The TRUTH about Supplements!

according to recent estimates if you're an adult in the united states there is a 77 chance that you take some form of dietary supplement be that a powder a pill a gummy a chewable or anything of the like we know a lot about you adults of america a lot of people are spending a lot of money on things like powdered green shakes that are supposed to help you on your way to the my body is a temple lifestyle unfortunately these products are often not all that they're shaken up to be [Music] here in the 21st century we're pretty used to hearing talk about all sorts of nutrients companies are even legally obligated to provide detailed information about precisely what is in the food that they're selling pick a random person off the street and i bet you they can tell you something about how to get more iron in your diet or vitamin c into your blood veins blood veins and you know what they might even know about why you would want to do those things as well b12 eating primrose oil willow bark magnesium no thank you sure really good for hangovers okay i'll take one but not so long ago at the beginning of the 20th century nobody would have had a hot clue about what you were talking about if you told them to get outside and soak up some of that vitamin d to be like vitamin d how about you vitamin f off that's because vitamins weren't discovered until about a century ago when polish biochemist cassimir funk started looking into how to treat the disease barry berry is that guy's name actually casimir funk because that's unreal what a badass name his research led him to propose that this and many other diseases at the time were caused by deficiencies in specific dietary components or vitamins then in 1926 dutch chemist baron janssen a much less cool named person isolated the first vitamin which was soon after named vitamin b1 also known as theamine these discoveries spurred on a frenzy of studies that grew into a new way of understanding health and well-being one that was centered around finding the right mixture of nutrients to keep the body happy now at first a lot of this research was focused on preventing deficiency diseases like for example scurvy which results from a deficiency of vitamin c the field became especially relevant when in world war ii the us military was faced with a weakened populace after years of malnutrition from the great depression the us poured tons of money into research to try and find better ways to get these young men ready for battle by stuffing them with vitamins and minerals it's like when you're violently hungover and you know that nothing's gonna take you back to reality but you still chug that bottle of gatorade like it's the last thing on earth that was a little too specific i think so in large part the whole field of nutrition was born because we were literally starving however nowadays we have more of a food waste problem than a scarcity problem in the u.s up to 40 percent of the food that is produced every year that's right we've got more food than we know what to do with and yet the majority of americans are now consuming daily supplements at a record level so much so that the supplement industry is now worth over 150 billion dollars and that's expected to double by the end of this decade now if you haven't already watched our meal kits video in there we talk about what some doctors have been calling the chronic illness epidemic basically our modern lifestyle and diet is such that younger and younger people are getting sicker and sicker with things like diabetes and arthritis this is just another layer on the cake with their crippling fear of an unlivable future and constant over stimulation from their smartphones we're millennials we're allowed to joke about it as just one example in 2019 only 1 in 10 americans consume the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables that's not even talking about all the sugar that they're eating instead as the pendulum swings to the other side of the spectrum we have seen the resurgence of wellness culture and yes you heard right wellness culture is not a recent phenomenon but rather a comeback of a movement that got rolling in the late 1800s that's right people eating granola and kale have been around for a very long time just like now people back then were apparently a little anxious about how industrialization was harming both body and mind a subculture arose devoted to addressing health more holistically by doing things like shunning processed foods and going on health retreats usually outdoors in beautiful places where people could get naked and have sex with each other oh no sorry i'm describing a commune i got confused and this movement really defined what it means to be healthy it's no longer sufficient to just not be sick but there was a real sense that in order to be truly healthy you had to be constantly on an involving journey to achieve your optimal health over time now while today's wellness culture stems from a very similar place old-school wellness culture was centered around the belief that the path to success was through bodily control and self-discipline now while this sentiment is still definitely present in wellness culture 2.0 there's also the modern convenience culture that is literally everywhere and this is where powdered greens come in now we're picking on powdered greens specifically because that's kind of the latest iteration of this trend but this applies to almost all supplements that you see promoted on your instagram news feed and facebook and billboards and basically everywhere else on earth so what is the deal with companies like athletic greens super green tonic and beyond greens other than the fact that most of them include the word green well they offer the perfect blend of wellness and convenience one simple drink that has everything that you need to become your best self now if you take a look at the ingredients list on athletic greens it is pretty hard to deny that the drink is absolutely packed with a variety of vitamins and other healthy sound and stuff you got alfalfa broccoli spinach green tea uh kelp papaya milk thistle and a whole host of other nutrient dense foods all of this is then dried and processed into a fine powder that you can then drink or snort through your nostrils i'm just kidding do not do that second bit you you're supposed to drink it the numbers on their nutritional value chart are actually insane like look at this one in one scoop of athletic greens they have 1100 of the recommended daily intake of vitamin b7 now i'm not a nutritionist but this feels a little overkill looking at just the ingredients it's not hard to see why people are latching on to this bandwagon they seem to consistently receive high or at least decent ratings from dietitians wellness coaches and lay people alike they're also frequently listed as one of the best brands to support within this business model which raises the question what is the catch because of course you're watching a future-proof video there's always a catch and i'm sorry speaking of catches if you're here and you're enjoying the video please consider subscribing we're on our way to 100 000 subscribers and you clicking that button is just one more step towards it so thank you so much for being here back to the video i'm so sorry