Web Note:  The Organic Consumers Association is proud to announce a new nationwide campaign called "Nutri-Con: The Truth About Vitamins & Supplements." Nutri-Con will expose the hazards and limited effectiveness of synthetic vitamins and supplements, and strive to create mass consumer awareness and marketplace demand for truly organic, "naturally occurring" vitamins, botanicals, and supplements. Part of this campaign will be the implementation of a new set of Naturally Occurring Standards (NOS), certification procedures, and labels which are truly "organic and beyond," and to expose the fact that 90% or more of the vitamins and supplements now on the market labeled as "natural" or "food based" actually are spiked with synthetic chemicals. The first company to meet these new NOS strict standards in the natural supplements sector is Botani Organics

A major underlying theme of this campaign will be to steadily inform and remind consumers that Big Pharma's prescription and over the counter drugs are generally hazardous substances offering no real solution to our health problems; while preventive health and wellness promotion, traditional holistic remedies, and complementary medicine practices represent the "organic road" to health.   In terms of wellness promotion, there is no doubt that an organic whole foods-based diet and a healthy lifestyle are the "best medicine" for those of us trying to survive and keep our families healthy in the toxic soup of 100,000 synthetic chemicals that surround us everyday, polluting our food, water,medicines, homes, and environment. But as we complement our organic whole foods-based diet with herbs and supplements, we need to make sure that these vitamins and botanicals are derived from naturally occurring plant and mineral sources, and that they contain no synthetic chemicals whatsoever.

Below is the first installment of an eye-opening new book, "Vitamin Myth Exposed," by Brian Clement of the Hippocrates Health Institute, which the OCA will be publishing over the next 60 days. This book is nothing less than the opening salvo in a campaign that OCA believes will revolutionize the $20 billion vitamin and supplements industry. OCA sees this effort as part of our ongoing efforts to establish and safeguard strict organic standards in food and farming, clothing, body care, and other important consumer sectors.

We invite you to please circulate the "Vitamin Myth Exposed," widely to friends and family, and to talk to your local natural foods store or coop about joining forces with the OCA in this important new campaign.

For Health and an Organic Future,
Ronnie Cummins
National Director, Organic Consumers Association
________________________________________
Vitamin Myth Exposed
By: Brian Clement, Ph.D., N.M.D.

PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER ONE OF THE BOOK

As far as the sciences have evolved in our incredible age of quantum physics and our understanding of cell biology, life is still an indefinable mystery. Only Mother Nature can make an apple. Only nature can make a cell. While scientists and chemists continue to try in vain to duplicate in a laboratory the molecular structure of many different isolated natural substances. When you analyze them with an electron microscope they can look identical, yet in some invisible, yet significant, way they are not. Although scientists can make seawater with exactly the same chemical structure as natural seawater, when you put a salt-water fish in this synthetic environment, the fish dies. What is it in natural seawater that sustains life? This is one of life’s great mysteries, and the foundation upon which this book is inspired.

VITA means life. Vita defines the difference between synthetic and what is now known as naturally-occurring. This book is about the consequences of this difference in our vitamins and nutritional supplements today, and is further dedicated to helping you understand their impact on your health and how you can become equipped to avoid unhealthful choices and benefit from healthy whole-food N.O.S. varieties.

Putting the word “Natural” on the vitamin label is deceptive. The word is constantly abused and as such its meaning has been diluted to a point where it holds little value. Many misleading labels on supplement products take advantage of the ambiguity of the word “natural” to project a wholesome marketing image – most often when the product does not merit it. Whereas the term “naturally-occurring” on a label means that a vitamin or nutrient is completely comprised of compounds from naturally-occurring sources – the plants themselves – rather than merely containing a naturally-occurring ingredient mixed with synthetic ingredients.    

The best vitamin supplements are those with labeled potencies derived from naturally-occurring, full-spectrum food extracts.   Naturally-occurring vitamins are obtained by taking a nutrient-rich plant, removing the water and the fibre in a chemical-free vacuum process, and packaging it for stability. The entire vitamin complex is captured intact, retaining its full-spectrum functional and nutritional integrity.

