A couple of years ago when we set out to find the best multi-vitamin option for our own children, we ran into a lot of myths and mis-information about the quality of ingredients, the quantities of individual components, and even the need for children’s vitamins in the first place. To help you cut through some of the clutter and questionable information available on the Internet from so-called health blogs and nutrition experts (many of whom are simply paid shills for big corporate interests), we’ve dug a little deeper into these subjects and are giving you our opinion on these widely misunderstood areas of children’s health.
We encourage you to do your own research into these subjects as well, we believe that as with most things, the more you dig into these issues, the more you will able to separate fact from carefully manufactured marketing gimmicks and outright fictions.
MYTH # 1: Everything in my children’s vitamin is good for my child.
FACT: The vast majority of children’s vitamins contain ingredients that have very questionable safety records.
You would think in a product like a vitamin, which is ideally meant to help your child grow and thrive, you would find wholesome and quality ingredients that do nothing detrimental to your child’s health. So why are most vitamin companies putting genetically modified-derived ingredients into their children’s vitamins?
That’s right, if you take a look at the label on your children’s vitamin and you see corn syrup, glucose syrup from corn, high-fructose corn syrup, soybean oil or soy lecithin, the odds are these ingredients have been derived from genetically modified corn and soy. Over 90% of the soy in the US and over 80% of the corn
in the US are now produced using genetically modified seeds.
Why does this matter?
This matters because the manner in which these two crops are now being genetically modified. In the past, certain strains of crops were chosen for their superior yield, their flavors and colors, and for their ability to produce an overall superior end result at harvest. Or crops were mixed to create hybrids, for instance plums were mixed with apricots to produce pluots.
All that has changed.
Today, a “genetically modified crop” does not refer to a more colorful ear of corn or a larger soybean.
Today, genetically modified means the crops have been infected with a strain of bacteria (Bt) that causes the plant to internally produce pesticide. Another formula for genetically modified crops creates a plant that can be exposed to unlimited drenching of Round-Up herbicide with no ill effects.
Did you know some corn and soy are now required to be registered with the EPA as insecticides? Don’t believe us? Here is the Environmental Protection Agency’s website listing the current crops that are registered as pesticides.
In other words, corn and soy are now being manipulated to become immune to the highest levels pesticide exposure ever seen in the history of agriculture.
Unfortunately, our children are not immune to these high levels of pesticides.
Study after study has shown that exposure to pesticides, especially in young bodies, can affect neurodevelopment, cause respiratory illness and interfere with normal growth. Which means the more pesticide your child is exposed to, the more potential damage is done to your child’s brain, lungs and overall growth potential.
So if you’re still giving your children a multi-vitamin that contains the common genetically modified corn and soy derivatives (corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup, soybean oil, soy lecithin), you are putting the most highly chemically compromised foods in the history of human food cultivation into your
child.
And then we have the synthetic sweetener alternatives.
Are you aware that sucralose (Splenda), which is a man-made synthetic chemical cleverly named to sound like sucrose (table sugar), is actually closer in chemical composition to DDT than it is to sugar?
It’s true. Sucralose is an organochlorine, which means chlorine is covalently bonded to a sugar molecule. The manufacturer Tate and Lyle say this on their own website. While this process doesn’t sound that bad, and the manufacturer assures you of the quality and purity of the end result, the fact remains that organic materials in nature are only very rarely bound to chlorine, and the most common uses for organochlorines are chemical warfare (mustard gas or phosgene) and in pest eradication (DDT, aldrin, mirex).
In other words, organochlorines are not created to enhance health. They are created to compromise it. And we’re not putting a known organochlorine into our children.
In fact, many organochlorines have been banned from use in many countries.
Dioxin, for instance, along with DDT are organochlorines that are subject to the Stockholm Convention (which was created to ban or severely restrict the production of the most dangerous environmental pollutants).
So when you’re putting sucralose (Splenda) into your child’s body, you’re trusting that a substance chemically similar to DDT and Dioxin is harmless. Of course, the manufacturer has studies proving their organochlorine is safe, but who funds the studies proving this? A disinterested third-party laboratory? Or scientists on
the payroll of the manufacturer?
We encourage you to dig deeper yourself into this controversial sweetener.
And then there’s aspartame. Which is classified as an “excitotoxin”. Meaning it has the ability to over stimulate the cells it comes into contact with, until they die. Aspartame was the FDA’s #1 source of consumer complaints until the FDA decided to stop keeping those records. Most of the complaints documented are
neurological in nature. And in a child’s small body, the results can be magnified.
Aspartame has been linked to neurological problems, nerve damage, brain tumors and cancer. So how is an artificial sweetener able to do all this damage?
Aspartame is produced by isolating two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, which once again sounds rather harmless, until you consider that these amino acids when found in nature are proportionately bonded with a full range of other amino acids, in the proper balance.
The problems begin once you isolate these two amino acids and combine them in an unnatural, synthetic way. For a complete overview of the science behind the danger of excitotoxins in general, see this groundbreaking work by Russell Blaylock.
