 You either do magnesium right and it needs its own product or you do it cheap and you can squeeze enough in there to make it impressive on the label. 12:20 Now, let's look at the bottom of Kirkland's panel. 12:24 Lutein, 250 micrograms. 12:27 Now I don't know if you're someone listening who is pretty adept at understanding these things or maybe you are new to learning about these. 12:35 And there's no judgment either way. 12:37 You learn as you go on this kind of stuff. 12:39 But do you know what a micro gram is? 12:41 A micro-gram is not a milligram. 12:44 And a milligram is not a gram, right? 12:46 In order to get 250 micrograms, and there's a reason they say 250 micrograms not 0.25 milligrams, because 250 looks a lot better, 12:57 but it is 0,25 mg, cause there is a thousand micro grams in a kilogram. 13:03 So 250 mcg, which looks like a lotta lutein if you're less aware is such a small amount of lutein that I would anticipate that there is quite literally 13:15 no value or extremely limited value. 13:18 Lycopene 300 micrograms the same but they measure them in micro grams because it looks so much better than 0.3 or 0 .25 milligrams. 13:29 There's a big National Eye Institute study from 2013 that used 10 milligrams of Micrograms. 13:38 Okay, compared to 250 micrograms, that's 40 times what is in this tablet, 40 time. 13:45 So it's forty times less potent than it ought to be based on the research. 13:49 When I redid the Ultimate Vitality Multi and just upgraded it and I wanted to add lutein, I wasn't going to put 250 I was gonna put 10 milligrams because 14:01 we were able to fit the full dose. 14:04 300 micrograms of lycopene is roughly a tenth of what you'd get from one medium tomato. 14:09 That doesn't mean anything necessarily, but most of the research on lykopene has between 10 and 20 milligrams. 14:16 And so once again, 40 or even more times lower than it should be. 14:21 This is what I call fairy dust. 14:23 Looks good on the label. 14:25 It's kind of like a sparkly thing, but it's not doing anything for you. 14:29 How about vitamin D? 14:29 Kirkland gives you 400 units, which is 50% of the daily value. 14:33 That's fine. 14:34 It is not the 100%, but you know, whatever. 14:36 it is nothing, although of course you probably know that most people are taking 2000 to 5000 units per day, well above the RDA. 14:46 Still 400, I don't necessarily have a qualm with that. 14:49 But there's only one form of vitamin K in this formula. 14:51 It's vitamin k1, not vitamin 2. And I will not sell, unless I absolutely have to, vitamin D3 without k2. 14:58 it's never going to be in one of my combinations, in my formulas, without that combination. 15:02 They are a team. 15:03 D 3 does the heavy lifting for your immune system, and calcium absorption in k 2 helps to direct calcium to your bones or your teeth where you want it. 15:11 And so, giving you not much vitamin D with no vitamin K, not a win, right? 15:17 And then here's the other thing that's interesting. 15:19 Is this product made from natural things or is it made form a chemical plant? 15:24 This might be some of the heart of this episode, really. 15:27 If you find vitamin E on either of these labels, you'll see DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate. 15:34 That little DL is your warning sign. 15:36 It actually means synthetic, and this is confusing because if it just says D, it's natural. 15:41 If it says, D L, its synthetic. 15:43 Well, natural vitamin E is pressed and distilled from plants like sunflower or soy, mostly sunflower nowadays. 15:50 Synthetic vitamin E is built in a chemical plant. 15:52 The industrial process starts with petrochemical building blocks. 15:57 I mean, literally motor oil, the very, very beginning things like acetone or should say crude oil at the beginning. 16:05 the stuff that's not coming out of the straight of hormones right now. 16:08 Things like acetone, acetylene, isoprene, those get turned into two compounds, trimethylhydroquinone and isophytal, which are fused together using acid catalysts. 16:20 Then it's reacted with acetic and hydride to make the acetate form that ends up in your tablet. 16:28 So when you take this vitamin E, you're taking something whose story starts with petroleum, not a plant. 16:34 And it doesn't come out as one clean molecule either. 16:37 Natural vitamin E has one specific shape. 16:40 The synthetic version comes out a mix of eight mirror image versions of the molecule and only one of those eight matches what nature actually makes. 16:49 Your body can tell the difference. 16:50 You liver has a transport protein whose job is to pick which vitamin e gets loaded up and sent to other tissues. 