When you want to buy the best greens supplements online in Canada you need to make sure you are getting a product that is derived from whole food sources, plants, vegetables and fruits. Making sure it has no-preservatives and no-artificial ingredients as well as being organic and 100% natural, as opposed to “just natural”. In the marketplace today there are many options to choose from, but only one product is based on the latest scientific research and uses the best certified organic ingredients possible for a truly remarkable improvement to your health, wellness and fitness recovery.
In this interview, we get to learn about the highest quality greens supplement on the market, created by Samuraw Nutrition, which is owned and operated by North Vancouver resident and Nutritional Researcher, Brad King. Brad is one of Canada’s most sought after authorities on nutrition, obesity, longevity and men’s health and has appeared on over 1,000 newspaper, radio and television interviews, including The Today Show and Canada AM. Brad has written and published 11 books including the international best sellers, Fat Wars, Bio-Age, Dirty Diets, and the award winning Beer Belly Blues. He has completed decades of research into the benefits of supplementation and whole food diets and is also a guest professor at Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine. In 2003 Brad was inducted into the prestigious Sports Nutrition Hall of Fame and in 2010, was awarded with the Best in Canada Award for Health Motivator/Educator as a Public Speaker.
With the crazy time we are presently living in and all the fear surrounding our health, we invited Brad to help educate the community here in Vancouver about eating well and living a balanced lifestyle. His products are ideal for kids, youth and adults and are formulated with the right kind and amounts of vitamins, minerals and probiotics, to help you look, feel and perform your best. We are excited to learn more about Samuraw Organic Complete, the world’s first 100% organic ultra-concentrated Superfood, Vitamin-Mineral and Probiotic formula.
Samuraw Greens Supplement Overview
*Organic, Natural, Non-GMO, Whole-Food Ingredients
What motivated you to become involved in the health and nutrition field?
It wasn’t until my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer (pancreatic) that I started delving more into nutritional research. Unfortunately her cancer was way too advanced to be able to help her at the time and she ended up passing away soon after her diagnoses (3 months to the day in fact). My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer and heart disease about a month after my mother passed away, and he died six-months to the day my mother died. Let’s just say that was the big turning point for me.
I decided to dedicate my life to the pursuit of being proactive when it came to health, as opposed to reactive when disease sets in. Years later I went on to consult for and formulate nutritional supplements for some of the largest nutritional companies throughout North America. My products won numerous gold medals, as voted upon by Canadian consumers in the health food industry. Approximately 16 years ago I started my own company and created products under my own brand – Brad King’s Ultimate – which were sold in almost 5,000 stores across Canada. I sold that company 3 years ago and decided to start Samuraw Nutrition Inc., which sent me into 2 years of research and development for the world’s most concentrated whole food supplement – Samuraw Organic Complete.
What are some books or resources that you can recommend for people to read to understand the benefits of greens supplements?
I was fascinated with nutrition since I was a teenager and picked up my first book on vitamins – Earl Mindell’s Vitamin Bible. I memorized as much information as I could about all the vitamins and minerals and later spouted off facts to anyone who’d listen. Yes, it was very obnoxious.
Unfortunately, in my opinion there aren’t a lot of great unbiased books that delve deep into the science of green foods. Most are written to sway opinion towards veganism or some other goal the author has in mind. Having said this, my good friend and fellow nutritional-researcher Sam Graci, wrote a book called The Power of Superfoods, which is still one of the greats. Interestingly enough, Sam also wrote the forward to my first book called Fat Wars.
When did you decide to combine your education and experience to design the world’s best greens supplement?
Not to date myself, but I have been in the Canadian health food industry for close to 25 years now. I started out as a consultant to Twin Labs, one of the largest sports nutrition companies of its time (later sold to none other than motivational guru, Anthony Robbins) and when they pulled out of Canada, I became the head formulator for Greens Plus for a few years and then decided to start my own company called Brad King’s Ultimate, which was sold in close to 5,000 health food stores throughout Canada and won multiple awards.
After I sold my company (3 years ago), I was a little burnt out with the industry and vowed if I was ever to return to it, I would have to do something no one else had done previously, as I was figuratively speaking, sick and tired of all of the “me too” formulas on the market. The health food industry was at a point that if you had enough resources (and a few cleverly positioned advertisements), you could basically tell the public whatever you wanted them to believe about your product(s).
Within a year of being retired, I decided to start research on how to develop vitamin formulas that actually come from food sources, as opposed to synthetic substances that are called vitamins, but really start off as genetically modified corn or even petroleum! The public is blind to the fact that 99 percent of vitamin supplements are synthetic and isolated, meaning they look and behave nothing like a vitamin that comes directly from food.
This was the beginning research into Samuraw Organic Complete.
What was the process like in searching for the most pure ingredients on earth to put in your products?
