Natural Vs Synthetic Vitamins
THE VITAMIN MYTH EXPOSED!
Only Mother Nature can make an apple. Only nature can make a cell.
Scientists and chemists continue to try in vain to duplicate in a laboratory the molecular structure of many different isolated natural substances. When you analyze them with an electron microscope they can look identical, yet in some invisible, yet significant way they are not. Although scientists can make seawater with exactly the same chemical structure as natural seawater, when you put a salt-water fish in this synthetic environment, the fish dies. What is it in natural seawater that sustains life?
VITA means life. Vita defines the difference between synthetic and what is now known as naturally-occurring.
Putting the word “Natural” on the vitamin label is deceptive. The word is constantly abused and as such its meaning has been diluted to a point where it holds little value. Many misleading labels on supplement products take advantage of the ambiguity of the word “natural” to project a wholesome marketing image – most often when the product does not merit it.
- Naturally-occurring vitamins are obtained by taking a nutrient-rich plant, removing the water and the fiber in a chemical-free vacuum process, and packaging it for stability. The entire vitamin complex is captured intact, retaining its full-spectrum functional and nutritional integrity.
Another primary difference between real full-spectrum whole-food vitamins and synthetic vitamins is that real vitamins contain the essential trace minerals necessary for the vitamins’ synergistic operation. Synthetic vitamins contain no trace minerals and must utilize the body’s own mineral reserves. Ingesting real vitamins does not require the body to deplete its own reserves of nutrients to replace any nutrients missing from the false vitamin complex.
Mega doses of synthetic vitamins can have very serious toxic effects. Naturally-occurring whole-food vitamins are not toxic since the vitamin is complexed in its natural whole integral working form, and requires nothing from the body to “build” a vitamin.
Naturally-occurring whole food vitamins are only necessary in small quantities on a daily basis.
Mainstream marketing of vitamins and minerals has created the myth that vitamins and minerals may be isolated individually and from one other, and that we can derive total benefit from taking these fractionated chemical creations. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Vitamins, minerals and enzymes work closely together as co-factors for each other’s efficacy. If one part is missing, or is fractionated, or in the incorrect form or the incorrect amount, entire chains of metabolic processes cannot and will not proceed normally. Only nature can provide us with naturally-occurring vitamins as found in real, wholesome organic foods.
The overwhelming majority of vitamin products sold in groceries, drug stores or mass-marketing retailers contain synthetic ingredients. What our bodies require are supplement products made exclusively from naturally-occurring nutrients rather than toxic laboratory synthesized ones. Currently only conscious companies produce supplements with naturally-occurring ingredients. These companies should be commended and supported for offering natural health-promoting products to the consumer.
Difference between natural vs. synthetic
Each year in North American alone, people spend over $20 billion on vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements, believing that these products are benefiting us. But are they? What is the real truth about vitamins? If we eat a balanced diet, do we really need nutritional supplements? To answer this question we have to go back to our roots – our soil.
The body is unable to manufacture most vitamins for itself, and so they must be obtained from nutritional sources. In our grandparents’ time the soil was rich with nutrients that produced healthy, vigorous crops rich in vitamin content. Today our soils are laced with industrial pollution, pesticides and chemical fertilizers that not only pollute our soils, but also activate further soil erosion. Our foods have only a fraction of the nutrient value of 70-100 years ago.
Our polluted air and water systems deplete our bodies of their store of nutrients, and the stresses of modern life are weakening our genetic and immune systems. The answer is that today we do need vitamin and nutrient supplementation, whereas 100 years ago we did not.
The mineral depletion of our soils and foods is not news. The U.S. government has been issuing official warnings since 1936. The U.S. Senate Document #264, published by the 2nd session of the 74th Congress in 1936 stated the following:
“Most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our foods come are brought into proper mineral balance. Foods, fruits, vegetables and grains that are now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain needed minerals, are starving us – no matter how much of these foods we eat. Leading authorities state that 99% of the American people are deficient in these minerals, and that a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease.
Any upset of the balance or any considerable lack of one or another element, however microscopic, causes problems and we sicken, suffer, and shorten our lives. Lacking vitamins, the system can make some use of minerals; but lacking minerals, vitamins are useless.” That was over 70 years ago. Just imagine how the report would read today.
