How long will the ALL ONE Multiple Vitamins & Minerals Original Formula last after opening? Because it’s a powder, it doesn’t seem like it would go “bad”, but I’m wondering if the vitamins would lose their potency over time.

The Vitamin Professor Responds

Dear Rachel,

Thanks for your interest in ALL ONE.

Actually the powder form of supplements is very stable. Because it is never exposed to moisture during the processing like tablets are (a process called wet granulation) there is no need for coating agents. Also, because it is a dry powder (until you mix it with your favorite juice just before consuming it) it does not need preservatives (like Sodium benzoate) found in all pre-made liquids.

ALL ONE has a “shelf life” of 3 years from the date of production if the container is kept unopened.

After you open the container keep in mind that the things that degrade nutrients are moisture, light and heat. So always replace the over-lid after each opening and store it in a cool dark place. Cool, like a pantry, not cold like a refrigerator. Storing it in a refrigerator can create condensation and the collection of moisture in the can.

The largest container we have is a 66 day size. Once opened if stored properly this very stable powder will be fine for at least a year. Most likely the product will be consumed way before that amount of time.

I hope this answers your question.

All the best,

Doug Ingoldsby
AKA, “The Vitamin Professor”

M&B: With us on the phone is Doug Ingoldsby. He’s a vitamin professor and I will just read the statement here and it’s kind of true. Do you ever put French fries, chips, crackers or other snack foods into your mouth thinking to yourself, “Man, these are great.  I just can’t stop eating these.” You’ve just been pumped by an ingenious group of laboratory chemists who’ve discovered how to mix together batches of complex chemicals to produce the taste, colors, smells, and textures of real food – correction, real delicious food.

Good morning, Doug.

Doug: Morning. How’s it going you guys?

M&B: Good and it is true. I mean it goes back to the old commercial campaign. Was it Lays, “you can’t eat just one.”

Doug: I know. I was thinking those guys must have thought around and said, “Hey. That sounds like a great one. Let’s just put it right out there. We’ll make it so tasty they can’t stop.”

M&B: Well, what are the ingredients that make us crave good tasting fast food?

Doug: Well, it’s a list of chemicals basically and they can be combined together to smell like beef or smell like peaches. It could smell like anything you want and the real culprit is the olfactory epithelium which is a very thin sheath of nerves right behind your nose and you can actually pass the scent across in front of your nose and you will feel like you’re tasting something. It’s an amazing phenomenon, but you have to understand that when you dehydrate foods and you freeze foods, when you heavly process foods, it takes all the flavor away and so, what they’re doing now is putting these things back in and then it tastes like it’s supposed to taste, but it’s really not.

M&B: And it’s not good for you?

Doug: Well, it usually covers up the fact that what you’re eating is a lot of hollow calories, kind of reformed corn if you will and so, yeah. You’re not getting – people always say, “Well, I don’t need vitamin supplements because I can always get it from the foods we eat.” Well, that’d be true if we were really eating food, but what we’re eating these days looks like food, smells like food, tastes like food, but it’s something that’s a little different.

M&B: We had a guy on the show. His name is escaping me, but he’s the one that made the documentary film where he ate McDonalds for one month.

Doug: Yeah, he almost died.

M&B: Yeah. He said on our show that even though he now has finished the film and doesn’t eat McDonalds anymore, he said whenever he drives by one, his mouth will still water.

Doug: Yeah. Right. Isn’t that amazing? I meant that’s – there’s an area in New Jersey and it’s called the flavor corridor where international fragrances and flavors and a whole bunch of other companies and they’re stuff that they make is in just about 90% of the foods that are out there that we buy.

M&B: So, when these foods that have all the chemicals in them to make them taste better, when we get used to those and in all cases, addicted to those, real foods will taste more bland, right?

Doug: Right and that’s basically what’s happened. That’s why people tend to go – well, there are a couple of reasons for eating processed foods. They’re fast. You can microwave them. They’re in a box. They’re prepared. There are lots of reasons because we have a crazy lifestyle now, so we need to cut the time. We don’t take the time to prepare foods, but it is actually a reeducation process when you actually go into whole foods or a place where you can actually get real food and start buying it and eating it. You’ll definitely notice that it is a little blander and it is a little more natural, but it’s something that can be done and it’s certainly a lot healthier for you.