for interrupting you now i know we're on thin ice here because as we mentioned statistically the majority of people watching this video probably take some kind of supplement but bear with us for a minute there are of course circumstances in which people with specific health needs will require supplements to live a healthy lifestyle but for most people your green powder drink isn't going to help you now before you click away please just let me explain as a part of the growing wellness movement powdered greens are supposed to be a proponent of holistic health the idea is that health is an ongoing dedication to daily practices that support all aspects of your health not just the physical holistic health or real health or whatever you want to call it is about getting outdoors regularly you know sleeping properly eating a balanced diet maintaining strong relationships with your loved ones and all that stuff that we understand fundamentally that we need to do but are just too lazy to do it but then suddenly out of nowhere these supplement companies swoop in with an easy out watch out watch out watch out they say hey we all know that this stuff is important and you should totally do it later on but right now in this moment just drink this green water and you'll actually be 1100 more healthy than if you didn't so you know do all that other stuff but drink the drink now now not all companies are saying that and they do acknowledge that this is just one part of a larger solution but the message is always buy this product and you will be healthy and there is never a silver bullet for any solution as you may know if you've watched this channel for a while one of the not at all surprising things that we learned while researching for this video is that professionals within the health world seem to look at these supplements as a kind of okay thing to do if you don't have any other means of getting nutrition what they do recommend is eating food the old-fashioned way and this is the fundamental difference between health and nutrition as michael pollan talks about in his book in defense of food the nutrition focused industrialized food systems of today are absolutely obsessed with micromanaging the individual components of the food we eat carbohydrates sugars fats and vitamins of a particular food are over emphasized over the fact that food itself is way more complex than that and that complex organism is what truly makes us healthy it turns out that in some cases when you pulverize a plant and process it into a juice or a fine powder it loses some of its health qualities for example fiber which according to healthline is one of the main reasons that whole plants are good for you and you're missing out on all of that if you drink your fruits and veggies through a straw like who drinks out of a straw nowadays come on now oh yeah oh yeah another fun fact there is about a one to one ratio of human cells to bacteria cells in your human body not trying to make things gross but you are essentially half bacteria you disgust me so if you want to thrive you have to take care of your better bacterial half because it's doing things like helping you digest your food and regulating your immune system and so it is not at all surprising that supplement companies are now flaunting the fact that their products now contain probiotics they know that we know that we need bacteria in order to survive so they throw in a couple to sweeten the deal but here's the thing athletic green says that it contains two species of bacteria however as per harvard school of public health probiotics fall under the category of supplements and not food they are not regulated by the drug and food administration this means that at least in the u.s a supplement company whoever they might be who voluntarily discloses their information on these things may not actually be including the amounts listed on the label or even guarantee that the bacteria are alive and active at the time of use now i'm not trying to come out here and say that what we've discovered is particularly new people have been skeptical about supplements for a long time but if we have known that they're a less than honest solution to our health needs then why are there so many companies touting their latest concoction as the next major breakthrough the answer is of course can we get a drum roll does anyone know we'll take an answer from the audience what is it yes it's money [Applause] the idea of cooking your own meals at home using whole vegetables and going out for hikes outside with your family is not going to get you on the stock exchange a healthy human is sadly not good for the economy but a nutrient-deprived human with an addiction to social media and access to free overnight shipping is very good for the economy and these nutritional smoke and mirrors is coming from one of the leading top tier green drink brands out there but sadly it gets a heck of a lot worse wellness culture definitely has a dark side including a very seedy underbelly of scammers fake health gurus have been ripping people off with false claims of magic cures for as long as there's been magic cures and honestly low quality supplements are just a modern iteration of that with maybe slightly less magic now athletic greens does use actual vegetables to make their green dust which is better of course than the scammers out there but they're still using the classic playbook that every supplement company from the beginning of time has relied on the idea that your health can be improved easily and simply by buying a specific product the reality is that if you want to get healthy or live a better life you just have to do the work there's no shake and chug solution out there in our uber eats video we talked about how the meal delivery service is sort of separating people from the food that they eat and how important it is for people to eat a proper meal with the people that they love and sadly i think that these supplement companies is just another step away from having a real connection with your food and the people that you're sharing it with these products are intentionally designed for people like us who are too busy or unmotivated to do the work necessary to eat the right kinds of food to keep us healthy which is fair we all need a little help here and there when life gets crazy but let's not stop there if we all just sit back for a second and maybe do a bit of meal planning i think we would all be a lot better off and sadly a green drink made from a powder is not the thing that's going to make us healthy so if you have an opinion or an experience that you think would be helpful to this conversation leave it down in the comments below and if you like this video make sure that you have literally liked it and maybe consider subscribing to the channel if you want to see more content from us thank you for watching we'll see you in the next one

Channel: Future Proof

Views: 623,765

Keywords: supplements, vitamins, minerals, vitamins and minerals, health, healthy, health and wellness, wellness, gym, gym culture, gym motivation, healthy eating, healthy habits, vitamin d, vitamin c, dietary supplement (industry), diet, athletic greens, vega, protein

Id: BlBb2P2_3GY

Length: 15min 42sec (942 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 20 2022