16:57 It strongly prefers the natural shape and discards most of the rest. 17:01 A study from 1994 gave people natural and synthetic vitamin E at the same time, tagged so researchers could track each one, 17:09 the body held onto about twice as much of a natural form. 17:12 Even the government concedes this. 17:14 Since 2000, official U.S. 17:16 Nutrient Standards count synthetic vitamins as having only about half the activity of natural vitamins. 17:21 So that's baked into how labels have been calculated since 2016. I didn't actually know that until I was prepping for the show. 17:28 Kind of an interesting change that flew past me apparently. 17:32 Now here's what concerns me most. 17:34 The biggest vitamin E trials that showed harm used the synthetic form. 17:39 So we go back in history and history lesson. 17:43 That's when I bought Vitality Nutrition from my parents and there was a study around that time where Finnish smokers not finished but people from Finland 17:55 who smoked using 50 milligrams of synthetic of synthetic vitamin E saw more deaths from hemorrhagic stroke A 2005 analysis out of Johns Hopkins found that 18:05 vitamin E at 400 units a day or more was associated with higher overall mortality. 18:10 These are synthetic forms. 18:12 And a large trial published in 2011 found it 400 of the synthetic form was a higher level of prostate cancer. 18:21 Now, I remember in 1994, this was one of the first big stinks that I remembered from quote unquote science that then hit the press and vitamin E, 18:34 which was a very big selling supplement back then, natural vitamin e in our store, because we never carried this synthetic ever, 18:41 never, ever ever and never would stop selling. 18:44 People weren't buying it anymore because they saw these headlines. 18:47 And guess what? 18:49 wasn't going on in 1994. Well, the internet, right? 18:52 And the ability to easily research and say, well, was this synthetic or was it natural? 18:55 We had to dig around. 18:57 I remember the health magazines, industry magazines in our industry came out saying, hey, this is what the study is. 19:03 It's natural versus synthetic. 19:04 Explain this to your customers. 19:05 But the damage was basically already done at that point. 19:08 But basically what they determined was vitamin E from the synthetic source is probably bad for you, not just not good for, 19:15 you not ineffective, but probably as actually causing harm. 19:19 So whether you have a lot of vitamin E, the proper 100%, if you want to call that proper or 200% or 50%, you really don't want any of that form of Vitamin E. 19:31 Okay. 19:32 Now, same story on something called beta-carotene. 19:34 And this is actually interesting because for a long time, our industry in health food stores, like mine, believed beta caroten was actually a great thing 19:46 and to some degree I still do. 19:49 But we have to be cautious with this one because a lot of beta carotene on the market is synthetic, almost all of it now. 19:57 Two big trials, one in Finland in 1994, same year, and one of the US gave synthetic beta-caroten to smokers and found more lung cancer, 20:05 not less. 20:06 Natural beta caretene from sources like algae comes as a mix of forms the way that it appears, well, in food like a carrot. 20:14 And if you look at the forms that are in these multis, they are synthetic forms of this beta-carotene. 20:23 So if are going to do beta carotine, you've got to the natural form. 20:26 But personally, I've decided that the conversion that has to happen with beta which oftentimes is very low. 20:33 You're better off with just regular vitamin A, in my opinion. 20:37 Now let's talk about folic acid. 20:38 And I won't belabor this too much because I've talked a lot about Folic acid on other shows, but this is important when it comes to multivitamins. 20:44 Kirkland has 500 micrograms, Centrum has 400 micro grams, folate acid, and episode 679, we talked about MTHFR and all that if you want to go deeper. 20:53 This is the short version. 20:54 Folic acid is not the folate found in food. 20:56 It is, again, a synthetic form that your body has to convert and the very first enzyme in that conversion is slow in humans. 21:04 That's true for everyone, not just people with MTHFR, but at the doses in these multis, unconverted folic acid can end up circulating in your blood. 21:16 A 2006 study in postmenopausal women found that those with unmetabolized folate acid in their blood had about 23% lower natural killer cell activity. 21:25 Those are frontline immune cells, 23 percent lower in menopause women taking folac acid. 21:31 Now, there's a lot of things to consider, not just multivitamins here. 21:35 And we have to be cautious with this one because There are multivitamins in health food stores that still contain folic acid. 21:42 I wish there were not. 21:43 We are very cautious here at Vitality Nutrition. 21:50 There are certain people that actually do fine with folic acid. 21:55 You need to know if you're one of those people. 