CHAPTER 9

SUPPLEMENTS

As we’ve been yakking about for the past several chapters, it’s best to get nutrients—vitamins, minerals, enzymes, oxygen, phytonutrients—from a whole, organic, plant-based diet. Yet there are healthful ways to augment and enhance your existing diet with what I call the foundationals. These are basic products (supplements, superfoods, protein powders) that boost your diet and your health. Make no mistake—supplements and pills are not food replacements, they are diet enhancements. They complement what you are doing in your diet!

What follows are my faves, but they’re just suggestions, along with explanations as to how these extras work in partnership with your Crazy Sexy Diet. For more information on foundational supplements, go to the crazysexylife.com store. We’re always updating with our favorite brands!

When shopping for supplements, buy the very best quality you can afford. There is a difference between mass-produced synthetic vitamins that have been sitting on the shelf at the drugstore for six months and smaller-batch brands made with fine organic ingredients that come from whole foods. To tailor a supplement and superfood plan specific to you, however, it’s a good idea for you to see a holistic doctor or naturopath for a customized plan.

PROBIOTICS

Let’s be real here: Sometimes your friendly bacteria could use a hand, such as when you don’t make the best food choices thanks to circumstances or desire, or you need to take drugs (maybe antibiotics) for an illness, or you undergo treatment like chemotherapy. That’s why the first foundational I recommend is a good probiotic supplement—a supplement that contains beneficial bacteria by the billions and can help restore the balance in your intestines. Literally meaning “for life,” probiotics are supplements containing zillions of dormant little bacteria, and they are taken to maintain or restore the body’s proper bacterial balance.

You’ll notice that the probiotics shelf is a big one in most health food stores today—they’ve caught on. How can you choose among all the different brands and claims? What you want are bacteria that give off lactic acid as a by-product of their metabolism. (Trust me, this is a good thing.) Lots of beneficial bacteria do this, including various strains of bifidobacteria, boulardii, acidophilus, and lactobacillus. Some brands have fructo-oligosaccharides, or FOS, added to them—these are natural sugars that help feed the beneficial bacteria and get them started in your small intestine. You can also find brands with added vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other supplements.

No matter what brand you choose, look for one high in lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. The count should be in the billions (yes, billions with a b). In addition, choose those that are vegetarian and come in an enteric-coated capsule. The coating keeps the bacteria safely inside until the capsule leaves your stomach and enters your small intestine. Today most probiotics brands don’t need to be refrigerated—good for me, as I travel a lot. Dr. Ohhira’s is one such great brand. I also like Jarrow Formulas and PB8 brands. For just keeping things in balance, one or two capsules a day should be enough. If your intestinal flora are way off, you may need to take larger daily doses, possibly for several weeks or longer. Consult with a naturopath or integrative MD if you sense a bigger imbalance. They can order a comprehensive digestive stool analysis to see if you have an imbalance between good and bad bacteria.

A NOTE ON
antibiotics

Sometimes it just can’t be avoided—an antibiotic becomes necessary when you have an infection that just won’t go away on its own. The problem is, many antibiotics are overprescribed and become ineffective against the bugs they’re supposed to fight and kill. Ever-stronger versions are required, and meanwhile those buggies react by creating new, stronger forms of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.” If you do have to take a course of antibiotics, take all the pills. Because antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria in your intestines, when you’re done with the prescription, follow up with probiotics to restore the balance of good bacteria.

SUPERFOODS AND
PROTEIN POWDERS

A superfood is one especially rich in phytochemicals (natural and unique plant chemicals that have disease-fighting properties). Phytochemicals can reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer, reduce inflammation, strengthen the immune system, and in general contribute to a healthier more fab you.

Blue-green algae (BGA) harvested from Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon are a top superfood. E3Live (e3live.com) is a great brand. BGA provide a boost in energy and mental clarity, rebuild cells, and bind free radicals; they’re also high in vitamins and minerals.

