So.. in my quest for ultimate health I found those Vega shakes at whole foods... Vega Whole Food Optomizer..

Looked really good, heard some good things about it and looked on there website it looked good..

So I started having it every morning.. for a few months..

I started having terrible gas during the day... non stop really bad smelling gas... for some reason I never made the connection with the Vega.. I think because ive had some digestive issues over the years I assumed it was something else going on with me.

Anyway, after a few months of this finally I started to make the connection, everytime I had my vega shake I would get really bad gas that day.. I looked it up online and apparently a lot of other people have had the same experience and worse, some people getting really ill some even ending up in the ER after drinking this stuff??

Then I also realized.. I guess I did before but never fully, its got Iron in it as well, 18mg which is A LOT.. especially for a grown man like myself who already eats lots of meat. Vega is designed for vegans who dont eat meat and thus need more iron, I on the other hand have been eating a lot of red meat etc the past few months and then taking 18mg of iron in addition.. I probably have iron overload in my body right now.


So now im freaked out.. ive read about how unhealthy it is to have excess iron in the system.. its really bad for men because we dont lose iron very well.. and its been linked with cancer, heart disease, impotence, diabetes all that fun stuff..


So.. im frustrated that I paid good money and used a product faithfully for months that all along was harming me.


Any advice on what to do about the Iron situation?? I feel like I was getting WAYY too much iron for a while.. apparently the only way to reduce the iron is to donate blood. I suppose I should get my levels tested.. and im gonna try and cut out/cut back on red meat and iron rich foods for a while.. also, hopefully my digestion will go back to normal after all this crap.

Helllpppp...

Green tea will chelate iron. The best chelator of iron that I know is IP6. Read about it on this forum.

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- Jim

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." - Albert Einstein

Ah cool.. thanks for the heads up.. looks like ill be drinking some green tea then Yea I read a little bit about that earlier how the tannins in tea block iron absorption.. didnt know green tea could chelate iron too.. normally ive heard that tannins are bad.. so I tried to stay away from them but clearly they might be good in this situation.

my fear was that, reading about how excess iron gets deposited in organs/brain and causes damage etc.. but I wasnt sure if the iron could be removed once its already been deposited into tissues/organs.. I suppose it can though.

Thanks for that info jfh our daughter has borderline Iron in her blood and has made 2% more than last year, so I will tell her about the things you suggested.

moxsum I hope those work for you.

This article says too be careful not to take too much green tea.. like in supplement form;

https://www.newscientist.com/article/...uantities.html

I will be sticking with green tea (in tea form)

Anyway, what ive learned over the past two years is, often times people (myself included) in search of optimum health sometimes end up making decisions that actually harm them.. taking too many vitamins/supps., taking the wrong kind, unintended side effects, stress over being healthy/ill, etc.

I really believe everything we need is in food.. if you eat the right stuff.. People say, you cant get everything you need on the standard american diet (SAD) etc. but many health conscious people DO eat a good diet, I think often times supplementing with synthetic vitamins etc is actually harmful.. if you feel you need more nutrients - why not use nutrient dense/rich foods instead from good sources.. and superfoods etc.

And multivitamins/etc are crap imo.. like the Vega stuff I was taking.. its supposedly 'whole food' etc.. but you get 100% RDI of almost all vitamins in one dose.. clearly thats not healthy.. if im getting 100% RDI of all my vitamins in one meal then im overloading my system the rest of the day. Also getting all of that stuff in one go is kind of a shock to the body - nutrients should be dispersed slowly through out the day, taking a pill or powder that just dumps it all at once is too much I think.. probably stresses out the liver/kidneys.

From now on im sticking with good diet, herbal tea's and tinctures when needed, exercise, adequate rest, stress reduction = healthy me

BTW- todays my first day NOT using Vega and I havent had any gas or discomfort.. cant believe I was drinking that crap for months feeling gassy/bloated /odd stools and thinking there was something wrong with me haha

OK y'all tannin is not bad for you, except in large quantity. It is very drying. The reason you want to be careful about when you take tea, green or otherwise, is because tannin interferes with protein digestion. This is also a good reason to avoid ordering iced or hot tea with your meals. In supplements, you should watch for it, because it will interfere with the absorption of some herbs.

Otherwise tea, especially green, is very good for you.

I think what may have been causing me all the gas etc. was Inulin.. the Vega shake contains a fair amount of FOS Inulin (list of ingredients https://myvega.com/sites/myvega.com/f...al_1039-US.pdf)

After some more research.. it turns out inulin is a prebiotic that fuels bacterial growth in the large intestine.. some people say it fuels only the good bacteria but apparently its not true and it is just a good fuel for bacteria so it can feed good and bad.. and it can feed yeast.. basically its a carb taht doenst get digested by your stomach or small intestine but gets digested in the large intestine..

Definitely not what I wanted.. I sort of had an idea prebiotics werent a good idea but put my trust in the product. I feel like it off balanced my body/bacteria a bit.. hopefully things will go back to balance after stopping this stuff.. already feel a lot better.

All bacteria love sugar. Even cancer loves sugar. Inulin is a great fuel for the probiotics. Don't worry about the other bacteria. The good bacteria will form an acid that will keep the yeast in check. Also, the good bacteria will procreate very quickly and the yeast won't have too much of a chance to attach to the places where the bacteria attach. Another fuel for the good bacteria is silica. It breaks down the silica from fiber. It breaks it down into sugar. That's why inulin is also so great. It already contains a small amount of sugar.