Most chemists maintain that, molecule for molecule, synthetic vitamins are identical to natural vitamins. They then conclude that both should function similarly. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The synthetic vitamin, an isolated factor, may seem identical to its whole food source vitamin complex, but a side by side comparison of their chemical images reveal the two structures differ significantly. Their functions differ as well .
Dr. Royal Lee, the creator and genius behind Standard Process whole food supplements, uses the example of a watch: if you take it apart to find out what makes it tick, it stops functioning. This is because a watch is the sum of its parts; telling time is not due to a single isolated component of its mechanism. This holds true for vitamins and their ability to carry out their function in our bodies.
In reality, synthetic vitamins are just safer drugs. Many are made from coal tar derivatives, the same stuff that causes throat cancer in tobacco smokers. Like drugs, synthetic vitamins suppress the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and cause the symptoms you experience when the ANS is out of balance. However, neither synthetics nor drugs address the problem's root cause. Synthetic vitamins -- like drugs -- may improve certain conditions for a short time but they can't nourish your body.
Whole food supplements are vitamin complexes that nourish your body, restore balance to your ANS and enable it to restore your body's ability to repair and regenerate. As a result your symptoms disappear. It is now believed that the "unknown" co-factors found in natural vitamins (and not found in synthetic ones) act as catalysts to make vitamins work more effectively.
Research has raised further concerns about synthetic vitamins. For a synthetic vitamin to be usable by the body, current reserves of these unknown vitamin co-factors are tapped. If you do not restore these reserves by eating fresh whole foods or by taking whole food supplements, nutritional deficiencies will be aggravated or even created. So, you may feel good for a while, but when the co-factors run out you will begin to feel worse.
Furthermore, synthetic vitamins over-stimulate bodily functions do to their drug related nature. This creates imbalance of the ANS again resulting in poorer health and greater susceptibility to disease.
By providing the body with the proper whole food vitamin complexes, it will function better. Whole food vitamin complexes support essential cell repair and regeneration. We urge you to avoid synthetics and the latest advertised "miracle cure." Stay on track with fresh whole foods and use whole food supplements. We believe Standard Process whole food supplements are proven to be the most effective when professionally monitored. Your health depends on it.
More on Vitamins, Herbs, and Minerals
Every day, wholesalers bring truckloads of bulk herbs, vitamins, or mineral components to supplement companies, which, in turn, do extensive testing. If their tests show the product to be inferior or contaminated, they may refuse the shipment. What do you think many wholesale companies do then? Trash the load? No way. They turn around and sell it to a company with lower standards. And this happens every day!
This is why so many people show little or no improvement in their health when taking supplements. Of course, factors like diet, life style, emotional stress, environmental toxicity, and taking the wrong supplements play a role. But if a product begins with inferior materials it ends up inferior. This is not what you paid for! You've just wasted your money!
Some supplement companies use products contaminated with pesticides, bug parts in the herbs, or foreign materials in the vitamins. Furthermore, some companies actually use the wrong part of the herbal plant. And legally they can still sell it. Believe me, it's true! Certain parts of the herb or plant contain useful ingredients while other parts are useless or harmful. Trained herbalists know the difference. Yet many supplement companies use the wrong part or even the whole plant because it is cheaper or they cannot do the testing necessary to confirm what part is being used.
There ARE Good Companies Out There!
However, there is good news. A handful of companies actually care and have the financial means to do proper quality control and testing. I believe I have found the highest quality and most reasonably priced whole food supplement companies on the planet. This is important to those of you looking for alternative healing approaches or just wanting to maintain your optimal health. Don't waste your money. All supplements are not equal!
Get What You Pay For!
No matter which supplement company you choose, do your homework. Check their websites. Ask questions. Request detailed information. You will be surprised at the lack of quality control and testing in most companies. Pretty packaging is fine but high quality, time-tested herbs and vitamins are essential. Visit the rest of our website for more information. And please pass this information along. People need to be informed.
Natural By Any Other Name Is Not Natural
Do you know that, by law, vitamins called "natural" only have to be 10% natural to make this claim? It is critically important that you learn to read vitamin labels to be sure you get what you pay for.
In fact, a product can even be 100% organic and not be natural at all. To be called organic a molecule only needs one carbon atom. This definition broadens the range from acceptable food sources of animal and plant tissues to raw materials that include coal tar and wood pulp (yuck!). Many synthetics are made from coal tar derivatives that cause throat cancer in tobacco smokers. Don't you think your body can tell the difference? Surely your cells can distinguish between food and coal tar. After all, a fish knows the difference between natural and synthetic seawater.
Many so-called natural vitamins have synthetics added to increase potency, or to standardize the amount in a capsule or batch. Terms added to the vitamin name help you identify synthetics. Generally speaking, you can identify something natural by reading the label and finding a listed "food source" such as citrus, yeast, fish, vegetable, etc. If a chemical is listed or the source is blank, it is synthetic. Another clue to synthetics is the addition of salts to increase the stability of the nutrient (i.e., acetate, bitartrate, chloride, gluconate, hydrochloride, nitrate, succinate).
Finally, there is confusion over the potency of vitamins. The common assumption is that if a supplement has a higher potency it must be more effective. In reality, potency is not related to effectiveness at all. The body may respond to high-potency doses but side effects often accompany that response. A good example is that high doses of vitamin C can cause diarrhea. Remember, you will never see high potency or concentrations in nature. Eat fresh whole food. Use whole food supplements. Get healthy and stay healthy. It's your choice!
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