The following is from Dr. Steve Chaney who established and teaches nutrition in the University North Carolina Medical School.

Beware of Cut Rate Vitamins!

Dr. Stephen Chaney, Ph.D.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is taking inexpensive vitamins. Mail-order vitamins offer fantastic “deals” and are worth just about what you pay for them.  NEVER buy these vitamins or supermarket/pharmacy brands without checking them out first.

Cut-rate products often contain addictive ingredients, food allergens, sugar, artificial food coloring and flavoring.  Many are coated with shellac, or contain potentially hazardous chemicals like cholorine.

Potency and purity can vary widely from pill to pill and bottle to bottle.  A study at Duke University examined 13 bottles of one popular supplement.  These samples showed they contained 60% or less of the amount of nutrients claimed on the label!

Another problem is freshness.  The FDA does not require expiration dates on supplement bottles so many companies don’t include them.  Calcium and some other nutrients can last for a year, while others, like vitamin B and C are unstable.

Shaklee performs up to 176 separate tests for purity, freshness, potency, and safety on the raw ingredients for a single product.  Products undergo as many as 262 separate quality assurance tests throughout the manufacturing process as well.  In addition, all product label claims have documented substantiation.

Cause in point, Shaklee stopped production of its Asian Ginseng, dispite the huge demand for the product, due to contaiminants like herbicides and pesticides found in raw ingredients after floods in China.  They will not resume production until they have a proven safe and pure source for the product.  Many brands at the supermarkets, health stores, and mail order companies are still selling Asian Ginseng! Scary, isn’t it?

Some things to look for in a multivitamin/mineral supplement:

• Biotin—an extremely important but expensive B Vitamin
• 100% of the DV for all B vitamins
• More than 100% of all the antioxidants Vitamins C & E
• Trace minerals—needed to fight oxidation, regulate blood sugar, and help build bones, critical for brain function and essential for growth and development.
• Fast Dissolving = better absoption (drop it in water; how long does it take to dissolve?)

Shaklee Vita Lea has been the best nutritional insurance you can buy for over 40 years. Vita Lea provides the most comprehensive, balanced supplementation available, with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.  Independent laboratory tests have showed the disintegration time of Shaklee vitamins at only 17 minutes, while some take hours!

Marathon Season - Training Nutrition

1.    Before, during, and after events, you should look to hydrate with cool liquids in small amounts, early and often.  Sports drinks can be especially helpful here but should first be tested in training before using in competition.

2.    Light meals like sandwiches, salads, and Shaklee Cinch Meal or Snack bars are best consumed 2-4 hours before exercise.  More rapidly absorbed liquid nutrition including Cinch Shakes, Meal Shakes, or similar food products may be consumed as little as 1 hour before an event depending on how quickly one digests certain foods and one's comfort level after eating. 

3.    Nutritional bars, gel type products, and rapidly digested foods such as bananas may be consumed in addition to fluids during events if the event lasts an hour or more.

4.    Post-event nutrition including protein, carbohydrate, and fluids should be consumed as soon as possible after exercise to maximize the energy restorage, muscle repair, and muscle rebuilding that occurs post exercise.  Physique has been proven to enhance the anabolic body building state and recovery post-exercise and is a key component of any natural sports nutrition program that requires daily or more than once-a-day training sessions. 

For over 30 years, elite athletes have trusted their health, well-being and athletic performance to smart training, sound dietary regimens, and nutritional counsel and products from Shaklee.   For example, since 1993, Shaklee has been providing NASA with a customized rehydration beverage for use by Space Shuttle astronauts. The U.S. Ski and U.S. Snowboarding teams, and other Shaklee-powered athletes, have won over 100 gold, silver, and bronze medals, including Billy Demong, first-ever US winner of a Nordic Combined event,  the 2010 Winter Games gold medal in Vancouver.

Producing high quality, safe, and efficacious products is a longstanding commitment and a key strategic priority.  To accomplish this, Shaklee sources the finest nutritional ingredients to create products that are free of artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors, or added preservatives.  Tens of thousands of quality control tests and quality audits are conducted to guarantee absolute identity, purity, and potency of ingredients.  Shaklee partners only with reputable ingredient suppliers and contract manufacturers and follows Good Manufacturing Practices to guarantee that what is listed on the label is exactly what’s in the bottle. 

To ensure safe use of Shaklee nutritional products by its athletes, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International Prohibited List WADA is regularly monitored to ensure that all product ingredients do not include any WADA prohibited substances.  To this end, Shaklee does not formulate any nutritional product with substances listed on the 2011 WADA List (updated September 18, 2010).  

Shaklee also has a tradition of scientific research that includes over 100 published studies and abstracts in peer-reviewed scientific journals and many of these studies support their sports nutrition products. 

Megan Huber 

Shaklee Director

919-906-0753

hubershaklee@gmail.com