M&B: Now, Doug has a vitamin and this is not just a guy that developed a vitamin. Doug’s entire family has been involved, pioneering actually, in the vitamin business since 1936. So, tell us about this thing that you’ve developed.

Doug: Well, it’s a powdered supplement and it’s called ALL ONE and it sells at Mother’s Markets , Whole Foods, Erwan. You can go into the big health food stores and get it.  What happened was that as the amount of nutrition needs were going up and up, in other words, we weren’t getting it from the foods that we were eating, so we had to start supplementing it. The pills started getting bigger and bigger and more and more and people were just becoming resistant to the fact that I don’t want to gulp down a hand full of pills. I know I need nutrition, but I just don’t like to swallow pills and so, ALL ONE was created basically to transform the morning orange juice into the nutrition that you need for the whole day and because it’s a powder, you get protein along with the vitamins and minerals.  Protein provides amino acids and amino acids are really important for assimilation of the minerals and certain vitamins. So, it was a one step, forget all the confusion, put it in your orange juice, shake it up, off you go and it works out great. People love it and it’s really putting back into your body the things that you’re not finding in all of the processed foods that we’re eating.

M&B: Doug, what’s your opinion on organic foods?

Doug: I think organic foods are great. I think local foods are better, local organic is best. There’s a lot of – did you ever see the movie “Food Inc.”

M&B: No.

Doug: That’s a – get on Netflix or something. Go get it – that’ll change your life, but basically a lot of the foods that we have, the tomatoes and stuff that you see in the markets, they were picked green like a month before and then what they do is just before they get to the store, they expose them to a certain kind of gas and that turns them red.

M&B: Geez.

Doug: So, yeah. So, it really – it’s a long story. We could spend hours on it, but really try to pick foods that are grown as close to you as possible, picked as close to their ripeness as possible and try to stay out of the processed food aisles because really, something that is labeled as a natural flavor, if you actually saw the list of chemicals, it would look like you were looking at the diagnosis of downtown Detroit or something.

M&B: But, they come in pretty boxes.

Doug: I know and the pictures are so cool.

M&B: Now, Doug, for people that in your experience have been taking this ALL ONE, is weight loss associated with the intake of this?

Doug: It can be, because one of the things that happens is when you crave sweets or when you crave salt, those cravings are really because your body has nutritional deficiency. You’ve got to go all the way back to before we got into this whole messing around with our food supply and realize that the sweet was where the nutrients were. In other words, the antioxidants, the vitamins, the minerals, the amino acids, the really good stuff is in naturally ripened fruits and vegetables that are naturally sweet. They have a natural sugar. So, when your body is craving sugar, it’s really craving those nutrients. The problem is now we end up grabbing a candy bar or something like that which has just the sugar and what that does is your body eats up the vitamins processing sugar and it just amplifies the deficiency, so the cravings just increase and increase. So, the answer to your question, when a person starts taking ALL ONE, their nutritional content goes up. They notice a couple of things. Their fingernails start growing. Their hair gets shiny. They don’t have split ends because those are the first extremities of the body and when you have enough nutrition in your body, you’ll notice that because that’s the last thing that gets good nutrition.

M&B: Is this stuff expensive?

Doug: It comes down to $1.50 a day and when you think of, “This is your life you’re talking about.” It’s pretty cheap when you get right down to it. It depends on the formula. I think $1.20 to $1.80. Some of them are a little more expensive. We only have six of them.

M&B: Well, Doug, if you want to check into this, wellness through nutrition, you can go to All-one.com or call 1-800-235-5727. Doug, enjoyed the conversation.

Doug: Hey. Thanks so much for having me on your show. I’ve listened to you guys since I was a kid.

M&B: Thanks man.

Doug: And I’m an old man now.

M&B: Where do you live?

Doug: Keep doing what you’re doing.

M&B: Where are you from?

Doug: Santa Barbara, but I grew up in Pasadena.