21:56 And that's not what this show is about, but everybody does better with five MTHF, which is the methyl folate form, everybody. 22:04 So you'll never see folac acid in one. 22:07 Vitality nutrition products, because it just makes no sense regardless of whether or not you have Mthfr. 22:13 There's also something called cyanocobalamin. 22:16 That's B12. 22:17 The most common form the cyano is a. 22:20 get this cyanide group attached to the B12 molecule. 22:24 Now the amount is tiny and most people can strip it off and convert what's left just fine and get rid of the cyano part. 22:30 So it's not like, I'm not here to, this isn't fear porn. 22:33 I not trying to scare you, but it is a truth and it not optimal. 22:38 And so you're always better off with methylcobalamin, adenosylcobilamin or hydroxocobolamin. 22:45 These are all cell ready forms. 22:48 and none of them have any cyanide in them, so they're going to be your best form and far more bioavailable and easier on the body and on cells as well. 22:58 How about B6? 22:58 This one's very interesting. 23:00 Pyridoxine HCl, also very common. 23:03 It's pretty much all you see in grocery stores and big box stores, but you'll see it in health food stores too. 23:10 and your body has to convert pyridoxine into something called P5P before it can use it. 23:15 And that conversion depends on enzymes that need riboflavin, that's B2, and other nutrients to work properly. 23:21 There's a bigger issue though. 23:23 Research published in 2017 found that pylidoxyne itself in its unconverted form actually blocked the very B6 dependent enzymes it's supposed to support. 23:33 So it could actually work against B 6 utilization in the body. 23:37 The active forms did not do that. 23:39 That research helps explain why nerve tingling and numbness reports tied to B6 supplements always come back to pyridoxine, 23:47 the synthetic, as opposed to the more natural cell-ready form of P5P. 23:53 that's the form your body uses. 23:58 Now, how about a formula that actually is fighting against itself? 24:04 Now we talked about that a little bit with B6, but this one's even worse. 24:08 Calcium and iron in the same tablet. 24:10 Both of these multis put 200 milligrams of calcium carbonate or tricalcium phosphate, not great forms of Calium, and 18 milligrams iron on the tablet Now 24:23 that's a problem because calcium blocks iron absorption. 24:27 Research out of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden published in 1991 found that as little as 165 milligrams of calcium in a meal cut iron adsorption 24:36 by 50 to 60%. And these tablets have more than that 200 milligrams. 24:41 So they're putting two minerals in one tablet that compete with each other. 24:45 You're paying for both. 24:47 And one of them is getting in the other's way. 24:50 We'll talk about the other one in just a second, but I want to focus on one other thing that I think is really interesting here. 24:57 Centrum, calcium carbonate. 25:00 Do you know what calcium carbinate is? 25:01 Calcium carbonates is chalk, essentially limestone. 25:05 And calcium is also what's in Tums and Rolaids and acids. 25:11 What do we need in our stomach in high quantities to absorb minerals like say magnesium or iron or zinc? 25:21 or copper, or you name any of the other minerals that would be in one of these multivitamins. 25:24 Well, we need stomach acid, but we're taking an antacid with a multi-vitamin and mineral, which will then actually aid in blocking the absorption of all 25:34 of minerals in the product. 25:36 We just have research specific to iron. 25:38 Now, iron in these multi is called ferrous fumarate. 25:41 It's one the cheapest forms and it's notorious for side effects, including constipation, nausea, stomach cramping, and dark stools. 25:48 This isn't just me saying this, I actually was researching this and one of the top member reviews on Costco's own product page is from someone who said 25:57 the iron in this multi caused severe constipation within a couple of days. 26:02 That same reviewer pointed out that at least it doesn't have the dyes that are in centrum, that like artificial dye. 26:09 Is that what we're saying? 26:10 Now you might think, well, if calcium blocks the Iron, atleast it's not overloading the because this type of iron may actually be a problem. 26:19 Most men and most postmenopausal women don't need supplemental iron at all. 26:25 Iron is a pro-oxidant and your body has no good way to get rid of the excess. 26:30 You don' want to be loading up on it blindly. 26:32 And why is this in the quote unquote adult formula, which includes men AND women? 26:37 Men almost never need extra iron. 26:39 MOST women DON'T need it and they certainly don''t need this crappy form. 26:44 But iron that you don't absorb doesn't just disappear, it stays in your gut and that's where the trouble starts. 