SuperFood Plus Versus Other Multivitamin And Mineral Supplements

"These are nature’s nutrients, not man-made synthetic vitamins. This is the finest wholefood product available anywhere."

Dr Richard Schulze

Many enzymes, vitamins and other chemical compounds are combined in nature to ensure rapid absorption by the body, something man-made synthetic supplements cannot reproduce. 

The land and sea plants in SuperFood Plus are grown organically, so as well as being devoid of toxic substances, they are proven to produce much greater quantities of phytochemicals – plant chemicals that are thought to be essential to health – and other nutrients than their chemically grown counterparts.  They have also not been genetically modified (except minimally in the case of the spinach and beetroot) and so remain close to their original therapeutic biochemistry.

Some customers who are used to buying synthetic multivitamins and mineral supplements have raised questions regarding the difference in dosages of the various nutrients of SuperFood Plus. It is commonplace for synthetic formulations to contain upwards of ten times the recommended daily amount (RDA) for each nutrient, and it is not uncommon to find hundreds or thousands of times the amount. These customers – especially those who are chronically ill – have expressed concern about reducing the amount of their nutrient intake when they switch to SuperFood Plus.

There are several important points that relate to this issue.

• It is invariably the cheapest nutrients that are offered in these megadoses, rather than those that are most needed by the body. 
• In the case of water-soluble nutrients, the body simply expels any extraneous nutrients.
• There are concerns that disturbing the ratios of nutrients by, for example, giving equally high doses of all the B vitamins  – another common practice in synthetic formulations – may place the body in a position where it detrimentally redirects its energy to break down the excess nutrients.
• In recent experiments megadoses of some widely used nutrients have been shown to have a negative effect on health. One recent study testing the protective effect of large dose betacarotene (pro-vitamin A) on smokers with lung cancer had to be aborted because it became apparent that megadoses of the nutrient were actually hastening death.

Also, isolating betacarotene from other carotenoids with which it is found in nature has a detrimental effect on its antioxidant activity.

Natural healers have long extolled the virtues of obtaining nutrients from natural sources – known as their ‘food state’ – because of their rounded and interactive biochemistry. 

For example, vitamin C is often given as synthetic ascorbic acid. Although this is rapidly taken up by the body it is not as bioavailable as food state vitamin C, meaning that you would need to take four times the amount for the equivalent effect. It is also excreted far more quickly (1-3 hours compared with 48 hours for food state), necessitating taking it more frequently. Ascorbic acid can also upset the stomach, so it is often ‘buffered’ with substances, which can produce problems themselves.

The palm fruit and acerola cherries that Dr Schulze selects for SuperFood Plus are extremely rich in vitamin C that stays in the body for a long period of time, and is easily absorbed and utilized.

You Are Not What You Eat, But What You Assimilate. 

The example of Vitamin C shows that more is not necessarily better, it is at best wasteful and at worst detrimental to the body.

Bioavailability is crucial. Being able to assimilate and utilize the food we put in our mouths is what gives rise to health and wellbeing. In order to do this we need to break it down with our own enzymes and those found in the plants themselves.

Junk food does not contain these and neither do a lot of the vitamin and mineral supplements on the market. The plants chosen for SuperFood Plus contain their own quota of digestive enzymes and other biochemical factors that are required for their absorption, retention and metabolism. When our saliva comes into contact with SuperFood Plus it releases digestive enzymes to ensure optimum absorption. This is because our body recognizes it as food. It will not do this with non-food substances like calcium carbonate (chalk) given for calcium deficiency. Similarly, the administration of large quantities of ferrous sulphate for iron deficiency anaemia can produce negative side effects.