Xtend-Life-Questionst

Issue - 6th September 2006

Please click on the question of interest...

Whole food supplements...  There seem to be a number of companies making a big thing of using "whole foods", and I agree basically with the concept.  God really did know what He was doing, and still does.  If these products are as good as they seem to think they are? More... 

Supplements of desiccated organs and glands...  I want to feel more confident and knowledgeable about the wisdom of using "glandular", "desiccates", or the extract of organs and/or glands.  Please speak a little about your thoughts on using gland/organs in any form in supplements, and something about the whole as opposed to extracts of organs/glands.  More...

Is New Zealand produce better?...  I have been taking Men's Total Balance since the middle of June and think it is a great product! Living in the USA and reading your Weight Loss article raised a few questions about products available to us that come from New Zealand.  Is the frozen wild caught Orange Roughy as good as Salmon or Tuna?  Is the lamb raised differently?  More...

Question: from Jimmy (Subject: Whole food supplements...)q1

There seem to be a number of companies making a big thing of using "whole foods", and I agree basically with the concept.  God really did know what He was doing, and still does.

If these products are as good as they seem to think they are? There must be a compelling reason that you haven't used some of them in your own products!  I want to end up with the best combination.  I have several friends that depend on me for some nutritional advice and that is a burden, I am trying to do what is best for me and my family but for someone else to depend on what I know is really "betting the farm"

I value your opinion in nutritional matters. 

Answer: from Warren

This question requires quite an involved answer, and because I know that it will be of considerable interest to many of our subscribers I have made it the subject of the current issue of Xtend-Your-Life.  If you are either taking ‘whole food’ supplements whether they are in powder or liquid form, I think you will find the article interesting.

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Question: Also from Jimmy (Subject: Supplements of desiccated organs and glands...)q2

I want to feel more confident and knowledgeable about the wisdom of using "glandular", "desiccates", or the extract of organs and/or glands.  Please speak a little about your thoughts on using gland/organs in any form in supplements, and something about the whole as opposed to extracts of organs/glands.

Answer: from Warren

This is another area in which I believe promoters and marketers are misleading their customer. 

Over the ages there has been a belief that consuming the organs of animals will strengthen those same organs of the person ingesting them. This is why cannibals would eat various body parts of their victims.   There is little doubt that in the old days that people who ate these organs (animal ones J) did likely derive some benefit as these organs are full of all sorts of nutrients ranging from hormones to various vitamins. 

It should be remembered that an organ is simply body tissue, which contain quantities of various substances, some of which are good for you and some which are not.  Organs in desiccated form are still used today such as in prescription thyroid drugs.  However, they have gone through a considerable amount of purification to end up with the active ingredient the pharmaceutical company needs.  Also, the active ingredient is carefully and accurately determined for each dose.

Some alternative practitioners still use supplements made from desiccated organs. 

Would I personally use these types of products?  Never!  The reason being is that you don’t really know what you are getting! 

You don’t know the condition of the animal before it was slaughtered.  You don’t know if the animal had been heavily dosed with antibiotics or growth hormones.  It may even have been diseased. The situation today is quite different to that of 50 years ago when the animals were not subject to the conditions they are today… (factory feed lots) and as such were generally healthier.  

Also, 50 years ago the scientists did not know what the active ingredients were in these organs and were unaware that most of them can now be extracted from plant sources.

These types of products in my opinion have no future as science has developed more effective and safer ways of getting the essential nutrients into the body.

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I have been taking Men's Total Balance since the middle of June and think it is a great product! Living in the USA and reading your Weight Loss article raised a few questions about products available to us that come from New Zealand.

Is the frozen wild caught Orange Roughy as good as Salmon or Tuna?  Is the lamb raised differently?

Are the Gala apples and Kiwis closer to being organic? Overall, are things raised more naturally with less chemicals and antibiotics? Since this is not directly related to any of your products, it may be an inappropriate question.

Answer: from Warren

Because you raise it, just a short note on the weight loss report!  I am in the process of completely rewriting this in light of new information over the last couple of years. 

In essence the main changes will be a much greater emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Hope to complete it within a few weeks.

Now, to your questions!

1. The Orange Roughy would be better than tuna or salmon in that there are no antibiotics or growth hormones as is the case with farm reared salmon, nor are there any traces of mercury such as with tuna.

2. With regard to apples and Kiwi fruit, unless they are certified organic it is likely that they will have been sprayed.  Most farmers here in NZ try to keep the spraying to a minimum.  I'm sorry I cannot say how they compare with the amount of spray exposure apples have in the US.  As a point of interest, I find the tastiest apples to be Braeburn.  We are lucky as we can go pick them off the trees. J

3. With regard to raising produce naturally we would like to think that this is the case in NZ but the reality is that unless they are Government NZ certified organic, chemicals and antibiotics are still used to some extent.  However, I can say that in the case of animal produce for meat consumption that the extent of their use is considerably less than most other countries simply due to the fact that our beef and sheep are not raised in confined feed lots.  They are allowed to roam and live on grass.

The general practice is to 'drench' sheep and cattle once or twice a year to help control internal parasites.  There is also a certain amount of vaccination done but it is minimal, particularly in the ‘high country’ where the density of livestock is very low.  It is not usual to administer antibiotics to animals raised for meat (or wool production) unless of course an animal is sick which is rare.

For this reason NZ meat certainly is up there with the best.  Some people would argue that it is the best, but I am sure that your free range, organic grass fed beef would be on a par, provided that the stocking density is low.

An exception to my comments about NZ livestock would be dairy cows, which are not used for human meat consumption in NZ (as far as I know). What I do know is that these animals, although grass fed are nonetheless given all sorts of stuff to increase their milk consumption...  So, the risk of inadvertently consuming growth hormones and other additives from NZ dairy produce is probably much the same as most other countries that have intensive dairy farming operations.

The risk of antibiotics may be less as they are still grass fed and do not live in confined conditions. 

I don't believe in eating dairy products or drinking milk.  These facts along with the poor nutrition value of dairy products are good enough reasons to stay away from dairy products.

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