26:49 That's what causes the constipation, the stomach upset. 26:52 The unobsorbed iron feeds the wrong bacteria, actually creating issues for the microbiome as well. 26:59 which is long-term, really bad, but short- term constipation and diarrhea. 27:03 So here's what that leaves you. 27:04 If you need iron, the calcium is blocking it. 27:06 And if you don't need Iron, you're still getting all the side effects. 27:10 It's a lose-lose proposition. 27:12 if You're not anemic, do not take an iron supplement. 27:15 You are an emic, make sure you are checking your ferritin levels. 27:18 Make sure really researching and digging into how to optimize your iron levels. 27:25 It's not just taking an iron supplement. 27:27 Now we talked about the antacid that is calcium carbonate and it's just wild because I talked to magnesium oxide absorbing about four percent. 27:36 Well, so does calcium Carbonate absorb it about 4%. And part of the reason is it's actually kind of blocking its own absorption by cutting down your stomach acid. 27:44 It's kind Interestingly enough, makes a better multivitamin than Centrum for less money. 28:03 That being said, better than centrum is the equivalent of just being alive versus being dead. 28:09 Like, you know, You can be on your death bed, but that's better. 28:12 Than being. 28:13 Dead. 28:13 that really Kirkland multi versus centum, But it is better but it's not good. 28:20 The Women's Health Initiative that was done in 2011, I think, and I forgot to put it in my notes. 28:27 They put 36,000 post-menopausal women on 1000 milligrams of calcium as calcium carbonate, the form is in syndrome, with 400 units of vitamin D3 for an 28:38 average of seven years. 28:39 Now there's a detail worth noting that calcium was supplied by GlaxoSmithKline, one of the drug companies in Syndrome's family tree, 28:46 so they were given them you know, the good stuff, same stuff that's in Centrum. 28:50 In 2011, researchers at the University of Auckland reanalyzed that data looking at women who weren't already taking calcium on their own. 28:58 The women assigned to calcium carbonate had roughly 13-22% higher risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks. 29:07 Pooled with other trials, calcium supplements were associated with about 24% more heart attacks, and the same trial found about 17% kidney stones. 29:16 Why? 29:16 Well, you're not absorbing the calcium. 29:19 You're blocking the absorption of other things. 29:21 Your laying down calcium where you don't want it, including the arterial lining and in the kidneys, among other places, which is why we always need vitamin 29:30 D3 with K2. 29:32 D3 absorbing calcium and K2 moving calcium to where it needs to be. 29:38 But calcium carbonate, even in the presence of K 2, can't do what it need to do because you can absorb that crap. 29:45 It creates all kinds of issues, including more heart disease. 29:50 In 2016, a Johns Hopkins study followed more than 5,000 adults for 10 years. 29:56 These people were taking supplements that were high in calcium, likely calcium carbonate, but I don't know. 30:03 It's not disclosed, But that's typically what they use in these types of studies. 30:08 And the calcium created a 22% higher risk of calcium buildup in the arteries themselves. 30:17 Now, calcium from food comes packaged with all the cofactors your body needs to put it in the right place. 30:23 A slug of calcium carbonate with a token amount of vitamin D and no K2 is a completely different story. 30:30 Now I talked about earlier a couple of minerals that need to be together that work better. 30:35 They're partners, not rivals, as opposed to calcium and iron. 30:38 Kirkland has 11 milligrams of zinc and 0.9 milligrams copper. 30:41 That's about a 12 to one, which is actually reasonable, in my opinion, still too low of a ratio. 30:48 We want these things in a racial, but that's not terrible. 30:51 Once again, Kirkland wins versus Centrum, it's a pretty low bar. 30:55 Centum is a different story. 30:57 The same 11 milligrams of zinc with only 0.5 milligrams a copper, that say 22 to one ratio, I guess it is better no copper at all, 31:07 But that is about as good as it. 31:09 That doesn't work. 31:10 When I was researching copper and zinc in Ultimate Vitality Multi, which I've looked at multiple times over the last five years, 31:19 I settled on four to one. 31:21 Now, most of the research in the market indicates that we want about eight to, one, maybe six to. 31:30 Some people say as high as 10 or 12 to 1 zinc to copper, but. 31:37 Zinc and copper are partners. 31:38 They work together throughout your body. 31:40 Your main antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase, needs both of them to function, which is critical. 