Synthetic vs. Natural Supplements - Is There a Difference?

TThere isn't a much more debated topic in the area of nutrition than the synthetic vs. natural vitamin debate. Actually the real culprit behind most of the false information is the Food and Drug Administration, the pharmaceutical industry, and the food producers.

In this section we'll explore and give scientific references that will clearly give you certainty that you should not be taking supplements that are derived from synthetic sources. In fact, we'll demonstrate that you are in fact creating deficiencies in your nutritional state by doing so.

Vitamins are plentiful and cheap and you can get them at your local grocery store. Practically everything in the grocery store is enriched with vitamins anyway, so we shouldn't be missing a thing. Right? But if we're taking such great care of our health, why are degenerative diseases such as arthritis and heart disease occurring at an alarming rate and fertility rates falling drastically?

The vitamin phenomenon started after the turn of the century during the beginning of the industrial revolution. Science found ways to create molecular duplicates or copies of vitamins occurring in nature. Most vitamins can now be synthesized and are made from substances ranging from corn syrup to coal tar.

These synthesized duplicates differ from natural vitamins in two essential ways. First, the molecular polarity of the substance has changed, rendering it a "mirror image" of the original molecule. Dr. Royal Lee, founder of Standard Process^�, discovered this mirror image attribute of vitamins while studying light refraction the 1930's. While this may seem like a minor issue, it is not. The body continues to look for the shape of the original molecule, and the man-made substance becomes a burden to be excreted rather than a help to healing.

Second, each vitamin occurring in nature comes in a complex form easily assimilable by the human body. Take vitamin C for example. Naturally occurring in citrus fruits, acerola cherries, rose hips and other fruits and vegetables, this vitamin comes in a package containing vitamin P factors such as bioflavonoids and rutin, vitamin K, vitamin J, various enzymes and coenzymes plus a small amount of ascorbic acid, the antioxidant of the complex. Vitamin C is rated according to the amount of ascorbic acid it contains. Ascorbic acid is not vitamin C, ascorbic acid is ascorbic acid, a fraction of the biologically utilizable natural vitamin C complex. Furthermore, most ascorbic acid on the market is produced synthetically.

Did You Know?

Synthetic C supplements promote free radical generation?
Alpha-tocopherol is only one of seven tocopherols found in vitamin E complex, but it is not the active ingredient. Taking alpha-tocopherol by itself actually creates a vitamin deficiency.
Many biochemical researchers, nutritionists and herbalists have noted that without the whole-food complex, the body will never achieve whole nutrition, as vitamin supplements lack the rest of the complex.
If you don't understand what's on a supplement label, and most of the print reads as chemicals, chances are you're not purchasing a whole food supplement. The truth is that many companies tout their products as whole foods when they're offering mixtures of foods along with isolates. And some so-called "whole-food" supplements are not grown in soil, under natural, traditional farming conditions. That's whey we only use whole food supplements from Standard Process, Inc.
Slaves recruited to build the Great Pyramids of Egypt subsisted largely on this odorous herb. Garlic, in fact, may be what kept them alive. Modern medical anthropologists credit the plant with helping to prevent epidemic diseases in the ancient world. That's because garlic contains bacteria-fighting allicin, as well as vitamin C, calcium, magnesium and potassium.

According to The New York Times, reporting on an another study, a team of British pathologists at the University of Leicester studied 30 healthy men and women for six weeks, giving them 400 milligrams of vitamin C daily in the form of ascorbic acid. They found that at this level, vitamin C promoted damage to the DNA in these individuals.

Synthetic B vitamins have performed similarly. Writing in a Pennsylvania newspaper, a medical columnist who had been medical officer in a North Korean prisoner-of- war camp during the Korean conflict, found his fellow prisoners contracting Beriberi, a disease caused by a deficiency of Vitamin B. He obtained Thiamine Hydrochloride, a synthetic form of vitamin B, from the Red Cross, and administered it to the sickest men. No positive change was seen and the men continued to get worse. The guards suggested rice polish, a natural source of vitamin B, which he administered in small amounts. The Beriberi symptoms abated within a week.

Vitamin E is another example. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution summarized the April, 1997 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with a headline proclaiming "Megadoses of E May Be Harmful, A Study Indicates." The story discussed that individuals taking vitamin E supplements might be depleting their bodies of other forms of the vitamin that perform unique and vital chemical tasks. The author mentions that vitamin E supplements were administered in the form of alpha-tocopherol. Alpha-tocopherol is one of seven tocopherols, the antioxidants of the vitamin E complex, but it is not the active ingredient. Natural vitamin E contains seven tocopherols plus polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins F, A and K and forms of vitamin D and manganese. The body is designed to utilize food in its whole form. If incomplete foods such as refined alpha-tocopherol are digested, the missing factors are borrowed from tissue reserves in order to make the partial food usable.