Spirulina is a type of algae that’s high in chlorophyll and protein. Nutrex Hawaii (nutrex-hawaii.com) has a good spirulina called Hawaiian Pacifica.

Chlorella is another type of algae that helps raise pH levels, normalize bowel function, build your immune system, and bind heavy metals and radiation. If you have elevated levels of mercury (possibly from amalgam dental filings) or other environmental toxins, make chlorella your new BFF. Check out the Sun Chlorella brand at sunchlorellausa.com.

Green powders usually contain mostly dehydrated cereal grasses, such as wheatgrass and kamut. They should be used as a supplement, not in place of juicing. I love Amazing Grass brand (amazinggrass.com). You can toss a spoonful into your juice or a smoothie. Hemp powder is high in protein, and raw cacao and carob powders add antioxidants and flavor to smoothies. Nutiva (nutiva.com) has great hemp powder and seeds. Vegan triathlete Brendan Brazier’s Vega brand (sequelnaturals.com/vega) is another high-quality protein powder choice. So is Sun Warrior Protein (sunwarrior.com). They also make a green powder.

Browse superfood products made by Navitas (navitasnaturals.com). The company’s maca powder is great for the adrenals and sex drive. I won’t tell you how I know it helps. … MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) is a safe, natural, side-effect-free remedy for many types of pain and inflammatory conditions. MSM, also known as the beauty mineral, helps to create thick hair, clear soft skin, and strong nails. It also helps the tissues become more permeable, allowing nutrients to absorb and pass through while toxins move out. Rich’s brand makes a good product.

DON’T WORRY,
B HAPPY!

There’s only one vitamin you really need when you switch to an animal-free diet: B₁₂. That’s because vitamin B₁₂ isn’t found in plant food. It’s naturally produced by microorganisms in soil and water that hasn’t been contaminated or chlorinated. Animals eat unwashed plants and soil particles and drink water containing the organisms that make B₁₂, but we don’t. Since you can’t make it in your body and you don’t get it from a vegan diet, you need to supplement. Just 2.4 micrograms per day will ensure you are getting what you need. It is the smallest daily requirement of any supplement.

Many nutritionists recommend taking a complete B vitamin supplement, which contains other members of the B family, such as folic acid (crucial for women of childbearing age). If you prefer to take only B₁₂, sublingual lozenges dissolve under your tongue and the B₁₂ gets absorbed straight into your bloodstream. Whichever way you go, choose a product that contains the B₁₂ in the form of methylcobalamin—you absorb this best.

VITAMIN D

You need vitamin D for strong bones and a strong immune system. There’s plenty of evidence that vitamin D plays a powerful role in preventing cancer and heart disease. But if you’re like most Americans, chances are that you’re on the low side for vitamin D because we don’t spend enough time outdoors. In fact, at least half of all adults don’t get enough. And according to a 2009 article in the medical journal Pediatrics, more than 6 million American kids—about one in five—are deficient in D.

VITAMIN D with Frank Lipman, MD

Although it’s called a vitamin, vitamin D is more like a hormone, produced in the body, with far-reaching effects, influencing metabolic pathways, cellular functions, and the expression of myriad genes. By contrast, vitamins cannot be produced by your body. You get them from dietary sources.

Judging by what I see in my practice and speaking with colleagues around the world, we are facing a major vitamin D deficiency epidemic. It is now believed that vitamin D deficiency is the most common medical condition in the world, affecting over one billion people, with potentially grave consequences. It is a silent epidemic, because many people with low vitamin D levels remain asymptomatic.