Unfortunately, we all have a big job ahead to restore our soil quality – even on organic farms – and bring back the nutrients that have been farmed out of our food. It is urgent that we reintroduce proper organic farming as the primary method, as well as the rotation of crops to improve the quality of our soils, among other benefits. It has taken many decades to ruin our soils and it will take time to revive them and bring them back to health again; but, it can be done. As world citizens we can transform our farmlands; one way is by purchasing organic foods. In the meantime, the only way we can guarantee getting adequate nutrients then, is through food supplementation with naturally-occurring, non-synthetic vitamin and nutrients, preferably from organic farms that focus on soil conservation.
Vitamins are organic micronutrients essential to normal human metabolism. Unlike fats, carbohydrates and some proteins, vitamins are not metabolized to provide energy. Most are not manufactured by the body but are present in minute quantities in natural foodstuffs. Each of these naturally-occurring organic compounds performs a specific vital function and is required by the body for disease prevention and good health.
The known vitamins are divided into four fat-soluble types (A, D, E and K) and nine water-soluble types (eight B vitamins and vitamin C). The fat-soluble vitamins can be stored in the body and do not need to be ingested every day. Because the fat-soluble vitamins are not eliminated from the body through the urine, ingesting too many of them creates toxicity. The water-soluble vitamins are more easily eliminated and can be taken in larger amounts without danger of toxicity. Vitamin C and the eight B vitamins (except for Vitamin B-12 and Folic Acid) are water soluble. They cannot be stored and must be consumed frequently for optimal health.
As an initial convention, vitamins were given letters to go with their chemically defined names. Not many people know about the form of vitamin E d-alpha tocopheryl succinate, but most people know what “Vitamin E” is and what it can be used for. Some nutritional factors were originally given “B” names but turned out not to act as vitamins at all. You may not have heard of vitamins B-4, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 which were ultimately rejected as vitamin factors.
We know that vitamins prevent disease and promote health, but what do we know about the actual quality of the vitamins we ingest? Hundreds of millions of people take a daily vitamin and/or herbal supplement. For more than 70 years we have been ingesting synthetic vitamins in our supplements and our fortified foods, believing that our health is being protected and improved. But is it? What is the truth about vitamin supplementation and food fortification?
There are two categories in the family of vitamin and nutritional products with labeled potencies – synthetic and naturally-occurring. Nearly all vitamin supplements available today fall into the synthetic category. Some consist of 100% synthesized vitamins, and some are combination formulas containing one or more naturally-occurring vitamin ingredients combined with synthetic vitamins. Naturally-occurring vitamin supplements are comprised of naturally-occurring food and botanicals. They contain no synthetic vitamins or nutrients whatsoever. Presently there are few manufacturers of this type of vitamin supplement.
Synthetic vitamin supplements packaged as tablets, capsules, gelcaps, or powders comprise the majority of vitamin products found in natural food stores, grocery stores, drug stores and large retail outlets. Within this category there are certain types and distinctions.
Type 1: In some vitamin supplement products a natural base is used and then the synthetic vitamins or nutrients are added to that natural base. An example of a natural base could be Acerola cherry or Rosehip, and even a mixture of botanicals, as a natural base with the synthetic vitamins and nutrients added. Many Vitamin C products which claim to be from Acerola or some other fruit or food are usually spiked with synthetic ascorbic acid or ascorbates. Many multiple vitamin products use a natural base spiked with multiple synthetic vitamins to get their labeled potencies.
Type 2: Some supplements are derived from specially “grown” materials (referred to as “food source” or “whole food” source) such as yeasts and algae. These products typically then combine the yeast or algae and create other “mixtures” as a base to which synthetic vitamins are added. Manufacturers call these supplements “natural” because they are derived from yeast or algae – natural botanicals. However, they are not because synthetic vitamins or nutrients have been added to the product. This is most often not mentioned on the product label and is “hidden” from consumers, most of whom, ironically, are reading labels to ensure the highest levels of nutrition. Tragically, they fall prey to misleading and dishonest information.
A manufacturer of this cultivated base which has been spiked with synthetics nutrients will supply their own as well as other supplement companies with this raw substance. They will then use the raw substance to produce and market their own vitamins under different product names. The fact that this raw material contains a cultivated, so-called “natural” base enables the vitamin producers to make the claim on their label that they are derived from natural sources and contain the listed potencies from the “food source” referring to the base. But as you can now see this is deceptive.
Most vitamin companies compete for customers with identical synthetic vitamin products made from compounds produced by the same few drug companies. The vitamin companies differentiate their products with different names and fancy labels, each making claims of “high potency”. But the higher the potency of the synthetic vitamin or nutrient, the more likely it is to exhibit drug-like, toxic effects, the stress of which can actually lead to disease.
