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Synthetic Vs. Natural Vitamins

By Dr. Ben Kim
DrBenKim.com

Here are some facts that you won't find advertised on most of the vitamin supplements at your local vitamin store:

  • The majority of commercial vitamin supplements are made up of synthetic vitamins
  • Synthetic vitamins do not perform the same functions in your body as vitamins found naturally in whole food
  • Many synthetic vitamins deplete your body of other nutrients and tax your kidneys before being excreted through your urine

If you want a comprehensive understanding of what vitamins are and what they do in your body, it would be best to take a full course in biochemistry. Do you remember all of those molecular formulas and chemical reactions that you studied in your high school chemistry class? Biochemistry is really just an extension of chemistry, with an emphasis on the thousands of chemical reactions that occur in your body on a moment-to-moment basis.

Anyone who studies biochemistry learns that vitamins do not exist as single components that act on their own. Vitamins are made up of several different components: enzymes, co-enzymes, and co-factors that must work together to produce their intended biologic effects.

Vitamins that are found naturally in whole foods come with all of their necessary components.

The majority of vitamins that are sold in pharmacies, grocery stores, and vitamin shops are synthetic vitamins, which are only isolated portions of the vitamins that occur naturally in food.

A good example is vitamin C.

If you take a look at a variety of vitamin C supplements, you will find that the majority of them contain only ascorbic acid or a compound called ascorbate, which is a less acidic form of acorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is NOT vitamin C. It represents the outer ring that serves as a protective shell for the entire vitamin C complex, much like an orange peel that serves as a protective shell for an orange.

Real vitamin C found in whole foods like fruits and vegetables contain the following components:

  • Rutin
  • Bioflavonoids (vitamin P)
  • Factor K
  • Factor J
  • Factor P
  • Tyrosinase
  • Ascorbinogen
  • Ascorbic Acid

When you take only ascorbic acid found in your synthetic vitamin C tablet or powder, your body must gather all of the other components of the full vitamin C complex from your body's tissues in order to make use of it. In the event that your body does not have adequate reserves of the other components, ascorbic acid itself does not provide any of the health benefits that the full vitamin C complex does. After circulating through your system, the unused ascorbic acid is eliminated through your urine.

Just like vitamin C, almost all other vitamins that we know of offer their full health benefits when they are in the presence of a number of enzymes, co-enzymes, co-factors, and even minerals. For example, Vitamin D may have as many as twelve different active components, while vitamin P has at least five different components. The mineral copper is needed for full vitamin C activity, while vitamin E works closely with the mineral selenium to provide its health promoting, anti-oxidative effect.

Clearly, it is best to get your vitamins from whole foods because whole foods provide complete vitamins rather than fractions of them. In many cases, whole foods also provide the minerals that are necessary for optimal vitamin activity. For example, sunflower seeds are an excellent whole food source of vitamin E and the mineral selenium, both of which need each other to offer their full health benefits.

How do you know if the vitamins on your kitchen counter are from whole foods or if they are synthetic?

If the list of ingredients includes an actual vitamin like Vitamin C rather than an actual food that contains natural vitamin C like acerola cherry powder, you can bet that it is a synthetic vitamin.

If you choose to use nutritional supplements, it is in your best interest to use only those products that list actual foods as their ingredients rather than synthetic and isolated vitamins. While some synthetic and isolated vitamins have been shown to provide minimal health benefits, on the whole, most of them cause more harm than good and you are far better off spending your money on whole foods.

It is important to note that the principles in this article are just as relevant and applicable to minerals and mineral supplements.

source: http://chetday.com/naturalvitamin.htm

Accesed on: 6/13/08

 

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Study: Vitamins Shown to Not Work and Cause Harm. 2008

Note: ALL THE FOLLOWING STUDIES USED MAN-MADE SYNTHETIC CHEMICALS MADE BY DRUG COMPANIES. ZERO STUDIES USED NATURAL FORMS OF THE VITAMIN DERIVED FROM PLANTS  (this fact goes 100% unmentioned in the studies).

11/08 - CHICAGO (AP) - News Keeps Getting Worse for Vitamins. Huge study boosts disappointment on multivitamins. - The largest study ever of multivitamin use in older women found the pills did nothing to prevent common cancers or heart disease.

2/07 - The Big Vitamin Scare: American Medical Association claims vitamins may kill you. 

10/07 -  Study: We could not find evidence that antioxidant supplements can prevent gastrointestinal cancers; on the contrary, they seem to increase overall mortality.

12/07 - Conclusion: Vitamin E  Does Not Help Head and Neck Cancer Patients

3/08  - Studies  - Finds B Vitamins Don't Prevent Heart Attacks

10/07 - Conclusion: Ingestion of vitamin A affects bone remodeling and can have adverse skeletal effects in animals. The possibility has been raised that long-term high vitamin A intake could contribute to fracture risk in humans.

6/08 - CONCLUSION: In patients with vascular disease or diabetes mellitus, long-term vitamin E supplementation may increase the risk for heart failure.

1/08  -  Multivitamins Linked With Breast Density.  NOTE: Breast density is used as a marker for breast cancer risk, and is associated with the use of multivitamins. FACT: Multi-vitamins increase Breast Cancer Risk!

10/07 - Almost a Third of U.S. Kids Use Supplements  -  More than 30 percent of American children take some kind of dietary supplement, mostly multi-vitamins and multi-minerals, a U.S. National Institutes of Health study finds.

7/6/07 CHICAGO - A study of more than 8,000 infants found a link between the use of multivitamin supplements and the risk of asthma and food allergies

7/06 - The American Health Foundation - Said that the US child mortality rate increased in 2004, the first rise in 40 years. The United States now has an infant mortality rate that puts it behind 27 other nations.

3/07  CONCLUSIONS - The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the normal population indicates that routine mega-doses are not rationally justified, a new study shows.

11/08 - News Keeps Getting Worse for Vitamins.  Despite Risks, Vitamins Popular   With Cancer Patients.

6/08 -  Study: Vitamins E and C Fail to Prevent Cancer in Men

2/08 -  Studies Suggest B Vitamins Don't Prevent Heart Attacks

5/08 -  Vitamin C May Interfere With Cancer Treatment

4/08  -  Disappointing News on Vitamin E and Selenium

3/97 - The Beta Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial or CARET is a large NCI-funded chemoprevention trial that is being conducted in six areas in the United States. In CARET, after an average of four years of receiving supplements, 28 percent more lung cancers were diagnosed and 17 percent more deaths occurred in participants taking beta carotene and vitamin A than in those taking placebos. Neither of these studies showed a benefit from taking supplements.

4/07 - CONCLUSION: High-dosage (> or =400 IU/d) vitamin E supplements may increase all-cause mortality and should be avoided.

5/07  Conclusion - The evidence for routine use of multivitamin and mineral supplements to reduce infections in elderly people is weak and conflicting

8/08 - The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - high-dosage vitamin E supplementation may increase all-cause mortality.

7/07 -  The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - Supplements Don't Work for Osteoarthritis

 

180 capsules in each bottle

$44.95 each