Vitamins: Natural vs. Synthetic

It could be argued that never in history has so much money been spent on the advertising and purchasing of any merchandise, with so little knowledge of the product itself, on the part of either the seller or the buyer, as has been spent on vitamin and mineral supplements.

Billions are being spent annually, and most of the purchasers, wholesalers, retailers or direct-to-the-consumer salespeople do not know the difference between a synthetic, a crystalline, and a truly natural vitamin, or the difference between a chelated organic and an inorganic mineral.

They know little of how supplements are made, their characteristics, their attributes, their sources, their uses, their advantages and disadvantages, and how to tell one from another by reading a label.

In short, it’s the difference between something that’s living and something that’s dead.

On vitamin labels the word “natural” has no specific definition other than that the substance exists somewhere on the planet or in outer space.

The key words to look for are “Whole Food Vitamins” – this means vitamins as they are found in food, untampered with in any way that would change their molecular structure, their biological or biochemical combination, or their actions.

Vitamins in their natural state always exist as living complexes with specific synergistic co-factors, enzymes, phytonutrients and organic mineral-activators, and never as isolated single factors.
A VITAMIN NEEDS ALL OF ITS SYNERGISTS TO FUNCTION.
Further, there are literally hundreds of such synergists, most of which have not yet been studied but are nevertheless very important.

Organic food sources are preferred since they are more nutrient-dense and contain no pesticide residue.

CRYSTALLINE means that a natural food has been treated with various chemicals, solvents, heat and distillation to reduce it down to one specific “pure” crystalline vitamin. In this process all the synergists, which are termed “impurities”, are destroyed. There is no longer anything natural in the action of crystalline “vitamins” – they should more accurately be termed drugs.

SYNTHETIC means that a chemist attempted to reconstruct the exact structure of the crystalline molecule by chemically combining molecules from other sources. These sources are not living foods, but dead chemicals. For example, vitamin B1 is made from a coal tar derivative, and d-alpha tocopherol (so-called vitamin E) is a byproduct of materials used by the Eastman Kodak company to make film. However, it is not legally necessary to give the source from which the synthetic “vitamin” is derived. Synthetic “vitamins” should more accurately be called drugs.

To identify synthetics on the label, look to see if a source is given. If it isn’t, assume the product is synthetic. These terms also identify a vitamin as synthetic:

Whole-food natural supplements never come in high dosages. It is only possible to create high-dosage “vitamins” if you isolate one fraction of the vitamin complex as in crystalline, or synthesize one fraction as in synthetis.

Look at the vitamin C and vitamin E diagrams. In naturally-occurring vitamin C complex, the ascorbic acid portion comprises only about 5% of the whole complex. Similarly, alpha tocopherol only comprises a small percentage of vitamin E complex.

Legally, the portion of the vitamin C complex that is allowed to be called vitamin C is the ascorbic acid portion, and the only part of the vitamin E complex that can be called vitamin E is the alpha tocopherol piece.

We, as consumers, have been thoroughly fooled and misled about vitamins. We have been hoodwinked into believing that large quantities of dead chemicals are more nutritionally potent that smaller amounts of high-quality living compounds.

Relatively small amounts of whole-food natural vitamins, with all of their naturally-occurring synergists, are far more potent than high doses of synthetic imitation “vitamins”.

No one would argue that high-performance, complex mechanisms like computers or space shuttles require very specific, high-quality materials in their makeup.

Living systems are even more complex and specific in their need for building materials. In addition, living systems are constantly breaking down cells, organs and tissues, and rebuilding and repairing them. For these processes the body must have a continual supply of high-quality material.

If you build a house with cheap, imitation construction materials, your house will quickly fall into disrepair. The same is true for the physical body. The body has a very precise design, which is so incredibly intricate and complex that even with all the scientific and medical research thus far, we have only scratched the surface of understanding it.

What arrogance it is to think that we can alter a design we don’t even understand.

Many conventional and non-conventional healthcare practitioners think that there is no difference between natural and synthetic vitamins, or between chelated minerals and inorganic minerals. This, of course, is incorrect, and has led to enormous confusion in the nutritional field.