According to Taber's Medical Dictionary, vitamins are essential for normal metabolism, growth and life of
the body (1). They are indispensable for the maintenance of health. Up until now there has been some controversy
regarding the necessity to supplement vitamins back into the diet. The Journal of American Medical Association concluded
from a study that every individual should take a multivitamin everyday, thus ending that controversy (2).
Research has proven that your body begins to pay the price as it tries to compensate for nutrient deficiencies.
Eventually, poor nutrition can lead to devastating consequences. According to the U.S. Surgeon General (3), many people who
get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other serious diseases, may have been able to avoid such illnesses if they had been
receiving proper nutrition4 and exercise. Your health is worth a billion dollars and it doesn't take much to give the body
what it needs and deserves and getting the proper nutrients is critical to maintaining good health.
Scientists
created synthetic vitamins that are cheap to make and are said to be identical in their atomic structure when compared to
whole vitamins ( Vitamins directly from vegetables ). However, when polarized light was placed through these synthetic vitamins,
the light acted much differently than when placed through whole vitamins. When polarized light is placed through whole vitamins,
the light beam bends to the right due to its molecular rotation. When this same light passes through a synthetic vitamin,
the beam split in half. Half of the light will always bend right while the other half always bends left. This proves that
we have not created an identical vitamin and this is why synthetic vitamins only give you 50% of biological activity as compared
to whole vitamins. In fact, research studies show that synthetic vitamins can be dangerous to your health!
Taking the synthetic form of vitamin C, for example, can actually thicken the arterial walls of the heart by as much as 2.5
times which can lead to heart disease and can do harm to the body! Ascorbic acid ( synthetic vitamin C ) is the word that
you need to watch out for!
Taking the synthetic form of vitamin A is proven to actually increase the rate of cancer which can do more harm
than good to your body! But the whole vitamin A ( from vegetables ) actually does the exact opposite. Whole Vitamin A significantly
reduces the rate of cancer! Most Vitamin nutrients on the market today use stripped down synthetic vitamins rather than whole
vitamins straight from vegetables and fruits. Why? Synthetic vitamins are much cheaper to produce.
Synthetic form of Vitamin E is proven to actually suck vitamins and minerals right out of the bones which can
do more harm than good to the body! Once again, most vitamin supplements today are using all the synthetic vitamins because
they are cheap to manufacture.
Whole Vitamins are critical for maintaining good health!
Serious health effects can happen when taking processed synthetic vitamins!
So now hundreds of supplement companies have looked to chemical derivatives and synthetic vitamins as a solution.
The very logic of this seems irrational when you remember where vitamins come from. Vitamins are found in food, and
just because current growing and processing methods have depleted the vitamins available from our foods, it does not mean
that we should come up with new-fangled ways to get these micronutrients from some other source. Instead, we should
look for a way to get more of the safe, effective vitamins that are available only from foods.
By using vitamin C as an example we find that Ascorbic acid is often sold as vitamin C, and yet it is only a chemically derived
fraction of the whole food vitamin. As it is found in food, vitamin C is a complete complex which is actually made up
of ascorbic acid plus rutin, bioflavonoids, K factor and J factors - as well as other substances that no human experiment
has been able to replicate. In order for the Vitamin to be complete,you need all factors together.
In order for the body to absorb and use a vitamin, all of the parts of the complex must be present. That
means that in order to use the fractionated form of the vitamin, the body must first supply the other parts of the whole food
complex. If ascorbic acid alone is ingested, the body must complete the complex by robbing its own collagen tissue of
the elements that are missing in the "vitamin C" you supplied.
This process is rarely complete and can even cause increased deficiencies. A published study by Doctors
Vinson and Bose showed this to be the case. They found that vitamin C from citrus extract was absorbed 35 percent more
than ascorbic acid. Their conclusion; "Although natural and synthetic ascorbic acids are chemically identical, citrus
fruits contain bioflavonoids such as naringin and hesperidin as well as carbohydrates and proteins that might affect the bioavailability"(5).
Another study conducted at the University of Scranton found a "significantly greater effectiveness" of citrus
extract than of synthetic ascorbic acid in slowing the progression of galactose cataracts. The citrus extract was 41
percent more effective (6).
Likewise, other vitamins have been shown in study after study to be more effective in their whole food form.
One study by J.A. Vinson and C. Hsu, published in Medical Science Research, found whole food vitamin E and vitamin A to be
more bioavailable than isolated, synthetic forms of these vitamins. In the case of vitamin A, results showed the food
base product was retained 9.4 times more than the synthetic form (7).
