ALL VITAMINS ARE NOT THE SAME

The plethora of supplements on the market boggles the mind. Which is best?
Which will give me the best for my dollars? The consumer is left to sort through
unbelievable amounts of marketing designed to convince you to buy. The
objective of the supplement company is money. If reducing supplement quality
equates, for instance, to increased shelf life, which equates to a greater prot
margin, they are willing to sacrice quality for quantity of sales. The consumer
is relegated to making a decision based on whose marketing is more e!ective,
rather than how the product will actually work in their body. "fter all,
supplements are taken to support function, not to support the vitamin industry#
Read Labels. $efore you read this article any further, take out your vitamin
supplements and have them ne%t to you as you read on. The new nutritional
disclosure labels actually make it more di&cult to determine what are healthy
ingredients and what are not. The old labels 'still on many products(, tell you
more about what is really in the product. "s a general rule of thumb, if you see
vitamins listed in the ingredient section of the label, it is synthetic or
fractionated) otherwise it would be listed as the food. *ow on the new labeling,
you have to look under the +*utrition ,acts- section as well 'where it lists what
percentage of the daily value of basic nutrients is contained in the product(.
Where the vitamins are listed, look where it displays parenthesis 'for e%ample.
+/itamin " 'as beta carotene(-. The word +as- generally denotes a synthetic or
fractionated source, unless it sounds like a food. The ingredient label 'since it is
supposed to be food that you are eating( should sound like a food. 0o instead
of the label saying, for e%ample, +/itamin 1 'as ascorbic acid(-, it should say
+/itamin 1 'from acerola cherries(-.
Forget the word Natural. It means nothing. This word has been grossly
abused and no longer has any valuable meaning. 2ost supplements claim to be
natural. 0ome say they are not synthetic. ,ew reference +fractionated-. The
truth lies somewhere in3between.
Do!t be swa"ed b" #ar$et%g &ro&agada. *o supplement company is
going to tell you their product is no good. If they did, they would soon be out of
business. Their marketing is all geared towards making you believe it is the
best product you will ever take# They will go to e%treme cost to make you
believe that. It is up to you to sort through what is marketing hype and what is
really good. The intent of this article is to help you with that.
'e aware o( (ra)t%oated *%ta#%s. " +fractionated- vitamin means that
the manufacturer altered the +natural- vitamin, generally to make it more
shelf3stable. ,or instance, most /itamin 4 is sold as +d3alpha tocopherol-. 53
"lpha tocopherol and its many adulterations is not true /itamin 4. It is only a
+fraction- of the /itamin 4 comple%. /itamin 4 contains alpha, beta, gamma
and delta tocopherols, +43factors-, +,3factors-, selenium, %anthine and
lipositols. 53alpha tocopherol is only one small fraction of the /itamin 4
comple%. "s a result, it does not have the same e!ect in the body and can
actually cause damage. 6our vitamin label should list /itamin 4 as +/itamin 4
'as wheat germ oil(-, or have wheat germ oil in the ingredient section, and
not labeled +/itamin 4 'as d3alpha tocopherol(- or similar variation. 0ome will
show /itamin 4 as +2i%ed tocopherols-. This simply means a little more was
added back 7 any combination of alpha, beta or gamma tocopherols, but it is
still missing all the other essential fractions.
5rug3like responses are all you can e%pect from synthetic or fractionated
supplements. They will not heal or support bodily function. They will only
help you initially to +feel better-. This is because the fractionated vitamin,
containing only a fraction of the whole nutrient will search your tissues
looking for the missing fractions, and then pull them out, in order to
complete the comple%. Initially, this will make you feel better, however, long
term it will leave you more depleted than you were before you started taking
the supplement. The vitamin supplement literally stripped your reserves#
4%amples of fractionated or synthetic vitamins include. d3alpha tocopherol,
ascorbic acid, beta3carotene, thiamine mononitrate, cyanocobalamin,
ergocalciferol, and many more. $asically, anything that doesn8t sound like a
food is either synthetic or fractionated and should be avoided#
Here %s a e+a#&le o( a good label ad a bad label, 9ood :abel.
Ingredients. 1arrot powder, beet powder, ;a% meal powder, brown rice
powder, alfalfa juice powder, soybean lecithin, green tea leaf powder. "ll
these ingredients sound like a food or plant. They sound like something
edible. <ere8s a e%ample of a $ad :abel. Ingredients. 5icalcium phosphate,
magnesium o%ide, ascorbic acid, d3alpha3tocopherol acetate, thiamine
hydrochloride, ferrous fumerate, beta3carotene, hydrogenated vegetable oil,
croscarmellose sodium, silicon dio%ide, talc, carnuba wa%, yellow beeswa%,
articial colors 'titanium dio%ide, ,5=1 6ellow *o. >, ,5=1 ?ed *o. @, ,5=1
$lue *o. A(. It all sounds like chemicals, not food. These later ingredients are
not food, and should not be eaten.
2any well meaning doctors will give you supplements that sound like the
bad label above. The problem is they just don8t have the time to learn or
investigate this. They are dependent upon the same propaganda the
consumer is for information, plus the pharmaceutical claims as well 'and
they want the prots too(. 2ake sure that if you are confused about
supplements beyond the basics 'stay with ,BB5 sources( and see a doctor
who specialiCes in whole food nutrition .
D EFF@ <olly ". 1arling, B.2.5., :."c., Gh.5. Hsed with permission.