Some of the more common symptoms of vitamin D deficiency are:

• Fatigue

• General muscle pain and weakness

• Tender sternum when you press on it

• Muscle cramps

• Joint pain

• Chronic pain

• Weight gain

• Restless sleep

• Poor concentration

• Headaches

Like all steroid hormones, vitamin D is involved in making hundreds of enzymes and proteins, which are crucial for preserving health and preventing disease. Virtually every tissue and cell in your body has a vitamin D receptor. Vitamin D has the ability to interact with and affect more than two thousand genes in the body. It enhances muscle strength, builds bone, has anti-inflammatory effects, and bolsters the immune system. It helps the action of insulin and has anti-cancer activity. Thus, vitamin D deficiency has been shown to play a role in almost every major disease, including:

• Osteoporosis (thin, brittle bones that break easily) and osteopenia (bones that are thinner than normal for your age)

• Seventeen varieties of cancer (including breast, prostate, and colon)

• Heart disease

• High blood pressure

• Obesity

• Metabolic syndrome (prediabetes) and diabetes

• Autoimmune diseases

• Multiple sclerosis

• Rheumatoid arthritis

• Infertility

• Depression

• Seasonal affective disorder

• Alzheimer’s disease

• Fibromyalgia

• Chronic pain

• Psoriasis

The only test that can diagnose vitamin D deficiency is a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25 OH vitamin D) blood test. Unfortunately, some doctors order the wrong test, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. In fact, a common cause of high 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D is a low 25(OH)D or vitamin D deficiency. So when doctors see the 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D is normal or high, and tell their patients that they are okay, the patients are often vitamin D deficient. If you don’t want to go through your doctor, ZRT Laboratory (zrtlab.com) offers a blood spot test that you can order.

Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In fact, this is such an efficient system that most of us make approximately 20,000 units of vitamin D after only twenty minutes of summer sun without suntan lotion (or clothes!). That’s a hundred times more than the RDA! There must be a good reason why we make so much in so little time.

So why are we so scared to get some sun? For about the last twenty-five years, doctors (dermatologists in particular) have demonized sun exposure and repeatedly told us it is bad for us and causes cancer. But in the last few years, numerous studies have shown that modest exposure to sunlight helps the body produce the vitamin D it needs to keep bones healthy and protect against cancer, including skin cancer. Talk about a free natural treatment! Though repeated sunburns—in children and very fairskinned people—have been linked to melanoma, there is no credible scientific evidence that moderate sun exposure causes it. We evolved in the sun; we were made to get some sun, not to live our lives indoors and slather on sunscreen every time we go outside. Sunscreens, even weak ones, almost completely block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D. Also, you don’t generate vitamin D when sitting behind a glass window, whether in your car or at home, because the UV rays can’t penetrate glass to generate vitamin D in your skin. As a general rule, if you aren’t vitamin D–deficient, about twenty minutes a day of sun in the spring, summer, and fall on your face and arms or legs without sunscreen is adequate. It doesn’t matter which part of the body you expose to the sun. Many people want to protect their face, so just don’t put sunscreen on the other exposed parts for those twenty minutes.

If you live north of 37 degrees latitude (approximately a line drawn horizontally connecting Norfolk, Virginia, to San Francisco, California), sunlight is not sufficient to create vitamin D in your skin in the winter months, even if you are sitting in the sun in a bathing suit on a warm January day! The farther you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D.

You cannot get your requirements easily from your diet, because few foods naturally contain vitamin D. Some oily fish like wild salmon, mackerel, tuna and sardines, sun-dried shiitake mushrooms, and egg yolks are the best sources. Cod liver oil also contains vitamin D, as do fortified milk, orange juice, and cereal. But to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from food, you would have to eat two or three portions of wild salmon every day or drink twenty cups of fortified milk.

Besides the sun, the other reliable source of vitamin D is supplements, but taking the right amount is crucial. Most doctors tend to underdose. I prefer vitamin D₃. If you are vegan, you can use vitamin D₂ instead, which (unlike vitamin D₃) does not come from an animal source. However, it is not as biologically active or as effective as D₃.

How much vitamin D you need varies with age, body weight, percent of body fat, latitude, skin coloration, season of the year, use of sunblock, individual variation in sun exposure, and—probably—how ill you are. As a general rule, old people need more than young people, big people need more than little people, fat people need more than skinny people, dark-skinned people need more than fair-skinned people, northern people need more than southern people, winter people need more than summer people, sunblock lovers need more than sunblock haters, sun-phobes need more than sun worshipers, and ill people may need more than well people.