Synthetic vitamins simply cannot measure up to the real thing. As of 1996, over 3,800 different compounds
have been identified in foods as having nutritional significance (8). However, in a laboratory, twenty nutrients are
about all that modern science can reproduce and put into a vitamin product.
Even more of a concern than the ineffectiveness of these synthetic vitamins is the harm that they can cause.
In the case of vitamin E, large doses of the fractionated form (alpha-tocopherol) pull vitamins and minerals from
the bones. Supplementation of the synthetic, alpha-tocopherol form of vitamin E showed harmful effects, including 18
percent higher incidence of lung cancer, more strokes, more heart attacks and an 8 percent increase in the overall death rate
(9).
Research also verifies that using just a fraction of vitamin A actually increases the risk of cancer. On
the other hand, the whole food vitamin A, and foods containing vitamin A, has the opposite effect. The whole food form
significantly reduces the risk of cancer.
A study done by Boston University School of Medicine and published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed
that synthetic vitamin A given to pregnant women increased the risk of birth defects, including such defects as cleft lip,
cleft palate, heart malformations and nervous system damage (10). No such defects were noted from ingesting whole foods
that contain vitamin A.
Fractionated vitamins actually produce a drug-like reaction in the body. They stimulate increased activity
of nerve cells and increase blood sugar pickup. This brings a feeling of euphoria and can create a temporary increase
in energy but long term damage to the body.
One of the latest studies was on Vitamin C as synthetic ascorbic acid. It was found to thicken the walls
of the arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis. Researchers from the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention found that of the 573 men and women studied, those who regularly took vitamin C pills as Ascorbic Acid alone developed
an inner artery wall layer 2.5 times thicker than that of people who did not take synthetic supplements (11).
With all this evidence to support whole food vitamins, why do you think companies continue to make and market
the "cheap imitations"? The answer: Because they are cheap. However, while these companies may save money and
make more profit, there is no way the synthetic forms can match the effectiveness and health promoting qualities of a whole
food vitamin. The human cell recognizes and can use for fuel, repair and function, only natural, whole food complexes.
Whole food vitamins do not rob precious nutrients from the body, but supply the individual cells with the nutrients
they need to flourish. For greatest gains in terms of health and fitness, take only whole food vitamins. When
evaluating a vitamin supplement, you can simply read the label. Rather than multi-syllable, unpronounceable chemical
names, you should find the names of foods listed as the vitamin sources.
Remember, next to the name of any vitamin,
if you don't see a name of a food or an asterisk leading you to a place on the label that tells you the food source of the
vitamins, you are more than likely looking at an inexpensive, processed vitamin that is stripped of all other compounds that
are normally present with vitamins that are found in fruits and vegetables. If you see the name of a food referenced to the
vitamin, be excited to know that you are getting vitamins direct from the whole food and, therefore, you are also getting
the essential precursors, enzymes, activators, antioxidants, and micronutrients (essential compounds) that are naturally found
with vitamins. These essential compounds make it much easier for the body to absorb and utilize the vitamins you are taking!
Your body deserves to be given the right vitamins that are essential for your good health!
Eating healthy, getting the proper nutrients, annual medical checkups, and exercise are all critical in keeping
the body strong and healthy.
1. Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Edition 16. F.A. Davis Company: Philadelphia,1989, p. 2000.
2. JAMA 2002;
287:3116.
3. JAMA 2002; 287:3116-3126.
4. U.S. Surgeon General Report. "Physical Health and Activity Act," 1996.
5.
Vinson, J.A., Bose P. Comparative Bioavailability to Humans of Ascorbic Acid Alone or in a Citrus Extract. American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition, 1998, Vol 38, No 3, p. 601-604.
6. Vinson, J.A., et al. Comparison of Two Forms of Vitamin Con Galactose
Cataracts." Nutrition Research, 1992, 12, p.915-922
7. Vinson, J.A., and Hsu. Effect of Vitamin A,E, and a citrus extract
on in vitro and in vivo Lipid Peroxidation." Medical Science Research, 1992, 20, 145-146.
8. Duke, James. Handbook of Chemical
Constituents of Grasses, Herbs, and other Economical Plants. CRC Press, Boca Raton. 1992
9. New England Journal of Medicine.
Apr 14, 1994. Vol 330, No 13.
10. New England Journal of Medicine. Nov 23, 1995. Vol 333, No 21.
11. HSC Weekly. Feb
25, 2000, Vol 6, Issue 07.
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