Man, it was not easy. I was so dismayed with what was available to me. As an award-winning product formulator, I knew all the ingredient suppliers, but they all basically offered the same synthetic ingredients in different combinations. Not one could show me documentation that proved their ingredients came from real foods – let alone real organic foods.
It turns out, almost all companies claiming to have “naturally-derived” or “food-based” vitamin formulas do one of two things:
- They either take synthetic vitamins and add them to green powders (organic or otherwise) and call their formula natural, which is like popping a commercial vitamin formula from the pharmacy and eating an organic salad and believing somehow the greens in the salad has magically cancelled out the synthetic side of the vitamins – it doesn’t!
- They take food grade yeast and feed it synthetic vitamins and then dry the vitamin-infused yeast and call it “natural food-derived vitamins.” This is very misleading and in the end, it’s like eating yeast and taking that same commercial vitamin formula again.
Samuraw Organic Complete on the other hand, is the world’s first 100% certified organic, plant-based, vitamin, mineral and probiotic formula that is made by using 25 USDA certified organic super foods and deriving 21 organic food-based vitamins and minerals directly from these real-foods. The only solvent we use is water and the whole process can take weeks to procure, but judging from the thousands of regular customers we have and the numerous 5-star unsolicited and verified reviews we have, it works!
What kinds of diseases or wellness issues do you feel could benefit as a result of taking your greens supplement?
Our formula is a food, not a pill, so we are not allowed to make any specific health claims. Having said this, all one has to do is google the health effects of any one of the 25 organic plant-based ingredients we use, in order to understand how impactful real plant-foods are on our overall health. The reality is; there are many negative study outcomes—as it pertains to disease—when it comes to commercial/synthetic nutrients, but there are basically zero negative studies on nutrients that come directly from food or when these plant-based foods are consumed in quantities that supply sufficient nutrient intake.
How does the acidity of the bodies PH balance get positively benefited from the alkalinity of your greens product?
Many people have a slightly acidic constitution, which makes it very difficult to look, feel and perform optimally. The body produces a universal energy substance called ATP (which you can’t tie your shoe laces without producing) and we are about 18 times more efficient at producing it when we are more alkaline than acidic. Alkalinity equates to more oxygen transport, which ultimately means greater energy, and alkalinity is largely effected by the foods we eat (green foods like Samuraw Organic Complete enhance alkalinity), the way we deal with everyday stressors (stress is very acidic to the body) and how in shape we are (the healthier the cardio-repertory system, the easier it is to take in and utilize oxygen).
Why do you choose the blend of ingredients that you do versus sourcing from third parties?
It is important to first understand that we need sufficient levels of the 21 vitamins and minerals found within these plant-foods to be able to derive the levels of the 21 nutrients within every bottle of Samuraw Organic Complete. These are the levels that seem to make a sufficient health impact within the body – not more and not less. The 25 organic super foods that comprise Samuraw Organic Complete are the most nutrient dense plant-based foods I could find to derive all of our nutrients from.
We live in a society that is made to believe that more is better. Synthetic nutrients are super cheap to get and more often than not, provided in supraphysiological dosages. In other words, we would never be able to consume these levels of nutrients within the natural food kingdom, so why would they be healthy or even safe for the human body to consume if we didn’t evolve to use such high levels? It’s a very good question and one that supplement users really need to think about.
Samuraw Organic Complete introduces – nutrients the way Mother Nature intended – at 50% of the RDA’s per serving and all from real organic vitamins and minerals, with their natural nutrient co-factors intact. This is what makes Samuraw stand out from the pack. It is literally the next best thing to real food.
What are all of the ingredients, vitamins and minerals found inside your greens supplement?
Every concentrated serving of Samuraw Organic Complete delivers:
- A proprietary blend of the following 25 micro-filtered organic super foods: Apple, Acai Berry, Acerola Berry, Alfalfa Grass, Beet, Blueberry, Broccoli, Carrot, Chlorella, Cranberry, Green Cabbage, Kale, Kelp, Maitake, Moringa, Parsley, Pumpkin, Raspberry, Red Reishi, Spinach, Sunflower Seeds, Strawberry, Sweet Potato, Shitake, Tomato.
- 21 vitamins and minerals including their natural micronutrient cofactors in their most natural and bioavailable food-state derived exclusively from the above whole, fresh, organic, non-GMO fruits and vegetables without any artificial or synthetic nutrients.
- The most effective human-strain shelf-stable probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus that is clinically proven to support optimal health, with over 1,000 scientific studies. Its primary benefits include: immune support, oral health support, broad digestive and respiratory system protection as well as protection from diarrhea and respiratory tract infections
Besides physical benefits how does your greens supplement help with people’s minds?
Well aside from the fact that most of the ingredients we use for our super food blend have positive research in the way of maintaining healthy brain chemistry, the probiotic we include—Lactobacillus Rhamnosus—has been clinically shown to improve brain function in numerous ways.
