Written by Dr. Lori Puskar.
Research indicates that synthetic vitamins may actually cause nutritional deficiencies. When you take a synthetic vitamin, it needs the co-factors normally found in the whole food, in order to complete its action. If they are not in the foods you eat, it will draw the co-factors from your body. You may feel good for a while but when the co-factors run out, you will begin to feel worse. The prolonged action of the synthetics imitates the action of drugs; they over-stimulate rather than feed your body. Science does not even come close to duplicating nature. Many illnesses, pain and suffering are the result of our dietary ignorance.
Most chemists maintain, molecule by molecule, synthetic vitamins are identical to natural vitamins. The isolated factor of each may be identical, although newer information challenges this belief. Man-made synthetic supplements are a combination of some of the separate factors, never the whole complex of synergistic factors found in nature. The whole family of B, C or E vitamins is known as a "complex".
Synthetic vitamins may cause improvement of certain conditions for a short time but the whole complex goes even further. It is now believed that the "unknown" co-factors found in natural vitamins, not found in synthetic forms, act as catalysts which make the vitamins more effective. The reason why synthetic vitamins are so popular is because they are easier and cheaper to manufacture in a lab from petroleum products than to grow and harvest from crops.
Did you know that most vitamins on the market claiming to be natural only have to be 10% natural to make this claim?!? It is critically important you learn to read labels to assure receiving your money's worth.
A product can even be 100% organic and not be natural at all. To be called organic a molecule need only have at least one carbon atom. This definition broadens the range from acceptable food sources of animal and plant tissues to raw materials including coal tar and wood pulp (yum!).
Many synthetics are made from coal tar derivatives. That's the same stuff that causes throat cancer for tobacco smokers. Don't you think your body can tell the difference? Surely your cells can make a distinction between food and coal tar, just as a fish knows the difference between natural and synthetic sea water.
These so-called natural vitamins have synthetics added to increase potency, or to standardize the amount in a capsule or batch. In addition, a salt form is added to increase stability of the nutrient (i.e. acetate, bitartrate, chloride, gluconate, hydrochloride, nitrate, succinate). These terms added to the vitamin name help you identify synthetics.
Consumers are confused by the labels. Many labels say "Natural" or "Food based" or "Organic". "Natural" is a term used very loosely. Many things are natural (e.g. oyster shells) but they may not be ideal for human consumption. Food based simply means that it started with a food product (such as a carrot) but the rest of it was synthesized in a lab. And if the carrot was organic, then they can also add the word "Organic" to the label.
One way to tell if a product is synthetic is to use the word potencies. In reality, high concentrations have nothing to do with potency. A 10 000 mg capsule of Vitamin C may not necessarily be potent at all! Remember, you will never see those concentrations or combinations in nature. They simply do not exist like that except in a bottle manufactured in a lab. Eat food, not chemicals.
EVIDENCE:
According to Science Magazine, animals on synthetic vitamins dropped dead long before the animals on no synthetic vitamins.
The Vitamins in Medicine warns against doses in excess of 10 mg of vitamin B1 because they were not metabolized and were excreted unchanged in the urine.
The American Academy of Applied Nutrition found that animals fed enriched bread lived 10% shorter lives than those fed un-enriched bread.
The New England Journal of Medicine cited that babies of women who consumed 10,000 I.U of vitamin A from supplements had a 240% increase in birth defects.
The New England Journal of Medicine showed that men taking beta-carotene supplements had an 18% higher incidence of lung cancer, more heart attacks and an 8% higher overall death rate.
These same men who were taking vitamin E supplements had more strokes from bleeding in the brain.
A four year study at Dartmouth showed no colon cancer protection when taking synthetic anti-oxidant vitamins.
New England Journal of Medicine reports that elderly people taking a synthetic multi-vitamins did not benefit with their complaints of muscle weakness and physical tiredness.
British Journal of Chemistry and Physiology reports that ascorbic acid (vitamin C) injections did not improve intestinal disease.
A study at the University of California at Berkeley noted that administration of synthetic vitamins to dogs caused a worse state of health than pure starvation.
Journal of Nutrition noted that sterility occurred in rats given synthetic B1 vitamins. It also often causes hyperthyroidism according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
One of the most perilous deceptions is the passing off on a gullible public, phony, synthetic vitamins and preaching THAT THE BODY DOES NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. At the very best, synthetic vitamins can function in the body as a DRUG OR PHARMACEUTICAL AGENT; certainly not as a natural nutrient.
The synthetic vitamin dealers would like you to believe that there's no difference between natural and synthetic, because synthetic vitamins are much cheaper to make and mean much more profit for the company. They are not efficiently utilized in the body as natural supplements due to the "dl" factor and the lack of complete families which include all surrounding micro-nutrients. It's your choice!
Synthetic vitamins will never have the effects of natural vitamins simply because they are missing many parts of the whole complex.
Give your body what it needs, it'll make everything else from that. To sustain good health, your cells must have all the elements they need to perform the jobs of growth and tissue repair in your body. Your body does not need hundreds of vitamins and minerals in order to maintain itself. It seems that every month a new miracle vitamin is being touted. Each cell in your body requires certain nutrients to maintain its basic metabolic function and keep healthy. The body will manufacture everything else from these basic building blocks. Real vitamins must come from food or whole good supplements. Go with ONLY a vitamin company who has ALWAYS used food based nutrients and not synthetic vitamins. YOUR HEALTH DEPENDS ON IT!!!
Dr. Clayton Clark and Aloha Wellness prides themself on this quest as we only offers the highest-end most professional grade organic and natural whole food and whole herb supplements.
To determine if what we do might help you, Receive a Coupon for our Initial Health Evaluation!
