Selecting Supplements

Because vitamins and supplements can be pricey, it's easy to get excited when you compare the cost a natural, food-sourced product with an easy-to-take, all-in-one and much cheaper synthetic, but you really aren't saving any money. In fact, several respected studies indicate that if you opt for the synthetic product, you may even be causing yourself harm.

While some physicians actually argue in favor of synthetic vitamins by stating that it's technically a chemically purer product, they fail to add that they are also nutritionally inferior, in addition to being toxic (Consider that heroin, cocaine and sugar are also examples of chemically pure substances.)

There is a classic experiment where scientists take two groups of rats. They feed one group a diet of "synthetic" vitamin-fortified cereal, and the other rats are fed the cardboard box the cereal came in. The box eating rats live far longer.

The following excerpt from the book, "The Vitamin Myth," illustrates this issue.

Generally speaking, evaluating the proper milligrams of a synthetic vitamin supplement, as related to the potency of a vitamin, is a confusing and misleading proposition. This is because synthetic vitamins are refined, high potency chemicals, and therefore can be accurately measured in milligrams, just like drugs. Measuring synthetic vitamin compounds in milligrams has nothing to do with real vitamin activity or nutrition. The vitamin activity and real potency of the vitamin is dependent upon its authenticity as a whole, naturally-occurring vitamin, not its synthetic chemical fractionated potency or weight.

For example, it is often suggested to digest, or take intravenously, 1000’s of milligrams of vitamin C, E or A. This action is not only alarming to your immune system, but sends your body into a state of confusion.

A noxious bio-chemical chain reaction may begin with the body working to eliminate these toxins with none of the false nutrients entering the system as a natural food. When someone experiences dangerous side effects from synthetic vitamin consumption it is usually because synthetics cannot be utilized or metabolized, so they build up in the body as toxins and are eliminated as best as possible.

On the contrary, complete, food sources of vitamin C, E or A have normally lower milligram levels than those offered in “high potency” synthetic vitamin ingredients, yet the body can easily absorb and use them as real, whole complexed vitamins from food. When someone is concerned about the safety of vitamins, they are generally concerned about the dangers of overdosing on synthetic vitamins. Many people have experienced the dangers of toxic “vitaminosis” when indulging in mega doses of synthetic vitamins.

Some synthetic vitamins are made from coal tar. This base material, typically a crystalline yellow coal tar derived from fossil fuel sources, is not only used as a base to make some synthetic vitamins, but also as a host for other synthetic compounds including colorings, paints and many other chemical materials used as ingredients such as toxic preservatives or harmful food excipients. Coal tar is widely used in both the food and cosmetic industries and is a known carcinogen.

Taking synthetic vitamins in milligram quantities is related to the RDA’s (Recommended Daily Allowance) or the more modern RDI’s (Recommended Daily Intake), but this still does not actually relate to potency because potency of a vitamin has to do with its effectiveness and assimilation not its weight. Weight and potency, in this case, are two different things. Naturally occurring whole complexed vitamins from foods created by nature are more “potent” per milligram than synthetic fractions of those vitamins because it is the whole, real vitamin that the body requires not a synthetic chemical substitute of a fraction of a vitamin that has been chemically synthesized a laboratory.

So, the quantity of vitamin milligrams is not as important as the quality of the vitamin milligrams. Many vitamins supplement brands play the “milligram game” which is often confusing to the consumer. The idea of “more is better” works fine for some things, but not for toxic synthetics. We have to be aware of what is really going on here. The important first question should be whether or not the vitamin is natural (NOS) and not how many milligrams are available. If the vitamin product is synthetic then, I believe, it does not matter how many milligrams are offered since every synthetic vitamin milligram offered should be avoided. You get more nutrition from a lower number of milligrams when the vitamin is a whole naturally occurring complex from real food.

Let’s try to avoid the milligram game and play the naturally occurring game instead. We can’t win the synthetic milligram game, but we can definitely win and benefit our health while playing the NOS game.

