WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC VITAMINS?

[Sheri Nakken]

From
Doctor Yourself: Natural Healing That Works
by Dr. Andrew W. Saul

Page 215
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC VITAMINS?

Nobody really likes what I have to say on this subject. Vitamin
salespeople think it's too
medical, and medical people think it's too quacky. And, to be fair, the
answer is an inherently awkward one. Most vitamin products, even those sold
in health food stores, contain synthetic vitamin powders. There are only a
few manufacturers of vitamin powders, and they are generally large
pharmaceutical companies.

Generally,
a) Laboratory-made vitamins are far
cheaper than whole food concentrates;
b) Synthetic vitamins USUALLY work
quite well,
c) High potency can be achieved with a nice, small tablet size.

One of the chief differences in "health food store" vs "drug store" brands
is what is NOT in the tablet. For example, the more natural brands leave out
artificial chemical colors, which is a good thing to do. Just about all
brands contain tablet fillers and excipients, needed to physically hold the
pill together. Since these will vary, the only way to find out exactly who
uses what is to write to the company and find out.

http://www.doctoryourself.com/labels.html

Some tableting ingredients are
pretty standard, such as magnesium stearate or stearic acid, sodium citrate,
dicalcium phosphate, cellulose and silica. Vitamins can legally be called
"Natural" even if made in a laboratory. You would not think so, but it is
true. Vitamin C, for example, is factory-made from starch. Starch is
certainly natural, so the product can be termed "Natural." Is this
starch-based vitamin C identical to orange-juice vitamin C? Most biochemists
say yes, because 1) vitamin C in animal bodies is made from carbohydrates
anyway, and 2) the product is clinically effective. But the actual molecular
construction process is NOT identical. Factories do not use L-gulonolactone
oxidase from animal liver to make vitamin C. Nor do they copy the orange
tree's plant metabolism. Can one get an identical product from a different
process? Probably; there is more than one way to skin an enzyme. But the
real test must be, does the vitamin in front of you prevent and cure
disease. Drs. Linus Pauling, Ewan Cameron, Robert Cathcart and others have
established that very high doses of factory-made ascorbic acid vitamin C
work just fine against viral and bacterial illness. It is possible that food
concentrate vitamin C may be superior. Let's say it was twice as good. But
to use 40,000 milligrams (mg) of orange juice C, instead of 80,000 mg of
synthetic ascorbic acid, is impractical, bordering on the impossible. It
would be too expensive, either to manufacture all this from oranges, or to
eat from the oranges. It would take roughly 600 oranges to obtain 40,000 mg
of vitamin C. Even if natural C were TEN times as effective, which I
sincerely doubt, it would still take well over 100 oranges a day to do the
job. My recommendation? When you are sick, eat as many oranges (and other
vitamin-C rich fruits) as you can, WHILE YOU ALSO TAKE tens of thousands of
milligrams of cheap, supplemental ascorbic acid vitamin C. In some cases,
the natural form of a vitamin IS clearly superior to the synthetic form. The
best example is vitamin E. The natural form of vitamin E is called "D-ALPHA
TOCOPHEROL," and is made from vegetable oil. The synthetic form is DL-alpha
tocopherol. Not a big difference in name, is it. There is considerable
evidence that the natural "D" (dextro-, or right-handed) molecular form of
Vitamin E is more useful to the body than is the synthetic. The natural form
is also more expensive, but not much more. In choosing a vitamin E
supplement, you should carefully read the label... the ENTIRE label. It is
remarkable how many natural-looking brown bottles with natural-sounding
brand names contain the synthetic form. A large amount of very good
information on the forms of vitamin E may be found at
http://www.vitamine-factor.com/Choosing ... oduct.html . My only
reservations concern this website's "Products" section. I offer neither
endorsement nor recommendation about any brand of supplement.
Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
http://www.wellwithin1.com/homeo.htm & http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm
ONLINE/Email classes in Homeopathy; Vaccine Dangers; Childhood
Diseases - next classes start in September