I have always been wary of pills and "vitamins." Now that I'm pregnant I feel even more conflicted. Advice?!
Question: Multivitamins are of course man made, and are not easily digestible (or digestible at all in some cases). I worry so much about the artificially made "nutrients" in these things and now that I'm pregnant I feel like shouldn't I be extra worried about this instead of guzzling one down every day (lol). I mean does anybody else agree with me? I think they are so hard on your body, especially the liver. I mean god they make you pee bright yellow, obviously we don't need all that stuff if it just flushes right though (or so I hope!) you anyway... Does anybody understand what I'm saying here?
Answers: Multivitamins are of course man made, and are not easily digestible (or digestible at all in some cases). I worry so much about the artificially made "nutrients" in these things and now that I'm pregnant I feel like shouldn't I be extra worried about this instead of guzzling one down every day (lol). I mean does anybody else agree with me? I think they are so hard on your body, especially the liver. I mean god they make you pee bright yellow, obviously we don't need all that stuff if it just flushes right though (or so I hope!) you anyway... Does anybody understand what I'm saying here?
Actually, the one that makes you pee bright yellow is just Vitamin B-2. If you ate a food with that in it, you would pee bright yellow then, too.
There are multivitamins that are primarily from whole foods on the market if you are worried about that, but some vitamins aren't available in nature in a stable enough form to exist in a pill for long enough to market them.
Also, any supplement from a good quality company will still be absorbed in your system as long as you have enough stomach acid. Typically, the people that make reports of their vitamin pill being in their stools either are either older (and don't have enough stomach acid to digest it) or they are on a prescription acid blocker (which makes it very difficult to digest food as easily).
The general vitamins are VERY easy for a person to digest and absorb, even if they are the man-made "nature identical" vitamins. The only one that's truly bad to take is artificial Vitamin E.
pre natal vitamins is a must. don't take them for a week and I promise you'll feel the difference. They made me sick and i couldn't take them so I took flintstones instead.
Normally if you eat the right meats , 3 servings of vegetables and fruits a day you wouldn't need vitamins..but carry a baby inside you drains all the vitamins meant for you. you will need them to ensure your child gets all he/she needs in order to be born healthy..Don't worry about it, your liver can take it..congrats on baby.
I felt the same way so I talked to my OB about it. The bottom line is that you are doing it, not for yourself, but for your baby. The baby needs certain nutrients at certain times of its development to help growth. The vitamin just makes sure that your baby gets it!
The really great thing that my doc did is give me a list of what develops at what week and which vitamins and nutrients are most "helpful". It gave me a little more control. I still took my prenatal vitamin but ate lots of spinach when the brain was developing, carrots and radishes when the eyes were forming, etc. It was kind of fun and did make me feel like I was "helping".
Congratulations on your baby!!!
I'm not big on pills either. I try to avoid taking medications unless they are necessary. Instead of tylenols and advils, I try to take naps.
That being said I don't think that man-made is necessarily bad. They are nutrients that you need. True, they may not be absorbed as well as the natural kind, but does that really matter? As long as you are getting enough of what you need, isn't that what is important, not only for you but also your child? Remember, just because something is natural doesn't make it good for you.
There are natural herbs and vitamin tabs that you can take that will help both you and your baby. I am generally very iffy about taking anything into my body other than the way God intended, so I totally understand. I have four children, and my doctor suggested a multivitamin/protien shake that I would make and drink in the morning for breakfast. I wish I could remember the name. Talk to your doctor about your concerns and maybe he/she will have a suggestion.
All I remember is the shake was from GNC.
I agree that I am also weary about vitamins and supplements. However, you need to take your pre-natal vitamins. Pregnancy is hard on the body and without the proper nutrients it can be even harder. While vitamins may be hard to digest for you, your body and breaking them down for your little one :-) and giving him/her the nutrients they need to grow strong. I would take the prescription vitamins from your doctor rather than any over-the-counter ones though.
The vitamin B is the one that makes you pee bright yellow.
When I had my second child we were in the military and they had me taking vitamins and minerals throughout my entire pregnancy.
The birth was amazingly easy, only 5 hours in labor with no bad results. The child was really healthy and has rarely had any medical problems.
The teachers in his school, thought he was mentally messed up because they couldn't control him. After testing they discovered he was controlling them. And he is smarter than the average. His IQ was measured at 130 and he was moved to a different educational group for non boring classes.
I don't blame you. I take vitamins, but I am very careful about which ones I take.
For example, many cheap, low-quality vitamins have a potentially harmful form of vitamin A. Unfortunately, I forget the name of this chemical. It's still vitamin A, it's just not vitamin A naturally existing in vegetables. It's actually the form of vitamin A found in animal products, which one should only eat in moderation or not at all.
The only form of vitamin A supplementation one should ever take is beta-carotine. Most of the better vitamins contain beta-carotine for vitamin A.
There are some cheap prenatal vitamins out there, including the ones you can buy at the regular grocery store. I know nothing about the quality of prescription prenatals, however.
The only prenatal vitamin I would be willing to take is called Perfect Prenatal by New Chapter. They are made of real food, minimally processed, and contain significantly fewer synthetic ingredients.
