An excerpt from Goine Back to the Basics of Human Health Most doctors are unaware of the differences between synthetic and whole-food based vitamins. In fact, whole-food based vitamins often seem to come up short in the doctor's estimation. Surely, this is one of the most misunderstood concepts in nutrition, and a truly pivotal one for doctors and patients who are searching for ways to be healthy and bolster their immune systems. In Going Back to the Basics of Human Health, Mary Frost quickly and simply explains the difference between synthetic and whole-food based vitamins. Very few people, doctors included, are aware of the actual sources for the synthetic vitamins, nor are they aware of how labeling conveniently hides these sources from even being asked about. The following are some excerpts on this subject from Going Back to the Basics of Human Health. Most of us have gotten used to reading literature proclaiming the benefits of vitamins, deciding what is wrong with us, and heading to the health food store to buy what we have decided we need. Often, we end up buying all kinds of supplements and we are still not any healthier. We are presented with "'new medical facts" that are advertised in such a way as to persuade us to change our eating habits and go in a different direction. What we are getting is what Ralph Nader calls "pseudo-science". And what we are getting are genetically engineered foods, faulty infomercial health tips, incorrect information about what we are already eating, and tricky nutritional labels that we have no way of deciphering. Synthetic Vitamins Taken as Supplements Most people would probably agree that the FDA is largely responsible for leaving the public with a commercial food industry staggering in its size and revenues, and a health care crisis that is out of control. We have our food supply thoroughly corrupted and polluted. In an effort to help themselves, people take "natural" and '"organic" supplements. But, the truth is, when you purchase these products, you are merely getting more of what is being dumped into our food supply!!! Thiamine HCL and Thiamine Mononitrate as B]Come from coal tar; d-alpha tocopherols, as Vitamin E, are fractions extracted from processed and refined food oils (mainly cottonseed and soybean oil); dl-alpha tocopherols are manufactured in a laboratory; and ascorbic acid as Vitamin C is made from refined corn sugar, just to name a few. How did this happen? What exactly do the terms "natural" and "organic" mean according to the FDA? • Natural-anything that ultimately comes from nature, including chemicals, since they ultimately come from nature • Organic-anything that contains a carbon molecule (DDT has a car- . bon base). By leaving these terms basically undefined, our imagination is left to "fill in the blanks". Is this what we had in mind when we purchased a "natural" vitamin, or an "organic" supplement? Imagine a farm where no pesticides are used and the land is fertilized with composting? Well, that is not the way it is. Why Natural Food Complexes Faded from View In the beginning of vitamin research, almost all the scientific experiments used natural, food-sourced nutrients, and a lot was learned. Nutrients are difficult for the FDA and other agencies to control. But isolating vitamins and standardizing them as drugs gives them a means of controlling them. For the pharmaceutical companies, vitamin fractions such as "Vitamins" A. C, beta-carotene, and E; trace minerals such as zinc and selenium (usually sold in inorganic and imbalanced forms), coenzyme Q, and many other specific nutrients can be cheaply manufactured and sold at huge profits.1 Judith DeCava, in her book, The Real Truth about Vitamins and Antiox-idants. talks about the "standard medical view", which is an "attempt to blend medicine with nutrition, using chemically-isolated nutrients as drugs." DeCava makes some important points: 1. "Medical schools in this country are now standardized (if not homogenized) and, no matter what medical school one attends, one gets essentially the same instruction...."3 2. "Doctors believe that their education gives them a strange sort of infallability to lend their expertise in areas of medicine for which they have received no training, as in nutrition, leading them to discount ideas and even valid research."3 This is supported by the fact that in 1991, only 22 out of 127 accredited U.S. Medical Schools required a single course in nutrition. Continued on Page 26 ...from page 24 3. "News of nutrients from 1962 onward-whether in medical journals, newspapers, TV, radio-are nearly, or