Have you walked down the vitamin aisle in a health food store lately? Row after row of supplements entice you to buy. But what is in vitamin tablets? Are you just wasting your money? If vitamins are beneficial, how do you know which are the best ones?
First the bad news. Most vitamins are made by pharmaceutical companies, not natural health companies. As with all pharmaceutical products, you are paying for advertising, not for research or quality. Pfizer makes Centrum, the number one selling multivitamin in the world. And it is number one because Pfizer can afford to market it, not because it is good for your health.[i]
Bayer makes One a Day brand and NBTY makes $2 billion dollars a year making Nature’s Bounty, Vitamin World, Sundown and Puritan’s Pride brands. Americans spend $23 million on vitamins, and that is big business, even if it is only one tenth the money Americans spend on pharmaceutical drugs.
When a brand is advertised as “pharmaceutical grade” stay away. That means it is a synthetic copy of a real vitamin. Does your body know the difference? It is the difference between a mannequin and a live human being. The mannequin may have a similar outward structure as a human, and it can look pretty when you dress it up, but it is not alive. Whole foods and whole food vitamins have “life” in them because they are made from living matter. Synthetic vitamins are as alive as rocks.
The vast majority of vitamin supplements on the market are shadows of real vitamins, made out of carbon substances to mimic the structure of a genuine vitamin. They cannot have the same therapeutic activity or effect in the body. Synthetic vitamins may even have a drug-like effect at high doses, but they can never have the beneficial effect of actual nutrients from food.
The discovery of vitamins occurred when certain constituents of food were isolated as the most “vital” nutrient that prevented or corrected disease states. Vitamin C was discovered when scurvy could be cured with certain foods that were high in C, which is needed by the body to maintain collagen. Eliminate the foods that contain C and scurvy develops. The British Navy ruled the oceans after they discovered that limes could prevent scurvy in the 1700’s, before the Dutch or the French. Hence the slang name “Limey” for English sailors and soldiers.
Synthetic Vitamin C won’t cure scurvy, but foods rich in natural C may, if the diet is not completely deficient in other nutrients. Gingivitis and periodontal disease are both an early sign of scurvy.
Many vitamins are made from coal tar. As a carbon compound, coal tar is broken down and made into a variety of products, from tarmac to synthetic B vitamins. [ii]
This certainly allows a consistency in the manufacturing. But how helpful are coal tar derivatives to your body? Humans have been eating whole foods from plant and animal sources since the beginning of their existence. The lack of certain nutrients brings about disease states-that has been well documented. Providing the missing nutrients can allow the body to heal and repair-also documented. Synthetic vitamins are a poor substitute for the complex molecules that make up real food and botanical herbs. So, synthetic vitamins may be a waste of your money, and may in fact induce further deficiencies if they are not well balanced with each other. No nutrients exist in a vacuum or isolation in Nature, so high-dose isolated vitamins are very un-natural.[iii]
The good news is that you can find whole food nutrients that may help fill the gap in our food. Farming depleted soil conditions and using synthetic pesticides and chemicals has reaped an empty harvest when it comes to nutrition. Food source supplements can help provide the balance you need to get and stay well.
The best source of whole food nutrient supplements is the originator and founder of the very concept of multivitamins, Standard Process.™ In 1929, Dr. Royal Lee, realized that his mother’s failing health might be assisted if she were given some food concentrates. His mother recovered and the word spread until Dr. Lee founded a company called “The Vitamin Company” in Milwaukee, WI. Continuing his research into human nutrition needs, the company grew until today Standard Process has dozens of nutrient-dense supplements to address deficiencies in every organ, gland and system of the body. Available through health care practitioners, this company is the gold standard.
I just returned from the Standard Process 1000-acre organic farm located in Palmyra, WI. I saw Spanish black radish as big as baseballs harvested by the truckload, washed and delivered to the plant to be made into a Spanish black radish supplement. Spanish radish is very effective at full liver detoxification, and packs a very powerful health punch for a humble radish.
So, look for whole food supplements for your family’s health. These supplements will be more expensive than synthetics, and will be manufactured by the smaller companies who care about real quality. Potency is not about the hundreds of milligrams printed on the label. If the vitamin has high doses, it is surely synthetic. Potency is about whether your body can actually use the ingredients in the supplement to build health at the cellular level. Carrots contain over 200 phytonutrients. We don’t know how all those phytonutrients impact our health. But we do know that humans get sick and die without certain nutrients from food. How many of our modern “diseases” are really deficiencies? If you are buying synthetic vitamins you may be paying a lot of money for advertising, and getting only broken promises and a handful of coal tar in return.[iv] So, don’t be fooled by quantity, when you want the best possible quality.
People need real food. And they may need real food concentrates to fill the gaps that food should provide, but doesn’t. At Well Body Clinic, we use only the finest real food supplements and herbal medicine in the world. Its what we take ourselves and what we wish the whole world could have. If you have questions about your personal health program, or your family’s, email us or book a free 15-minute consultation. If your current vitamins aren’t making a difference, maybe it is because your body needs more than tarmac to get well. Our programs are laser precise and tailored just for you. The human body was designed to heal. If you know that, you deserve the real supplements.
[i] http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/06/us-pfizer-centrum-idUSBRE86414620120706
[ii] http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5022191_synthetic-vitamins-made.html
[iii] http://leechiropracticaz.com/wellness-articles/is-your-vitamin-poisoning-you/2253/
[iv] http://www.alive.com/articles/view/18318/the_advantages_of_whole_food_nutritional_supplements