Alain Braux nutritional therapy food allergies dietary healing desert gluten free fresh healthy

Yabadabadoo!!! Are you sure Flintstones Complete Vitamins are safe for your children? Part One

Think again. As you will learn in my ingredients analysis, this product is not only NOT helping your children, it will most likely affect their health in a negative way.

Kindly offered by our good chemist friends at global drug giant Bayer, this product is loaded with an assortment of chemicals that would make your high school chemistry teacher blush.

I will try to guide you through this chemical labyrinth and point out the potential harm created by synthetic ingredients that will not be used by our body, aluminum or coal tar-based artificial colorings, artificial sweeteners known to be excitotoxins (harmful to brain cells), almost natural sweeteners made from GE (genetically engineered) crops like corn as well as hydrogenated (why?) soybean oil (another GE crop) and other unsavory characters, some of which are already banned in Europe.

As a counterpoint and because I am a holistic chef and a nutrition therapist, I will offer you fresh, full of life food alternatives and recipes. Please remember that, if you can afford it, I would prefer you eat fresh, locally-grown, organic or non-GMO certified foods. I much prefer that you eat less volume of higher quality food than stuff yourself or your children with nutrient-dead processed food. All my food recommendations with reflect this philosophy.

Because this document is quite large, I will break it down into smaller sections that I will post once a week until we’re done.

Are you ready to take the trip to the dark underbelly of supplementation?

Nutrition Panel – Directly from the official website: http://www.flintstonesvitamins.com/en/products/Flintstones_Complete_warnings.php

Let’s take each ingredient one by one and analyze them:

Granulated Calcium Carbonate:

– Calcium Carbonate

Although I would prefer your child gets his calcium from food (milk, cheese and natural yogurt; green leafy vegetables such as broccoli and kale; from small bones from canned sardines, salmon and mackerel), calcium carbonate is an acceptable source because it contains a higher amount of elemental calcium than other forms. Never take more than 500 mg at once (or suffer constipation) and better taken with food. If your child has trouble absorbing this type of calcium, try calcium citrate, calcium gluconate or calcium lactate. Typically, any form of calcium is better absorbed when vitamin D is present.

Chef Alain’s Top Calcium Food Recommendations

– Plain Whole Yogurt 44.8% DV (daily value); Organic tofu 39.6% DV; Sesame seeds 35.1% DV; Sardines 34.6% DV; Goat milk 32.6% DV; Collard greens 26.6% DV; Spinach 24.4% DV; Raw or organic cheese 20.4% DV; Turnip greens 19.7% DV; Grass-fed whole cow’s milk 13.7%.

– Dextrose Monohydrate

Dextrose, dextrose monohydrate or anhydrous as well as dextrin and maltodextrin are extracted by genetically engineered microorganisms used for the saccharification of glucose/sucrose/fructose from GM corn, a suspected GM (genetically engineered) crop. Avoid.

– Sugar

There is not source specified for this sugar. Since corn or sugar beet are the cheapest form of sugar these days, it is safe to assume that either one might be the source of this sugar. Oh, by the way, both are suspected GM crops. Avoid.

Chef Alain’s Top Natural Sweeteners Recommendations

– Raw organic turbinado sugar; Raw organic agave nectar; raw local honey.

Chef Alain’s Recipe 

Brioche au Chocolat et à l’Orange en Casserole. Chocolate and Orange Brioche in French Oven Pot

This is a variation on an old brioche recipe I used to make for the Hotel du Pilon in the Alps in my youth.

Yield: One 2 lb loaf in a French oven pot (also known as a Dutch oven) or bread pan

Oven Temp: 350F

This recipe is GFCF

INGREDIENTS

2 oz Water, warm

2 tsp Turbinado sugar

2 tsp Instant baker’s yeast

2 oz Rice milk, warm

2 oz Olive oil

8 oz Eggs (around 4)

1 lb 2 oz Brown rice flour

4 oz Turbinado sugar

½ tsp Sea salt

¼ tsp Xanthan gum

The zest of 2 oranges

4 oz Bittersweet chocolate chips

PROCEDURE

1. Weigh the warm water, sugar and yeast in a small ceramic or glass bowl. Mix well. Cover. Place in a warm place. Let sit for about 15 minutes until your yeast becomes active and starts foaming.

2. Weigh the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup: warm rice milk (or water), oil, and eggs. Mix together.

3. Weigh the dry ingredients in your mixer’s bowl: brown rice flour, sugar, gum, orange zest and chocolate chips. Start mixing with the paddle attachment at low speed. Pour in your wet ingredients and mix until your dough reaches the “ear lobe” consistency. Scrape the sides of your bowl. Switch to medium speed and blend well for another minute. Do not overmix.

4. Line a 2 quart French oven pot or 2 pounds bread pan with aluminum foil, folding the excess foil over the edges. Cut off the foil at a one inch overhang. Spray with olive oil. If you do not have such a pot, use your regular 2 pound bread pan. Cover with the pot’s lid or a clean towel and let rise in a warm area for about 45 minutes, or until it has risen about 50 percent.

5. Preheat your oven to 350F.

6. Bake on the middle rack for about 45-50 minutes (depending on whether you used the pot or the pan) or blade comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes. Take out of the pot or pan. Let cool on a grid.

This recipe comes from Living Gluten and Dairy-Free with French Gourmet Food by Chef Alain Braux

Next time, I will explore Cellulose, Maltodextrin, Sorbitol and Vitamin C.

Until then, A Votre Sante – To Your Health

Alain Braux. C. E. P. C., C. M. B., B.Sc. [Holistic Nutrition]

Chef Alain Braux is an award-winning executive chef and award-winning food and health author. Chef Braux is the executive chef and nutrition therapist at Peoples Pharmacy in Austin, TX, as well as running his health food consulting private practice at A Votre Santé – To Your Health. You can also find him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Chef Braux is an expert in food allergies and the author of multiple award-winning food and health books. “How to Lower your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food”, “Living Gluten and Dairy-Free with French Gourmet Food”, “Healthy French Cuisine for Less Than $10/Day” and most recently “Paleo French Cuisine”.