Vitamin Supplements

• Whether your family is vegetarian or non-vegetarians, I still recommend that everybody in the family take a multivitamin supplement. Not only will our children get additional vitamins and minerals, but most importantly, since plant foods do no contain adequate amounts of vitamin B12, we must make sure children take in enough. Today’s vegetation is washed of bacterial and insect residue, removing the B12 that may have been present if the food was collected in the wild.

– Disease-Proof Your Child (2005) by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; page 168

• Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin. It should be considered an important hormone produced by the body from sunshine, but in today’s world most people do not get sufficient sunshine to assure optimal levels. Due to depletion of the ozone layer, we should avoid the sun more and wear sunscreens to protect us from aging of the skin and skin cancer, so a regular source of vitamin D can be important. Vitamin D is added to cow’s milk, but soy milk is fortified with vitamin D [as are hazelnut milk and hemp milk] and vitamin B12 is also a good option. Some orange juices are also fortified with vitamin B12, calcium, and vitamin D and are also a good source of these nutrients, so a multivitamin is not absolutely essential if the diet is otherwise excellent.

– Disease-Proof Your Child (2005) by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; page 169