Another primary difference between real full-spectrum whole-food vitamins and synthetic vitamins is that real vitamins contain the essential trace minerals necessary for the vitamins’ synergistic operation. Synthetic vitamins contain no trace minerals and must utilize the body’s own mineral reserves. Ingesting real vitamins does not require the body to deplete its own reserves of nutrients to replace any nutrients missing from the false vitamin complex.

Mega doses of synthetic vitamins can have very serious toxic effects. Naturally-occurring whole-food vitamins are not toxic since the vitamin is complexed in its natural whole integral working form, and requires nothing from the body to “build” a vitamin. Naturally-occurring whole food vitamins are only necessary in small quantities on a daily basis.

Mainstream marketing of vitamins and minerals has created the myth that vitamins and minerals may be isolated individually and from one other, and that we can derive total benefit from taking these fractionated chemical creations. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Vitamins, minerals and enzymes work closely together as co-factors for each other's efficacy. If one part is missing, or is fractionated, or in the incorrect form or the incorrect amount, entire chains of metabolic processes cannot and will not proceed normally. Only nature can provide us with naturally-occurring vitamins as found in real, wholesome organic foods.

The overwhelming majority of vitamin products sold in groceries, drug stores or mass-marketing retailers contain synthetic ingredients. What our bodies require are supplement products made exclusively from naturally-occurring nutrients rather than toxic laboratory synthesized ones. Currently only conscious companies produce supplements with naturally-occurring ingredients. These companies should be commended and supported for offering natural health-promoting products to the consumer.    

We are grateful to Amsar Pvt. Ltd., AmsarUSA and others for their efforts in establishing “Naturally Occurring” as a specific Standard of Quality. This standard should be applied for natural vitamins, ingredients and materials for the entire food, beverage, nutraceutical, and cosmetic industry, and consumer goods, including the entire SBS. The adoption of this proposed “Naturally Occurring Standard”* (NOS*) will bring a clarity to all purveyors and consumers of natural products. The NOS is an important step and regulatory guideline that has been missing from the product label information and literature since the beginning of packaged food sales. The NOS symbol on products will help to eliminate the confusion between truly natural and less than natural product ingredients.

We need more naturally-occurring vitamin supplements to counter the vast array of harmful synthetic vitamin supplements flooding our world markets. Consumers must request the production of more naturally-occurring supplements by petitioning the natural foods industry to provide us with only health-promoting products.  Insisting that the designation “naturally-occurring” be put only on the labels of naturally-occurring vitamin and nutrient supplements, will allow the consumer to distinguish between what is a real vitamin supplement and what is not. 

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PART ONE - VITAMIN MYSTERIES AND MYTHS
 
CHAPTER ONE

Nutritional Supplements - do we really benefit from them?

To answer this question we have to go back to our roots - our soil

Soil depletion - an apple isn’t what it used to be

Why not?

Missing vitamins & trace elements

What are vitamins? Brief definition

Fat vs. water-soluble vitamins

Difference between vitamins and vitamin activity

Difference between natural vs. synthetic

Each year in North American alone people spend over $20 billion on vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements, believing that these products are benefiting us. But are they? What is the real truth about vitamins? If we eat a balanced diet, do we really need nutritional supplements? To answer this question we have to go back to our roots - our soil.

The body is unable to manufacture most vitamins for itself, and so they must be obtained from nutritional sources. In our grandparents' time the soil was rich with nutrients that produced healthy, vigorous crops rich in vitamin content. Today our soils are laced with industrial pollution, pesticides and chemical fertilizers that not only pollute our soils, but also activate further soil erosion. Our foods have only a fraction of the nutrient value of 70-100 years ago.

Our polluted air and water systems deplete our bodies of their store of nutrients, and the stresses of modern life are weakening our genetic and immune systems. The answer is that today we do need vitamin and nutrient supplementation, whereas 100 years ago we did not.