M&B: Well, Doug, good luck with it and thank you.

Doug: Okay. Thanks so much for having me on.

Here’s the YouTube Video version:

So what do you think of this English guy Jamie Oliver who claims our diet of junk food is killing America and is on a mission to change our eating habits? And how does ALL ONE fit in?

The Vitamin Professor Responds

I love his energy and everything he is attempting to do.  I saw his presentation at the TED conference and think he is right on.

How does ALL ONE fit into all this?  ALL ONE is the perfect nutritional supplement.  A holistic antidote to the rampant obesity and frightening array of diseases resulting from diets that do not meet the bodies exacting requirements.  Food manufacturers have been dragged kicking and screaming to this debate and are evolving ever-so-slowly when it comes to modifying their products and the misleading way they are marketed.  A root cause of America’s collective state of obesity and poor diet is the food we eat contains tons of empty calories, plenty of preservatives but little in the way of the critical vitamins, nutrients, amino acids, and healthy protein the body requires for survival.

Are We Junk Food Junkies?

Scripps Institute in Florida recently released a study that basically shows that junk food is as addictive as drugs.  When rats were fed a continual diet of junk food they would eat it until there was no more.  They became obese and ill as well.  Even more scary when the junk food was removed and the rats were offered nutritious food they chose to STARVE rather than eat the good food.  This study was so shocking even CBS’s Katey Couric was stunned.

The “food” we are eating these days (I use quotation marks around the word food intentionally) is not really food.  Real food contains vitamins minerals, amino acids … you know … nutrition. The pre-made, processed, packaged “foods” most people eat these days contain very little in the way of vitamins minerals, amino acids.  What they do contain are colorings, dyes, preservatives, chemical flavorings and hollow calories.

Back in the early 70′s food additives were mostly limited to salt, sugar and a little MSG.  These days, foods are loaded with materials that if revealed on the label would scare the average human half to death.

Any Milk In This Milk Shake?

Here is an example of what I am talking about.  This is the breakdown of the chemicals used in a Burger King-style strawberry milk shake published in the book, “Fast Food Nation:”   Amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.”

Keep in mind that the above list appears on the package simply as: “natural flavors.”

ALL ONE Provides REAL Nutrition

While I am a giant supporter of Jamie Oliver’s educational push to redirect the eating patterns of the American consumer, it is a big ship to turn around.  Until then, ALL ONE can go a long way to providing the nutrition we all need as well as the nutrients that will help cut the “cravings” for junk food.

So, next time someone says: “I don’t need supplements, I get my vitamins from the foods I eat.”  Gently remind them that they are not always eating “food.”  They are eating hollow calories that has been flavored to taste like food.

The answer is simple.  Feed the body what it needs most:  A simple, once-a-day nutrient can create a foundation of good health and strong immune systems.  Young or old, vegan or carnivore, fast food junky or health nut, we all need a viable solution to this existential problem, one that fits easily in our busy lives.  Our bodies need – demand – pure, healthy nutrition to thrive.

A diet of processed, fast and junk foods does the body lots of harm without satisfying key requirements we all need to live robust, long lives.  All the expensive marketing and seductive packaging of the lousy food we consume does nothing to build and sustain real health and wellness.  We are living in a time where attention spans are measured in nanoseconds and the sacred act of feeding ourselves is often relegated to eating fast, processed, empty foods, substances that are targeted for our brains’ momentary pleasure centers but at the end of the day leave us sluggish, undernourished and rotund.

All the best,

Doug Ingoldsby
aka “The Vitamin Professor”

PS. Listen also to my recent interview on the Mark and Brian nationally syndicated radio show.

Thank you for your email and comment regarding  Vitamin D2 and D3.

Before I continue I would like to share this quote from The Science and Practice of Pharmacy:

“Both Vitamin D2 and D3 are precursors (pro-vitamins) and are converted to THE SAME active metabolites, which are responsible for the absorption of calcium.”
- Kemington; The Science and Practice of Pharmacy, 19th Edition ,1995 pg. 1111 (emphasis added)

As far as your body is concerned the two different forms of Vitamin D are identical.

