Q I have been using Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw’s Root Food for over a year now, and I love the results. I am due to purchase more, but I have a question. What is the difference between the original Root Food and Root Food II? I have been purchasing the original formula and recently came across Root Food II.

HOLLY, Phoenix, AZ

A Root Food II supersedes Durk & Sandy’s thinking at the time they first introduced Root Food. It is their latest version and the one that they use. Root Food II is substantially different, with much larger amounts of vitamin B2 along with the same relatively high levels of cysteine and inositol. Also, they added taurine, one of the functions of which is to downregulate the oxidation of cysteine to cystine, thereby maintaining more cysteine for your hair. The 250 mg of taurine that you get in four capsules is far more than you can get in your diet, even through red meat, a principal source of taurine.

Durk & Sandy have recently increased their consumption of Root Food II As they say in their introduction,

If there were an anti-aging pyramid (like the food pyramid) for the elements of an anti-aging regimen, down at the base would be the antioxidant glutathione. As we discuss below (in the “Increasing Glutathione Levels” section of this article), supplementation with the amino acid cysteine is our own approach to increasing glutathione levels.