The mineral depletion of our soils and foods is not news. The U.S. government has been issuing official warnings since 1936. The U.S. Senate Document #264, published by the 2nd session of the 74th Congress in 1936 stated the following:

“Most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our foods come are brought into proper mineral balance. Foods, fruits, vegetables and grains that are now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain needed minerals, are starving us - no matter how much of these foods we eat. Leading authorities state that 99% of the American people are deficient in these minerals, and that a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease. Any upset of the balance or any considerable lack of one or another element, however microscopic, causes problems and we sicken, suffer, and shorten our lives. Lacking vitamins, the system can make some use of minerals; but lacking minerals, vitamins are useless.” That was over 70 years ago. Just imagine how the report would read today.

Unfortunately, we all have a big job ahead to restore our soil quality – even on organic farms – and bring back the nutrients that have been farmed out of our food. It is urgent that we reintroduce proper organic farming as the primary method, as well as the rotation of crops to improve the quality of our soils, among other benefits. It has taken many decades to ruin our soils and it will take time to revive them and bring them back to health again; but, it can be done. As world citizens we can transform our farmlands; one way is by purchasing organic foods. In the meantime, the only way we can guarantee getting adequate nutrients then, is through food supplementation with naturally-occurring, non-synthetic vitamin and nutrients, preferably from organic farms that focus on soil conservation

VITAMINS for VITALITY

What is a vitamin?

Vitamins are organic micronutrients essential to normal human metabolism. Unlike fats, carbohydrates and some proteins, vitamins are not metabolised to provide energy. Most are not manufactured by the body but are present in minute quantities in natural foodstuffs. Each of these naturally-occurring organic compounds performs a specific vital function and is required by the body for disease prevention and good health.

The known vitamins are divided into four fat-soluble types (A, D, E and K) and nine water-soluble types (eight B vitamins and vitamin C). The fat-soluble vitamins can be stored in the body and do not need to be ingested every day. Because the fat-soluble vitamins are not eliminated from the body through the urine, ingesting too many of them creates toxicity. The water-soluble vitamins are more easily eliminated and can be taken in larger amounts without danger of toxicity. Vitamin C and the eight B vitamins (except for Vitamin B-12 and Folic Acid) are water soluble. They cannot be stored and must be consumed frequently for optimal health.

As an initial convention, vitamins were given letters to go with their chemically defined names. Not many people know about the form of vitamin E d-alpha tocopheryl succinate, but most people know what “Vitamin E” is and what it can be used for. Some nutritional factors were originally given “B” names but turned out not to act as vitamins at all. You may not have heard of vitamins B-4, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 which were ultimately rejected as vitamin factors.

We know that vitamins prevent disease and promote health, but what do we know about the actual quality of the vitamins we ingest?   Hundreds of millions of people take a daily vitamin and/or herbal supplement. For more than 70 years we have been ingesting synthetic vitamins in our supplements and our fortified foods, believing that our health is being protected and improved. But is it? What is the truth about vitamin supplementation and food fortification?

There are two categories in the family of vitamin and nutritional products with labeled potencies – synthetic and naturally-occurring. Nearly all vitamin supplements available today fall into the synthetic category. Some consist of 100% synthesized vitamins, and some are combination formulas containing one or more naturally-occurring vitamin ingredients combined with synthetic vitamins. Naturally-occurring vitamin supplements are comprised of naturally-occurring food and botanicals. They contain no synthetic vitamins or nutrients whatsoever. Presently there are few manufacturers of this type of vitamin supplement.

Synthetic vitamin supplements packaged as tablets, capsules, gelcaps, or powders comprise the majority of vitamin products found in natural food stores, grocery stores, drug stores and large retail outlets. Within this category there are certain types and distinctions. 

Type 1: In some vitamin supplement products a natural base is used and then the synthetic vitamins or nutrients are added to that natural base. An example of a natural base could be Acerola cherry or Rosehip, and even a mixture of botanicals, as a natural base with the synthetic vitamins and nutrients added. Many Vitamin C products which claim to be from Acerola or some other fruit or food are usually spiked with synthetic ascorbic acid or ascorbates. Many multiple vitamin products use a natural base spiked with multiple synthetic vitamins to get their labeled potencies.

