What kinds of dietary supplements should I take?
The most important thing with supplements is to be sure that you are getting what you are told you are buying. For example, in Consumer Reports a few years ago, ConsumerLab.com, they actually took hundreds of different supplements and broke them down to their most minute particles, and discovered that only seven of the hundreds of things they tested had in them what they said they had in them. Only seven. So, most of the stuff that we buy out there, if we're not really aware, may have no value whatsoever, and may be just a waste of money. For example, with fish supplements; fish oil supplements, many of them were rancid, which in fact would do more harm because of the rancidity, which results in major production of free radicals (the unstable little molecules that are the basis of all degenerate illness). What you want to do is make sure you are getting a quality brand that is not going to be rancid when you buy it, and has been taken care of before you got it. With respect to supplements in general, what I recommend people do is look for as close to a whole food base type of supplement as possible, because we know that for example in an apple there are over 10,000 nutrients. In broccoli, there are over 13,500 nutrients. So, if you're getting a supplement that has 13 vitamins, 10 minerals, and a few things we extrapolate from the research on rats and mice that may or may not be good for us, and find out a few years later it isn't good for us, compare that to something that has the nutrient density of something that is whole food based; there is a huge difference in synergy within your body.
