NSP Donates Vitamins to Troops

Utah Company Donates Vitamins to Troops
By U.S. Army Capt. Bobby Hart, 143rd TRANSCOM
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait

Soldiers throughout Kuwait and Iraq will be able to keep more fit thanks to an idea by Sgt. Lance Robinson and the generosity of Nature's Sunshine, a civilian food supplement manufacturer from Spanish Fork, Utah.

As a certified natural health specialist and a health and beauty advisor, Robinson saw the need for soldiers in theater to enhance their diets with a good multi-vitamin that also provides trace minerals. He contacted Nature's Sunshine, where he is a distributor for the Philadelphia area, and the company donated more than 1,000 bottles of multiple vitamins.

Robinson initially asked the Nature's Sunshine for a discount rate for soldiers, but the company wanted to make its contribution to the war effort and provided 1,080 bottles, which sell for $13.99 each on the company website.

“The dining facilities do a good job, but no one was really pushing nutritional supplements,” said Robinson, a Reservist with the 304 th Civil Affairs Brigade in Philadelphia. “Everyone was pushing water, but not emphasizing nutrition, so I wanted to make my contribution by providing a good multi-vitamin just to get people started.”

Robinson said he wants to provide a one-month supply—one bottle—to troops to get them started and hopes soldiers see the benefits of taking a daily supplement. A big concern for soldiers is that when they sweat, they lose vitamins and minerals. Drinking large quantities of water actually leeches minerals from your body so just eating balanced meals in the dining facilities may not be enough. Drinking water replaces body fluids, but does nothing to replace the minerals the body needs.

“Sgt. Robinson is right on with everything he says,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Richard Gomez, of the 514th Maintenance Company, who works out regularly at the Camp Arifjan gyms. “Soldiers sweat their butts off around here and lose a lot of vitamins and minerals. A lot of guys I know buy supplements from different places. Everybody here should take some kind of supplement, and you can't beat these prices.”

Robinson said he was working at Camp Wolf when he came up with the idea and ran it by the medical staff there who agreed the program should help with the well-being of soldiers. He received his first shipment of vitamins there and began giving them away in the MWR area and gym.


“I wanted to find a way I could distribute the vitamins and get them to the soldiers, the ones I thought would actually use them,” Robinson said. “That would be the people in the gym who appear to be more health conscious.”

One problem Robinson has found even with soldiers who work out regularly is that they concentrate on the physical aspects and neglect the nutrition.

“They're both important,” Robinson said. “When you work out, you lose a lot of vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, the whole nine yards. The emphasis over here is on water and electrolyte replacement. It's not on vitamins, minerals and micro-nutrients, so my idea is that knowing the soldiers aren't going to necessarily go out and buy a supplement, just to make vitamins available.”

Accomplished body builders recognize the need for supplements and augment their diets with vitamins and minerals. “If you're working out regularly, you have to take a supplement, especially amino acids, so your muscles won't eat themselves,” Robinson said. “If you're not replacing amino acids, you'll grow a little bit, but you won't grow as much as you want to grow because your muscles start feeding on themselves. So supplementation is very, very important in body building.”

Robinson also stresses that taking the vitamins does not take the place of eating a balanced meal in the dining facilities. “I have to stress that all the time with people who think they can skip meals if they're taking supplements. In fact, you need to take the vitamins—one tablet twice a day—on a full stomach because your body is already in a digestive mode and the vitamins and minerals are more efficiently absorbed.”

Robinson said from a business standpoint, he hopes soldiers see the benefit from taking a food supplement and may become future customers of the food supplement industry—but that isn't the main focus of his effort.

“My main concern here and the reason this company made the donation is to try and help our troops.”


This article was published on
http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sep2003/a091703y.html