Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Do Dietary Supplements Work?

Transcript

Do Dietary Supplements Work? · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of My
0:03
Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, you're welcome to the podcast.
0:12
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w. Chuck Bryan, there's Jerry
0:16
Speaker 1: over there. This is Stuff you Should Know the podcast.
0:22
Speaker 1: Are you I'm good man good, I'm good. Great. Let
0:27
Speaker 1: me search down in my soul. Yes, I'm doing pretty good.
0:30
Speaker 1: How about you? Oh? Well, you know I'm tired. Yeah. Everyone,
0:35
Speaker 1: I'm back in my house after seven months of renovating. Yeah.
0:39
Speaker 1: And uh, I had a probably a weeklong move easily.
0:45
Speaker 1: And that's with hiring movers, right, you know, like they
0:47
Speaker 1: move the furniture, but like movers can't move everything. No,
0:51
Speaker 1: they really can't. I mean I guess they can. But
0:53
Speaker 1: what's weird is the smaller and easier the thing is
0:56
Speaker 1: to move, the less likely the mover is to move it. Maybe,
1:00
Speaker 1: and I found myself wondering at one point, like how
1:02
Speaker 1: do rich people move? I was like, they don't move
1:04
Speaker 1: like this. They just go to a new house and
1:05
Speaker 1: buy new stuff and leave the old. Maybe because I
1:08
Speaker 1: thought when I hired a mover, I was like, oh,
1:10
Speaker 1: I had the big time because I'm not asking friends
1:12
Speaker 1: to help me. Move. But then I was like, rich
1:14
Speaker 1: people still don't move like this. They're not packing things
1:17
Speaker 1: and moving things and pickup truck times. No, No, they're not. Um,
1:21
Speaker 1: they probably haven't ever even seen a pickup truck in
1:23
Speaker 1: their life. Someone probably handles all of that. And it's
1:26
Speaker 1: probably really really really expensive. I think it's less expensive
1:30
Speaker 1: than you think. You may not have just been shown
1:33
Speaker 1: the correct pamphlet is there where you have seen like
1:35
Speaker 1: the next the next echelon up was where they pack
1:39
Speaker 1: your stuff. I don't know that it's I think it
1:42
Speaker 1: is definitely, I'm sure more expensive than than what you
1:45
Speaker 1: paid to not have them do that. Yeah, but I
1:47
Speaker 1: don't think it's like prohibitively expensive if you're already shelling
1:50
Speaker 1: out that much money for you know what I mean. Yeah,
1:53
Speaker 1: So the two things, uh, the two stereotypical movie things
1:56
Speaker 1: have happened to me, which is towards the end of
1:59
Speaker 1: the body sing up, when you're first all careful about
2:02
Speaker 1: labeling and everything, and then at the end just shoving
2:06
Speaker 1: things into boxes into like a garbage bag pretty much.
2:09
Speaker 1: And then on the flip side, now that we're in
2:11
Speaker 1: our house, it's that thing where you know, I have
2:14
Speaker 1: the worst bo right now because I can't find my deodorant.
2:17
Speaker 1: Jerry and I can attest to that, and I'm too
2:19
Speaker 1: tired to go to the five minutes away to buy deodorant.
2:23
Speaker 1: So I'm just like choosing to stink. Yeah, thank you
2:26
Speaker 1: sure for making that choice, not just for yourself but
2:29
Speaker 1: for me and Jerry too. Oh yeah, I'm too old
2:32
Speaker 1: to be moving, man, I'm no more. Okay, So this
2:34
Speaker 1: is the last time, huh. I told him, like, I'm
2:36
Speaker 1: going to die in this house. This is the vow,
2:38
Speaker 1: just hopefully not soon, or you could shell out for
2:41
Speaker 1: the one where they actually pack your stuff up. The
2:44
Speaker 1: rich guy, they just packed me up, send me out
2:46
Speaker 1: to see the Viking funeral. Okay, that would be pretty cool. Yes,
2:51
Speaker 1: so obviously what we're talking about today's dietary supplements. Yeah,
2:54
Speaker 1: might as well, huh. Which, Um, I can't believe we've
2:57
Speaker 1: never done this one. We have done one called does
3:00
Speaker 1: the FDA protect Americans, which, after researching this, I'm guessing
3:06
Speaker 1: we concluded no. Yeah. Maybe I do remember talking about
3:09
Speaker 1: thelidamite in there, so I think we were like, yes,
3:11
Speaker 1: in some instances they have protected people that they don't
3:15
Speaker 1: so much anymore. Um. But I'm surprised we haven't done it,
3:18
Speaker 1: especially with my dad having been the herbal elvis for
3:20
Speaker 1: so many years on that now she's the herbal queen. Well,
3:26
Speaker 1: she's not on anything, but she's she's not buying supplements,
3:30
Speaker 1: she's growing plants and distilling her own plants. That's really cool. Yeah,
3:36
Speaker 1: Like we have a big copper whatever it's called still. Yeah, yeah,
3:42
Speaker 1: you have a still in your house. We have a
3:44
Speaker 1: still that your wife puts unspecified plants into. Well, you know,
3:48
Speaker 1: it's it's herb. She's growing them in the yard and
3:51
Speaker 1: then putting them in the still and then we get
3:52
Speaker 1: liquid out so so and then you guys are taking
3:55
Speaker 1: it like the extract, like as a botanical supplement. Yeah. Yeah,
3:59
Speaker 1: that is fantastic. Yeah it's cool. That is great. So
4:02
Speaker 1: what kind of like if she she's going to the
4:04
Speaker 1: trouble of like making sure the dirt that's growing in
4:06
Speaker 1: is like amazing and all that. Yeah, okay, that's great.
4:10
Speaker 1: I want a bottle of something. Yeah, I'll get me up, bro,
4:13
Speaker 1: I'll get you bottle of something. Okay, I don't even
4:15
Speaker 1: care what it is, all right, I'll take some chick weed.
4:19
Speaker 1: I'll hold that under my tongue for thirty straight seconds.
4:22
Speaker 1: So okay, so your hip you understand what a dietary
4:24
Speaker 1: supplement is well on the herbal side, but I don't know,
4:27
Speaker 1: Like I've never been good about vitamins and stuff like that.
4:31
Speaker 1: I'll get on a thing where I'll be like, I'm
4:33
Speaker 1: gonna start taking a multi vitamin and then you know,
4:35
Speaker 1: there's six bottles of full multi vitamins familiar. Yeah. Yeah,
4:41
Speaker 1: I've tried to start taking B twelve and D yeah. Yeah,
4:46
Speaker 1: and I'm okay about it, but I forget frequently. It's
4:49
Speaker 1: never like I don't feel like taking that, it's just
4:51
Speaker 1: I forget. Well, you know what they say, spoiler alert,
4:55
Speaker 1: They say, just eat good food. You don't have to
4:58
Speaker 1: take this stuff. Yeah, food first is what that's called.
5:01
Speaker 1: It's all in the food. So um. Most people chuck.
5:05
Speaker 1: Do not actually go to the trouble of distilling their
5:07
Speaker 1: own extracts, their own botanical extracts for dietary. Most people
5:11
Speaker 1: buy it and then, like you said, forget about it.