First, it helps alleviate many gut issues and if your gut is unhealthy, it will flavor the production of inflammatory substances. These can cross the blood-brain barrier and trigger symptoms of depression, anxiety, agitation, and mood issues.
Research also shows that this probiotic can act as a psychobiotic, a live organism that is able to positively alter brain balance by: raising levels of neurotransmitters (brain chemical messengers) such as serotonin, which contributes to feelings of well-being and happiness, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels – low GABA activity has been associated with anxiety, depression, focus, attention and sleep difficulties and acetylcholine, which is essential for good mood, mental clarity, concentration, and memory.
Recently you got a sports injury on your knee, how has your greens supplement helped with recovery?
Yes, I was hiking in Lynn Valley on a trail I have done a thousand times and I slipped on a rock and detached my quadriceps muscle from my knee. I had surgery to reattach it and the recovery is a long road. Obviously I am biased, but I find that Samuraw Organic Complete helps enhance the recovery process and helps manage the inflammation. Having said this, good nutrition is one of the most important aspects of recovery. As someone who has worked in the sports nutrition field for years, I can assure you, without optimal nutrition, performance is decreased every time.
You have greens supplements for adults and kids, how are they different and why?
The major difference between Samuraw Organic Complete for ADULTS and Samuraw Organic Complete for KIDS & TEENS is the dosage. The adult formula contains 50% of the RDAs (per serving) of the 21 vitamins and minerals per serving as well as 5 billion CFUs of the probiotic and the kid’s version contains 25% (per serving) of the 21 vitamins and minerals per serving as well as 2 billion CFUs of the probiotic.
Why do you feel some greens supplement products use fillers and artificial ingredients and what should consumers look out for as a negative?
I worked for a lot of large supplement companies as a formulator and consultant and it was always disheartening to me to be ordered to remove certain portions of my formulation or reduce aspects of the formula because of cost. I understand that all companies need to make a profit, but when the profit becomes the driving force over wanting people to actually benefit from your products, in my strong opinion you are in the wrong industry.
Green companies use ingredients like lecithin, not because they are good for you, but because they are cheap and take up a lot of space. In other words, they make an otherwise mediocre product look better because there is more per serving. Also, manufacturers use fillers, binders and flow agents to make it cheaper and easier to fill capsules. Some ingredients only take up about one-third to one-half of the actual capsule, so the fillers are there to bulk up the ingredients and make the capsule look fuller.
The list of what to look for is rather easy: 100% natural (as opposed to just natural), synthetics-free, sugar-free, allergen-free (no soy, dairy or wheat), no colouring agents, no artificial flavors, organic (when possible) and non-GMO.
The list for what not to have in a product is a little longer, as in: no cupric oxide, no hydrogenated oils, no titanium dioxide, no stearic acid, no lecithin, no colouring agents i.e. FD&C blue), no sucrose, no glucose, no sorbitol, no corn starch, no artificial sweeteners (i.e. Aspartame), no silicone dioxide, no ferrous fumarate, no zinc oxide, no calcium carbonate, and the list goes on.
Do you feel that a greens supplement could replace raw fruit and vegetables entirely as part of a well-balanced diet?
I would never say that any supplement should replace actual food, because we still don’t understand all the parts that allow our cells to utilize the various nutrients within real foods. We call these things supplements for a reason, they are there to supplement an otherwise healthy diet – take your nutrition to the next level if you will. Unfortunately, too many supplements are worthless in my opinion. Unless you have a serious deficiency, synthetic nutrients will not do very much for you and may even cause possible problems due to imbalances. Nature always works in synergy and synthetic and isolated supplements are about the furthest thing away from the laws of nature.
What are your suggested ways to take greens supplements in terms of timing and digestive intake methods?
Since most of the phytonutrients within greens are fat soluble, it is always best to have a healthy fat source when consuming them, say flaxseed, hempseed, pumpkinseed, coconut, grass-fed butter or grass-fed ghee. All of these can easily be added to a smoothie or shake and consumed along with any greens formula. Samuraw Organic Complete can be added to just about anything, as long as it is not hot, as this could reduce the activity of the live enzymes in the formula.
Do you recommend your greens supplement for everyone or should some people not take it?
Unless otherwise recommended not to by a qualified health expert, most everyone can benefit by using a product like Samuraw Organic Complete.
Lastly, what are some of the last things you feel consumers need to know about greens supplements?
That they are not all created equal – not by a long shot. The bigger the company, the more power to sway the public into believing they have a high quality product. Samuraw Nutrition Inc., is a rather small company and we do not spend thousands on advertising. We instead depend fully on word-of-mouth. In other words, our formulas have to work or no one would by them. Samuraw Organic Complete takes the place of 3 products: multi vitamin and mineral, greens formula and a comprehensive probiotic.
Download the supplement Nutritional Information
For more info and ordering greens online – SAMURAW.CA
Buy the product locally at Larry’s Market and Victoria’s Health
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Customer service is info@samuraw.com or 1-833-543-3835