Now I will address your comments.

The most “natural” form is the vitamin D is the one your body creates when your skin is exposed to sunlight.

It has been a family tradition to create formulas that are suitable for vegetarians.  We also make formulas that are suitable for vegans.  Until recently the most common source of Vitamin D3 has been fish oil which is unsuitable for vegetarians.  This is the reason we selected vitamin D2.

Our ALL ONE Rice Base, ALL ONE Fruit Antioxidant, ALL ONE Green Phyto Base formulas are all “certified vegan.”  Therefore, Ergocalciferol (D2) is the ONLY suitable vegan form of vitamin D available to us as a manufacturer.

Our ALL ONE Original and ALL ONE for Active Senior formulas, while suitable for vegetarians are not “certified vegan” because they contain (dairy) milk proteins.  Lactose and fat free casein in the Original and Whey protein in the Active Senior formula.

There is now available a Vitamin D3 which is synthesized from lanolin (lambs wool).  This lambs wool source of vitamin D is fine for vegetarians.

Therefore, in a few months, our ALL ONE Active Senior and ALL ONE Original formulas will contain vitamin D3.

Also, at that time we are switching to vitamin D3 in these two formulas, we will also be increasing the amount of vitamin D in ALL our formulas from 500 IU to 800 IU.  ALL ONE for Active Seniors will be increased to 1,000 International Units.

As a side note we will also be changing the source of our vitamin B12 from Cyanocobaliamin to Methylcobalamin in all of our formulas.

Hope this addresses your question.

I am interested in several all one products.  I know I can alternate, however, I am concerned that I am not getting the extra supplements that are in the Senior formula.  For instance, I am looking at the green the fruit and the fiber.  Could I alternate between four different products and still get all the vitamins I should?  Thank you for your help.

The Vitamin Professor Responds:

Dear Linda,

Thank you for your question and interest in ALL ONE.

A number of our customers alternate between our various multiple formulas.  That way they get the benefit of the ‘certified organic’ green foods in our ALL ONE Green Phyto Base, the antioxidant rich fruit pigments in our ALL ONE Fruit Antioxidant base as well as the CoQ10, Gingko and FOS found in our ALL ONE for Active Seniors.

It works fine because each multiple, while varying slightly in certain potencies,  are essentially the same high potency vitamin, mineral, amino acid supplement in different bases.

When it comes to fiber and the vitamins I recommend that you take the ALL ONE Multiple in the morning and the Totally Fiber in the evening before retiring.

I wrote about that here.

I hope this addresses your question.

Do I need to take an additional mineral supplement since ALL ONE does not contain 100% of the requirements for copper (10%), potassium (3%), biotin (10%), Chromium (40%), Selenium (70%) etc.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the product…just a little concerned about the percentages above.

The Vitamin Professor Responds:

Dear Sue,

Thank you for your question and interest in ALL ONE.

The percentages you refer to in your question reflect the “Daily Value” or “DV” as set by the government based upon a daily diet that contains 2,000 calories.

To best answer your question it is good to first review how DV’s came about.

Back during WWII when the government was creating K-Rations, to feed to our troops fighting abroad, they wanted to come up with the “minimum daily requirement” (MDR) for various nutrients.  They wanted to insure that the food our soldiers were eating was not insufficient in certain important nutrients.  In other words they wanted to establish the “minimum” amount of each specific nutrient so that eating  K-Rations alone would not create any vitamin deficiency diseases.

Keep in mind the word here is “minimum.”

Over the years the name has changed but the amounts (with a few exceptions) have not.

The name went from “Minimum Daily Requirement (MDR) to Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) to Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) to now what it is called the Daily Value (DV).

Even though the name changed the amounts still reflect “minimum” levels.

A political point here is that large food processors lobby to keep these amounts low.  Then they can claim 100%  nutrition from their cereal.

So while it is true that you need to consume 60 mg of Vitamin C a day to prevent scurvy (a Vitamin C deficiency disease) our supplements are formulated for optimal health not simply to keep you from becoming scorbutic.

Labeling laws require us to list the Daily Value (DV) but it has very little to do with the research we reference when formulating ALL ONE.