5:13
Speaker 1: But because so many people are buying it, whether they
5:16
Speaker 1: forget about it or not, it's something like I've seen
5:19
Speaker 1: anywhere between a four billion dollar industry and a forty
5:23
Speaker 1: billion dollar industry in the United States and growing like fast. Yes, um,
5:30
Speaker 1: which is that's a it's a pretty big spread actually,
5:33
Speaker 1: but um, it's significant that there is a lot of
5:36
Speaker 1: dietary supplements that are being taken, especially in American There's
5:40
Speaker 1: this old um adage that Americans have the most expensive
5:44
Speaker 1: urine in the world because a lot of people say
5:46
Speaker 1: it doesn't really doing anything. A lot of the pills
5:49
Speaker 1: that you're taking are just passing through you and it's
5:51
Speaker 1: harmless because you're not absorbing the stuff. Um or there
5:55
Speaker 1: may not even be anything in there. You just paid
5:58
Speaker 1: a bunch of money for some some pills that don't
6:00
Speaker 1: actually have what they supposedly have in it. And if
6:03
Speaker 1: you think that, you know, that's hilarious and you laugh
6:05
Speaker 1: for a little while, and then you stop laughing and
6:07
Speaker 1: you go, well, wait a minute, why would that be
6:09
Speaker 1: the case. It turns out the f d A actually
6:13
Speaker 1: doesn't regulate dietary supplements. The entire four to forty billion
6:18
Speaker 1: dollar industry basically exists on the honor system. Yeah, And
6:22
Speaker 1: as it turns out, and we'll get to the specifics later,
6:25
Speaker 1: there are things and actual plants that help absorb the
6:30
Speaker 1: good parts of the plant that these supplements do not have,
6:33
Speaker 1: so in some cases maybe it is just coming out
6:36
Speaker 1: your pee. So when people think about dietary supplements, the
6:40
Speaker 1: first thing you think of is vitamins. Yeah, or I
6:43
Speaker 1: think of like, I have no idea why because I
6:45
Speaker 1: don't ever have I have never done this. But I
6:47
Speaker 1: think of like weightlifter guys that like makes shakes and things,
6:52
Speaker 1: and then like like a pig extract of some sort
6:55
Speaker 1: of like glant, I think, is it really yeah, And
6:58
Speaker 1: I have no idea. That's why I um, some bodybuilding
7:01
Speaker 1: supplements are are glandular extracts, which sometimes you couldn't end
7:07
Speaker 1: up with like a bacteria or hepatitis or something like
7:09
Speaker 1: that in your supplements, or a hoof growing out of
7:11
Speaker 1: your back. And again because there's nobody watching the people
7:16
Speaker 1: who are making this stuff. So anyway, back to vitamins,
7:19
Speaker 1: it turns out, remember elect drew execution electrocution vitamins is
7:28
Speaker 1: short for vital A means did you know that? Is
7:31
Speaker 1: it really? Swear? And a meen is it's the type
7:36
Speaker 1: of protein. I believe. What is vital? It means that
7:39
Speaker 1: you really need it, it's important, and it was coin
7:42
Speaker 1: it was coin back in nine by a Polish biochemist
7:45
Speaker 1: named Kasmir Pulaski. I thought you're gonna say portmanteau, Kazmir
7:50
Speaker 1: Funk what I'm not kidding. So so I'm about to
7:54
Speaker 1: walk out of here. Get the back of the podcast
7:56
Speaker 1: out the way. Just April bowls. Vitamin is short. It's
7:59
Speaker 1: so hot in here. Vitamin is short for vital aimings,
8:02
Speaker 1: a term that was coined by Polish biochemist Kazmir Funk
8:08
Speaker 1: back in Alright, well, now Josh is leaving everyone. It's
8:12
Speaker 1: because my smells glandular smells. Alright, So, uh, I did
8:18
Speaker 1: not know that. I did not know that was a
8:19
Speaker 1: portmanteau or is that more an abbreviation? Now it's a portmanteau.
8:23
Speaker 1: It sounds like, yeah, isn't that a combination of words?
8:26
Speaker 1: Believe that? I think so too. But people have been
8:29
Speaker 1: doing this for many, many thousands of years. In fact,
8:32
Speaker 1: some of the first inscriptions in Sumeria on clay tablet's
8:37
Speaker 1: talked about herbs. This is nothing new, and that's why
8:39
Speaker 1: it's very popular now because I think people are saying, hey,
8:44
Speaker 1: they've been doing it for five thousand years. Humans have
8:46
Speaker 1: been looking to plants to heal us. Yeah. I mean
8:51
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who kind of say, well,
8:53
Speaker 1: wait a minute, we were using like botanicals, um, vitamins,
8:57
Speaker 1: minerals long before medicine was a out. I'm kind of
9:01
Speaker 1: suspicious of the medical establishment getting in between me and vitamins. Yeah,
9:05
Speaker 1: a lot of people are very suspicious of that. And
9:07
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the reasons why the subli
9:09
Speaker 1: dietary supplement industry is boomed is because a lot of
9:13
Speaker 1: people are. It appeals to the average person the idea
9:17
Speaker 1: of just taking something natural in your body healing as
9:20
Speaker 1: a result. It feels good to treat yourself like that,
9:23
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, and here in the States, um, what
9:26
Speaker 1: do you say, You're on d in B twelve. Yeah, Well,
9:29
Speaker 1: d IS is one of the most after the multi
9:31
Speaker 1: vitem and the most popular of course, along with sea
9:35
Speaker 1: and calcium. And then as far as the specialty supplements,
9:39
Speaker 1: and this is a big one, Omega three fatty acids.
9:42
Speaker 1: I see, I see those all over the place. Yeah,
9:45
Speaker 1: like good fatty fish. Of course, this is the extract
9:48
Speaker 1: of that. They squeeze them, squeeze that salmon out ringing
9:52
Speaker 1: out of them, and then throw the shame and back
9:54
Speaker 1: good shot of salmon juice. Uh. What else? Probiotics, um,
10:00
Speaker 1: fiber of course that counts, you're right, which is kind
10:03
Speaker 1: of surprised me, I guess, But dietary fiber. It makes sense. Basically,
10:07
Speaker 1: anything that grows from the ground or that you can
10:10
Speaker 1: get from animals is technically considered a dietary supplement. Very
10:16
Speaker 1: necessarily a vitamin. There's vitamins, yeah, but like garlic and
10:20
Speaker 1: genzing and things like that, they all fall into that banner,
10:22
Speaker 1: but they are not vitamins themselves. And like garlic and
10:25
Speaker 1: genzing plants, those would be considered phyto medicines or botanicals.
10:30
Speaker 1: And then you've got minerals like iron, zinc, stuff like that,
10:33
Speaker 1: all of them, if you really want to put them
10:35
Speaker 1: all under a banner, whether it's a dietary supplement or not.
10:38
Speaker 1: Those are considered micronutrients because you need very small amounts
10:42
Speaker 1: of them for your body to function, as opposed to
10:45
Speaker 1: macronutrients like fats, carbohydrates, and proteins pizza, which you needed
10:49
Speaker 1: a lot of, right Uh. And some of the confusion
10:52
Speaker 1: comes in with the fact that there are uh many
10:56
Speaker 1: studies on both sides that say completely kind tradictory things
11:01
Speaker 1: about very specific vitamins, So, uh, it can be tough
11:05
Speaker 1: for a consumer just sort of weed through all that
11:08
Speaker 1: and know what the heck is going on, especially because
11:11
Speaker 1: of the lack of regulation, which I guess we might
11:14
Speaker 1: as well go ahead and talk about what happened in Huh. Yeah,
11:18
Speaker 1: where were you? How was in Athens? Are you there yet?
11:21
Speaker 1: I was probably hanging out in Athens on my way
11:23
Speaker 1: up there. I wasn't there quite yet. You're in? Uh?
11:27
Speaker 1: What was that town between? Yeah? I was in winder Yeah, everybody,
11:31
Speaker 1: there's a town between Athens and Atlanta called Between. Oh
11:34
Speaker 1: is it really? Yeah? I didn't know that. Yeah, And
11:36
Speaker 1: it's called that because it's between Athens and Atlanta. It's
11:39
Speaker 1: a big claim that in being a speed trap. Um,
11:44
Speaker 1: don't speed through Between. I've never heard that before, although
11:47
Speaker 1: half of the town calls it Betwixt. Really don't. I'm
11:51
Speaker 1: just kidding. Um, Well, you got our cane with that joke,
11:54
Speaker 1: I know. So in n a big change happen in Uh.
11:59
Speaker 1: In Congress they passed what's called the Dietary Supplement, Health
12:03
Speaker 1: an Education Act. And previous to this, there were there
12:07
Speaker 1: was a lot of tightly controlled regulation by the f
12:10
Speaker 1: d A and all of that change in UM And
12:16
Speaker 1: was this because of like just some sort of general
12:18
Speaker 1: de regulation up with consumers and push It wasn't. No.
12:23
Speaker 1: What happened was Senator or In Hatch of Utah, which
12:26
Speaker 1: was home to a lot of supplement producers Hatch and
12:30
Speaker 1: hence a lot of supplement producing donors. Um Or in
12:34
Speaker 1: Hatch saw this thing through said no, we need to
12:37
Speaker 1: open up the supplement regulation or supplement industry in the
12:41
Speaker 1: best way to do that is to remove regulations on it.