31:45 But they also compete for the same doorway in your gut. 31:48 So when you take more zinc, the cells lining your guts make more of a protein that actually holds onto metals, and that protein grabs copper even more 31:56 tightly than zinc. 31:57 And therefore, copper gets trapped in those cells and leaves your bodies when they shed. 32:02 and zinc is in so many things it's in your immune formula often your zinc lozenges your skin and hormone support but almost nobody is supplementing copper 32:13 and so i know that a high percentage of people are getting lots of zinc and no copper. 32:20 And so I chose to go on the higher side of copper versus zinc at a four to one. 32:27 It just made sense to me because copper absolutely matters and many of us are deficient. 32:37 So what else is in this tablet? 32:38 There's a part on these labels, just like on food labels that say it contains 2% or less of. 32:44 Have you seen that? 32:44 Well, Centrum Adults, Yellow Six Lake, Titanium Dioxide, BHT, Talc, and polyethylene glycol, and Symptrum Silver, the version marketed to people over 50, 32:58 they add Red 40 Lake and Blue 2 Lake on top of that. 33:02 Let's start with Yellow 6. It's a synthetic petroleum-based dye. 33:06 Yellow six and Red Forty have been linked to behavior and attention problems. 33:10 A 2007 study from the University of Southampton was strong enough that Europe now requires a warning label on foods that contain those two dyes. 33:20 In 2021, a review in the California Environmental Protection Agency came to similar conclusions. 33:25 On top of that, these dye carry a documented contamination concern with benzidine. 33:31 a known human carcinogen. 33:33 Now titanium dioxide is a whitening agent. 33:35 Europe banned it as a food additive in 2022 after its food safety authority could not rule out that it might cause DNA damage. 33:44 And here's the kicker. 33:45 Our own FDA is pushing to phase six petroleum paste dyes out of the U.S. 33:50 food supply by the end of 26, by this year, okay? 33:54 That's two months away, essentially. 33:56 Red 40 and yellow six. 33:59 And those are still in Centrum, America's quote unquote favorite multi, the one that your doctor and your pharmacist recommend. 34:07 Now I get, you know, let's have a serious conversation about these dyes. 34:11 I Get why dye's are in Skittles. 34:14 Do I agree with it? 34:15 No, they shouldn't be in anything. 34:17 But I did it like kids want their Skittle's or their Fruit Loops to be bright colors. 34:21 Why do they want that? 34:23 Well, Interestingly enough, bright colors do something in the brain, like there's a neurotransmitter reaction to bright color and it creates a level of excitement. 34:35 That being said, we've taught our kids that these things should look like that, and so they do. 34:42 But why in THE HELL do we have these dyes in what's supposed to be a health product? 34:50 A supplement? 34:53 What's going on here? 34:54 It almost makes someone like me, who's a little jaded, I'll admit it, when it comes to pharmaceutical companies and vitamins and things like that, 35:02 it almost make me wonder as I check all these little things off the list and I see, well, calcium in that form causes more heart disease and iron in the 35:13 form harms the microbiome and makes us constipated. 35:17 These carcinogens that are in these vitamins can't possibly be good for you. 35:22 Maybe they're not trying to make you healthier. 35:30 Maybe it's good for drug companies to have sick people. 35:33 I don't know. 35:34 That's probably too conspiratorial for you, but it does make me wonder. 35:39 And it also makes me wondering why so many pharma products have dyes. 35:43 Do you know if you want to go get Benadryl, which I'll tell you. 35:46 Okay. 35:47 A look inside the life of Jared St. 35:50 Clair for just a moment, I was in Alaska a month ago, roughly with my lovely wife, Jen. 35:57 We had the time of our lives. 35:59 Absolutely amazing. 36:01 We came within 20 feet of a grizzly bear. 36:04 It was awesome. 36:05 He didn't try to kill us. 36:06 I think it was a she. 36:07 That's a long story if you've never been to Alaska and looked for bears. 36:10 You actually look for bear in certain parts of Alaska. 36:14 But we had an incredible time. 36:15 Do you know what happened? 36:16 After 16 days of just having a great time, I started coming down with a little cold. 36:22 And I had a few things with me, but I didn't have a lot of stuff. 36:27 And we were just a couple of days away and I was super stuffy, super-stuffy. 36:33 Normally if I'm super stuffy and i'm going to get on a plane, because one time I felt like my ears were going explode when I got on an airplane, 36:41 I would get a little bit of Sudafed. 36:44 Real Sudafed, not Sudaffed P.E., which doesn't work, which is a complete joke, Which is an absolutely horrible product and should have been removed from 36:51 the market years ago. 36:52 But real Sudefed. 36:53 Pseudoephedrine. 