If your vitamin D blood level is above 45ng/ml and for maintenance, I recommend 2,000 to 4,000 IU daily, depending on the factors discussed above, if you know them. In other words if you are older, larger, living in the northern latitudes during the winter, are not getting sun, and have dark skin, I recommend the higher maintenance dose.

If your vitamin D blood level is 30 to 45 ng/ml, I recommend you correct it with 5,000 IU of vitamin D₃ a day for three months under a doctor’s supervision and then recheck your blood levels.

If your blood level is less than 30 ng/ml, I recommend you correct it with 10,000 IU of vitamin D₃ a day under a doctor’s supervision and then recheck your blood levels after three months. It usually takes a good six months to optimize your vitamin D levels if you’re deficient. Once this occurs, you can lower the dose to the maintenance dose of 2,000 to 4,000 IU a day.

It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight exposure: Your body will self-regulate and only make what it needs. Although very rare, it is possible to overdose and become toxic with supplementation. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and is therefore stored in the body for longer periods of time. If you’re taking 5,000 IU or more daily, you should have your blood levels monitored approximately every three months.

Frank Lipman, MD, is the author of Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Start Living Again and founder of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center.

MULTI-SUPPLEMENTS

Aside from being careful to get enough vitamin B₁₂ and vitamin D, you don’t really have to worry about the other vitamins and minerals when you eat a mostly raw, vegan diet. Or do you? Stuff happens, and sometimes you can’t eat the way you want to. And even when you can, other factors, like illness, food allergies, drug treatment, or even stress, mean that you might need extra on some vitamins and minerals.

To be on the safe side, I suggest taking a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement. Look for a brand that’s designed for adults and has at least 100 percent of the RDA for vitamin B₁₂ if you are not also taking any B₁₂ or B complex supplements. Make sure that it’s gluten-free and vegetarian. Quality counts in supplements—but that doesn’t always translate into price. Expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. If you can’t afford a pricey daily supplement, there are high-quality affordable brands of multivitamins on the market that make it possible for you to never skip a dose.

OMEGA-3
SUPPLEMENTS

As I explained in chapter 4, your body needs essential fatty acids such as omega-3s just as much as it needs vitamins. And just as I suggest taking vitamin supplements to be absolutely certain you’re getting enough of what you need, I also suggest taking a daily omega-3 supplement. Look for one that gets the omega-3s from algae—that way you get a pure, animal-free product (no fish oil). I prefer enteric-coated capsules that don’t dissolve until they enter your small intestine—this helps avoid stomach upset and burpiness.

Remember that the capsules are supplements, not substitutes. You still want to have plenty of natural omega-3 sources in your diet, including nuts, seeds, beans, and vegetable oils (especially flaxseed). How much should you take? Capsules range from 200 to 1,000 mg. Generally speaking 1,000 mg (1 gram) a day should be enough. Larger doses can thin your blood a bit, which might be bad for you.

A great vegetarian supplement to add to your wellness arsenal is a product called Life’s DHA Omega 3 (learn more at lifesdha.com). Dr. Mehmet Oz first introduced me to this product when he made a house call to our Brooklyn pad to shoot my Oprah episode. The handsome and helpful doc arrived bearing gifts of a green drink, Life’s DHA supplements, and a pair of scrubs (which I still write in—so comfy!).

DIGESTIVE ENZYMES

I suggest taking daily digestive enzyme supplements. They take some of the load off your digestive system and let your body divert that energy to other purposes. And they make sure you have the enzymes you need, when you need them, to digest your food thoroughly and get maximum nutrition from it.

Add a digestive enzyme to your diet, especially when you’re eating animal products and/or cooked food. This will aid your body in proper digestion and elimination. Once we heat chow over 118 degrees, it loses its vitamins, minerals, and—most importantly—enzymes. Sooooo chow some enzymes to help everybody out!