12:43
Speaker 1: So it was a big de regulation push, but specifically
12:46
Speaker 1: to the supplement industry because of one Senor. Oh no, no, no,
12:51
Speaker 1: I get that, but I just meant sort of that
12:53
Speaker 1: typical like, hey, let's just let people run wild and
12:57
Speaker 1: make money, right, Yes, yeah, exactly. And it was because
13:00
Speaker 1: of ore In Hatch got you, and technically Tom Harkin
13:04
Speaker 1: did too. He's from Iowa and one of his biggest
13:07
Speaker 1: donors was herbal Life. So the two kind of joined
13:11
Speaker 1: together and got this historically bad bill pushed through. But
13:16
Speaker 1: remember this is the converse. Sorry, everybody realizes like nanny
13:19
Speaker 1: state UM trigger for some people, But this is the
13:23
Speaker 1: same congress or virtually the same Congress that prohibited the
13:27
Speaker 1: CDC from studying gun violence. Like this is the kind
13:31
Speaker 1: of mentality that was going on at the time. Uh.
13:34
Speaker 1: So what happened during that um uh the passing of
13:37
Speaker 1: that act as they kind of set up some agreements
13:39
Speaker 1: which was uh, looser regulation for sure. UM. But if
13:44
Speaker 1: you make some of these supplements, uh, you cannot make
13:47
Speaker 1: claims like hey, this will help cure a disease. You
13:51
Speaker 1: can't make like medical claims like that. You also have
13:54
Speaker 1: to be very specific with your labeling. UM had to
13:57
Speaker 1: be labeled a dietary supplement. Uh. And you can make
14:00
Speaker 1: a claim that, hey, it could have the positive effect
14:04
Speaker 1: on your body, but you can't say it like cures anything.
14:07
Speaker 1: And then you also had to tag it with the
14:09
Speaker 1: statement has not been evaluated by the f d A.
14:12
Speaker 1: This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or
14:14
Speaker 1: prevent any disease. Right. So that was that was the
14:17
Speaker 1: big trade off was that they were but in it
14:20
Speaker 1: almost sounds like they're saying, well, okay, they can't claim
14:23
Speaker 1: to be drugs. But there's also some semantic trickery there
14:27
Speaker 1: because if they're not claiming to be drugs, the FDA
14:30
Speaker 1: can't regulate them like drugs, right, So basically, Congress, it
14:34
Speaker 1: is what Congress says it is. It's not a drug,
14:38
Speaker 1: so it's not a drug as far as as the
14:40
Speaker 1: United States goes so UM in doing this, they basically said,
14:45
Speaker 1: f d A, you can't regulate this stuff anymore. Everything
14:49
Speaker 1: that you've used to UM to get pharmaceuticals that out
14:54
Speaker 1: to market that have been proven safe and effective, we're
14:57
Speaker 1: going to do the opposite. These things are pres innocent
15:00
Speaker 1: until they start hurting people, and then you can intervene.
15:04
Speaker 1: And then even when they intervene, there there go to UM.
15:08
Speaker 1: Technique for a a dietary supplement that was proving harmful
15:14
Speaker 1: was to send a lighter to the producer saying maybe
15:17
Speaker 1: you should recall this, and the producer could either say sure,
15:21
Speaker 1: let's do that, or here's the finger. F d A,
15:24
Speaker 1: you have zero power over me whatsoever. Let me look
15:27
Speaker 1: at my ledger sheet and see if I want to
15:30
Speaker 1: shut down my company, right pretty much while I'm on
15:33
Speaker 1: my yacht. Yeah, and I found a study from UH
15:37
Speaker 1: I think this past year that found something like seven
15:41
Speaker 1: hundred and forty six recalled UM or adulterated UM dietary
15:48
Speaker 1: supplements in the US. Right, So these seven So this
15:53
Speaker 1: means that they have been found to have anything from UM,
15:57
Speaker 1: actual prescription drugs in them that aren't on the label UM,
16:02
Speaker 1: or other things that aren't on the label like fillers, UM,
16:06
Speaker 1: things that people might be allergic to. Uh, it might
16:09
Speaker 1: have some sort of chemical in it that's not supposed
16:12
Speaker 1: to be there, who knows, but they're very little of
16:14
Speaker 1: what it says it has in there. Right, that's a
16:16
Speaker 1: different kind of adulterated. These are pharmaceutically adulterated UM. They
16:21
Speaker 1: they found seven hundred and forty six of them had
16:23
Speaker 1: been flagged as adulterated, only three hundred and sixty had
16:26
Speaker 1: been recalled. The other ones were just left on the
16:29
Speaker 1: market because the company said, no, we're not going to
16:32
Speaker 1: do that, We're gonna keep selling them. And this this
16:35
Speaker 1: Journal of the American Medical Association study found even further
16:39
Speaker 1: that UM, the I think of the three hundred and sixties,
16:43
Speaker 1: something like ten or eleven percent we're still on the
16:45
Speaker 1: market even after being recalled. So that's kind of the
16:49
Speaker 1: state of affairs with dietary supplements, which everybody takes. Should
16:54
Speaker 1: we take a break, I think we should. I think
16:56
Speaker 1: we've just lost about a third of our listeners, the
16:58
Speaker 1: conservative ones. All right, I'll go find my deodorant and
17:01
Speaker 1: I'll be back right after this. Okay, so we're back,
17:25
Speaker 1: and I'm totally calm. I still smell, and people are
17:31
Speaker 1: still selling supplements that are tainted and otherwise misleading regularly.
17:36
Speaker 1: That's where we are. So. Uh. The FDA, for their
17:39
Speaker 1: part um, supposedly has established some manufacturing practices, but again
17:44
Speaker 1: it's I guess just voluntary whether or not you adhere
17:48
Speaker 1: to these, um. But there are you know, I guess
17:50
Speaker 1: there's a page somewhere on their website. There are letters
17:53
Speaker 1: that go out to say, here's what you might want
17:55
Speaker 1: to do. Yeah, it's like manufacturing good guidelines basically good
18:00
Speaker 1: practices for manufacturer. Uh. And there are independent organizations that
18:05
Speaker 1: do test things. Um. A couple of them are one
18:09
Speaker 1: called Consumer Lab dot com um in s f H
18:15
Speaker 1: not in SFW be weird, it's like in SF International.
18:22
Speaker 1: And then one called and this. I mean, I'm sure
18:25
Speaker 1: this is great, but it just sounds so like something
18:27
Speaker 1: from a movie U S. Farma Copia, Right, it sounds
18:31
Speaker 1: like something like a future company from a movie exactly.
18:35
Speaker 1: That does not do what they say they do. But
18:36
Speaker 1: those three I mean, like they're they exist because they're
18:40
Speaker 1: fulfilling the role that the government should. Yeah, or I mean,
18:44
Speaker 1: I guess if you believe in government oversight, the government
18:47
Speaker 1: should in a way. The fact that those businesses that
18:50
Speaker 1: make money off of this exists, it's it's an example
18:54
Speaker 1: of the invisible hand at work, you know, Like there
18:57
Speaker 1: was a need that came along, which is people need
19:00
Speaker 1: to know that what they're buying actually has a stuff
19:03
Speaker 1: and that it's safe. And these companies that make money
19:06
Speaker 1: off of it came along and fulfilled this need. That's
19:08
Speaker 1: what an orange Hatch might say, like, look, not not
19:11
Speaker 1: only are they booming, but we've created all these other
19:13
Speaker 1: companies that we do what we used to do. Right.
19:16
Speaker 1: But from what I understand, uh US Pharmacopeia there, they
19:22
Speaker 1: have a really good website I believe, where they basically
19:26
Speaker 1: say this has been um tested, is pure, It has
19:32
Speaker 1: what it's supposed to have in it, in the amounts
19:34
Speaker 1: it's supposed to have in it, It doesn't have any
19:36
Speaker 1: extra stuff in it. You guys can buy this and
19:39
Speaker 1: they put a label on the bottles, so for sure,
19:41
Speaker 1: look for that if this is something you're already do
19:44
Speaker 1: you're interested in trying out? Like, definitely do some research.
19:48
Speaker 1: This is not the kind of uh hobby you want
19:51
Speaker 1: to just wait into by walking into a store and
19:53
Speaker 1: going this sounds great, right. A lot of people do
19:56
Speaker 1: that though for this stuff. And then bear in mind also,
20:00
Speaker 1: I don't know about us pharmacopeia, but I know that
20:02
Speaker 1: Consumer Labs goes to stores and gets their samples that
20:06
Speaker 1: they test, and they would say, hey, just send us
20:08
Speaker 1: some stuff, send us your absolutely purest batch for us
20:12
Speaker 1: to test and give you a sealon. They actually go
20:15
Speaker 1: to stores and so their their ratings and reviews are
20:18
Speaker 1: based on tests that they've done independently, right, not the
20:21
Speaker 1: stuff they sweep off the floor and put in capsules.
