Since Beauty-Full Spa Pickering opened in March 2005, it has become an exhausting effort for the staff to defend LOGIC.  The term common sense is most often used.  However, if it is common why is it being discussed, so logic is a much better way of approaching the subject.

Just because a product is sold in a Natural Food outlet, does not make the product “natural”.  There are no natural methods to extract connective tissue (collagen) from a deceased animal, be it a cow, fish or insect that does not fall under the category of refined or highly refined.  Collagen (connective tissue) tasted disgusting and rolled over the tongue would cause the gag reflex to kick in instantly.  Thus, without altering the taste, there is no way you could swallow connective tissue.  Although connective tissue is available from insects and animals, it is not found in any plant grown above or below the ground or in any green house!

To get connective tissue into your digestive track, it must be sweetened and this is accomplished by adding sweeteners the most common being cane sugar, fructose or sucralose (the most popular brand name it is marketed under is Splenda).  Cane sugar a.k.a. Sucrose is comprised of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose.  When sucrose enters the body, the glucose gets processed by insulin, and the fructose goes to the liver.   Fructose can only be used by the liver were glucose can be used by every one of the 100 trillion cells in your body with exception to those cells comprising the liver.  Too much fructose in the liver creates a fatty liver which is the largest contributor to a person becoming a Type 2 Diabetic.  All fruit contains fructose, including the banana which on average contains nine teaspoons of fructose, but don’t worry it’s a NATURAL SWEETENER.  Now natural sugar cane would mean that it has not been altered other than cut away from the ground on which it was grown and shipped to a location where it could be purchased in its’ natural state.  If not, it is processed and how anyone can call white sugar natural when chlorine is used to bleach it white, escapes this author!

Sucralose (Splenda) is an artificial sweetener made from sucrose (cane sugar) that is not an only calorie and nutrient free; it is 650 times sweeter than cane sugar.  It is so sweet that it is usually cut with other compounds including dextrose and maltodextrin which are not considered calorie-free.  There are two major aspects that all artificial sweeteners including cane sugar – they are highly acidic to the entire body and are nutrient free.  Unlike cane sugar, the one considered as NATURAL sweeteners has never been proven to cause cancer, infertility, affect blood sugar levels, the cause of migraine headaches, are harmful to the immune system or risk to a pregnancy!  Saccharin was first synthesized in 1879 and became popular in the 1960s.  Tested extensively on rats it never caused cancer.  Banned in the 1970’s due to junk science it was deemed on December 14, 2010, by the USA EPA as not hazardous to human health.  Nor have any rats ever died from eating Aspartame, however, rats have died from eating only aspartame.  But then again too much of anything will kill a human including water and oxygen which are the basics for human life!

How can anyone stand behind any product, sold as natural, if it has been refined or highly refined to put into a bottle, reconstituted into a powder, liquid or tablet form?  What are the processes to make this happened and how come they are considered natural?  How is water purified?  What anti-caking agent was put into the powder?  Maybe small beads of silicone, the same stuff used to caulk a window to prevent a draft coming into the house?  Seriously, what the heck is natural other than planting a seed into the virgin ground, watered by rain and picked by hand, cleaned in natural spring water flow from the earth’s surface and put directly onto the table?

At Beauty-Full Spa Pickering, Hydrolyzed Collagen Protein, bovine (beef-hides) is the source, 5 g per 15 ml (tablespoon) with assimilation in hours after digestion.  Unlike the powdered collagen products sold by big box retailers like Costco, with package label clearly stating “use for a minimum of 5 months to see beneficial effects” (Organika Enhanced Collagen 1 Kg Powder $49.99).  BF Spa’s Hydrolyzed Collagen Protein is in 500 ml liquid bottles ready for consumption and assimilation.  A person in need of rebuilding connective tissue should not have to wait five months to start benefiting from consumption of collagen. Furthermore, BF Spa’s Hydrolyzed Collagen Protein is sweetened with Splenda, which when it enters your mouth does not cause tooth decay as the fruits the 2019 Canada Food Guide is encouraging you to consume.  Once swallowed and it leaves your stomach 85% of the amount consumed will be redirected to the toilet.  Approximately 12% hangs around for a short time; however, as the molecular structure of these compounds, they do not yield any bio-accumulate benefit to the body and are excreted through the urine.  Normally two to three percent ends up in the bloodstream which is filtered by the kidneys and shown the door.  Not a single molecule of what started out as Splenda can breach the blood-brain barrier and is eventually shown the door.  This is unlike aspartame that chemically is processed by the body into formaldehyde and wood alcohol.

Enough of the “no GMO” ingredients or antibiotics used in the Canadian or New Zealand beef industries.  It is illegal in Canada (and in New Zealand) for farmers to use either in the animal’s food supply.  This does not mean that when an animal is ill that it is not given an antibiotic to save its live or prevent the illness from spreading to the other animals on the farm.  It means that antibiotics are not being added to the daily ration of food being feed to the animal.  Let us not forget that it was the Americans who thought it would be a good idea to grind up dead bovine carcasses and add them to the daily rations of living bovine animals.  Yes, this little exercise almost single handily killed the beef industry.  Mad cow disease was not the ringing endorsement for this ill thought out recycling idea, which demonstrates that not every waste product fits the recycling model!

In closing, can any reader explain why our neighbours below the 49th parallel, who love class action suits are not taking the issue to sweeteners in the courts if artificial sweeteners are causing all these health problems where the heck are the class action suites to back up this option?  Sweeteners have been with us as of 2019 for almost 60 years since they became popular in 1960 or you could say 199 years, much longer than the Natural Health store!

This author shops at the natural health store; however, understand that it is another outlet to purchase products to increase longevity.  Every consumer needs balance in their life and paying too much money for products that are sold at a Natural Food outlet does not make them natural.  Besides raw honey, in the original comb taken from the hive, there are maybe only a handful of the products in these stores that are natural.  Take any product you are currently buying from one of these locations and drill down on all the ingredients to source and collect and review all the information you discover.  You will be amazed to discover what you thought was natural is a long way from being “natural”.  Take a hard look at Agave Syrup which is natural, right?  It contains more fructose that the equivalent amount of high-fructose corn syrup.  Seriously, and you can find it in the Natural Health Food Store?

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