Type 2: Some supplements are derived from specially “grown” materials (referred to as “food source” or “whole food” source) such as yeasts and algae. These products typically then combine the yeast or algae and create other “mixtures” as a base to which synthetic vitamins are added. Manufacturers call these supplements “natural” because they are derived from yeast or algae – natural botanicals. However, they are not because synthetic vitamins or nutrients have been added to the product. This is most often not mentioned on the product label and is “hidden” from consumers, most of whom, ironically, are reading labels to ensure the highest levels of nutrition. Tragically, they fall prey to misleading and dishonest information.

A manufacturer of this cultivated base which has been spiked with synthetics nutrients will supply the their own as well as other supplement companies with this raw substance. They will then use the raw substance to produce and market their own vitamins under different product names. The fact that this raw material contains a cultivated, so-called “natural” base enables the vitamin producers to make the claim on their label that they are derived from natural sources and contain the listed potencies from the “food source” referring to the base. But as you can now see this is deceptive.  

Most vitamin companies compete for customers with identical synthetic vitamin products made from compounds produced by the same few drug companies. The vitamin companies differentiate their products with different names and fancy labels, each making claims of “high potency”. But the higher the potency of the synthetic vitamin or nutrient, the more likely it is to exhibit drug-like, toxic effects, the stress of which can actually lead to disease.

Most vitamin companies take advantage of loopholes in labeling laws to mislead the consumer. The truth is that the vitamin potencies for most supplements are derived from synthetic vitamins. Consumers are fooled by the label claims and believe that the vitamin and nutrient potencies are derived from a natural source. Avoid this trap by examining the label. Look for the phrase “Naturally Occurring.” If the label does not say “Naturally Occurring” and also name the food source of the potency, then be aware that the supplement probably contains synthetic vitamins or nutrients.

The second category of naturally-occurring vitamin supplements are derived from full-spectrum food and botanical sources. These are truly natural vitamin potency supplement products and can be identified by their designation “Naturally Occurring” or Naturally Occurring Standard (NOS).

Although vitamins from naturally-occurring sources are relatively lower potency, they are actually much more effective at these potencies than synthetic vitamins, for the simple reason that the body can easily assimilate their nutrients without toxic side-effects.

Over the past two decades, we have seen the negative impact of synthetic supplements by viewing tens of thousands of blood samples with the assistance of a high-powered microscope. What we know is that the body perceives a synthetic supplement, like it would perceive any other foreign chemical, as an invader and threat to its survival. As such, it responds by releasing immune-preserving cells such as leukocytes (white blood cells) to combat the enemy and preserve immunity. Unfortunately, this activity detracts these cells from their other crucial role of eliminating microbes (viruses and bacteria), spirochetes (such as those that result in Lyme’s Disease), and mutagenic cells (such as those that can result in cancer). Consequently, when one introduces a large number of chemical invaders, such as non-N.O.S. supplements, into the body, there are fewer immune-preserving cells to combat more deleterious cell activity, and there is a greater probability for disease.

Just as natural vitamins from food are more effective than synthetic vitamins, so are natural vitamin supplements from whole-food sources. Low potency from a full spectrum, naturally-occurring source of the vitamin will produce effective nutrient activity, while positively impacting immune function.

A MOLECULAR DIFFERENCE

Vitamins are biological complexes. They represent multi-step biochemical interactions whose beneficial action depends upon a number of variables within the biological terrain. Vitamin activity only takes place when all co-factors and components of the vitamin complex are present and working together. Vitamins cannot be isolated from their complexes and still perform their specific functions within the cells. When isolated into artificial chemicalized commercial forms, these purified crystalline synthetics act as toxic drugs in the body that compromise the immune system, which can ultimately lead to disease. They are no longer actual vitamins, and to call them such is inaccurate. A vitamin is: “a working process consisting of the nutrient, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and trace mineral activators.” - Dr. Royal Lee (“What Is a Vitamin?” Applied Trophology August 1956.) 