entirely, all based on studies using the fractionated, crystalline-pure, synthetic chemicals. The obvious consequence follows: The nutrition industry has turned into a money-grabbing, hustling, lying, cheating scam, as described by a sales rep of a very reputable supplement company."2 Cellular malnutrition, as a cause of diseases, has been drifted away from in orthodox medicine, and synthetic vitamins, which have druglike effects, have been embraced. Often, these synthetics actually contaminate the internal environment of the body. But, these synthetics, unlike whole food concentrates, can be easily mass-produced by large pharmaceutical compa- nies, who can store and distribute them. As a result, these isolated synthetics are used in nearly all nutritional supplements, whether found in a drug store, health food store, or nutritionist's office. Just What Are Natural Complexes? ; Vitamins are "groups of chemical- ; ly related compounds". There is a part I that is identified as the organic nutri- | ent of the vitamin, i.e., ascorbic acid i as Vitamin C. But, then there are | enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, \ trace elements, activators, and other | unknown factors that enable the vita- j min to go into biochemical operation. I With foods and food concen- | trates-containing whole nutritional | complexes-the body can choose its needs for assimilation and excrete what it does not need; this is called j "selective absorption". On the other hand, with fractionated or isolated and/or synthetic vitamins, there is no choice; the body must handle the chemical in some manner and can suffer consequences of bio-chemical imbalances and toxic overdose.7 This living vitamin complex cannot be taken apart and re-assembled and work the way it did before. In fact, it won't work at all; yet, this is exactly what has been done to produce chemically-pure fractionated vitamins! Once the vitamin complex has been separated into its components and is dead and inert, it is then that the "scientific method" takes it and develops trials or experiments with it. "Synthetic, fractionated, crystalline-pure vitamins are not whole, natural compounds. They are not food which human systems are familiar with. How could any scientist say that the body does not know the difference between natural and synthetic vitamins?"3 "...true science is now judged on the basis of an experimental method which measures, classifies, and duplicates reactions and effects of single chemicals. This rules out testing natural vitamin complexes.... This also rules out clinical observation-seeing how a patient is doing and communicating with him/her as to individual benefits, needs, and responses.8 "Indeed, FDA officials have consistently tended to leave out of their thinking both the human element in disease and the idea that cellular malnutrition is a prominent cause of disease."9 Getting to the Core of the Matter Now we come to the reason why synthetic vitamins are not good for you. Take, for example, ascorbic acid as Vitamin C. If a person has sufficient reserves of the other components of the C-complex (enzymes, coen-zymes, 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, leading to the "expensive urine" of excess vitamin intake referred to frequently, since the human system via the urinary tract attempts to rid itself of the major quantity of such foreign chemicals."4 Many people feel an energy increase, often a euphoria, when they start to take synthetic vitamins. But taking excessive amounts for an extended period of time will cause the effects to reverse. Take, for example, synthetic Thiamine (B,). It "will initially allay fatigue but will eventually cause fatigue by the buildup of pyru-vic acid. This leads to the vicious cycle of thinking more and more Thi- amine needed, resulting in more and more fatigue along with other accumulated complaints.'^ Because of the different amounts of stored reserves people have, there are two situations that sincere nutritionists in whole complex research keep pointing out: 1. Vitamins cannot be standardized, because there is no way of telling what different people's needs are, and there is no way to calculate their reserves. 