Most vitamin companies take advantage of loopholes in labeling laws to mislead the consumer. The truth is that the vitamin potencies for most supplements are derived from synthetic vitamins. Consumers are fooled by the label claims and believe that the vitamin and nutrient potencies are derived from a natural source. Avoid this trap by examining the label. Look for the phrase “Naturally Occurring.” If the label does not say “Naturally Occurring” and also name the food source of the potency, then be aware that the supplement probably contains synthetic vitamins or nutrients.
The second category of naturally-occurring vitamin supplements are derived from full-spectrum food and botanical sources. These are truly natural vitamin potency supplement products and can be identified by their designation “Naturally Occurring” or Naturally Occurring Standard (NOS).
Although vitamins from naturally-occurring sources are relatively lower potency, they are actually much more effective at these potencies than synthetic vitamins, for the simple reason that the body can easily assimilate their nutrients without toxic side-effects.
Over the past two decades, we have seen the negative impact of synthetic supplements by viewing tens of thousands of blood samples with the assistance of a high-powered microscope. What we know is that the body perceives a synthetic supplement, like it would perceive any other foreign chemical, as an invader and threat to its survival. As such, it responds by releasing immune-preserving cells such as leukocytes (white blood cells) to combat the enemy and preserve immunity. Unfortunately, this activity detracts these cells from their other crucial role of eliminating microbes (viruses and bacteria), spirochetes (such as those that result in Lyme’s Disease), and mutagenic cells (such as those that can result in cancer). Consequently, when one introduces a large number of chemical invaders, such as non-N.O.S. supplements, into the body, there are fewer immune-preserving cells to combat more deleterious cell activity, and there is a greater probability for disease.
Just as natural vitamins from food are more effective than synthetic vitamins, so are natural vitamin supplements from whole-food sources. Low potency from a full spectrum, naturally-occurring source of the vitamin will produce effective nutrient activity, while positively impacting immune function.
Vitamins are biological complexes. They represent multi-step biochemical interactions whose beneficial action depends upon a number of variables within the biological terrain. Vitamin activity only takes place when all co-factors and components of the vitamin complex are present and working together. Vitamins cannot be isolated from their complexes and still perform their specific functions within the cells. When isolated into artificial chemicalized commercial forms, these purified crystalline synthetics act as toxic drugs in the body that compromise the immune system, which can ultimately lead to disease. They are no longer actual vitamins, and to call them such is inaccurate. A vitamin is: “a working process consisting of the nutrient, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and trace mineral activators.” – Dr. Royal Lee (“What Is a Vitamin?” Applied Trophology August 1956.)
Several studies on natural vs. synthetic vitamins have shown that synthetic vitamins are 50 to 70% less biologically active than natural vitamins.
Synthetic vitamins are actually just fractions of naturally-occurring vitamins synthesized in the dextro- and levo- forms (known as “right” and “left handed” molecules) which form geometric mirror images of each other. It may seem strange, but the geometry of the nutrient compounds is crucial for the bioavailability of the nutrient. The body uses only the levo-forms. Synthetic vitamin compounds have little of the correct geometry (levo-forms) of naturally-occurring vitamins present in food and botanicals. Furthermore, the levo-forms of synthetic nutrients or vitamins are of little use without the associated factors (enzymes, minerals and other co-factors) present in a natural source of the nutrient or vitamin.
So, can a synthesized, isolated vitamin fraction made in the laboratory be called a real vitamin? Can it provide you with the nourishment that naturally-occurring, whole-food supplements can? The answer is a resounding and undeniable NO.
Throughout much of the last century, we have been programmed to believe that synthetic chemicals are an acceptable substitute for natural food-source nutritional substances. This bizarre concept is broadcasted mainly by commercial interests who promote this fallacy through sophisticated marketing programs to sell inferior “food” and nutritional supplements.
The problems we now have with synthetic vitamins are parallel to the overall problems we have with pharmaceutical drugs and the development of modern medicine. We have abandoned our history of traditional medicine and are suffering the consequences because of it.
Although chemistry has provided us with many benefits, when it comes to food and nutrition, a better life through chemistry is a fallacy. We are now in the midst of a chemical “feast” of harmful and polluting chemical preservatives, excipients, colorings, flavorings and other killer chemicals. A century ago when we discovered how to chemically synthesize various isolates of natural compounds, synthetic nutrients became fashionable.
