Vitamins vs. Whole Food Supplements - What's the Difference?
Regardless of what Vitamin-Companies would have you believe, the truth is that the vitamins and minerals in food are not the same as those found in most supplemental vitamins and minerals. In fact, the vitamins and minerals promoted by USP vitamins cannot be found in any food! Even the word "natural" is completely different! In the these so-called "natural" supplements, the ingredients are USP (United States Pharmacopoeia) vitamins which means that they are isolated pharmaceutical (drug-like) chemicals and many of the minerals are mined from the ground or synthetized from corn sugar or petrochemicals.
Vitamin Supplements Versus Food Supplements
For example: Vitamin B-6 found in ordinary supplements is pyridoxine hydrocholine, a synthetic USP chemical. This is not even similar to the vitamin B-6 in food. You will not find pyridoxine hydrochloride in any food.
The vitamins in good whole-food nutritional supplements are in a high-complex food form, and we might call these a "food matrix" which our bodies can readily recognize and utilize. These food matrixes contain proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, bioflavonoids and other food factors. The USP vitamins in supplements are NOT found in a food matrix, instead, they are isolated chemicals which your cells cannot readily recognize and utilize properly. Your body does the most that it can to absorb a small amount of these elements but most them are excreted. The cells of your body were originally designed by nature to be nourished by natural foods not by pharmaceutical chemicals.
Synthetic vitamins are highly "refined" chemical substances. The problems with taking such a refined chemical into the body are the same as with ingesting refined foods. The fractionated chemicals are in many cases only part of the nutritient that's supposedly being taken. For example, people take Ascorbic Acid thinking that they're taking Vitamin-C. And when you look at a standard multi-vitamin or Vitamin-C supplement and flip the bottle around you see that the supposed Vitamin-C content is actually Ascorbic Acid. Ascorbic Acid is made from glucose (corn sugar) boiled with sulfuric acid. Most of the ascorbic acid in foods and vitamin pills is made by Hoffman-LaRoche, the pharmaceutical giant.
A diagram of the complete Vitamin-C complex is shown below compared to ascorbic acid. Don't be mislead by the manufacturer's advertising that ascorbic acid or any other part of the complex is the whole. Similar to the Vitamin-E complex (above), the body must scavenge for any missing parts of the incomplete vitamin to function properly. Unfortunately, copper deficiency is one result of taking high doses of ascorbic acid. The body takes copper and the other missing parts from its reserves in order to piece together a whole Vitamin-C complex. Wouldn't it be healthier to take a vitamin that was complete in the first place and avoid the unhealthy body response of depletion?
Yes, ascorbic acid is the Vitamin-C chemical. However, when taken in isolation it has to leach its missing co-factors from your bodies tissue reserves. If we ingest large doses of ascorbic acid, unless we also take large amounts of all these co-factor nutrients, the body will become depleted of the very co-factors that work together and makes Vitamin-C function within the body.
Below is a diagram of a complete Vitamin-E complex as found in nature compared to a synthetic. However, many incomplete vitamins are sold. Check the ingredients on your bottle. If it says mixed tocopherols or d-alpha tocopherol, the it is not complete Vitamin-E. All parts of the complex are required for the proper function of the vitamin. Any missing parts will be taken away from your body's reserves. The vitamin must be complete for it to function. Commonly missing parts are listed to the right. As indicated each on is important in a different area of your metabolism. Over time, it is harmful to deplete your body of these elements needed to form the complete Vitamin-Complex.
Another common scenario is that almost all synthetic vitamin and mineral products available to the public are synthesized by pharmaceutical and chemical companies. For example, coal tar is used to make Thiamine Hydrochloride (or Thiamine Mononitrate). This is a synthetic form of Vitamin-B1 and it is not used as efficiently in your body. The natural form of B1 (Thiamine) is shown below compared to the synthetic form. At a glance you can see the difference in structure and your body can too.
When you consume any refined vitamin your body can either (A) eliminate it as unusable or (B) utilize it by leaching the missing co-factor nutrients needed to form a complete Vitamin-Complex. The first option causes stress on the liver and kidneys. The second option leaches missing co-factor nutrients including minerals and enzymes from your own tissue reserves. The result is that in time your body becomes deficient in the co-factor nutrients for the very vitamin you're taking. Taking a synthetic vitamin leads to a functional deficiency of the very "vitamin" you are taking!
Synthetic Vitamins Are Linked To Increased Disease Risk?
The research continues to bear out the people who take synthetic vitamins have increased incidence of disease. For example, an epidemiological study presented at the American Heart Association in 2000 found that Ascorbic Acid pills speed up the process of hardening of the arteries. Studies from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center showed that tumors grow faster in a high ascorbic acid environment. The journal Nature reported in 1998 that five-hundred milligrams of ascorbic acid daily can damage genetic DNA. The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported in 1990 that Ascorbic Acid is excreted via the kidneys in 24 hours.
Get the picture? The same general pattern is true for every vitamin. For example, there's evidence that taking beta-carotene supplements actually increases the risk of lung cancer in current smokers. Research also indicates that synethic vitamins A and E can actually cause illness.
Professor Martin Wiseman, the medical and scientific adviser for the World Cancer Research Fund, says the research strongly indicates that those who regularly take synthetic vitamin and mineral supplements instead of eating a balanced diet are at greater risk for cancer and other diseases.
How can this be? Wiseman says that “Just because a dietary pattern that provides a relatively high level of a particular nutrient might protect against cancer, it does not mean that taking it in tablet form will have the same effect. In fact, at high doses the effect of these micronutrients is unpredictable and can be harmful to health."
Dr. Greenwood Carries Organic Food Supplements
Many times the "natural" or "food-based" supplements are formulated with the same USP chemical vitamins and minerals as mentioned above. They simply put them into a big blender and add a small amount of powdered food, for example "vitamin-C with Rose Hips." Then they are sold as powders, tablets or liquids. This does not change the USP vitamins and minerals. Your body will still not recognize them. You can fool your mind but you cannot fool the cells of your body. Does the label on your vitamin mineral supplement list the whole-foods it contains?
I use only Whole Food Supplements made from organically raised produce and concentrated to clinical potency. There is really only one manufacturer who can make such a claim - that is Standard Process, Inc. Standard Process has been growing their own ingredients on an organic farm in Wisconsin since 1929 so you know it's pure, organic and truly natural.
One of the first pieces of advice I give people, especially if they're suffering from chronic fatigue, is to get off the synthetic vitamins. They are draining your body of precious nutrients that are keeping you alive, healthy and energetic.
Dr. Philip Greenwood, D.C.
Murrieta, California