Theron Randolph, MD wrote four books and over 300 medical articles and was a leading researcher in the fields of food and chemical allergies, as well as general preventive care. Dr. Randolph co-founded the American Academy of Environmental Medicine in 1965. Consider the way he has delineated the difference between natural and synthetic nutrients:

“A synthetically-derived substance may cause a reaction in a chemically susceptible person when the same material of natural origin is tolerated, despite the two substances having identical chemical structures. The point is illustrated by the frequency of clinical reactions to synthetic vitamins - especially vitamin B1 and C when the [same] naturally occurring vitamins are tolerated.” (2006,  Life Enthusiast Co-op, Article by Tim O’Shea)

Several studies on natural vs. synthetic vitamins have shown that synthetic vitamins are 50 to 70% less biologically active than natural vitamins:

1. Vinson J.A., “Comparative Bioavailability of Synthetic and Natural Vitamin  C in Guinea Pigs”, Nutrition Reports International, 1983, 27, 4, 875-880. (The bio availability of the natural Vitamin C was significantly greater than that of the synthetic Ascorbic Acid.)

2. Vinson J.A., “Bioavailability of Vitamin C”, 1991[L2] <#_msocom_2>  . (Citrus extract was 1210% more bioavailable than USP[L3] <#_msocom_3>   Ascorbic Acid.)

As you can see by the studies above natural vitamin C is more bioavailable than synthetic.   

Synthetic vitamins are actually just fractions of naturally-occurring vitamins synthesized in the dextro- and levo- forms (known as “right” and “left handed” molecules) which form geometric mirror images of each other. It may seem strange, but the geometry of the nutrient compounds is crucial for the bioavailability of the nutrient. The body uses only the levo-forms. Synthetic vitamin compounds have little of the correct geometry (levo-forms) of naturally-occurring vitamins present in food and botanicals. Furthermore, the levo-forms of synthetic nutrients or vitamins are of little use without the associated factors (enzymes, minerals and other co-factors) present in a natural source of the nutrient or vitamin. 

So, can a synthesized, isolated vitamin fraction made in the laboratory be called a real vitamin? Can it provide you with the nourishment that naturally-occurring, whole-food supplements can? The answer is a resounding and undeniable NO.

Throughout much of the last century, we have been programmed to believe that synthetic chemicals are an acceptable substitute for natural food-source nutritional substances. This bizarre concept is broadcasted mainly by commercial interests who promote this fallacy through sophisticated marketing programs to sell inferior “food” and nutritional supplements. 

The problems we now have with synthetic vitamins are parallel to the overall problems we have with pharmaceutical drugs and the development of modern medicine. We have abandoned our history of traditional medicine and are suffering the consequences because of it.

Although chemistry has provided us with many benefits, when it comes to food and nutrition, a better life through chemistry is a fallacy. We are now in the midst of a chemical “feast” of harmful and polluting chemical preservatives, excipients, colorings, flavorings and other killer chemicals. A century ago when we discovered how to chemically synthesize various isolates of natural compounds, synthetic nutrients became fashionable. Many of the problems that we have today developed when we embraced the chemical paradigm and rejected our time-proven traditional medicinal practices. It is imperative that we return to our traditional values and ways of living for healing before the hazardous imbalances we have created destroy us.

VITAMIN ACTIVITY & BIOAVAILABILITY

Only Nature can create a real vitamin. The differences between vitamins extracted from food and those manufactured by chemical processes is vast; there are very important distinctions. Vitamins manufactured in the laboratory come to us without the naturally occurring associated factors and trace substances that insure a vitamin's bioavailability. If the body can easily digest and absorb nutrients from a food, then they are said to be bioavailable. Tests on natural vs. synthetic vitamins have revealed that synthetic vitamins are less biologically active and bioavailable than natural vitamins.  Since our bodies often do not absorb more than 50% of the vitamins and minerals we consume, to ingest a product that is already less active than its natural counterpart leaves virtually little of the original potency available for our use. 

