Nutritional supplements take a lot of heat in the news and the fact that the FDA is trying to regulate the industry just reinforces the controversy. But regardless of your views regarding supplements, we want to highlight some basic reasons for adding them to your daily routine.

_Many people consume lots of raw foods, the fruits and veggies that Mom always told you to eat more of. But let's be realistic, most of us just don't eat enough fruits or vegetables to make a difference in our diets. And yet their importance to good health cannot be emphasized enough -- they supply us with enzymes, vitamins and minerals, fiber, amino acids, fatty acids, and basically all the essentials required for optimum health.

When you consider the state of the world we're living in today, it's alarming how toxic it really is. In addition to airborne toxins, more and more pollution contaminates our water supply (pharmaceuticals, rocket fuel, etc.) which directly affects our food. We are also exposed to herbicides, pesticides, and such, on a daily basis, in the air and in our food. And of course, STRESS adds yet another component that further escalates our health issues. This is why it is so important to optimize our antioxidant defense system to control oxidative stress.

Convinced yet?

_We believe that good health is a process. It involves more than just eating right and exercising regularly. It starts with choosing to put good things in your body; from the quality and quantity of the water you consume to the organic produce you pay a little extra for, good health is always a choice.

And that includes supplementing. In general, we recommend taking a good multi-vitamin with minerals each day.

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Enzymes
Enzymes are a kind of protein that begin and speed up most of the chemical processes in the body; without them, life as we know it couldn't exist. There are metabolic and digestive enzymes. Some people supplement the latter to help with digestion and they are available abundantly in raw foods. Two enzymes that are key to our internal defense system are SOD and catalase.

Amino Acids
Amino Acids are the building blocks of all proteins, including enzymes. A key protein to our internal defense and detox system is glutathione (made of three amino acids) which is the body's most abundant antioxidant (more about glutathione below).

Fatty Acids
Fatty Acids are the building blocks of all fats in the body. Healthy fats are ESSENTIAL to human beings, despite what we often hear about avoiding fat. The only two fats that the human body cannot manufacture are linoleic acid (LA) and alpha-linoleic acid (ALA) and both are"Essential Fatty Acids". Certain plant oils are excellent sources for these. With the right enzymes present, LA and ALA can be converted into omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3s are found in fish and krill oils and these help to satisfy our need for essential fatty acids. The right balance of fatty acids is necessary for our immune system as well as a healthy heart and brain, but unfortunately, the standard American diet has disrupted this balance. Consuming more omega-3s (or ALA as a precursor) can help to bring that back into balance and offer a wide range of health benefits.

Vitamins & Minerals
Vitamins and minerals both work with enzymes to accomplish various functions throughout the body. Vitamin D can be synthesized by the body with adequate exposure to sunshine, but MOST vitamins and ALL minerals need to be consumed. And all are important at their own specific levels. Synthetic versions (as those in your drug-store variety supplements) do not offer much value nutritionally. The more that a supplement comes directly from food (food-state supplements), the better. The vitamin-like substance CoQ10 is another key element to our internal defense system.

Probiotics
Probiotics are friendly microbes that help us to keep "unfriendly" microbes in check and help to optimize our digestive system while minimizing issues like candida overgrowth. Like antioxidants, probiotics are coming into nutritional vogue, so we encourage you to be a selective and not pay more for a product just because it has a few probiotics thrown in for marketing purposes.

Antioxidants
Antioxidants reduce the oxidative stress that's not only part of every day living, but that also builds up due to toxins present throughout our lives. Antioxidant importance needs to be kept in context with other nutrients, but they are essential for keeping us well as oxidative stress can underlie just about every disease we know of.

While there are many foods that provide us with valuable antioxidants including blueberries, acai, green tea, red wine, mangosteen, pomegranates, and cacao (made into dark chocolate), ALL food-based antioxidants (including vitamins C and E) require the body's internal defense system to provide antioxidant support. Maintaining the body's own system is the key to optimum health but we know from personal experience that supplementing may prove valuable for some.

Glutathione - The Body's MASTER Antioxidant
Even with a variety of supplementation your body may require an additional boost in its antioxidant abilities. Glutathione levels have been shown to decline as we age, when illness strikes and when undue stress is put on the body (as through exercise, trauma, etc.). We recommend supplementing glutathione levels, the body's MASTER Antioxidant, especially for those with depleted immune systems, low energy levels, or problematic toxin levels (including heavy metals).

Until just a few years ago there was no effective way to increase these levels; oral glutathione breaks down during digestion and because of its size, is unable to enter the cells even if any of it does survive the digestive tract. And glutathione injections have been only minimally useful for the same reason - glutathione itself is simply too large and cannot enter into the cells.

Science continually creates breakthrough products and this area is no exception. Although the body manufactures glutathione whenever it's needed, when given the necessary components, glutathione production is increased and revved up inside every cell. The late Dr. Robert Keller, a highly credentialed M.D. with three medical degrees, found a way to give the body the precursors necessary to make glutathione within each cell. He has given MaxGXL Glutathione Accelerator to the world of wellness and we are very excited to share this important discovery with you.

BODY BE WELL - Right Down to Your Cells!
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