2. Individual people's abilities to process, recombine, and eliminate synthetic vitamins are full of contradictory effects (i.e., good, bad, or indifferent effects). Whole, Natural Vitamins vs. Synthetic Judith DeCava said it succinctly when she said, "...taking one or more such vitamin parts can create an imbalance of vitamins, which is worse than a deficiency.... Synthetic supplements can unbalance a person's biochemistry.5 DeCava goes into different studies Continued on Page 53 NUTRITION ...from page 26 comparing whole, natural vs. synthetic vitamins, and the whole, natural ones always come up ahead. But, do we, as consumers, know what is natural and what is not? If the labeling of "natural" is so subjective and undefined, how can one tell the difference? The named source of the vitamin is the best clue. So, for your information, the following is a list of the most common synthetic forms of vitamins. Please take this list and compare it to the vitamins and foods you have in your kitchen cupboards. Vitamin Vitamin A Vitamin B 3 Vitamin B Vitamin C Vitamin D Vitamin E Vitamin K Synthetic Vitamin Acetate Retinal Palmitate Beta Carotene Thiamine HCL Thiamine Mononi- trate Niacin Ascorbic Acid Pycnogenols Irradiated Ergosterol d-Alpha Tocopherol dl-Alpha Tocopherol d-Alpha Succinate K3 or Menadione We are also used to seeing listings in high milligram potency, however, a high number of milligrams is also an indication of a synthetic source. The B vitamins should be taken as a whole, with all members of the group. In nature, all the B's are always found together-never is one isolated from the rest. Dr. Royal Lee, Founder of Standard Process, said that a "natural combination of Vitamin B Complex, a complete source in natural balance including intact synergists, is from 10 to 50 times more potent in humans, unit for unit, than is a chemically purified or synthetic complex." Dr. Lee also stressed that, in order to get the highest potency and effectiveness, "a number of therapeuti-cally active sources must be tapped." Potency Is Not Milligrams or Micrograms Potency is defined as "the strength, ability, or capacity to bring about a particular result."" Potency is taken, then, to mean effectiveness to the general public. "High Potency" vitamins require a large amount of the fractured vitamin to achieve a specific reaction, although not necessarily a nutritional reaction. A minute amount of a vitamin in its whole food form is more effective nutritionally than a large amount of a synthetic one. To illustrate this, let us take a look at a story about a medical doctor held captive in a North Korean prisoner of war camp during The Korean War (1950-1953). After a period of time with an inadequate diet, many of the doctor's fellow prisoners of war began to show signs of beriberi, a disease that results from severe thiamine (B|) deficiency. He notified The Red Cross, and they sent him some Bj in the synthetic form, Thiamine HCL. The doctor gave this to his patients, but their health continued to deteriorate. This puzzled him, since Bf was the medical treatment recommended in the Mate-ria Medica. The doctor's North Korean guards whispered to him that the beriberi could be cured by using rice polish, the nutritive-rich germ of the rice that is removed when rice is refined. He thought it was absurd; but he had nothing to lose, so he started giving his patients a teaspoon or more of rice polish everyday. Within a short time, his patients' symptoms started to abate and the beriberi plague ceased! It is important to note here that it would take a ton (2,000 pounds) of unmilled rice to produce a level teaspoon of thiamine (Bi)!!! The amount the prisoners of war were getting would equate down to the amount on the head of a pin! Mary Frost has a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas, and a Masters of Philosophy from St. Johns College in Santa Fe, NM. She has been actively involved in health and nutrition for more than 15 years and brings her experience and studies to the fore as a nutritional journalist and researcher. Books are available individually, or in bulk discount, to doctors, at the price of $7.95 each, 10 or more $4.49, and 100 or more $3.49. Shipping and handling costs are additional. You can order by mail to: Mary Frost, P.O. Box 17356, San Diego, CA 92177-7356, or by phone, with a credit card, at: (858) 274-9053, or FAX at: (858) 274-9077. References 1. DeCava, Judith A.. M.S., LNC, The Real Truth about Vitamins and Antioxidams, p. 76. 2. Ibid., p. 41-42 3. Ibid., p. p.37, 38 4. Ibid., p. 57 5. Ibid..p.3\ 6. Ibid., p. 54 7. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, Jr., W. M., New Hope for Incurable Diseases, (Jericho: Exposition, 1971), pp. 83-85. 8. Carter. James P., M.D., Ph.D., Racketeering in Medicine, pp. 23-24, citing David Horrobin, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Assoc. (March 1990), and Charles Harris, Pathologist, Cult of Medical Science. i. Williams, Dr. Robert J.. Nutrition agauist Disease, pp.4,5.11,17. ♦
