Whey protein is loaded with both essential and non-essential amino acids with few carbohydrates and little fat content, depending on the grade. For this reason it is commonly used as a nutritional supplement in “low-carb, high- protein diets”. Pregnant mothers sometimes are counselled by their OB’s to supplement their diets with whey protein to assure that their developing babies get all the basic amino acids they might need for full rapid development.

Because some alimentation products are avoided when dieting the body may be deprived of certain vitamins that could help resist against different kinds of illnesses.

In order to provide the body the micronutrients needed, many people decide to use a weight loss vitamin supplement. Such dietary supplements contain not only vitamins and minerals but also other lesser known substances such as herbals, botanicals, amino acids, and enzymes. This can be helpful when dieting but before using any supplements there are some things to consider.

Supplements
As the name suggests a supplement is only complementary to daily alimentation. In order to lose weight while preserving your health, a weight loss vitamin supplement must be used together with healthy food and physical exercises. Under no circumstances should these be used alone as they cannot completely replace the vitamins provided by a balanced diet.

Choices
Weight loss vitamin supplements can be found in different forms: tablets, capsules, powders and energy bars or drinks. Since there are a lot of products available on the market, some people may find themselves in the troublesome situation of not knowing what to choose thus choosing inadequately.

The best way to know what kind of weight loss vitamin supplement to choose is to consult your physician as there might be substances that can interfere with medication you are taking. Talk with the doctor before using them or with other health care providers such as a dietitian, nutritionist, nurse, or pharmacist. This is very important because there are risks when using dietary supplements.

Risks
Although such supplements can be useful to some people on a diet there are circumstances when these can damage the health. Weight loss vitamin supplements contain active ingredients that can have detrimental effects to your body.

Such negative effects may appear the moment people use a combination of supplements or when they are taken together with certain medications which could cause an adverse reaction to occur.

Undesirable effects can certainly happen if people are trying to replace some prescription medicines with supplements. Be sure to consult your physician before taking any supplements before, during or after surgery.

Therefore, the use of a weight loss vitamin supplement can be useful when dieting but only if taken on the advice of your physician.

Okay, so you think you are doing pretty well with your diet. You prepare most of your meals at home, don’t eat much junk food and aren’t a fast food eater only rarely. You think vitamins are pretty much nonsense—particularly since you are eating so well—and besides, you feel pretty healthy.

Well let me rain on that parade a little.

Consider this. In order for nutritional researchers to determine the required levels of nutrients, diets must be designed of known nutrient content with a specific deficiency in the nutrient being studied. Then varying doses of the nutrient can be added to the diet to determine at what level symptoms of deficiency disappear.

In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a vitamin C-depleted real meal menu is described. The diet consists of the following choices:

Breakfast: Apple Juice, Applesauce, Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat, Unprocessed bran, Hominy grits, Cream of Wheat, Eggs (scrambled or hard poached), Cheddar cheese, French toast, Syrup, Yogurt (plain or strawberry), Bran muffin, Glazed doughnut, Mini bagel, Cream cheese, White toast or bread, Wheat toast, Margarine, butter, Honey, Peanut butter, Sugar substitutes, Low-fat cream cheese, Coffee (regular or decaffeinated), Tea (regular or decaffeinated), Cream, White milk (whole, 2%, or skim), Chocolate milk, Buttermilk.

Lunch: Chicken noodle soup, Cream of chicken soup, Croutons, Escalloped chicken, Pork chops, Brown gravy, Garlic herb pizza, Grilled cheese sandwich, Tuna chunks, Yogurt (plain, vanilla or blueberry), Rice royale, Black beans, Rice, Pretzels, Applesauce, Diet Jell-O™, Cookies (chocolate chip or sugar), Ice cream (vanilla or chocolate), Bread (white or wheat), Saltines, Margarine, Butter, Sour cream, Peanut butter, Mustard, Mayonnaise, Sugar substitute, Relish, Coffee (regular or decaffeinated), Tea (regular, decaffeinated or iced), Cream

Dinner: Chicken and rice soup, Cottage cheese, Croutons, Fried shrimp, Roast beef, Brown gravy, Macaroni and cheese, Cheeseburger, Chicken salad, Yogurt (plain or peach), Pinto beans, Rice, Diet Jell-O™, Vanilla ice cream, Angel food cake, Bread (white or wheat), Margarine, Butter, Peanut butter, Coffee (regular or decaffeinated), Cream, Tea (regular, decaffeinated or iced)

Evening Snacks: Peanut butter crackers, Graham crackers, Chocolate chip cookie, Popcorn, Ginger ale, Diet cola

If you review these choices you should note something familiar. They are the very foods that the majority of people now consume! By eating these foods a person will restrict vitamin C intake to less than 5 mg per day. The bare minimum RDA (Recommended Daily Alolowance) so far established for vitamin C is 90 mg per day for men and 75 mg per day for women — and this is highly contested as being far too low. There is a huge body of research now demonstrating that humans need several hundred milligrams (some believe more than a thousand) per day to achieve optimal health.

Vitamin C is a critically important nutrient for humans since our bodies are unable to synthesize it. In the wild, fruits and vegetables would be the main source. Vitamin C bolsters the immune system and is critical to connective tissue integrity and health. In its absence, the nutritional disease scurvy occurs resulting in a sort of meltdown of the basic structure of the body. Teeth fall out, internal bleeding occurs and it can cause a miserable death. In days gone by, ancient mariners feared the disease more than capsizing. But left out to sea long enough with only bread and salted meat they were almost sure to suffer it to one degree or another.

Heart disease is a leading killer in modern society. Dental disease is epidemic. Both of these conditions can be initiated or fostered by vitamin C deficiency. There presence may in fact be the very marker that vitamin C deficiency is widespread. Coronary and cerebral vessels lose their integrity leading to heart attacks and strokes, and periodontitis (gum recession, bleeding and oral infection) leads to loss of teeth, foul breath and seeding of the body’s organs with pathogens.

Vitamin C is not a silly nutrient to be ignored or played with. Don’t assume that because you seem healthy at the moment that chronic degenerative disease is not incubating within. In fact, if you are eating exclusively processed modern fare, you can count on it.

Convert the diet to more fresh and raw foods (See authors The Thinking Person’s Master Key to Health (CD), Note that there were no fresh foods in the test diet. And certainly taking daily vitamin C supplements (500-1000 mg per day) is prudent insurance given that normal dietary fare is clearly vitamin C deficient.
. (Am J Clin Nutr, 1997; 65(5):1434-40.)

About the Author: Dr. Wysong is a former veterinary clinician and surgeon, college instructor in human anatomy, physiology and the origin of life, inventor of numerous medical, surgical, nutritional, athletic and fitness products and devices, research director for the present company by his name and founder of the philanthropic Wysong Institute. He is author of The Creation-Evolution Controversy now in its eleventh printing, a new two volume set on philosophy for living, several books on nutrition, prevention and health for people and animals and over 15 years of monthly health newsletters. He may be contacted at Wysong@Wysong.net and a free subscription to his e-Health Letter is available at http://www.wysong.net

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