20:25
Speaker 1: You know, that was supposedly what When I worked at
20:27
Speaker 1: Golden Pantry in college, they had the and you probably
20:30
Speaker 1: know this as a former smoker, but the really really
20:33
Speaker 1: really cheap cigarettes. I've heard that before and they always
20:36
Speaker 1: told us that that's just like literally stuff they sweep
20:39
Speaker 1: off the factory floor at like Winston Salem or whatever,
20:43
Speaker 1: Camel or whoever makes the cigarettes. That seems like one
20:45
Speaker 1: of those urban legends that I think probably true. You know,
20:48
Speaker 1: what I mean. I think, yeah, like not all urban
20:51
Speaker 1: legends are wrong. That sounds totally true because it's like,
20:54
Speaker 1: why are they so cheap? Um basics? Remember those I
20:59
Speaker 1: don't remember basics, but I sold a lot of bucks.
21:03
Speaker 1: They had a big they had a big deer on
21:05
Speaker 1: the front of it, like a big deer buck, and
21:07
Speaker 1: they were I mean, this is when cigarettes were I
21:11
Speaker 1: don't know, let's say two dollars, and these were like
21:13
Speaker 1: seventy five cents a pack or something. Um, how much
21:17
Speaker 1: our cigarets now? They're super expensive, aren't they. I think
21:19
Speaker 1: they're anywhere between five and twelve dollars, depending on where
21:23
Speaker 1: you are, something like I know New York has like,
21:26
Speaker 1: like they had twelve dollars packs of cigarettes. Five You
21:30
Speaker 1: can't believe people will pay that much money for a
21:32
Speaker 1: pack of cigarettes. Um, alright, so that's why we need
21:36
Speaker 1: government to prevent us from smoking cigarette. Uh So, regardless
21:41
Speaker 1: of the fact that let's say you find a supplement
21:44
Speaker 1: it's got the seal of approval, um, you still should like,
21:47
Speaker 1: do some research, talk to your doctor. It doesn't mean
21:50
Speaker 1: everyone everyone's body is not the same. You shouldn't just
21:53
Speaker 1: be downing supplements because you think Oh well, this sounds
21:57
Speaker 1: like it's good for me. Everybody needs to ferent things. Um,
22:01
Speaker 1: there is a list here of supplements that are more
22:05
Speaker 1: likely or most likely to be safe for you and
22:09
Speaker 1: might be effective. Yeah, based on based on overall science
22:13
Speaker 1: and research and studies that have been done on these things. Yeah,
22:15
Speaker 1: so we'll just tick through those. Uh, Calcium, cranberry fish oil,
22:20
Speaker 1: glucosamine sulfate, which I give my dogs, um black taste, lactobeasilicus.
22:26
Speaker 1: That's the probiotic, right, Uh, cilium. How do you pronounce that?
22:32
Speaker 1: Pi gum Gyeah? I think that's right, Pi gum Good
22:35
Speaker 1: old Sammy, that's uh s adena, sil l methyen. Yeah. St.
22:41
Speaker 1: John's worth. And then vitamin D, which, by the way,
22:44
Speaker 1: get this about vitamin D. So if you're a vegan,
22:48
Speaker 1: very frequently people are like, you should take some extra
22:50
Speaker 1: dietary supplements. Um, They're like, I take vitamin v The
22:56
Speaker 1: problem is is not all supplements are vegan, right, especially
23:01
Speaker 1: vitamin D. The reason vitamin D is very rarely vegan.
23:05
Speaker 1: This is where most vitamin un Listen specifically says vegan
23:09
Speaker 1: vitamin D. It is extracted lannelin from lamb's wool. That
23:16
Speaker 1: is sent What did you think it was gonna be?
23:20
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, you gotta pay extra for the testicle. UM.
23:24
Speaker 1: So they extract landelin from Lamb's wool, send it to
23:28
Speaker 1: China where it's exposed to UV light, to mimic sunlight,
23:33
Speaker 1: because that's where we get a lot of our vitamin
23:36
Speaker 1: D is exposure to sunlight and UM. Then it's put
23:38
Speaker 1: into pills and there you go. So if you're a vegan,
23:41
Speaker 1: you you wouldn't want to eat an animal product lanneling.
23:44
Speaker 1: You really have to look out for that kind of thing.
23:47
Speaker 1: And also one more thing about vegans and vitamins. One
23:50
Speaker 1: of the big, um, the big controversies that that proved
23:54
Speaker 1: to some people that you're not supposed to be a
23:56
Speaker 1: vegan is that we need B twelve quite badly. We
24:00
Speaker 1: need it for UM, I believe bone health. I can't
24:03
Speaker 1: quite I can't keep up by seeing so many like
24:05
Speaker 1: different things that vitamins over the last a couple of days.
24:08
Speaker 1: But we need B twelve. How about that, um B
24:11
Speaker 1: twelve is only gained as far as we know, from
24:15
Speaker 1: animal sources. If so facto we need to eat animals
24:20
Speaker 1: to get B twelve, and the way animals get B twelve?
24:23
Speaker 1: Is the gut bacteria in their guts produced B twelve
24:27
Speaker 1: and then we eat the animals that have the beach
24:30
Speaker 1: well built up in their their tissues. Right, So that's
24:32
Speaker 1: how people we meet don't don't have B twelve deficiencies.
24:35
Speaker 1: But vegans say, where are the animals at cows getting
24:41
Speaker 1: that B twelve from their bacteria? Where's the bacteria coming from?
24:45
Speaker 1: They say it's from the soil. So there's this big controversy.
24:49
Speaker 1: Is the B twelve producing bacteria actually in the soil
24:52
Speaker 1: and if so, are the factory farming methods like washing
24:55
Speaker 1: produce that we use actually washing off the B twelve
24:58
Speaker 1: that you would get in enough of it as a vegan. Yeah,
25:02
Speaker 1: man's fascinating. Waiting into these waters is so perilous. We've
25:06
Speaker 1: got to do um a plant based diet episode sometime. Yeah,
25:10
Speaker 1: you know, uh, who is it? Coach Seattle Seahawks coach
25:14
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll, one of the older coaches in the NFL,
25:17
Speaker 1: but one of the more vital old guys. He switched
25:22
Speaker 1: his diet to completely plant based, like raw foods diet,
25:26
Speaker 1: I think within the past couple of years. Yeah, he
25:30
Speaker 1: dropped it on the spot um No, he said. It's
25:32
Speaker 1: just and you know, he's not the only one person
25:34
Speaker 1: obviously in the news talking about this stuff. But I
25:38
Speaker 1: just read something recently where he was just like, you
25:40
Speaker 1: would not believe the change in my life and body.
25:44
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, I imagine if you just
25:46
Speaker 1: eat raw vegetables, that would be a great thing for
25:49
Speaker 1: your body. We'll find out. And I'm not saying that
25:52
Speaker 1: with a sneer. It's just that would be hard for me.
25:55
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, you know it's probably something I should do.
25:58
Speaker 1: I should just eat raw batched for the rest of
26:00
Speaker 1: my life, you know, Chuck, I don't know that it's
26:02
Speaker 1: healthy to deal in should uh So there are also
26:08
Speaker 1: UM some supplements that uh they say should be avoided
26:14
Speaker 1: because there are links to its side effects. They can
26:16
Speaker 1: be pretty serious. Yeah, that list you just read like
26:18
Speaker 1: a half hour ago about UM ones that are probably
26:23
Speaker 1: okay for you and probably actually are beneficial. They came
26:26
Speaker 1: up with the opposite list of that too, That's right.
26:29
Speaker 1: I just well, I mean it was the same like study, Yeah,
26:32
Speaker 1: that came up with double edged bitter bitter oranges one,
26:36
Speaker 1: and that one can be especially problematic because from what
26:39
Speaker 1: I read that that can just sort of ramp up
26:43
Speaker 1: your sort of like speed in some ways. Yeah, especially
26:46
Speaker 1: when you mix it with caffeine or speed or like meth. Yeah,
26:51
Speaker 1: you're like, wow, this meth has given me a real
26:53
Speaker 1: nutritional deficiency. I should probably start taking vitamins. That's what
26:56
Speaker 1: most most methadics too. Well. Bitter orange though, something people
26:59
Speaker 1: do who use to lose weight. Um, And it can
27:04
Speaker 1: lead to a heart attack and stroke if you take
27:06
Speaker 1: enough of it. And usually and we'll talk about this more,
27:09
Speaker 1: but this stuff combining with other things is kind of
27:12
Speaker 1: where you can get into problems. I saw a lady
27:15
Speaker 1: one time at a restaurant where I was working, pass
27:17
Speaker 1: out on the middle of the floor. And it's because
27:20
Speaker 1: she had just we learned from her friends after the
27:23
Speaker 1: ambulance came. She had just come off of a week
27:26
Speaker 1: long like I'm doing nothing but eating uh cayenne pepper
27:30
Speaker 1: and lemonade. But no, but just like water and vitamins
27:33
Speaker 1: or something. And then to celebrate the end of the week,
27:36
Speaker 1: she was like drinking and eating steaks and she just
27:38
Speaker 1: hit the deck. That's how it's done. That's a real
27:41
Speaker 1: problem refeeding. Um, We're gonna do an episode once on
27:45
Speaker 1: this man who who didn't eat for a year, and
27:48
Speaker 1: we're going to do that. Yeah, and they they were
27:51
Speaker 1: smart enough to figure out that, like he couldn't just
27:53
Speaker 1: start eating it just slowly like work food back in.