It sounds like a simple concept: you are what you digest or more accurately what you assimilate. The digestive system of humans, similar to that of apes, grazing animals and other herbivores, is complex. The adult alimentary canal measures up to 36-feet; it is long and convoluted. Yet it squeezes into the small space of our abdominal cavity. Many of us assume that we have good and proper digestion and assimilation, and that our bodies can extract nutrients no matter what we eat. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, which is why it is important to eat wholesome and nutritious foods and maintain high levels of good intestinal flora and other living bacteria that break down our foods completely so that nutrients can be absorbed.

Furthermore, the human biology has never been able to “digest” synthetic chemicals. Even though we may ingest synthetic chemicals, our digestive systems have not suddenly changed to recognize them as food or nourishment. All the synthetic nutrients in the world are useless, and potentially even dangerous, if they are not digested. The best way to improve digestive absorption of nutrients is to eat good nutrient-rich, living foods and use naturally-occurring vitamins and mineral supplements. You are what you digest also means that if your digestion is weak, then you absorb fewer nutrients from your food than necessary, which can lead to obesity or other imbalances.  When enjoying quality foods, the health of your body and all of its systems are strengthened.

Research with polarized light shows the differences in bioavailability between synthetic and natural vitamins. The experiment involves taking a sample of a natural vitamin and its chemically identical synthetic counterpart, and passing a beam of polarized light through each. The beam passing through a natural vitamin always bends to the right due to the direction of its molecular rotation. When passing through a synthetic vitamin, the beam splits in half. Half the light beam bends to the right, and the other half bends to the left. The direction of the molecular rotation makes half of the synthetic vitamin impossible to use, which is why there is only 50% biological activity in synthetic, isolated vitamins. They are lacking the factors found in a full-spectrum real vitamin and more importantly they are not viewed by the body as real nutrition, and are therefore counterproductive to health.

Furthermore, synthetic vitamin supplements cannot work properly in the body. Molecules in the body always rotate to the right.

Even if the vitamins you take are “natural” ones extracted from food, they will not be effective if they have been extracted from their full-spectrum matrix. Extracting a vitamin from its full-spectrum matrix eliminates the necessary co-factors which assist in the functioning of that nutrient. When you extract and isolate Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) from an orange, you remove the bioflavonoids which are necessary for Vitamin C's activity. It's better to use a full-spectrum concentrate of the whole orange rather than to extract the ascorbic acid or other isolated Vitamin C fractions. 

For a complex matrix like Vitamin C to be effective, it has to be used as nature created it. Always use a full-spectrum food source supplement of Vitamin C and other supplements to insure that all the factors are available to your body.

Worldwide, there is no official government-regulated definition for the term “natural” for the natural products industry. Here in the U.S., the FDA refers to natural ingredients as “ingredients extracted directly from plants or animal products, as opposed to being produced synthetically.” (Ref: FDA Consumer Information & Publication No. (FDA) 95-5012). While it's fine to set a legal definition for natural, the problem is that the FDA's entire system of standards for vitamins is not based on nature. This system, known as the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) or what has now been updated to “Daily Values” (DV’s) and RDI’s (Recommended Daily Intake), pertains to the amount of vitamins we require daily for maintaining our health and is based on the assumed nutrient value of synthetic supplements.

The RDA’s, DV’s or other “standards” that the FDA has proposed are based mainly on animal testing using synthetic vitamins – supplements that we have already determined not only lack nutritional value but also are indigestible. There is a proposal for a new standard for vitamins and nutrients called the: “Naturally Occurring Standard” or “NOS”. This standard is related to verifiable amounts of naturally-occurring vitamins, minerals or other nutrients as found in vegetables and botanicals. It is our strong opinion – in the interest of public health – that the NOS should be adopted by the food industry as a consumer standard for all food supplements or fortified foods. The NOS symbol printed on dietary supplements or food products labels will ensure that a product contains only naturally-occurring whole food materials, enabling consumers to make the healthiest choices for themselves and their family. For more information on NOS, see resources section in the back of this book.

(To Be Continued)