Many of the problems that we have today developed when we embraced the chemical paradigm and rejected our time-proven traditional medicinal practices. It is imperative that we return to our traditional values and ways of living for healing before the hazardous imbalances we have created destroy us.
Only Nature can create a real vitamin. The differences between vitamins extracted from food and those manufactured by chemical processes is vast; there are very important distinctions. Vitamins manufactured in the laboratory come to us without the naturally occurring associated factors and trace substances that insure a vitamin’s bioavailability. If the body can easily digest and absorb nutrients from a food, then they are said to be bio-available. Tests on natural vs. synthetic vitamins have revealed that synthetic vitamins are less biologically active and bio-available than natural vitamins. Since our bodies often do not absorb more than 50% of the vitamins and minerals we consume, to ingest a product that is already less active than its natural counterpart leaves virtually little of the original potency available for our use.
It sounds like a simple concept: you are what you digest or more accurately what you assimilate. The digestive system of humans, similar to that of apes, grazing animals and other herbivores, is complex. The adult alimentary canal measures up to 36-feet; it is long and convoluted. Yet it squeezes into the small space of our abdominal cavity. Many of us assume that we have good and proper digestion and assimilation, and that our bodies can extract nutrients no matter what we eat. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, which is why it is important to eat wholesome and nutritious foods and maintain high levels of good intestinal flora and other living bacteria that break down our foods completely so that nutrients can be absorbed.
Furthermore, the human biology has never been able to “digest” synthetic chemicals. Even though we may ingest synthetic chemicals, our digestive systems have not suddenly changed to recognize them as food or nourishment. All the synthetic nutrients in the world are useless, and potentially even dangerous, if they are not digested. The best way to improve digestive absorption of nutrients is to eat good nutrient-rich, living foods and use naturally-occurring vitamins and mineral supplements. You are what you digest also means that if your digestion is weak, then you absorb fewer nutrients from your food than necessary, which can lead to obesity or other imbalances. When enjoying quality foods, the health of your body and all of its systems are strengthened.
Research with polarized light shows the differences in bioavailability between synthetic and natural vitamins. The experiment involves taking a sample of a natural vitamin and its chemically identical synthetic counterpart, and passing a beam of polarized light through each. The beam passing through a natural vitamin always bends to the right due to the direction of its molecular rotation. When passing through a synthetic vitamin, the beam splits in half. Half the light beam bends to the right, and the other half bends to the left. The direction of the molecular rotation makes half of the synthetic vitamin impossible to use, which is why there is only 50% biological activity in synthetic, isolated vitamins. They are lacking the factors found in a full-spectrum real vitamin and more importantly they are not viewed by the body as real nutrition, and are therefore counterproductive to health.
Furthermore, synthetic vitamin supplements cannot work properly in the body. Molecules in the body always rotate to the right.
Even if the vitamins you take are “natural” ones extracted from food, they will not be effective if they have been extracted from their full-spectrum matrix. Extracting a vitamin from its full-spectrum matrix eliminates the necessary co-factors which assist in the functioning of that nutrient. When you extract and isolate Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) from an orange, you remove the bio-flavonoids which are necessary for Vitamin C’s activity. It’s better to use a full-spectrum concentrate of the whole orange rather than to extract the ascorbic acid or other isolated Vitamin C fractions.
For a complex matrix like Vitamin C to be effective, it has to be used as nature created it. Always use a full-spectrum food source supplement of Vitamin C and other supplements to insure that all the factors are available to your body.
Worldwide, there is no official government-regulated definition for the term “natural” for the natural products industry. Here in the U.S., the FDA refers to natural ingredients as “ingredients extracted directly from plants or animal products, as opposed to being produced synthetically.” (Ref: FDA Consumer Information & Publication No. (FDA) 95-5012).
While it’s fine to set a legal definition for natural, the problem is that the FDA’s entire system of standards for vitamins is not based on nature. This system, known as the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) or what has now been updated to “Daily Values” (DV’s) and RDI’s (Recommended Daily Intake), pertains to the amount of vitamins we require daily for maintaining our health and is based on the assumed nutrient value of synthetic supplements.
The RDA’s, DV’s or other “standards” that the FDA has proposed are based mainly on animal testing using synthetic vitamins – supplements that we have already determined not only lack nutritional value but also are indigestible.