You have a lot of choices when it comes to digestive enzymes—so many that this is one of the more confusing shelves at the health food store. Some supplements have ten or more enzymes in them. When making your choice, look for a supplement that has at least three kinds of enzymes: proteases, which help digest protein, amylases, which help digest carbohydrates, and lipases, which help digest fats. Some experts think you also need cellulase, an enzyme that helps break down insoluble fiber from cellulose, which is the main component of the cell walls in plants. Look for a supplement where the enzymes are all plant-based, since this is closer to what your body naturally produces. My favorites are sold at the Hippocrates Health Institute (hippocratesinst.org). They’re called LifeGive HHI-Zymes, and they come in a bucket of 650 caps. Enzymetica brand (enzymedica.com) has several fantastic products. Whatever brand you go with, take one or two capsules with each meal.

ALOE VERA

Last but not least, I’ve been sucking on Aloe Life Herbal Aloe Detox Plus Formula (aloelife.com). I put a capful or two in a liter of water and drink it all morning. Aloe is more than just a great sunburn remedy. In fact, numerous studies have shown aloe vera to be a general boost for your overall immune system.

Research has shown three major areas where aloe is effective: anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral. The juice is said to soothe digestive tract irritations such as colitis, ulcers, and irritable bowel syndrome, according to a paper in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Society.

In one study, asthmatic subjects took aloe orally for six months, and nearly half of them reported a reduction or elimination of asthma symptoms. Aloe also contains protein, calcium, magnesium, zinc, vitamins A, B₁₂, and E, and essential fatty acids; it’s naturally rich in calcium, vitamin C, natural enzymes, and germanium, a mineral that may help people with immunodeficiency diseases, chronic pain, and heart and circulatory problems.

Natural anti-inflammatory substances and analgesics are present in the gel-like yellow sap of aloe’s plump leaves, and that glorious goo can reduce swelling, pain, and skin irritation.

FULL SPECTRUM

For those of you who have never downed any kind of vitamin other than a chewable Fred Flintstone, the previous list might seem pretty long. Yet I’ve known people who take a separate carry-on when flying just to carry their vitamins, powders, potions, and pills! That’s overdoing it. The CSD is super-healthy, and the aforementioned give your system an extra boost. My feeling is if you buy the best, most high-quality vegetarian supplements from reliable sources, they can play a part in your ongoing vitality, shimmer, and spark!

testimonial: Miri E.

I’ ve been following Kris Carr and the Crazy Sexy lifestyle for about two years. I could go on and on about the physical benefits of this amazing lifestyle: clear skin, tons of energy and focus, my immune system is unbelievable, my blood tests are all fine, I’m strong and happy, and much more. For me, besides feeling in credible physically, the CSD minimized the monster in the big C and made it like a shadow on the wall. Kris Carr and the CSD lifestyle have given me what no one else could: empowerment! This lifestyle taught me how to live and be a better me. It shows me that I have choices and options; that I do not need to live with fear anymore. It taught me that I have a tremendous inner strength, and gave me lots of tools to live my life to the fullest. It taught me that canSer is not just about life and death, it’s about doing and being my best in between; it taught me to be happy regardless. I learned that I can control what goes inside my body. I choose the best in every single bite and every single thought.

CHAPTER IN REVIEW

REMEMBER:

Food is the best source of nutrients, but we can also use a little help from our friends: supplements and superfoods.

Probiotics are great for balancing good bacteria—look for one high in lactobacillus and bifidobacterium.

Superfoods are rich in phytochemicals that reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer, reduce inflammation, strengthen the immune system, and in general contribute to a healthier, more fab you.

Make sure you’re getting enough B₁₂.

Get your vitamin D from a supplement when you can’t get it from the sun.

Give your brain a boost with omegas.

Digestive enzymes help what? Digestion!

Aloe vera is anti-bad-stuff in a big way.