The problems with food-based vitamins:
They tend to be very bulky, can be difficult to swallow, may taste bad when you put them in your mouth, are more expensive, and you have to take more of them every day to get the recommended dose of nutrients.
The New Chapter ones I mentioned early are not made by one of those multi-level marketing companies, btw, so you don't have to worry so much about getting ripped off or investigating false health claims.
If you can get all your nutrients from food then that's the best case scenerio, of course. But it's very difficult to get all of the recommended nutrients for a number of reasons. These reasons include the prevalence of all the processed food out there, the time it takes to prepare truly nutritious food because you would have to make everything from scratch, plus today's soil quality is in such a state (thanks to pesticide use) that it doesn't grow produce as nutritious as the soil of a bygone era.
There are very few health resource website that I trust because most are either too conventional or too "new age."
I do trust drweil.com- he is a medical doctor who promotes integrative medicine. He believes in both conventional and complementary medicine, plus he keeps up on the research and only recommends alternative therapies that are evidence-based. Dr. Weil also has his own line of vitamins. Again, not a multi-level marketing scam.
I also like Dr. Oz (as seen on Oprah).
Hi, I've always disliked meds etc. yet grew up on penicillin 2-3 times a year. now I drink Xango go to stairbuilder.com and learn about it etc. Also, prescription pre-natal vitamins are excellent.
Never count out what God has given us. Sometimes they are good doctors and good vitamin supplements. If you have trouble with these vitamins, I suggest taking half rather than going for an inferior quality product. Always choose the best.
You need to take prenatal vitamins. If you don't the baby takes your nutrients and then you can lose your teeth, weak bones, etc
You need to take prenatal, B12, folic acid and omega or flax oil for optimum health of the baby.
This explains about omega being beneficial to brain function, cognitive thinking and motor skills.
http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/ng....
Try and find capsules they dissolve better.
This place and some others sell natural vitamins without the magnesium stearate and man made synthetics.
http://www.qnlabs.com/
Most of the vitamins and supplements you get in the grocery store are man made and hard to digest.
vitamins are pretty much just vitamins-not mysterious chemicals at all. You can take more natural ones but there isnt really much differnce. The problem is that while you are being conflicted, the fetus is needing to grow and store up a lot of iron-and guess where that comefrom -your supply of iron! So if you dont build up your iron supply, you would end up being quite anemic and weaker at delivery time-even causing you to need a blood transfusion if you were to lose more than average amount of blood when starting out anemic. The folic acid is also quite important Natural foods have these items but you would have to plan meals meticulously to get enough and never miss any meal or item.Also the amount of food of those items might not be easy to eat in one day. Try to focus on the real important items-avoid smoking, illegal drugs, alcohol, unprotected sex if not married ,abusive relationships, toxic fumes or cleaning chemicals in confined areas,etc.Follow mediccal advice about appropriate weight gain and/or testing and treating any pregnancy developing diabetes. Keep your appointments, stay active when possible and get out to have social contact with others so you are not isolated in your house.Worrying about Vitamins is low on your priority list.You need them but dont obsess over it.
You must understand that taking the vits your dr gives you is essential. You do not want your baby to be born with a hole in his heart(heart murmur) or any of the other hundreds of defects that can happen. You must give him the best possible chance to be healthy. Folic acid is a must!!!
I am 66 yrs old and wish I had continued to take those prenatal vitamins because the are superior to anything on the market. Eating right helps, but you know the food supply is not pure any more and there are not lots of nutrients available. Just to illustrate, I will use the case of our cattle herd. We have lost 10 animals this winter due to lack of proper nutrition. They were being fed hay every day and nutritional cubes a couple of times a week. This usually keeps them in good shape, but the rains this past summer produced more than abundant hay. There were not enough minerals in it to keep the older cows alive. When there is minimal rainfall the hay has more nutrition. As soon as we started feeding feed with more minerals, the deaths stopped.
Do you know in what kind of conditions your food was grown? We could just be eating stuff with no food value like our cows. I beg of you take the vitamins your doctor prescribed and you will not have to worry.
I do understand, but these days vitamins are a necessity since our food is now factory farmed with chemical fertilizers and isn't as as nutritious as it once was.
It is especially crucial if you are pregnant to take vitamins, otherwise you run the risk of your child being born with severe birth defects.
Make sure you get a prenatal vitamin that is vegan, and you will bypass 9/10ths of the man-made crud. I recommend Rainbow Light brand.
Chemical vitamins are not the best, and not essential when pregnant. I didn't use them and my baby was and is fine.
Eat good food. Whole foods are nutrient - dense, and supply your body & your baby with the nutrition it needs.
Go to http://www.wholepurefood.com and watch the video "how to get fat without really trying" this will educate you about whole foods.
NO artificial sweeteners, no processed flour or sugar, no hydrogenated oils..
Eat SLOW:
S ustainable
L ocal
O rganic
W hole
Foods. This is the best diet on the planet, the one we evolved on.
As for vitamins, there is a product called "juice plus" that is a whole food vitamin. Feel free to contact me if you want to learn more about it.