There is a proposal for a new standard for vitamins and nutrients called the: “Naturally Occurring Standard” or “NOS”. This standard is related to verifiable amounts of naturally-occurring vitamins, minerals or other nutrients as found in vegetables and botanicals. It is our strong opinion – in the interest of public health – that the NOS should be adopted by the food industry as a consumer standard for all food supplements or fortified foods. The NOS symbol printed on dietary supplements or food products labels will ensure that a product contains only naturally-occurring whole food materials, enabling consumers to make the healthiest choices for themselves and their family.
Toxic Ingredients Widespread in Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements Today
Check the labels on your vitamins and nutritional supplements – do they list magnesium stearate or stearic acid as ingredients? “Natural” flavors? Sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate? Gelatin?
- “Natural” flavors are found in lots of protein supplement drinks.
It is also common to find ingredients in vitamins and nutritional supplements that have been irradiated, fumigated or contaminated with pesticide residues. In fact, up to 70% of raw materials that are imported into the US today are irradiated. This irradiation process creates toxic radiation by products, that remain in the ingredients that you ingest from your vitamin or other nutritional supplement. Other common additives to avoid include silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, cellulose, palmitate (usually synthetic Vitamin A) and starch.
Toxic Fillers Often Used to Reduce the Cost of Nutritional Supplements, including Vitamins
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an excipient as: a usually inert substance (such as gum arabic or starch) that forms a vehicle (as for a drug). The International Pharmaceutical Council of the Americas states that “excipients are substances other than the pharmacologically active ingredients which are included in the manufacturing process or are contained in a finished product. (In many drugs as well as vitamins and other nutritional supplements), excipients make up the bulk of the total dosage form.” Excipients are used in nutritional supplements and vitamins for many reasons, as fillers, lubricants, colors that liven up the product, preservatives, sweeteners, and coatings and glazes that make it easier to swallow.
Many of the excipients, especially the lubricants, are used to make it easier and cheaper for the company to manufacture. One example is talc, a suspected carcinogen, that is used in many capsules for vitamins and other nutritional supplements today when they are manufactured with a high-speed encapsulator.
Magnesium Stearate Used in 90% of Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements
Magnesium stearate is also known as stearic acid, and is used as a lubricant in over 90% of the vitamins and other nutritional supplements consumed today. This enables the manufacturers to run their machines more efficiently and save them money, but it can create many problems for the consumer:
Stearic Acid Found in Nutritional Supplements like Vitamins is Harmful to Liver, Causes Cell Death and Depresses Immune System
So stearic acid, also called magnesium stearate appears to inhibit absorption, be harmful to the liver, cause cell death in your body and suppress your immune system. If you take nutritional supplements to boost your immune system and liver function and for your overall good health, does it really make sense to be taking vitamins or other nutritional supplements with these ingredients in them? IT only makes sense to Big Pharma and the boys. Sell you a product that is supposed to help you become a healthier being and what it really does is make you more ill, they win. When this happens they are able to sell you even MORE products to combat the NEW ailment that you have acquired due to the toxin that they sold to you to make you healthy.
Most Supplements Labeled 100% Natural Actually Contain Stearates
Most retailers do not know about the health problems created with the consumption of magnesium stearate, and mistakenly claim 100% purity or 100% natural for their so-called “nutritional” supplements and vitamins that do in fact contain these toxins. This is particularly important for products you take on a daily basis or if your immune system is already not functioning up to par, as is usually the case with any chronic illness.
Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate Found in Many Vitamins and Nutritional Supplements
Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate are often used as preservatives in foods as well as in vitamins and nutritional supplements. They show up most often in liquid vitamins and mineral drinks, as well as in juice drinks. You can find these preservatives in nutritional supplements on your regular grocery shelf, in “health” food stores and also in many drinks sold in multi-level marketing programs. Many of these juice companies tell you about how people living out in the tropics consumed these fruits and/or their juices and lived to be very old. Please note these long-lived peoples undoubtedly did NOT drink juices in nutritional supplement form with sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate in them!
This poisoning of the people is not something new.
Way back in the 1920’s, around the time when the Food & Drug Act was passed, Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, M.D. tried to get sodium benzoate outlawed. He called it a “monstrosity” and thought it was harmful to health and should not be used in foods. Dr. Wiley taught at Harvard and also worked for the US Department of Agriculture assisting Congress in answering questions about chemical preservatives in foods. Sodium benzoate was, however, a boon to food manufacturers, since it greatly extended the shelf life of many processed foods, including vitamins and nutritional supplements. That is why it can still be found in many products today, especially in processed foods and nutritional supplements, including vitamins.
