When I hear that a friend’s pediatrician recommends Flintstone vitamins to their kids my stomach cringes, much in the same way that poor kid’s stomach will after eating that crap. Parents just want to do what is best for their kids so when they hear their doctor’s recommend or they see on the bottle “#1 Pediatrician Recommended” what are they supposed to think? That those “vitamins” must be the best. Unfortunately, they are far from that, I would go as far to say they are the worst. So why are they recommended? I have no idea.
Most doctors in this country receive about 2.5 hours of nutritional training in all their schooling. That’s right. Just 2.5 hours. I have spent more time conducting research for this article.
What exactly is in Flintstone “vitamins” (I use that word loosely, as the better term would be candy)? After we walk through all the junk in Flintstones we are going to discuss why then on God’s green earth would Dr’s recommend this garbage. Here is the Ingredients list:
FLINTSTONES Gummies Directions: Children 2 to 3 years of age: Chew one gummy daily.
INGREDIENTS: Glucose Syrup, Sucrose, Gelatin, Water; Less Than 2% Of: Artificial Flavors, Ascorbic Acid, Bees Wax, Carnauba Wax, Citric Acid, D-Biotin, D-Calcium Pantothenate, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Red #40, FD&C Yellow #6, Folic Acid, Potassium Iodide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vegetable Oil (coconut or palm), Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol), Vitamin E Acetate, Zinc Sulfate.
See all those dyes and artificial flavoring? In a recent article published in Parents Magazine, The Food-dye Blues, artificial colors and artificial flavorings were under scrutiny for causing and/or contributing to ADD and ADHD. Studies done both abroad and nationally are starting to confirm what parents are finding; that when they eliminate artificial colors and flavors from their children’s diets their attention, attitudes and health become better.
Artificial colors are derived from petroleum and coal tar. Yes, you heard me. Petroleum. Coal tar. And we are feeding this to our children. About eight of the artificial colors this country still uses has been banned in other countries. Red #40, Yellow #5, Blue #1, among others are replaced with natural food colorings such as beetroots and paprika. So tell me, why are artificial colors and flavors added to most children’s vitamins? Specifically why are the “#1Recommended byPediatrician” vitamins, Flintstones?
I decided to conduct my own experiment on the nutritional value of Flintstones vs other brand vitamins. A true vitamin, or supplement, should have live enzymes in them, meaning that the integrity of the fruit and vegetable cells in the supplement should still be in tact, as if you were to eat that actual food. What happens to fruits and vegetables when you leave them out? Because they are alive, bacteria and mold start to eat the food. For a good supplement, that should also happen. You should expect to see mold.
Left to right: Flintstones Gummies, Centrum flavor bursts, Shaklee’s Incredivites, Max and Ruby, Yummy Bears. This was day one. For each group the one on the left I put directly on the paper, the one on the right I put in my mouth for five seconds to help it to start breaking down. For the Centrum one I had to bite it in half since it was coated in a candy shell. Notice how for the grouping in the middle, the Incredivites started to oxidize immediately. The rest stayed exactly the same.
This next photo is two weeks in. The Flintstones Vitamin, the Centrum Bursts, and the organic Yummy Bears are all the same, not one is breaking down, not one is full of life giving nutrients, just some over cooked goop. The Ruby ones turned black but that was it, no molding. The Shaklee Incredivites started molding just a few days in. They are molding like you would expect a fruit or a vegetable would, because it is the only vitamin of the group that is cold pressed to keep the nutrients. The others, as you can see, clearly are not.
So you can see why I get upset when Doctors recommend something that pretty much is void of nutritional value. You might ask why we need to give a child a food supplement to begin with, and that is a great question which will be answered fully in a coming article, but the gist is this, children can be picky eaters and even for those who are great eaters our food is just not as nutritionally sound as it was just 50 years ago. One thing Pediatricians have gotten right is recommending that children take a vitamin, what they haven’t figured out yet are the best ones. I believe they are recommending them because they just don’t know better. They have other things on their minds. But now you know so you can choose wisely.
If you are interested in the Shaklee Incredivites for your children, you can learn more about and purchase them here. They are what I give to my two healthy, happy, and curious kiddos. I started using the Shaklee food supplements for myself years ago, I had such great results that I became a distributor, and from the above article, you can see why! It’s important to share the information about what we are putting into our families. We have a right to know what we are consuming.
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