36:54 Which you have to sign your life away with the pharmacist at the counter in order to get Sudofed because if you get enough Sudoffed you can make speed apparently. 37:04 Now I don't know. 37:05 Maybe that's happening. 37:06 I've never tried to make speed. 37:08 But the point is we got to the pharmacy too late. 37:11 The pharmacy counter was closed and I had one option that I could think of and that was Benadryl. 37:16 There were at least at this Walgreens, which I can't tell you how uncomfortable. 37:23 going into a Walgreens for Jared St. 37:26 Clair and his wife, but it is what it. 37:28 So we go into this Walgreen's and they've got maybe 50, I don't think that's an exaggeration, different versions of Benadryl. 37:37 There was one dye free Benidryle. 37:41 All the rest of them were pink with red 40 and who knows what else in them. 37:47 I had to find the dye-free Benedryel And I used it for two plane rides and that's it. 37:53 But why are there 49 pink Benadryls? 37:57 Why does Benedryl have to be pink? 37:59 why does Sudafed have be red? 38:11 It's telling you that these companies either don't understand health and nutrition, or they don t freaking care. 38:19 And if it's a pharmaceutical company, I think both of those are really bad. 38:24 They should understand Health. 38:25 they're in the business of it, supposedly, and I do think they understand it. 38:30 Enough said. 38:30 Now, credit where credit's due, Kirkland's label has no artificial dyes or colors. 38:36 No titanium dioxide, no BHT, and no talc. 38:39 So again, it wins. 38:42 It wins a race against someone who can't run. 38:45 But it still wins, but they both have polyethylene glycol. 38:50 known as PEG to coat the tablet, make it go down smooth and all that kind of stuff. 38:55 So basically you've got petrochemical vitamin E, petroleum based dyes and a petroleum derived coating. 39:01 That's a lot of oil refinery in a product supposedly supporting your health. 39:08 I said they're bad in the multi, but they are also bad on their own. 39:11 One more thing, and that is we do not ever want to take calcium carbonate. 39:16 We don't want take Calcium Carbonate if you have a need for an antacid, try DGL, that's a great option as a here and now thing. 39:27 Try apple cider vinegar in a capsule form or even a liquid. 39:29 That's amazing how fast that works, believe it or not, because you're reacetifying the stomach with apple, cider, vinegar, 39:36 not making it even worse. 39:37 We don't want calcium carbonate, we don' want synthetic vitamin E, We Don't Want Ferrous Sulfate or Ferous Fumarate. 39:42 we Don' Really Want Cyanocobalamin or Folic Acid or Pyridoxine HCL. 39:47 These are all supplements that are not doing for you what you think they're doing. 39:51 And in many cases, they are doing against what your trying to do. 39:55 They're going against your body's best interest. 40:00 And yet people are buying these things thinking they're doing it for their health. 40:06 This is why I have a problem with pharmaceutical companies making vitamins. 40:10 And let's talk about the RDA before I let you go. 40:14 2007 analysis out of Copenhagen pooled 68 antioxidant supplement trials, 68 different trials with more than 230,000 people. 40:20 In the most rigorous of those trials beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E supplements were associated with higher mortality, 40:28 not lower. 40:29 If you look at which forms were used in most of those trials, they were all synthetic forms. 40:35 In 2004, the National Cancer Institute published data on nearly 400,000 US adults followed over 20 years. 40:43 People who took a multi-vitamin did not live any longer than people who didn't. 40:47 Daily multivitamin use was actually associated with a 4% higher risk of death. 40:52 And those people started taking their multis back in the 90s when the shelf was mostly really crappy multivitamins. 41:00 It's gotten better. 41:02 Even in grocery stores, it's better than it used to be. 41:05 There are some reasonable options there. 41:08 But still, by far, the most common multivitamin taken in this country right now is a one-a-day multavitamins, whether it's Theragram, 41:16 M, if that's even still on the market, or One-A-Day, Centrum, whatever the store brand is. 41:23 In the case of Costco, it is Kirkland. 41:26 These vitamins are not making you healthier. 41:28 They are making less healthy and you are actually creating harm. 41:37 With the RDA, when you see 100%, what you should always think of as 100% on the recommended daily allowance is the floor. 41:45 That is floor of what we need, not the ceiling. 41:49 You need the 100 percent to just not be unhealthy and sick. 42:07 Know that we're looking for optimal daily allowance or optimal, daily recommendation or whatever you want to call it, but we are not looking at the floor. 