The Chemical Analysis Data Sheet on sodium benzoate tells you to “Store away from food and beverages.” Can you believe that? They tell you to store sodium benzoate away from food and beverages, yet it is an additive in many of them, including various nutritional supplements, especially liquid vitamins, minerals and juice drinks!
Stay Away From Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate, whether in your foods, your vitamins, or other nutritional supplements!
Even if your vitamins and nutritional supplements do not list any of the toxic ingredients we mentioned, like magnesium stearate, THEY MAY STILL BE PRESENT.
- They even found vitamins and nutritional supplements that contained less than 5% of the amount of nutrients claimed on the label! Even the US Department of Agriculture reported in a May, 1999 study, that “a number of nutritional preparations claiming to contain certain doses of product have significantly less, or none, of the dosages described.”
And yet, even though those ‘watch dog’ agencies who are supposed to be there to make sure the American people receive the best quality of food, meds, etc., know that this is going on, we still have the products stamped with a USDA or an FDA stamp of approval and sitting on the shelves waiting for us to purchase them.
Consumer Beware – Not All Ingredients Are Listed on Labels of Nutritional Supplements, Such As with Vitamins and Herbal Products
With regard to toxic manufacturing excipients, many nutritional supplement manufacturers simply skirt the issue by not listing them on their label. In this way, they avoid alarming consumers about their use of these toxins. If you don’t see it on the label or on their website, ask your vitamin or nutritional supplement manufacturer to provide you with a written statement that guarantees their supplements are free of stearates, palmitates, stearic acid, FD&C food colors, “natural flavors”, polyethylene glycol, acetate, titanium dioxide, sucrose and other toxic excipients and potentially harmful manufacturing additives.
It is also common today to find the wrong herbal species and ingredients that are out of date, fumigated, irradiated or contaminated with pesticide residues. So, even if the vitamins and nutritional supplements you are taking are toxic excipient-free, you need to find out if it they are also free of heavy metals and pesticide residues, as well as if they contain the potency and ingredients promised by the supplier.
When you use nutritional supplements, including vitamins, you are taking them to enhance your health – it’s imperative that you ask these questions and find supplements that are free of harmful additives and are filled with the promised ingredients.
Most Manufacturers of Vitamins and Nutritional Supplements Do Not Test Raw Materials
You may not know this, but those who produce vitamins and nutritional supplements do not have to prove the safety or effectiveness of their products before selling them in the marketplace! Most vitamin manufacturers do not test the raw materials used to make their vitamins and nutritional supplements. They accept what is called a “Certificate of Analysis” (C of A) from the suppliers. But the C of A usually tests only for harmful bacteria, not toxic contaminants like pesticides or harmful radiation by-products. So unless a company performs their own testing, you don’t know if the ingredients they use for their nutritional supplements like vitamins are really pure and free of contaminants.
If you want vitamins and nutritional supplements that are free of pesticides and have not been irradiated or fumigated, you must test every incoming batch today, as pesticides, irradiation, and fumigation are all widespread. Tom Brokaw did a report in the 1980’s about how there is no more uncontaminated fresh water left in the United States. That means that all irrigated crops in the US are given contaminated water that then makes its way into the plant. So if your whole food vitamins or nutritional supplements are made in the US, they probably contain some of those contaminants. If the company goes outside the United States to source ingredients, you need to know that up to 70% of raw materials coming into the United States today for vitamins and nutritional supplements are irradiated, creating extremely toxic radiolytic byproducts.
Many vitamins and other nutritional supplements use plant sources that do not have a high nutritional content. As you probably could guess, the nutrient content and phyto-chemical properties of any plant including medicinal herbs can vary drastically, depending on the growing and harvesting methods, and the mineral content of the soil it was grown in. Just because an herb or a plant is supposed to offer certain benefits (as quoted in scientific literature), does not mean that it actually does! Many herbs grown commercially today are too weak, too toxic, or both, to offer all the typically quoted benefits when actually used in vitamins or other nutritional supplements.
For example, a plant’s mineral content can vary by over 900%, depending on how it was grown! Likewise, its phyto-chemical nutrients can range from very potent, with terrific nutritional properties, to almost inactive. If an herb is poorly grown, or grown in mineral-deficient soil, it cannot offer the same results as a plant that is grown under optimal conditions. If you want to find truly effective nutritional supplements, including vitamins and minerals and other herbal supplements, you need to find ones that have used potent ingredients.