27:56
Speaker 1: But you can die from that after a long yeah fast,
27:59
Speaker 1: if you don't refeed go through the process correctly, you
28:02
Speaker 1: can just drop dead, like you have a heart attack
28:05
Speaker 1: basically from eating food. Yeah. This lady was fine, or
28:08
Speaker 1: I'm assuming she was fine, because as they were wheeling
28:11
Speaker 1: her out, she did the thing that all pro athletes do.
28:13
Speaker 1: She just gave the thumbs up. She's all right, everybody,
28:16
Speaker 1: She's okay. Uh So what else is on their chaparral?
28:19
Speaker 1: Colloidal silver? That's a big one. Blue. Wh wasn't it
28:23
Speaker 1: a senator or somebody? Timing guy with a beard? The
28:28
Speaker 1: blue man? I think there was a congressman or senator
28:31
Speaker 1: that turned blue. It's like permanent, is it? Yes? I
28:36
Speaker 1: saw that. It tends to be permanent. Boy. Yeah, once
28:40
Speaker 1: you turn blue, you don't go back, is the old thing.
28:44
Speaker 1: Um Colt's foot, which I had never heard of before,
28:48
Speaker 1: supposedly good for asthma, also linked to liver damage and cancer.
28:53
Speaker 1: Geranium country mallow that has a Federan in it. Yeah,
28:57
Speaker 1: city Mellow is great country Mellow no good. Uma, it
29:03
Speaker 1: was so dumb uh. And what else you know? Himbay,
29:07
Speaker 1: which is frequently used for erectile dysfunction, but unfortunately it's
29:10
Speaker 1: an m A O I, which means that if you
29:13
Speaker 1: drink like orange juice on this thing, you can drop dead.
29:16
Speaker 1: Um that this list is as obviously it's not comprehensive.
29:20
Speaker 1: And also I want to just say one more thing
29:22
Speaker 1: real quick. So I am not attacking supplements. I take
29:26
Speaker 1: supplements myself, and the idea that of taking something even synthesized,
29:31
Speaker 1: but that's based on scientific investigation in the nature of
29:35
Speaker 1: nutrition and all that. I find that endlessly appealing. I
29:38
Speaker 1: love that and anything that can help you be a
29:40
Speaker 1: healthier person. I'm in favor of. Um. So I don't
29:43
Speaker 1: I don't want to give the impression that I'm just
29:45
Speaker 1: like gleefully shooting holes in the idea of people taking
29:48
Speaker 1: supplements because I take them less. I don't think that's
29:50
Speaker 1: coming across that way. Okay, good, you seem like you're
29:52
Speaker 1: in a good mood. It's all because I gleefully shoot
29:54
Speaker 1: holes in a lot of stuff. I'm just not doing
29:56
Speaker 1: this now. Um, So here's the thing too, which this
30:01
Speaker 1: article points out. These are having a good listen to
30:03
Speaker 1: bad list is all well and good and it can
30:05
Speaker 1: be helpful if you don't know what's going on. What's
30:09
Speaker 1: going on? You know, and you're like, want to you
30:11
Speaker 1: want to start at like zero and learn a couple
30:13
Speaker 1: of things. A list like that is good, but it's again, Um,
30:16
Speaker 1: you have to know your body and talk to your
30:20
Speaker 1: doctor about stuff and like what other medications are you
30:23
Speaker 1: taking and what's your end goal? Yes, so you want
30:26
Speaker 1: a doctor who is not opposed to supplements and who's
30:29
Speaker 1: knowledgeable with supplements, because any good doctor worth their salt,
30:32
Speaker 1: especially one that came around post nineties, should be all
30:36
Speaker 1: about supplements and should know what supplements work, what to
30:39
Speaker 1: recommend to you to also know what what you're on
30:43
Speaker 1: and what you can't have, what interacts poorly. Yeah, I
30:47
Speaker 1: think finding that doctor in the middle ground, though it
30:49
Speaker 1: can be tough these days, um, because on one end
30:52
Speaker 1: of the spectrum you have uh what Emily calls the
30:55
Speaker 1: hokey pokeys, which are like, oh no, no, don't take
30:58
Speaker 1: any pharma suit cold medicines ever, only take these plant things.
31:03
Speaker 1: And then at the other end, you have doctors that
31:05
Speaker 1: are like I believe in science, so only take prescription drugs,
31:09
Speaker 1: don't mess around with any plant based in because you're
31:11
Speaker 1: just gonna pay it out. And I find that it's
31:13
Speaker 1: hard to find someone in between, right. I think. Also,
31:16
Speaker 1: even if you do find one that is in between
31:18
Speaker 1: in spirit, they might not have all the information because
31:22
Speaker 1: you know, you you touched on it earlier. There is
31:24
Speaker 1: um a lot of conflicting and competing studies like this. Uh,
31:30
Speaker 1: this article from how Stuff Works says that UM back
31:33
Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen, after years of being told that
31:37
Speaker 1: they should take vitamin D and calcium for bone health,
31:40
Speaker 1: that postmenopausal women were told stop taking those things. Not
31:45
Speaker 1: only do they not help you, but the the additional
31:48
Speaker 1: calcium may lead to everything from a heart attack to
31:52
Speaker 1: kidney stones because kidney stones are typically made of calcium deposits. Right. Um.
31:58
Speaker 1: And then another study I think came out that same
32:00
Speaker 1: miror and said, no, no, keep taking those things. Not
32:03
Speaker 1: only do they help you, they probably actually don't UM
32:08
Speaker 1: produce kidney stones. And you know that, like if you
32:11
Speaker 1: go on to like CNN or NBC or Fox News
32:14
Speaker 1: or whatever in their websites, they have both articles screaming
32:19
Speaker 1: both headlines the opposite. Nobody ever goes and follows up right, um,
32:23
Speaker 1: and everybody's kind of shouts whatever the new studies finding.
32:26
Speaker 1: So it's really confusing even if you're trying to pay
32:29
Speaker 1: attention to this. And if you dig into trustworthy sites
32:33
Speaker 1: like say an FDA site or the National Institutes of
32:36
Speaker 1: Health site or something like that, there's plenty of links,
32:39
Speaker 1: but they say a very minimal amount because there's so little,
32:45
Speaker 1: um substantial science that conclusively says this, this actually helps
32:51
Speaker 1: or this doesn't help. And that's the thing too, there's
32:54
Speaker 1: there's nothing, there's very few things that say this does
32:58
Speaker 1: not help. You are totally wasting your money totally, So
33:02
Speaker 1: they can't really say one way or the other. It's
33:04
Speaker 1: all just really middle ground right now. So we actually
33:07
Speaker 1: need science more than ever to really um study this stuff.
33:12
Speaker 1: But I mean it is they are studying. If they're
33:15
Speaker 1: just coming up with different results, somebody just needs to
33:17
Speaker 1: God needs to come down and be like this and
33:22
Speaker 1: just point out the Bible. Yeah, vitamin church like playing
33:27
Speaker 1: the answers are within. Didn't ned say vitamin church and
33:30
Speaker 1: a healthy does vitamin church? That's great? Uh, One thing
33:35
Speaker 1: we do know is that and this is across the board.
33:38
Speaker 1: Everything I researched said this. If you see anything that
33:41
Speaker 1: says this is totally safe, this has no side effects.
