Have you gone to the store lately to purchase a vitamin or supplement? It’s a pretty daunting task considering there are rows upon rows of supplements. How do you know what to pick? Is there a difference? Many say natural and/or organic, but what does that really mean? It’s very misleading. If you take a look at the definition for natural, it means ‘anything that ultimately comes from nature, including chemicals, since they ultimately come from nature.’ Organic means ‘anything that contains a carbon molecule.’ Did you know DDT has a carbon base? So what does this really tell us?

As in one of my previous posts, the definition for a vitamin is a group of chemically related compounds. This consists not only of the nutrient contained in the vitamin but essential enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace elements, activators and other unknown factors that enable the vitamin to go into biochemical operation. When the main nutrient is separated or isolated our bodies don’t know how to process them.

Here are a couple examples from a book I recently read Going Back to the Basics of Human Health by Mary Frost: “Take, for example, ascorbic acid as Vitamin C. If a person has sufficient reserves of the other components of the C complex (enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace element activators, and other unknown factors) to recombine and process an intake of ascorbic acid, then that person will experience some improvement for a time. When these reserves are drained, the ascorbic acid will no longer benefit that person. The very symptoms that the person was trying to eliminate will return, and the person will then have a full-blown Vitamin C deficiency. This is what occurs with all synthetic vitamins: the body treats them as toxins.”

“Vitamin E ‘loses up to 99% of its potency when separated from its natural synergists.’ When you take just the tocopherols, you are throwing out the real vitamin E. The tocopherols are nature’s way of protecting and preserving Vitamin E, like the peel of a banana. In one test study, the vitamin E-deficient laboratory animals fed tocopherols died sooner than the control animals that received no vitamin at all.”

Here’s another example with vitamin B: “Dr. Sure studied two groups of pigs, feeding one group twice the daily requirement of synthetic B and the other group the same amount of natural B. ‘The results: ALL of the first generation offspring from the pigs fed the synthetic vitamin were STERILE.’ It is obvious that synthetic B, in addition to NOT being a nutrient, is a genetic poison. Humans, unlike pigs, take more than one generation to reap this genetic damage. A 1981 report from The University of Florida stated that the American male sperm count in 1929 was at approximately 100 million sperm cells per milliliter of semen. By 1973 the sperm count had dropped to 60 million/ml. Then seven years later, in 1980, the average count had dropped to 20 million/ml.” “Since World War II the American people, and people of other countries as well, have had a daily ration of a genetic poison in most of the bread, flour products, cereals, and other food items that are forced, by law, to enrich with the only cost-feasible enricher: synthetic vitamins.” (Hmm, think about that one for a minute. I know a lot of people that have dealt with fertility issues, how about you?)

 So, how can you tell the difference? Look at the label on the back. If it sounds like a chemical, it most likely is. Whole or real food supplements list the food source that the vitamin/nutrient comes from because you need the whole thing with all the components for it to be effective. Also, look at how many milligrams or micrograms are listed. For whole food supplements, a minute amount is far more effective nutritionally than a large amount of a synthetic one.

Last, but certainly not least…synthetic vitamins are made with coal tar. Seriously, if you and your family are taking synthetic vitamins please reconsider.  You’re better off not taking anything.  Don’t just take my word for it, do your own research. Your body will thank you for it!