Many, if not most, of the vitamins and nutritional supplements you find in the stores today are isolated nutrients that come from synthetic sources. This is generally because these supplements cost much less to manufacture than vitamins whose ingredients come from living food sources. These synthetic nutritional supplements are most often either made or processed with hydrogenated sugars or with petroleum derivatives like coal tar (Ugh!).
Sales for synthetic vitamins and drugs involve up to a 3500% profit margin while whole food nutritional supplements are only marked up 20% to 50%.
Myth: Synthetic Vitamins Enhance Long-Term Health & Longevity
The nutritional industry has successfully created the myth that synthetic vitamins and inorganic minerals in precise milligram amounts can be utilized by the cells of the body to enhance long-term health and longevity. Synthetic means “man-made” and nothing synthetic is ever found in nature. Yet, products are labeled “Natural” when they are full of USP synthetic ingredients.
Nobel Prize laureate, Dr. Albert Szent-Georgie, who discovered vitamin C, found that he could never cure scurvy with synthetic ascorbic acid. Yet, he reported always curing scurvy with vitamin C found in foods and concluded cell utilzation requires a food matrix that includes nature’s co-factors. Our bodies are created to be a part of nature. They are designed to use natural product, they are not designed to use synthetic product. That is why the rate of disease has increased over the years. Our lifestyles have really messed with our way of eating, we eat processed food, junk food and we don’t eat healthy anymore.
Synthetic forms of the fat soluble vitamins such as A, D and E are especially dangerous. I recommend that you avoid synthetic fat soluble vitamins in any and all nutritional supplements that you take.
There have been more articles in the media lately regarding the dangers of vitamin supplements. This seems to stem in large part from studies that showed adverse affects of consuming high amounts of synthetic vitamins, especially the fat soluble ones. It is unfortunate that the media and even the medical establishment are not for the large part distinguishing between synthetic and natural forms of these vitamins. It has actually been decades ago that researchers discovered the numerous benefits of vitamins A, D & E, and they used to recommend the consumption of rather high amounts, not in the form of manufactured, synthetic, nutritional supplements, but in natural forms like cod liver oil, butter and liver.
Traditional diets of healthy peoples were very high compared to today’s standards in fat soluble vitamins, especially A & D. However, these populations were extremely healthy – no cancer, no heart disease, no arthritis, etc. They especially recommended high amounts of the fat soluble vitamins to their women of child bearing age and to those who were pregnant or nursing, with no adverse health effects. In fact, they saw the adverse effects when they didn’t consume enough of these vitamins! They found that high levels of A & D found in butterfat, liver, shellfish and cod liver oil gave their children strong teeth and bones and good health all around.
In fact, traditional native peoples that were studied had more than ten times the amount of vitamins A & D than we have in our diets today. 10 Times! So once again, emphasize natural sources in all your vitamins, whether in whole foods or nutritional supplements, especially with the fat soluble vitamins A, D and E.
Research done by Dr. Agnes Faye Morgan (University of California) reported that taking synthetic vitamins is worse than starvation.
Animals fed synthetic vitamins had toxic reactions or died quickly of degenerative diseases compared to those fed whole foods. She reported in Science that animals on a synthetic vitamin enriched diet died long before the animals on an unprocessed diet. She stated that the enrichment of processed foods with synthetic vitamins may “precipitate conditions worse than the original deficiency.” Other animal studies reveal untimely deaths, sterility, and serious health deficits with the use of synthetic nutritional supplements versus once-living source whole foods in animal feeds (Scandinavian Veterinary; Journal of Natural Agriculture).
Many Studies Show No Health Benefits From Synthetic Vitamins
A Harvard study of 22,000 physicians reported no health benefits from synthetic vitamins.
A 1994 study in the New England Journal of Medicine on elderly Americans, designed to improve muscle weakness and physical frailty, demonstrated no benefits whatsover.
In a study, published in the 1945 American Journal of Digestive Diseases, Vitamin E-deficient laboratory animals that were fed synthetic tocopherols died before the control group that did not receive any nutritional supplements at all.
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School ran a four-year study to see if antioxidant nutritional supplements could prevent the recurrence of adenomas of the colon after surgical removal in 864 patients. After four years of giving 25 mg of beta-carotene, 1000 mg of ascorbic acid, and 400 mg of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), all in synthetic forms, there were no positive effects noted and the researchers concluded that: “Current data do not support the use of antioxidant (synthetic) vitamin supplements for purposes of cancer prevention.” (July 22, 1994 New England Journal of Medicine).