33:45
Speaker 1: This will give you an erection for sure, This will
33:47
Speaker 1: make you lose weight, like those are the big or
33:51
Speaker 1: you know, is it gonna transfer all your weight to
33:53
Speaker 1: your erection or gentleman like when you know, would you
33:59
Speaker 1: like to last long younger? Like anything related to sexual
34:02
Speaker 1: performance and like weight loss is just super hanky. Well,
34:07
Speaker 1: it's not only that the claims are frequently hinky. A
34:10
Speaker 1: lot of times the claims are correct, like it like
34:13
Speaker 1: this this crazy like um botanical for a rectile dysfunction
34:18
Speaker 1: works really well, but don'dren corns juice. No, it's because
34:22
Speaker 1: they they use viagra like they're One of the One
34:27
Speaker 1: of the ways that bodybuilding, weight loss and sexual enhancement
34:31
Speaker 1: supplements become adult treated is they have actual pharmaceutical drugs
34:36
Speaker 1: in them that aren't on the label. Some companies have
34:39
Speaker 1: figured out that the FDA is totally powerless and a
34:42
Speaker 1: really good way to sell cheap pharmaceuticals generic pharmaceuticals two
34:46
Speaker 1: Americans is to put it in a supplement, not put
34:49
Speaker 1: it on the label and go basically around the FDA
34:52
Speaker 1: by going through these So are these uh sold by
34:56
Speaker 1: the actual pharmaceutical companies under a sort of like a
34:58
Speaker 1: sub business title and I think it's largely fly by
35:01
Speaker 1: night companies. Well, and do they partner with them or
35:03
Speaker 1: do they just buy a ton of viagraha, now they
35:05
Speaker 1: know a guy in China who can get pounds of
35:07
Speaker 1: like cheap generic viagraph or um Prozac is another one
35:13
Speaker 1: that pops up, especially in weight loss um steroids, um.
35:18
Speaker 1: Some some drugs that like we're up for FDA approval
35:21
Speaker 1: as pharmaceuticals and the FDA said not too dangerous. They
35:24
Speaker 1: turn up in in dietary supplements, and like it's one
35:29
Speaker 1: thing to waste your money and just pe out expensive urine.
35:32
Speaker 1: It's an entirely different thing to take prescription drugs unknowingly
35:37
Speaker 1: and without any sort of medical supervision, because the the
35:41
Speaker 1: government agency that's supposed to be keeping an eye on
35:43
Speaker 1: this stuff is expressly forbade from doing that. Yeah, they're
35:48
Speaker 1: also you need to like when we were talking about
35:50
Speaker 1: the high FRUC dose corn syrup, the fact that that's
35:52
Speaker 1: in everything, you don't even know it, and sort of
35:56
Speaker 1: the same thing here, Like you're the foods you're already
35:59
Speaker 1: eating maybe good enough if you know, chances are if
36:03
Speaker 1: you're eating really good like whole foods and things like that,
36:05
Speaker 1: you're probably not diving headlong into the supplement thing. But
36:10
Speaker 1: if you're already getting like a ton of vitamin D
36:12
Speaker 1: in various foods that you don't even realize, and then
36:15
Speaker 1: you take it on top of that, or god forbid,
36:18
Speaker 1: if you think I'll just quit taking my medication because
36:21
Speaker 1: I think this will help, Like, none of that is
36:23
Speaker 1: a good idea. And then we should probably just talk
36:27
Speaker 1: about the FEDRA really quick, because that was a very
36:31
Speaker 1: big deal. Um buying a gas stations, Yeah, and it was.
36:37
Speaker 1: It was marketed as a weight loss thing, and I'm
36:39
Speaker 1: sure it probably worked in that capacity. Gives you a
36:41
Speaker 1: real good buzz it said on the package, didn't really
36:44
Speaker 1: probably there are probably some it said in like a
36:47
Speaker 1: bolt of lightning or something. Well, fifteen deaths were attributed
36:50
Speaker 1: to it by and then I do remember in two
36:53
Speaker 1: thousand four, uh, the FDA finally banned it. Um And
36:57
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily because of this, but a very high
37:00
Speaker 1: profile death in Major League Baseball happened. Do you remember
37:02
Speaker 1: who was Yeah, he was a picture I think is
37:05
Speaker 1: Steve Steve Beckler, I think, and he died I think
37:10
Speaker 1: during spring training, if I'm not mistaken. And they linked
37:13
Speaker 1: it to a feder and they finally were like, maybe
37:15
Speaker 1: we should step in and do something here because America's
37:19
Speaker 1: past time is at stake. It would be like if
37:22
Speaker 1: an apple pie just dropped dead from a feder get
37:25
Speaker 1: rid of the apples. Oh no, no, sorry, the other
37:27
Speaker 1: way around. Uh So let's take our second break, Chuck, Yes,
37:31
Speaker 1: and then we'll come back and talk some more food. Okay, Yeah,
37:34
Speaker 1: let's do Okay, hey, Chuck, Hi, before so we're back, Yes,
37:59
Speaker 1: before we talk about food, let's go further back hundreds
38:04
Speaker 1: of millions of years. Okay. Yeah, it's a big surprise.
38:08
Speaker 1: So we're not even the wayback machine. We can just teleport. Yes, mentally,
38:12
Speaker 1: we become intradimensional beings. So, um, we have figured out
38:17
Speaker 1: that vitamins were around in like the early Earth. I
38:22
Speaker 1: don't know if we said originally we I think we
38:24
Speaker 1: said your body needs these things are micronutrients, but your
38:27
Speaker 1: body needs them for all sorts of things. They help
38:29
Speaker 1: in like all manner of chemical processes from like um
38:33
Speaker 1: helping your cells divide to your bones to grow like
38:37
Speaker 1: really important stuff, which is why we need them. And
38:40
Speaker 1: your body makes some vitamins, but um, we have to
38:44
Speaker 1: get them from outside sources. A lot thirteen vitamins are
38:47
Speaker 1: essential to humans and what we need other animals don't
38:51
Speaker 1: necessarily need, Like dogs don't need vitamin C because their
38:53
Speaker 1: bodies produced enough. We our bodies don't produce enough, so
38:57
Speaker 1: we need vitamin C from other sources. Um. But what
38:59
Speaker 1: they figured out is that in the ancient Earth, bacteria
39:03
Speaker 1: and other life made vitamins on their own, and then
39:07
Speaker 1: over time, as we evolved into higher and higher forms,
39:10
Speaker 1: we apparently lost a lot of that ability, not all
39:13
Speaker 1: of it, because we can still make some, but um
39:16
Speaker 1: to the point where we need to get it from
39:17
Speaker 1: other sources. So more sophisticated animals started eating more primitive
39:22
Speaker 1: animals to get that source of vitamin right. And that's
39:25
Speaker 1: where the whole process began, where we started to evolve
39:30
Speaker 1: coevolve with other life on Earth, and we our bodies realized, well,
39:35
Speaker 1: we can get this vitamin from this plant, or we
39:38
Speaker 1: can get this vitamin from this animal, and that's how
39:41
Speaker 1: this kind of food web developed was basically for a
39:46
Speaker 1: reliance on vitamins and other things like fats and proteins
39:49
Speaker 1: and other nutrients. But this nutrient exchange that that is
39:52
Speaker 1: when one life started to eat other life. And that's
39:57
Speaker 1: kind of where vitamins came from. And it wasn't into
40:00
Speaker 1: the beginning of the twentieth century that we figured out
40:03
Speaker 1: how to synthesize vitamins. Yeah, that was a game changer.
40:06
Speaker 1: And like the twenties and thirties, UM, and that thing
40:10
Speaker 1: you sent about cereal is just mind blowing. Yes. Yes,
40:13
Speaker 1: So so if you keep going, we we are. The
40:16
Speaker 1: fact that we synthesized vitamins allowed the process food UM
40:20
Speaker 1: industry to boom. Yeah, because it's like here, now we
40:23
Speaker 1: can put things back into food that we synthesized. And
40:27
Speaker 1: in the case of cereal, like what I was saying,
40:29
Speaker 1: there are some vitamins that are sprayed on to the
40:33
Speaker 1: end product. Yeah, so if you see something that says
40:35
Speaker 1: fortified or enriched, sure that's what that means. That means
40:38
Speaker 1: that they dump some vitamins into the dough or sprayed
40:42
Speaker 1: it on the outside of your corn flax or something.
40:44
Speaker 1: And that just spraying cereal with like give me a
40:47
Speaker 1: can of vitamin D and just spray it on. Well,
40:50
Speaker 1: the hypothesis is that without enriched foods, we would all
40:55
Speaker 1: be dead from like rickets and other sorts of horrible malnourishment, disease,
40:59
Speaker 1: blind from back of vitamin A, all the things that
41:01
Speaker 1: can happen to you if you don't get enough vitamins.
