WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC VITAMINS?

[Guest guest]

From someone on my lists

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; 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 ing, Ewan Cameron, 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%20a%20product.html . My only

reservations concern this website's " Products " section. I offer neither

endorsement nor recommendation about any brand of supplement.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

$$ Donations to help in the work - accepted by Paypal account

earthmysteriestours@... voicemail US 530-740-0561

(go to http://www.paypal.com) or by mail

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm

Reality of the Diseases & Treatment -

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm

Homeopathy On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm