Vitamins And Minerals

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Vitamins And Minerals

Susan Silberstein & Marilyn Joyce (Health and Nutrition Educator & Heath Counselor) gives expert video advice on: What is "vitamin C"?; What is "vitamin E"? and more...

What is "vitamin C"?

Vitamin C is an essential vitamin that we don't produce in our bodies. Actually birds produce it, which was an interesting piece of trivia for me! I didn't know that. But, humans don't produce Vitamin C in their bodies, so you have to get it from food sources. And it is absolutely one of the most important nutrients for womb healing. If I'm working with a client who is going through surgery for any reason or other or they may have had a major accident and they had to have a lot of surgery to repair them. The womb healing affect of Vitamin C is very, very powerful. You know, it's repairing the connective tissue, repairing the body, repairing the cells on a continuing basis. But you need to be getting good sources of Vitamin C. A lot of people will take masses amounts of Vitamin C in a pill, you know. And that's not the best way to get it. If you can get it through food that's the ideal. And then, if you could add it in make sure it's ester C, an esterified form that's more viable available.

What is "calcium"?

Calcium is an interesting subject in this day and age. We have been so brainwashed by the dairy industry into thinking that we should have lots of milk, lots of cheese, and lots of dairy products in order to get calcium. The fact is that you can get calcium from legumes; beans, peas, lentils, and split peas. You can get calcium from some grains. You can also get calcium from a lot of vegetable sources; broccoli, spinach, etc. So really, you can get calcium from a lot of vegetable or plant sources. Here is the most important thing: calcium is essential for strong bones and strong teeth. All of that is true. However, if you don't exercise you can take calcium until the cows come home, so to speak, and it won't make a heck of a bit of difference. You will not build strong bones if you don't move your body. It is critical to do exercises or movements that work the extremities of your body; the legs, the arms, or whatever. Weight lifting has been very good; weight bearing exercise has been very good for that. Even just bouncing on a mini trampoline for five minutes a day will help build stronger bones in someone who is wanting to create strong bones from taking their calcium into their body. Taking calcium supplements could lead to problems if you are taking them and not moving your body, because if the calcium can't be utilised by the body, it is literally shunted into the joints and then we have what appear to be arthritic symptoms. However, it's just really calcium that has not been broken down and released by the body, or used for the bones.

What is "vitamin D"?

Well, the fact is that calcium won't work without vitamin D. A lot of people feel that they have to have massive amounts of vitamin D and I know that there's a lot of controversy about that right now, but the fact of the matter is that the very best source of vitamin D is to go out in the sun for 5 minutes a day and absorb it through the irises of your eye. That's the vitamin D3 that is then converted into vitamin D that your body utilizes with the calcium for production of strong bones and strong teeth and you know, strong hair follicles and so on throughout your body. Vitamin D is essential. You do need to get it, but you don't necessarily need to take copious amounts of it in a supplement form, you might be best to just step outside, on sunny days, and spend 5 minutes in the sun without sunglasses on, doesn't work with sunglasses.

What is "vitamin E"?

Vitamin E is very good for repairing the connective tissue and for keeping your heart healthy. However, vitamin E does not work on its own. This has been misunderstood for a long time. People think that if they just take lots of vitamin E, it might prevent the tumors - the fibrotic tumors that many women get in their breasts or their uterus - but if you're not getting good balance of a lot of other nutrients, like selenium, chromium and zinc, too, you're not going to get full use of your vitamin E. All of these nutrients work together in synergy to keep the body working efficiently.

What is "magnesium"?

Magnesium is another nutrient that goes hand in hand with calcium and vitamin D for strong bones and strong teeth. And so, with that, magnesium is something that you get from a lot of plant food sources. I mean it is also in animal meats and animal products as well. But it is very, very available in many plant sources: the green, leafy vegetables and the dark, green vegetables in general, like broccoli. You know, in the plant kingdom there's a very large amount of magnesium. So, it's readily available, if you're eating a balanced diet of natural foods.