41:04
Speaker 1: What happened to the average American? Because what we eat
41:07
Speaker 1: because foods right, But the reason it doesn't is because
41:10
Speaker 1: they put vitamins back in. Some people say, you know,
41:15
Speaker 1: you might not even need supplements, forget eating whole food,
41:19
Speaker 1: but they put so many vitamins in processed food that
41:23
Speaker 1: you could conceivably live, okay, except for the added sugar
41:28
Speaker 1: and the added salt, you could live vitamin wise. Um, fine, well, sure,
41:35
Speaker 1: that's a sugar in the salt things a big caveat.
41:37
Speaker 1: It is a big caveat because that leads to other
41:39
Speaker 1: problems like cardiac But I see what you're saying, like
41:42
Speaker 1: you could maybe get all the vitamins you need from
41:44
Speaker 1: processed foods. Um, But that's not what we're recommending because
41:49
Speaker 1: we're not doctors. But doctors say, are we to food now?
41:53
Speaker 1: Like food? Food? Also? Oh yeah, one more thing, I
41:56
Speaker 1: want to shout out Carl Zimmer, who wrote um vitamins
41:59
Speaker 1: old old edge, uh in um I think the New
42:03
Speaker 1: York Times. Yeah, yeah, he did a great job about
42:06
Speaker 1: the history of vitamins. Is that a friend of yours? No,
42:10
Speaker 1: he's like a great science writer. Remember our blood type episode?
42:14
Speaker 1: Sure that was live in Atlanta, right, Yes, it was
42:17
Speaker 1: based a lot on his article on blood types. Didn't
42:21
Speaker 1: we take a did we do a blood type test
42:24
Speaker 1: on stage? Yeah? I turned out to be a positive, right, Jerry,
42:28
Speaker 1: aren't you a positive? Me and Jerry have the same
42:30
Speaker 1: blood type. So a one of us get a leg amputated,
42:33
Speaker 1: the other one has to cough up some blood, I know,
42:35
Speaker 1: and I'll be right there to manage the whole progress. Um,
42:39
Speaker 1: But you two would just be arguing the whole time
42:40
Speaker 1: that someone would bleed out before you settled on an
42:43
Speaker 1: arranged saying the same thing though, But it just sounds
42:45
Speaker 1: like an argument, And I would just as as you
42:48
Speaker 1: both drifted off into the great beyond, I'd say, that's
42:50
Speaker 1: so you guys, Um all right? That would not be
42:54
Speaker 1: good though, because then I would have no career and
42:57
Speaker 1: I had missed my friends. They get second um, so
43:02
Speaker 1: eating foods that the you know that Mother Earth gives
43:06
Speaker 1: us to contain these things is clearly the best thing
43:10
Speaker 1: to do, allegedly. You know, studies have shown that we
43:13
Speaker 1: absorbed synthetic vitamins better than the stuff and food. Depending
43:16
Speaker 1: really saw that, But again science is all over the place.
43:20
Speaker 1: Well yeah, well since you brought that up, and like
43:23
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier in the episode, there are a lot
43:25
Speaker 1: of studies that say that you actually don't absorb those
43:29
Speaker 1: as well. I guess there are counter studies vitamins, yeah,
43:33
Speaker 1: that I'm sure they're probably where where does the funding
43:36
Speaker 1: come from? I don't know, studies, I don't know. It's
43:40
Speaker 1: a really good question. But phytochemicals, they are plant chemicals
43:45
Speaker 1: that have properties that can help really help protect you
43:48
Speaker 1: from disease. Those aren't in the supplements though. The phytochemicals
43:52
Speaker 1: are what you get when you eat the raw broccoli, right.
43:54
Speaker 1: I think you can get supplements, very high end supplements
43:57
Speaker 1: that have phytochemicals and other stuff. And how rich people
44:00
Speaker 1: suff so, like you know, in the future, they're like,
44:02
Speaker 1: here's a meal and a pill. What they're kind of
44:05
Speaker 1: hinting at is a full, fully fortified like pill and
44:11
Speaker 1: that like in the vitamins we take. Now, if you
44:13
Speaker 1: take vitamin D, you're getting vitamin D, whereas if you
44:16
Speaker 1: drink some milk, you're getting a whole bunch of other
44:18
Speaker 1: stuff along with that vitamin, right, And those things work
44:23
Speaker 1: together in your body, and so you're giving your body
44:25
Speaker 1: a shot of all these things that work really well together.
44:28
Speaker 1: And that's the argument for eating the food. Oh for sure.
44:31
Speaker 1: UM phytochemicals they think enhance what's called bioavailability. And that's
44:36
Speaker 1: what we've been talking about, which is how much you're
44:39
Speaker 1: actually absorbing UM. And I guess just pick a study
44:43
Speaker 1: because one might say, uh, you pee it right out,
44:46
Speaker 1: and another might say a supplement and another might say
44:49
Speaker 1: you don't. That's where it's just it's maddening, you know.
44:52
Speaker 1: It is one of the things that I think us
44:56
Speaker 1: pharmacopeia one of the one of the um that those
45:01
Speaker 1: groups they they test to make sure that the pill
45:05
Speaker 1: or the vitamin or the supplement actually dissolves in the
45:07
Speaker 1: stomach so that you actually are you do have a
45:11
Speaker 1: fighting chance of absorbing the nutrients in there. Or does
45:13
Speaker 1: it say on the bottle don't pee for three hours
45:16
Speaker 1: after take just holy just pinch it. Uh. Here's another
45:22
Speaker 1: study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. It
45:25
Speaker 1: showed that omega three's and fatty fish like a salmon,
45:29
Speaker 1: let's say, um, they were better able to maintain proper
45:33
Speaker 1: blood pressure. People were I'm sorry, mice were then with
45:37
Speaker 1: that same omega three supplement, the fish oil pill that
45:41
Speaker 1: you will take. Yeah, uh, and that's you know, that's
45:45
Speaker 1: a that's a big deal. There's no like substitute, I
45:47
Speaker 1: don't think for the real thing. Well, they found they
45:49
Speaker 1: found like on the actual like level of your blood
45:51
Speaker 1: vessels that the natural, naturally occurring d h A holds
45:57
Speaker 1: open your blood vessels, whereas the synthetic version doesn't, and
46:03
Speaker 1: it actually fights the the natural version in your bloodstream too.
46:08
Speaker 1: So but I mean that's just d h A. You know,
46:11
Speaker 1: that doesn't necessarily extrapolate to vitamin d R anything like that. Well,
46:15
Speaker 1: that's why you gotta really like dig in if you
46:18
Speaker 1: want to start taking supplements, but do your research. But
46:21
Speaker 1: I think the the idea that there are such things
46:24
Speaker 1: as phytochemicals that we don't necessarily need to live, like
46:28
Speaker 1: resveratrol and grapes or lutin in spinach or um like
46:34
Speaker 1: a like apens, a big one that you find in tomatoes,
46:36
Speaker 1: things that give it a plant, it's flavor, it's odor,
46:39
Speaker 1: and its color. Those things those are phytochemicals, and those
46:44
Speaker 1: are the things that act as antioxidants. They regulate hormones,
46:48
Speaker 1: they do all the stuff that we don't have to
46:50
Speaker 1: have to function. But that actually take like that you
46:55
Speaker 1: go from surviving to thriving. It seems like when you
46:58
Speaker 1: incorporate phytochemicals in your diet, Yeah, you want a shiny
47:02
Speaker 1: coat and glowing skin, you don't need that stuff. Um.
47:08
Speaker 1: Here's another thing, the r d A. Uh. And I
47:12
Speaker 1: think the r d A it's not just with Recommended
47:16
Speaker 1: daily Allowance that that doesn't just cover supplements. I mean
47:18
Speaker 1: that's kind of for calories at all. Yeah, I mean
47:20
Speaker 1: that's a whole range of things. But um, amazingly that
47:25
Speaker 1: has not been updated since yeah, which was it was
47:29
Speaker 1: a different country back then too. There are a lot
47:31
Speaker 1: more farmers. Yeah, and and it's recommended for um, I
47:36
Speaker 1: mean they're trying to cover all of America. So it's
47:39
Speaker 1: not like the r d A for each person. They
47:42
Speaker 1: liken it to a sweater. In this article that you sent,
47:45
Speaker 1: it's like trying to create a sweater that would fit
47:48
Speaker 1: out of a hundred Americans Americans Americans. Yeah, uh, and
47:53
Speaker 1: that's just not possible. No, I mean they this author
47:57
Speaker 1: Katherine Price, he wrote Vitamania. She's putting it like ninety
48:01
Speaker 1: five Americans will find it too large. It'll fit one,
48:06
Speaker 1: it won't fit you know, four of them, but it'll
48:09
Speaker 1: it'll fit kind of some. It'll fit over some people,
48:13
Speaker 1: but it'll be wrong for him. That was their point. Yeah,
48:16
Speaker 1: And supposedly they're going to update the r d A
48:19
Speaker 1: from when in a couple of years next year, that's
48:24
Speaker 1: what I saw. We'll see. I'm interested. I can't sleep.