42:18 Okay, let's wrap this thing up. 42:20 There are certain supplements that are still big sellers in this country, including these multivitamins, that should not be sold as supplements at all 42:26 in my opinion. 42:28 that are made by companies that do not have your best interest at heart, in my opinion, I can't get inside their brains, 42:34 maybe they think they're doing you good. 42:36 But if they do think that, then they are woefully undereducated or misinformed for sure, okay? 42:43 And it's even worse if you know what they doing. 42:46 So I've taken a stand and I'll mention it again. 42:49 And I mentioned it right now about somebody that sold out, that's really bothersome and that Thorn Labs. 42:56 T-H-O-R-N-E. 42:57 Do you know how many people I've had over the years call Vitality, come into Vitaly, jump on our chat, hit me up on Instagram or Facebook or wherever and say, 43:08 do you carry Thorne Labs? 43:08 And I say no, I don't carry Thorn Labs. 43:10 And they say why not? 43:11 It's the best. 43:12 Thorne labs is the. 43:14 All these influencers online say it's. 43:16 My doctor, my functional medicine doctor says it. 43:19 Well, here's, the deal. 43:21 I haven't carried Thoren Labs, not because I thought they were a crappy brand. 43:27 I haven't carried thorn labs because they only sell to practitioners and I'm, I don't have that license. 43:31 The problem is there's been this big push towards thorns labs, because there really frigging good at marketing, probably better than I am. 43:41 And they've got a lot of money. 43:43 but guess what they've got now? 43:45 A lot more because they just sold the Procter & Gamble. 43:49 They're not a vitamin company anymore. 43:51 There are a chemical company that owns a Vitamin Company or there are vitamin companies owned by a Chemical Company. 43:57 But the point is, this is really what it boils down to. 43:59 What does P&G sell? 44:01 Well, P & G sells a whole lot of things that are not good for us. 44:07 I would dare say call them poisons with this hand. 44:12 And with the other hand, selling you a supplement and saying, take this, it'll make you healthier. 44:17 Do I trust that company with my supplements? 44:21 I don't know if Thorn Labs is going to turn into a crap brand. 44:24 I'm guessing it's not. 44:26 i'm actually going tell you that I think Thorns is probably still a good brand from a quality standpoint. 44:32 They're going have to toe the line and tell what's actually in the formula. 44:37 they won't be lying because they're a publicly traded company owned by a big multinational conglomerate and many foreign labs customers are doctors functional 44:52 medicine doctors in many cases and their patients people like you who are more educated than the average Jane or Joe about vitamins. 45:02 My guess is they'll still make at least pretty good supplements. 45:18 out there on the market. 45:19 I could name 50 pretty easily. 45:21 But here's why I would never give another dollar to Thorn Labs. 45:24 Because what I do when I look at brands is I looked at who does the money benefit. 45:38 And what I hope you do is the same thing. 45:41 I had a wonderful listener in the Facebook listeners community. 45:45 And if you don't know about that and you're on Facebook, join. 45:48 It's a great group of well over 700 people, fantastic people asking important questions about their health. 45:54 and it's not full of a bunch of weird trolls. 45:56 These are great people. 45:57 I've seen some of these other groups that people belong to. 46:00 You may belong. 46:00 To some. 46:01 Of these, you may know who I'm talking about with some, of. 46:02 Where it. 46:03 It's like you post something and you just get hammered because it was such a stupid question because these people are so smart. 46:09 We don't have that in the Vitality radio listeners community. 46:12 People are extremely friendly and very helpful. 46:16 And I.m in there a lot too. 46:18 But I had a woman, a listener to the show in there ask a very important question because I posted a list and if you want to check out the list, 46:24 it's on my personal Facebook and it is also in the listeners community of all of the brands that have sold out. 46:30 Everything from Burt's Bees to Clorox to Garden of Life to Nestle and everyone in between. 46:37 and Thorne being the newest one. 46:38 And she basically just said, well, how do you tell Jared? 46:40 How do tell if it's a good brand or a bad brand? 46:43 And the answer's kind of long, but I'll give it to you the short version. 46:47 That is, I've asked, really. 46:49 So you can jump online and you say, hey, who's this company owned by? 46:53 That's the easiest way. 46:54 Now with AI, that's actually really easy. 46:56 You just Google it and get a more complete answer, and then you query more if you want. 47:02 But I asked the company, if there's a new company like right now, I'm considering bringing in a company called Emerald Labs. 47:07 And I'll tell you, bringing them in, you'll see them on my shelves soon and on our website. 