The Truth About Vitamins

Confusion in Vitamin Land

Most people don’t have the time to thoroughly investigate vitamins or get the right information to make wise selections. But they do, apparently, have time to watch infomercials at 2:00 in the morning, which have become the source for all nutritional miracle breakthroughs! – Lorrie Medford, CN¹

Have you ever noticed that there is some confusion about vitamins? One source recommends them wholeheartedly while another tells you that supplements are not necessary and can even harm you.  Most people consider taking vitamins part of a healthy lifestyle and throw their hands up in frustration every time a new study tells us different.

For example, according to WebMD, there are many positive benefits to Vitamin E including treating diabetes and its complications, lessening the harmful effects of dialysis and radiation treatment, reducing complications in pregnancy, and preventing cancer. However, on the same page there is a note that the American Heart Association thinks you should not use vitamin E supplements “until more is known about the risks and benefits.”

It’s 2015, how much more is there to know?

Synthetic Vs. Whole Food Supplements

Vitamins are not individual molecular compounds. Vitamins are biological complexes. They are multi-step biochemical interactions whose action is dependent upon a number of variables within the biological terrain. Vitamin activity only takes place when all conditions are met within that environment, and when all co-factors and components of the entire vitamin complex are present and working together. Vitamin activity is even more than the sum of all those parts; it also involves timing.  – Dr. Tim O’Shea ³

The truth is both risks and benefits are known, but many people, including researchers, doctors and dietitians don’t know what to make of them.  This is because they are confusing the benefits of naturally occurring, food based vitamins with their manufactured in the lab and used-in-studies counterparts.

From the soil you have an organically derived, unprocessed foods which contain elements which are inextricably bound together by nature to nourish us.  These elements are meant to be eaten and broken down by our bodies together in all their complexity.

On the lab bench you have synthetic vitamins. Modern science has found ways to make these vitamins by using substances which are not remotely related to foods. The active part of the vitamin is separated from the food and the supporting enzymes, co-factors, anti-oxidants and trace elements are thrown away.

According to Lorrie Metcalf, C.N. ” . . For every vitamin that has been discovered researchers identified one component and labeled it as the organic nutrient.  In the mind of the FDA and most chemists or pharmacists, that is the entire vitamin.”¹

Most medical doctors and dietitians follow along with whatever the FDA tells them.  Many alternative practitioners like Osteopathic doctors, Naturopathic doctors, RN’s, Nutritionists, health coaches and trainers also do not understand this distinction and recommend synthetic vitamins to their patients or clients.  Many people think that because the label uses the word natural, the product must made from natural ingredients.  This is not always the case.  Vitamins made from 10% natural ingredients may still claim to be natural. Similarly the word pure can be used because the product is a pure essence of the chemical molecule.

“What difference does it make, chemicals are chemicals.  Am I right?”

“The assumption that human technology could improve on the wisdom of Nature (God) has become a primary course of disease in the modern world. We dissect food, take out the most glaringly obvious parts, attempt to recreate them in a laboratory, and label them as ‘active ingredients’. In fact it is the symphony of nutrients working synergistically that provides the quantum healing power of whole foods.”  Patrick Quillan, PhD 4

Lets look at a vitamin in its natural state and compare it to the FDA approved vitamin.

To continue with our example of Vitamin E, the active ingredient identified by the FDA and many manufacturers is alpha tocopherol.  The most common synthetic form is called dl-alpha-tocopherol and this is what is used in most research studies.

The natural Vitamin E complex as found in foods consists of several compounds including a family of tochoperols (alpha-tocopherol, beta-tocoperol, gamma-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol), tocotrienols, lipositols and selenium.  Foods which have the highest sources of vitamin E are wheat germ and wheat germ oil, avocado, green leafy vegetables, spinach, eggs, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Along with vitamin E, the avocado contains 85 chemical compounds such as water, vitamins D, B6 and niacin, minerals like magnesium, iron, boron and copper, amino acids and fiber.²

Do you think some of those 85  compounds might be important?

Nature packages food with the nutrients needed to run our biochemical reactions on a cellular level (Remember the krebs cycle in chemistry? It was not just invented to torture students.). These reactions take the nutrients and use them to give our cells fuel and energy.  They never act alone, they are one small part of the symphony.  Would a symphony sound the same if one instrument was isolated as the most important part of the music and all the other instruments were thrown away? It wouldn’t be the same piece of music, would it?  That music would be lacking many things.

Now think about this, if you are depleted in one part of the vitamin complex, then surely you must be depleted in all the associated co-factors because they go together. So why would you supplement with one piece of the vitamin when you need the entire complex? It’s like eating the wrapper and throwing away the food!

 How do I Recognize the Synthetic Vitamins?

Nature does not produce vitamins, minerals, trace minerals or any other food components in concentrated or segregated forms, but merges and blends them – synchronizes them – for the body’s needs.  Judith De Cava 5

I have had the experience of sharing this information with patients, who nod in agreement.  They smile as they tell me that their vitamins are all natural, made from the best ingredients.  I smile back and encourage them to bring in their bottles so we can read the labels together.  Every person that has ever taken up this challenge is startled to learn that they are taking synthetic vitamins.

So here’s how to tell at a glance. Natural substances do not come in convenient percentages of the United States Recommend Daily Values, so when your supplement label tells you that your are getting 30% of the RDA of 13 different vitamins, you can bet they are synthetics. (I read this on an actual label for a protein shake.)  Foods don’t come with vitamins packaged in those neat round numbers.

Here is a list of vitamins and the synthetic names you will see listed as the source of the vitamin.  If the vitamin is made from a food based source, you will see a food listed on the label.

Vitamin A:

Synthetic Name: Acetate, Palmintate, Retinol, Beta Carotene

A Natural food source of Vitamin A is Carrot Powder

Vitamin B1:

Synthetic Name: Thiamine Mononitrate, Thiamine hydrochloride

A Natural food source of Vitamin B1 is Yeast

Vitamin B3:

Synthetic Name: Niacin

A Natural food source of VitaminB3 is Yeast

Vitamin B6:  

Synthetic Name:   Pyridoxine hydrocholride

A Natural food source of Vitamin B6 is  Yeast

Vitamin C:  

Synthetic Name: Ascorbic Acid

Two natural food sources of Vitamin C are Rose hips and Buckwheat juice

Vitamin E :

Synthetic Name: D-alpha-tocopherol, dl-alpha succinate

Two natural food sources of Vitamin E are wheat germ oil and peavine juice

So if you find yourself thinking that it is too much work to read labels, think again.  According to Judith De Cava, one of the biggest problems with synthetic vitamins is that they don’t work.   She says: “When an isolated nutrient is ingested, most of it is is rushed through the circulation and flushed out through the kidneys because the body does not recognize it as food”.

Which Supplement will you chose?

1. Why do I need Whole Food Supplements  Lorrie Medford, C.N.  2002 LDN Publishing

2. Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases  http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/

3. Dr. Tim O’shea http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/?s=Vitamin+C

4. Patrick Quillan, PhD, American Journal of Natural Medicine September 2002

5. Judith De Cava CNC, L.N.C.  The Real Truth about Vitamin and Anti-Oxidants Seleneriver Press 1997