Medical Research Shows Synthetic Vitamins and Nutritional Supplements Can Increase Cancer Risk
In a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study, 18,000 American men and women at risk of lung cancer took either a placebo or supplements of synthetic vitamin A. The researchers, led by Dr. Gilbert Omen, stopped the study in January, 1996, because the group on nutritional supplements had a 28% higher incidence of lung cancer. Regarding these troublesome findings, Dr. Susan Taylor Mayne of Yale University told New Scientist “I’m concerned about all of these nutrients that people go out and take in massive doses. These nutrients have adverse effects.” She was, of course, talking about synthetic vitamins.
Other studies show that synthetic beta carotene can block antioxidant activity and the anti-cancer activity of antioxidants (carotenoids) in the diet.
A study of 29,000 Finnish smokers proved that synthetic vitamins increased death rates significantly enough to stop a 10-year study prematurely. To the researchers’ horror the risk of cancer increased by 16% and there were more heart attacks, more strokes, and an 8% higher increase in the overall death rate of those smokers taking the synthetic nutritional supplements.
A New England Journal of Medicine (Nov, 1995) study at Boston University School of Medicine found that synthetic vitamin A given to pregnant women, in medium to high doses, increased the risk of birth defects by 240% at the lower dosage and 400% at the higher dosage. Serious genetic damage that caused cleft lip, cleft palette, heart malformations, and nervous system damage were linked to synthetic vitamins. This comprehensive study of 22,748 women over a period of four years reported that there was no birth defect risk noted from foods containing Vitamin A.
Synthetic vitamins are made in a lab, often from toxic substances, and only “mimick” the real vitamins found in nature. These artificial forms of vitamins might help in the short run, but they can age you faster in the long run, and give you even more symptoms. A good example is that of the B complex. Did you know that most B vitamins are made from petrochemicals? Yes, that’s right, they are mostly coal tar derivatives!
Research shows that even a small amount of a naturally occurring vitamin can out perform the same synthetic one in much larger amounts. For example, synthetic A (palmitate) is far less effective than the natural vitamin A from butter and cod liver oil and pro-vitamin A that is contained in young grasses. In addition to natural pro-vitamin A, young grasses contain every nutrient known to sustain life; vitamin A palmitate does not. Cod liver oil also contains vitamin D and essential fatty acids; vitamin A palmitate does not. The list could go on and on.
Natural vitamin C, for example, contains bioflavonoids and many other co-factors that help your body absorb the ascorbic acid. Many manufacturers will tell you that ascorbic acid IS vitamin C, but that is just not the case.
It is really just the outer protective ring for the entire C complex of nutrients.
So even if you think you got a “bargain” on your nutritional supplements, your body probably did not.
Start taking 100% whole nutrient vitamins and nutritional supplements today! Even vitamins that say “food-based” are usually synthetic with small amounts of food mixed in, so the manufacturer can say “food-based.” In fact, if you type “whole food vitamins” or “whole food supplements” into any search engine, and then closely study the websites that come up, you will see that most of them have some whole foods in the nutritional supplements, but lots of synthetic vitamins and toxic fillers as well!
Look for nutritional supplements that use only 100% living plant concentrates – NO synthetic ingredients.
Vitamin RDA’s
RDA’s or Recommended Daily Allowances were set up as guidelines to make sure people don’t get some of the most severe deficiency diseases. They were never designed to represent optimal vitamin and mineral levels. In spite of these low levels, a recent survey by the US Department of Agriculture showed that out of 21,500 surveyed, not even one person got 100% of the RDA for all the nutrients in the survey over a period of three days!
Although that study showed that almost everyone needs to either increase the level of vitamins and minerals in their diet or take nutritional supplements, there are certain population groups who are the most affected. These include people with diseases or on medication that interfere with digestion or absorption of nutrients, the elderly and pregnant or nursing women, those who recently were injured or burned, or recently had surgery, and vegetarians and dieters.
In addition, if you are still eating processed foods like white sugar and flour and hydrogenated oils, or using tobacco, alcohol or drugs, including many prescription drugs, you are depleting your body of many micro nutrients. If you are under stress of any type or exposed to chemicals in our environment (who isn’t?), you will also have higher requirements for many nutrients, especially the antioxidant vitamins like B, C & E, and may want to consider whole food nutritional supplements.
Many people have a hard time these days finding and eating only truly superior, nutrient-dense foods.