48:27
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's behind schedule. I can't wait. Oh. The
48:30
Speaker 1: other thing to be uh that you gotta wonder about
48:32
Speaker 1: sometimes is um if like what the long term effective
48:37
Speaker 1: of something like this might be. You know, it's like
48:41
Speaker 1: taking taking vitamin D for a year or something is
48:44
Speaker 1: different than taking vitamin D for forty years throughout your life. Yeah. So,
48:50
Speaker 1: like there's something called um hyper vitamin osis I believe,
48:56
Speaker 1: which is basically o ding on vitamins and some vitamins
48:59
Speaker 1: it's really hard to do. Others it's a little easier.
49:02
Speaker 1: But this author, Catherine Price, is kind of putting out
49:05
Speaker 1: this hypothesis that, um, we may be existing in some
49:10
Speaker 1: kind of sub toxic state where it's we're not it's
49:13
Speaker 1: not acutely toxic. We're not feigning and vomiting, and like
49:16
Speaker 1: our liver isn't shutting down, but we're suffering from diseases
49:20
Speaker 1: we might not otherwise suffer from that we haven't linked
49:23
Speaker 1: to the fact that we're taking too many vitamins. Yeah,
49:26
Speaker 1: that's just like this low level sort of poisoning or something.
49:30
Speaker 1: It's interesting, that's enough, like you could you could survive,
49:33
Speaker 1: but you might die of something you wouldn't have died
49:35
Speaker 1: from if you hadn't taken vitamin A that you didn't
49:38
Speaker 1: need for thirty years, you know. And it's a hypothesis.
49:41
Speaker 1: It's not proven, but I've seen other people suggested too. Yeah,
49:44
Speaker 1: and poison control to um, oh, yeah, that's a big one.
49:47
Speaker 1: That's a huge one. Every twenty four minutes, poison control
49:50
Speaker 1: centers in the US get a call about a supplement reaction. Um,
49:55
Speaker 1: it happens a lot. Yeah, there's about twenty three thousand
49:59
Speaker 1: e er trip from supplements in the US each year. Yeah,
50:03
Speaker 1: I mean, you think poison control is just like a
50:05
Speaker 1: swallowed something with a skull and crossbones on the label,
50:08
Speaker 1: But that's that's really not the case, and especially true
50:12
Speaker 1: with kids, like you should treat these things like you know,
50:17
Speaker 1: it sounds harsh to say, like it's poison, but if
50:20
Speaker 1: you got a toddler in the house, don't leave your
50:22
Speaker 1: supplements down where they can get them just because it
50:23
Speaker 1: says all natural. Yeah, yeah, and that's and that's part
50:27
Speaker 1: of the problem is they have this kind of veneer
50:31
Speaker 1: of wholesomeness because they are natural and this is stuff
50:36
Speaker 1: that that's reported to poison control. You supposedly can report
50:40
Speaker 1: something to the f d A, but how many people
50:42
Speaker 1: are doing that? You know a lot of people, um,
50:45
Speaker 1: if they do suffer an adverse reaction, will contact the company,
50:48
Speaker 1: the manufacturer, and the manufacturer on paper is supposed to
50:52
Speaker 1: report the incident to the FDA. But again it's it's
50:56
Speaker 1: on the honor system, right. Or you just go to
50:58
Speaker 1: the doctor and they say maybe you should lay off
51:00
Speaker 1: the whatever you're taking, the wacky tobaccy yeah, vitamin church
51:07
Speaker 1: w um, yeah, maybe layoff that, and then you never
51:12
Speaker 1: report it. So the long and short of it is is.
51:15
Speaker 1: I think they said something like never get reported to
51:17
Speaker 1: the FDA at all. So, I mean, I don't really
51:20
Speaker 1: know how to wrap this one up because they is
51:23
Speaker 1: just so so out on so many things. I mean,
51:25
Speaker 1: for the most part, it does seem like you're going
51:27
Speaker 1: to do a little more than waste your money on
51:30
Speaker 1: something you don't need. UM. But I think the movement
51:34
Speaker 1: today is to say no just before you really start
51:37
Speaker 1: a supplement regimen, before you go Al Ray curs while
51:41
Speaker 1: because you know, he takes pills a day a day
51:45
Speaker 1: every day. He's a futurist, like People's Chief imagineer or
51:49
Speaker 1: something like that. No, that's a Disney term. He uh,
51:52
Speaker 1: he takes like two fifty pills a day. Before you
51:55
Speaker 1: do anything like that. The the kind of the um.
51:59
Speaker 1: The recommendation du jure is try eating more of a
52:03
Speaker 1: whole foods diet. Yeah, like go spend all of your
52:06
Speaker 1: money at whole foods. I think that means that one. Yeah.
52:10
Speaker 1: I agree, this is a tough one to wrap up,
52:12
Speaker 1: and I believe we will get equal parts emails saying
52:16
Speaker 1: from people who swear by it. Uh. It's almost takes
52:19
Speaker 1: on a religious quality to people that think it's complete
52:22
Speaker 1: bunk and a couple of people saying like, leave worn
52:24
Speaker 1: hats alone. Well, since I said leave worn hats alone,
52:30
Speaker 1: I think that means it's time for listener mail. Uh
52:35
Speaker 1: it is, and I'm gonna call this uh Josh and
52:39
Speaker 1: Chucker feminists. Hey, guys, I'm consistently impressed by how clued
52:42
Speaker 1: up you are on feminism. And by feminism I mean
52:46
Speaker 1: equality in general, because you always point out times and
52:49
Speaker 1: which men struggle in society too. From my point of view,
52:52
Speaker 1: you also regularly look through a race lens, disabled lens,
52:56
Speaker 1: and gay lens. Although I cannot speak for how well
52:59
Speaker 1: you are doing there, to me, it seems incredibly inclusive
53:01
Speaker 1: and sympathetic. Uh, You're welcome. Oh you mean got you?
53:07
Speaker 1: I think you too? Maybe the only two adult men
53:08
Speaker 1: I've ever heard speak the way you do. Uh, And
53:12
Speaker 1: I massively respect you for that is so important to
53:14
Speaker 1: have influential men speak in these ways. I don't think
53:17
Speaker 1: that you ever really pushed those arguments down people's throats,
53:20
Speaker 1: but instead matter of factly stating these issues during an
53:22
Speaker 1: informative podcast in a man's voice. Let's have an influence
53:26
Speaker 1: in uh, And it is having an effect somewhere I've
53:30
Speaker 1: even heard he criticized some second wave feminist ideas and
53:34
Speaker 1: trump them with third wave feminist ideas. I think it
53:38
Speaker 1: was in the makeup episode. You guys were discussing feminists
53:41
Speaker 1: of the seventies shunning women who wear makeup, and Chuck said,
53:44
Speaker 1: I think they may have got that one wrong. Uh,
53:46
Speaker 1: And then you two proceeded to have the most progressive
53:48
Speaker 1: chat ever about how women aren't just wearing makeup for
53:51
Speaker 1: the purpose of pleasing men. Makes my head explode with excitement. Guys,
53:55
Speaker 1: to each their own, keep doing what you're doing. That
53:57
Speaker 1: is from Alice chibnal Kiwi living in Edinburgh. Thanks a lot,
54:03
Speaker 1: great great city, agreed, great country to New Zealand. Yeah,
54:08
Speaker 1: I mean she's winning on both fronts. That's where a
54:11
Speaker 1: lot of the sheep lannel and invite him in d
54:12
Speaker 1: comes man, I bet New Zealand. Thanks a lot, Alice.
54:15
Speaker 1: We appreciate that. It was very nice to hear um.
54:18
Speaker 1: If you want to give us compliments, man send him in.
54:21
Speaker 1: You can find us all over social media, go to
54:24
Speaker 1: our website Stuff you Should Know dot com and as always,
54:26
Speaker 1: you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
54:29
Speaker 1: I Heeart Radio dot com. Stuff You Should Know is
54:34
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
54:37
Speaker 1: podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart radio app,
54:39
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or where ever you listen to your favorite shows.