47:13 I first question I asked is who owns the company? 47:15 The same two people who started it 25 years ago. 47:17 What is their take on this? 47:19 What's their takeaway on that? 47:21 And I just quiz until I know. 47:24 And so for what it's worth, if you kind of buy into what I'm selling here, I am not talking about my brand, but you know, 47:34 the education that I give on this show, know that, I'm really keeping an eye on those brands to make sure that we're doing as much as possible to bring 47:41 in the right brands. 47:44 Because my goal is to support independent first, family second. 47:51 I think those are both really important. 47:52 If we can get family, can't always get families. 47:55 Sometimes it's still a corporation, but an independent corporation. 47:58 And if it not independent, if its owned by a conglomerate of some sort, which there are some brands that we carry that are owned by conglomerates. 48:07 Cellcore is a perfect example. 48:09 Solaray is an example of that. 48:10 They're owned, maybe it's a venture capital type company, and that's little concerning because at some point that could sell to someone I don't want it 48:17 to sell too. 48:19 But if then I look into who is that company and what are they standing for and are the poisoning me with one hand and nourishing me. 48:29 And if the answer is yes, I'm not interested. 48:32 I've lost all interest. 48:35 I won't give my money to Thorne. 48:36 I don't get my mind to pure encapsulations. 48:39 It's not happening. 48:41 In fact, I'll let you in on a little secret. 48:43 This isn't a secret, but my family and I bought another location. 48:55 And I bought it from someone who did not have a similar stance to me. 48:58 In fact, she didn't have that stance at all. 49:01 She bought from all kinds of different brands that she thought were quality brands, regardless of who owned the brand. 49:06 And, I am currently in the process of working away from those brands. 49:11 Which means I have to educate people on a one-on-one basis every time somebody asks for a product from a brand that I don't want to support. 49:22 So I'm in the process right now of buying less and less unless until I buy none. 49:28 That's the goal. 49:31 And it's an interesting thing because a rep from one of those companies is a local rep, a wonderful human near as I can tell. 49:38 I really like her a lot. 49:40 She's been great to me, but I don't like who she works for. 49:44 And these are the kinds of decisions that we have to make. 49:47 I believe, and this is where it might sound a little voodoo, but it is what it. 49:51 Is I believed that the energy that goes into the brand matters too. 49:56 The energy of healing, the of a desire to help people over profits. 50:02 You've got a profit, you gotta make money. 50:04 Out of problem with that. 50:06 But why are you in the supplement business? 50:10 If it's just for the bottom line, you're in wrong business, as simple as that. 50:15 I hope you enjoyed this episode. 50:17 If you wanna hear me rant more, I've got a few more coming for you. 50:21 And I'm even gonna talk about some really, some pretty interesting topics coming up soon. 50:26 and I wanna give you a quick announcement too. 50:28 if you have been listening, if your fan of the emotional vitality episodes, not sure where you are at on those, or if listen to them, 50:34 still think they're my favorite episodes. 50:36 but my wife and I are gonna be doing those together most times. 50:39 So if you've enjoyed having Jen on the show, we've got two episodes that we're working on right now. 50:44 One of them may actually are before this one does, so you may have already heard it, where Jen and will be talking emotional vitality. 50:50 These are the episodes where we don't talk about supplements, We talk things that you can do from a mindset standpoint to position yourself for optimal 51:00 wellness and vitalities. 51:02 So that's a new thing that is going on. 51:03 Lots of other cool things going. 51:05 We are super, super excited for what's coming up over the next month. 51:09 we've got three different trade shows that we're going to, really important ones, and I can't wait to share with you what we find. 51:16 Until then, my name is Jared St. 51:18 Clair and this has been Vitality. 51:20 Thanks for listening to the Vitality Radio Podcast. 51:23 If this episode helped you, follow the show, share it with someone, and explore trusted education and resources at vitalitynutrition.com. 51:33 See you next time. 51:35 Hello, everyone. 51:36 I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Vitality Radio. 51:40 Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. 51:45 This podcast has not been evaluated by the FDA. 52:05 Thank you.
Comments