So if your supplement does say "all natural" or "organically synthesized," what does it really mean? Consider this next article from Dr. Schulze:

In my many years as a Nutritional Consultant I have seen many philosophies and products come and go. I have seen the fads, the cure-alls, and the laziness in all of us that wants a pill to replace a sound nutritional program. Nutritional fads can even be dangerous by consuming large amounts of trace elements that we only need in microscopic amounts, or maybe none at all such as the latest toxic fads of silver and chrome.

I used to prescribe only the best vitamins and minerals to my patients. I knew that these products were in a base of natural ingredients and herbs, but wondered what the actual vitamins and minerals were made out of, I had assumed food.

All vitamin and mineral supplements currently made are NOT blended foods. In fact most are made from very undesirable, even horrifying substances. If you look on your current bottle of nutrients, it will state it contains many vitamins, minerals, and a long list of no's like starch, wheat, cellulose, soy, lactose etc. It will even be in a base of herbs but you will notice that it doesn't state what the actual vitamins and minerals are made from. I can tell you right now no one is grinding up fresh raw vegetables and organic grains to make these pills.

Commercial grade vitamin and mineral concentrates are synthesized by the big pharmaceutical and chemical industries from the same starting material that drugs are made from, (coal tar, petroleum products, animal by-products / waste and fecal matter, ground rocks, stones, shells and metal. They are then wholesaled out to the various nutrient manufacturers. The manufacturers are just mixing middlemen. Most of them don't even know how these various vitamins and minerals are made, or from what, nobody asks. Everybody just assumes a vitamin is a vitamin.

After all The United States Pharmacopoeia (U.S.P.) states that if a product looks similar under a microscope, or in analysis, that it is the same regardless of what it is made out of. For instance salicylic acid u.s.p. is considered identical whether it comes from wintergreen leaves or by boiling coal in carbolic and sulfuric acids. It also considers glycerin u.s.p. identical whether it is made from fresh vegetables, toxic minerals or boiled down animal carcasses, cartilage and feet. Does it make a difference to you?

The Vitamins: Many so-called natural vitamins are made from horrible substances.

All the vitamin B-12, cyanocobalamin, on the market is made from either ground up toxic cow livers or activated sewage sludge. These cow livers are overloaded with steroids and antibiotics, and the pesticides the cow assimilates while eating. The sewage sludge is just that, fecal matter. In today's environment of depressed immune diseases I can think of hundreds of reasons that these materials would be a health risk, not benefit. Just because a so-called natural substance, (fecal matter is natural), is high in a particular vitamin, does that also mean it is a good food?

Vitamin A from fish liver juices loaded with toxic PCB's and mercury, B vitamins from coal tar and petro-chemicals known central nervous system depressants, respiratory irritants and carcinogens, Vitamin C from acid blends irritating to the lining of the digestive tract, Vitamin D from radiated oil, Vitamin E from Eastman Kodak, need I say anymore?

The Minerals: All minerals used in nutrient manufacture are basically dirt. The iron, calcium, zinc etc. are just mined ore, pulverized and powdered to a fine dust. This doesn't make it any easier to assimilate. Some calcium is made from ground up oyster shells. This reminds me of when I was a kid watching the Three Stooges fix dinner, they would throw the oysters away and try and chew the shells. We all laughed at them and now we are doing the same thing. Modern research shows us that minerals of this type are 99% inassimilable. The manufacturers response to this is to add pig digestive enzymes, which supposedly pre-digests it or chelates it, in their attempts to force our body to accept this toxic material. Is this practice of chelating minerals really to our benefit or a dangerous act of ignorance?

We are currently entering a new era of nutrition. It is no longer a matter of how many milligrams you take of a particular nutrient but how much of what you are taking is actually getting into your bloodstream, and the organs that need it. And even more important, what are these vitamins and minerals made from and do they have toxic side effects.

When evaluating a supplement, look at the ingredients. If they aren't clearly listed on the label, call the company. If they are not forthcoming with real answers that involve actual botanical components, put it back on the shelf. It pays to spend a little extra on a supplement that is actually good for you.