In a Spring 1994 Finnish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine synthetic vitamin E was supplied by a major pharmaceutical company. In the study, users of the product had a statistically significant loss of protection from lung cancer, stroke and other degenerative diseases.

A whole-food supplement, is one comprised of foods (not extracts, but entire foods) that have been concentrated into supplemental form. Isolated supplements are singular (or groups of individual) vitamins, minerals and/or amino acids. Whole foods contain vitamins, but vitamins never contain the rest of the whole-food "complex."

Many biochemical researchers, nutritionists and herbalists have noted that without the whole-food complex, the body will never achieve whole nutrition, as vitamin supplements lack the rest of the complex. Richard Murray, DC, an avid biochemical researcher and lecturer for the past 30 years, taught that isolated vitamins eventually lead to biochemical imbalances and consequential nutritional deficiencies, as the body is forced to surrender its stores of nutrients in order to make any isolated vitamin work. Dr. Murray went so far as to state that the use of isolated/synthetic vitamins amounts to the practice of "chemistry," wherein the use of whole-food supplements translates into the practice of biochemistry. Whole foods are alive with enzyme activity, while isolated vitamins are not living substances in the least. Vitamins do not resemble foods, but they resemble parts of foods. It is the rest of the food complex - the other parts - in which proponents of whole foods are interested. Retired USDA botanist, James Duke, PhD, author of The Green Pharmacy, agrees: "Vitamins and phytochemicals are better taken in their evolutionary context - as they occur in plants - not isolated and out of context." Although it is true that isolated vitamin supplementation "works," we must define the word "work."

Certainly, experiments have shown the efficacy of vitamins against symptomatology, but some experts claim that this is a matter of practicing pharmacology, not nutrition. Nutrition relates to nourishment by foods, not isolated chemicals. Whole foods work biochemically and harmoniously, while isolated vitamins always run the risk of creating biochemical imbalances. When speaking of minerals, there is the added risk of toxicity, as minerals must enjoy a biochemical balance to promote health. Zinc; copper; iron; calcium; magnesium; phosphorus; and other minerals are easily upset and offset by an improper ratio of minerals in the body. Taking isolated minerals and mineral toddies, even in a multivitamin/mineral supplement, is a biochemical risk. Too much magnesium or phosphorus may imbalance calcium; too much copper may imbalance vitamin C; zinc; manganese; molybdenum; vitamin B6; and iron; too much zinc can lead to copper deficiency, and so on. Because nutrients in foods are balanced within the food complex, the risk of toxicity is very low.

Conversely, trying to balance the body's biochemistry with mineral and vitamin supplements is very difficult because of the dynamic complexity of the human organism; the daily diet; exposure to environmental poisons; stress factors; genetics, etc. This is the reason we use a whole-food complex supplement containing a multitude of plant foods known to be mineral-rich, and also include synergistic vitamins; amino acids; trace mineral activators; and enzymes. We have found that nature's design is a safer choice due its inherent intelligence in providing a variety of nutrients, synergists and low dosages. When using whole-food supplements, doctors must realize a paradigm shift and the need to stop regarding foods as chemicals. We have to give up the reductionist line of thinking and grasp the holistic perspective, understanding that the "more is better" attitude does not apply to food; vitamins; minerals; or amino acids. The quality of the food complex becomes more important than the quantity of individual vitamins, minerals or amino acids.

As with all supplements, buyer beware. If you don't understand what's on a supplement label, and most of the print reads as chemicals, chances are you're not purchasing a whole food supplement. The truth is that many companies tout their products as whole foods when they're offering mixtures of foods along with isolates. And some so-called "whole-food" supplements are not grown in soil, under natural, traditional farming conditions. The way to tell the difference is rather simple: A whole food is just that - a food like a carrot, beet, celery or potato flour, for instance. Isolates are stated on the label by their chemical names, such as vitamin A palmitate; mixed tocopherols; ascorbic acid; pyridoxine; niacin; niacinamide; etc.

The list goes on and on. From sterility, to reduced life span, to poorer fur in animals, to malnutrition, synthetic vitamins are being found not only unhelpful, but downright damaging. Living beings need the whole, natural vitamin complex. This is what we were designed for, what we expect, and what we will respond to. When the body can get vitamins in the form it expects - in its entirety, including all trace minerals, enzymes and other factors - much less is required to achieve results.

Synthetic vs. Natural - Is There a Difference?