Aspartame has also been called the most controversial food additive every approved by the FDA, and if you research the amount of times the FDA actually rejected aspartame for use in humans, as well as the now infamous Bressler Report outlining the shocking scientific half-truths and lies presented during the
approval process at the FDA, we think you’ll be shocked to uncover the true facts surrounding aspartame’s approval for use in food and drinks.
Lastly, we’re only going to mention that after years of scientific studies linking ADD and ADHD to synthetic dyes and artificial coloring, the UK has banned synthetic dyes and colors from products marketed to children.
We’re not waiting around for the US FDA to follow suit. We’re keeping these controversial dyes and colors out of our children’s vitamin and out of our children. And you can too by insisting no artificial dyes and colors are in your children’s vitamin.
MYTH #2: If you take vitamins, you can eat whatever you want.
FACT: Vitamins are meant to support and enhance a balanced diet, not replace it.
The vast majority of Americans are now (unfortunately) classified as either overweight or obese. And childhood obesity in recent years has skyrocketed.
The finger pointing on this issue ranges from blaming individual responsibility on the subject of food intake, to the hypothesis that man-made chemicals are the culprit.
Whatever the reason, carrying an unhealthy weight around has become the norm in the United States, not the exception.
What does this have to do with vitamins?
We’re glad you asked.
We believe that too many people use vitamins as a magic bullet to cover for poor nutritional habits. They think they can live on fast food and pop a pill and magically have a balanced, healthy diet and life.
In the real world, a vitamin is meant to enhance a balanced diet, not replace it. A well rounded multi-vitamin can be your insurance policy against a poor nutritional meal once in a while. But it will never make you healthy all by itself.
MYTH #3: All supplements are safe, otherwise they wouldn’t be available on the market.
FACT: The FDA does not regulate the over-the-counter supplement market.
The US supplemental market can at times seem like the wild, wild west. You know, the frontier times when lawlessness ruled. Thanks to the lack of oversight and lack of third-party laboratory testing, the supplemental landscape has become a home to people promising one thing and delivering something else entirely. Supplements like vitamins unfortunately don’t get any regular testing from any governmental agency.
Every so often you will see a study come out talking about how an independent laboratory found the nutrient levels claimed on over-the-counter supplements were either wildly inaccurate or entirely fabricated. Here is one of the latest examples of these studies.
We wanted to know EXACTLY what we were putting into our children, so we insist that our third-party suppliers rigorously test for ALL the nutrients found on the SmartyPants label.
Because too much vitamin A can lead to toxicity. Too little vitamin B-12 yields no effective benefit because of the difficulty your body has assimilating its large vitamin molecule.
And a fish oil contaminated by dioxin, PCB’s, mercury or other heavy metals simply does not belong in our children.
We insist on GMP certified labs and USP certified ingredients, because when it comes to the health of our children, we’re not taking any chances.
MYTH #4: Vitamins are best taken on an empty stomach.
FACT: Vitamins should ALWAYS be taken with meals, and fat soluble vitamins need a little dietary fat to help with assimilation.
Let’s face it, SmartyPants vitamins are good tasting. We had to make them that way so children would eat them. But they’re not candy and shouldn’t be treated like candy. They need to be taken like any serious vitamin supplement, with a meal and with a small portion of dietary fat like cheese, butter or a few nuts.
Speaking of candy, some parents have asked us about the sugar content in SmartyPants. On this point we just want to say that we insist on using only organic sugar, and we only use the bare minimum to make the vitamins taste like a treat.
Otherwise children won’t eat them. We know this from experience.
But you can feel good about the organic cane sugar in SmartyPants, because it allows you to avoid the more common genetically modified derived sweeteners found in other vitamin supplements, and our organic cane sugar allows your children to avoid the questionable artificial sweeteners that we personally don’t want our own children eating.
One last point. Some parents have contacted us to say they use SmartyPants as a reward for good behavior, and their kids ask for them when they’re minding their p’s and q’s.
We can’t find anything wrong with this.
In fact, we encourage it.
MYTH #5: If a small dose of vitamins is good, a larger dose must be better.
FACT: Toxicity can occur from a vitamin overload.
Doesn’t it seem like America is obsessed with more being better? Super-sized meals, Big-Gulp sized sodas, “extra strength” antacids (extra strength everything!). Often all three of these particular things at the very same meal!
But when it comes to vitamins, more is not necessarily always better.
We’re talking of course about the fat soluble vitamins, like A, D, E, and K which can all bio-accumulate in your body’s fat cells. While a small amount of these vitamins are vital for good health, too much of a good thing can cause symptoms like nausea, fatigue, and loss of hair!
With SmartyPants, you never have to worry about getting to much of a good thing, because our doses of nutrients are meant to enhance a balanced diet, not replace it. Even with daily use, our vitamins provide only what a child’s body needs to thrive. Never more.
With our fish oil we think we have actually improved on nature, since our supplier guarantees our Omega 3 oils are always certified toxin-free. That means if you serve your child a slice of fish you are not providing them with as environmentally clean a source of Omega 3’s as our vacuum purified fish oil. So you can feel
confident that your children are getting the purest form of Omega 3’s available at any price.
When it comes to water soluble vitamins, you really never have to worry about getting too much of a good thing, because whatever your body doesn’t need simply passes right through.