Some nutrients in ALL ONE are  greater than the DI like Vitamin C (1,667%) because research indicates 1,000 mg is a more optimal level for than nutrient.

In some cases it will be lower, like copper (10%) because we get enough copper in our diet and too much copper is not a good thing.  Then again, some nutrients like potassium are lower because the government actually restricts us from exceeding 99 mg per daily dose.

If the amounts are below 100% it is because we feel we get enough of these nutrients in our diet and do not need additional supplementation.

Some very important nutrients like Lemon Bioflavonoids (Vitamin P) while important in the absorption of Vitamin C have yet to be deemed necessary or essential by the government and therefore there is no set Daily value (DV) for Bioflavonoids.

I hope this answers your question and addresses your concerns.

I just read your suggestions to the fellow wanting to detox (original post here) You suggest separating the fiber and green phyto product.  My shake includes the fiber and powder, hopefully this works for general use.  It would be very challenging to figure out how to use both separated.

The Vitamin Professor Responds:

Dear Stephen,

Thank you for your interest in ALL ONE and this blog.

Certainly no harm will come from mixing a shake that contains one of our ALL ONE Multiple powders and our ALL ONE Totally Fiber at the same time.

However, keep in mind the particular functions of the two different supplements.  ALL ONE Multiple powders are designed to add, infuse and supplement various nutrients into the body whereas ALL ONE Totally Fiber is designed to assist in the elimination of various toxins from the body. That is why I recommended to take the ALL ONE Multiple in the morning before the rigors of the day.  The vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other food factors in ALL ONE will help provide greater energy at a time when it is needed.

The same logic follows as to why I recommend taking ALL ONE Totally Fiber in the evening before retiring.  The blend of organic flax along with various soluble and in soluble fibers from date fiber, prune fiber, barley fiber, rice fiber, beet fiber and psyllium husks help a more thorough elimination upon arising in the morning.

I will reiterate here as I did in the post you referred to in your question:

I believe that taking psyllium husks by themselves is far to harsh on the system.  They are inexpensive but, it is my feeling, they should be buffered with other more gentle fibers like organic flax, date fiber, prune fiber, barley fiber, rice fiber, beet fiber.

Does it make sense?

Think of it as: Good goes in … bad goes out.

Hope this addresses you question.

Which vitamin is the best to combat the swine flu?

The Vitamin Professor Responds:

There is no one particular vitamin that is good for the swine flu although vitamin A and vitamin C are referred to the most when addressing combating viruses.

While we can make no claims that we have formulas that can protect against catching the swine flu I can tell you this:

In all the research we have seen studies show that if you are deficient in one nutrient you are most likely deficient in many. Therefore, I would recommend a comprehensive multiple formula like ALL ONE to be sure you are covering all the bases during this flu season …

I saw you on Know the Cause with Doug. Your products are AWESOME. I want to cleanse my body, start taking probotics and get on the phase one diet. Should I take your green label vitamin and psyllium husk at the same time? Do I need to take the psyllium husk? Thanks for making a difference.

The Vitamin Professor Responds:

Thank YOU for watching KTC and paying attention to your health!

Psyllium husks are pretty harsh on the body by themselves. I would recommend our “ALL ONE Totally Fiber” formula which, although it contain psyllium husks, is a more complete blend of soluble and insoluble fibers and much easier on your system.

The ALL ONE Green Phyto Base is perfect for detox as well as replenishing the body with high potency nutrients.

You should take your ALL ONE Green in the morning and the Totally Fiber in the evening. You want to separate them.

You can take your probotics with you vitamins.

Are nutra pack vitamins good?

The Vitamin Professor Responds:

I am not familiar with the brand “Nutra Pack”, however, I do feel that when you are choosing a multiple formula that a powder like ALL ONE is far superior to a handful of hard pressed pills and tablets. Pills and tablets are loaded with binders, fillers, lubricants and coating agents … all non nutritive additives. ALL ONE formulas are pure nutrition, nothing else. Easy to take and easier to assimilate.

Here is something I wrote about choosing the “best” vitamin brand: