You’ve probably heard it since you were a kid.
“Make sure you take your vitamins!”
I remember the Flintstone kind. Those were my favorites. :)
Then I grew up and started doing a lot of research on nutrition and natural health and realized that vitamins aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. As a parent, I will not be shoving them down my child’s throat, and I’m now refusing to take them myself.
Most vitamins that you can buy off the shelf these days are synthetic. If you’re here because a new vitamin or nutritional supplement has crossed your path, and you’re having trouble deciding whether you should try it or not, look at the label. Figure out what’s in your vitamins, and if they are made of chemicals, then I suggest you get rid of them and opt for a better alternative.
What are synthetic vitamins?
Synthetic vitamins are chemically processed, isolated, fractionated forms of the real vitamins that come from whole foods. They are processed in a laboratory at high temperatures, which destroy the nutrient content, and contain petroleum-derived chemical solvents such as ethyl cellulose, coal tar, hydrochloric acid, acetonitrole with ammonia, methanol, benzene, formaldehyde, cobalamins reacted with cyanide… the list goes on.
Unlike synthetic vitamins, which are isolated and chemically processed, real whole-food vitamins are found in nature and contain a host of components and factors that are vital to their performance. Isolating a part from its whole renders it virtually useless. Think of a car, for instance. It needs all of its parts to function properly. You can’t give someone a radiator and expect it to function like a car. The same principle applies to nutrients. You can’t take a chemically processed form of a vitamin that is isolated from the food that contained it, and expect it to function in the same way as the real thing.
Isolated, or synthetic, nutrients are not found in nature. Studies show that the body treats them like foreign substances, and the high doses found in many supplements today behave more like drugs than natural substances. Your body should never be expected to break down mega-doses of something not found in nature.
Are synthetic vitamins harmful?
Maybe. Maybe not. Many people take synthetic vitamins on a daily basis and think nothing of it. If you take Centrum, One-a-Day or even a basic prenatal, you’re taking isolated, chemically processed nutrients that could more likely be a burden for your body to excrete than an aid for your body to heal. But even if they do no harm, it’s likely they aren’t doing much good either if your body is not absorbing them. In that case, you’re just wasting money.
People have been taking vitamins for years and been fine, so whether or not they are truly harmful is yet to be concluded. Personally, I tend to think they aren’t really necessary for overall health and could potentially be toxic when taken at high levels over a long period of time.
(Note: I did not take prenatal vitamins throughout my pregnancy, and I gave birth to a healthy baby girl, naturally, in the comfort of my own home.)
You may be asking, “if most vitamins contain unnatural and potentially toxic ingredients, why do doctors advocate taking them and why do we sometimes feel so great after taking them?”
I’ve asked the same question, and I have two theories, which I’ll share below. Please note that these are theories and should not be regarded as fact without you doing your own research.
Theory #1: Synthetic vitamins may cause deficiencies when taken over a prolonged period. Isolated from the cofactors they need to function properly, they will begin to pull those co-factors from your body’s tissues if they aren’t found in the foods you eat. The result is that you’ll probably feel good for a while, but when the co-factors run out, you’ll start to feel worse. Over a long period, the synthetics imitate the actions of drugs, overstimulating and draining the body, rather than feeding it the nutrients it needs. The high doses found in many multivitamins make that action very pronounced when you first begin using them, but after a while, those effects can wear off.
Theory #2: There’s a lot of money in the vitamin industry. If everyone stopped taking their prescription drugs, the pharmaceutical companies would take a big hit. Same thing with vitamins. If we all stopped taking them, these mega-corporations that produce them would lose a lot of money. If you ever wonder why things like flu shots and legal drugs get pushed on the population every year, follow the dollar…
And that’s all I’ll say about that.
How do you know if a supplement contains synthetic nutrients or is truly whole-food based?
A lot of supplements claim to be “whole-food based” but that doesn’t mean they come from whole foods. My prenatal vitamin made that claim, but once I looked at the label, I realized it was false. Some companies combine a small amount of whole foods with synthetic vitamins and then claim it’s natural, whole food. If you’re looking at a list of ingredients, and you see a vitamin without a natural whole-food source listed next to it, then it’s most likely synthetic. If you see a vitamin with a chemical source listed next to it, then it’s definitely synthetic. Here are some examples:
Synthetic Vitamin A is also called Vitamin A Palmitate, Retinyl Acetate or Vitamin A Acetate. It’s processed using methanol, benzene and petroleum esters. If you see “Vitamin A (Retinyl Acetate)” listed as an ingredient in a supplement, you’ll know it’s a chemical form of the vitamin. On the other hand, if you see food sources such as fish oil, carrots, lemongrass, D. Salina Algae or spinach listed next to the vitamin, you can be confident it came from whole food.
Synthetic Vitamin B 12 is also called cobalamin or cyanocobalamin. It’s processed using activated charcoal reacted with cyanide. If you see “Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin)” in a list of ingredients on a label, then you’ll know it’s synthetic. On the other hand, if you see food sources such as rice bran, brewers yeast, liver or molasses listed next to the vitamin, you can be confident it came from whole food.
Synthetic Vitamin C is also called ascorbic acid. It’s made from fermented corn, using hydrochloric acid and acetone. If you see “Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)” in an ingredients list, then you’ll know it’s synthetic. On the other hand, if you see food sources such as acerola, rose hips, citrus fruits and blackberries listed next to the vitamin, you can be confident it came from whole food. Most over-the-counter vitamin C tablets are nothing more than ascorbic acid.
Synthetic Vitamin D is also called cholecalciferol. It’s made from irradiated sheep’s wool, or lanolin. If you see “Vitamin D (cholecalciferol)” in an ingredients list, you’ll know it’s synthetic. On the other hand, if you see food sources such as fish oil, omega-3’s and mushrooms, you can be confident it came from whole food.
Synthetic Vitamin E is also called d-alpha tocopherol acetate, tocopheryl acetate or alphatocopherol. It’s made with phenols (plastics) from petroleum waste, which are treated with acetone (nail polish remover). If you see “Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol acetate)” on an ingredients list, you’ll know it’s synthetic. On the other hand, if you see food sources such as rice bran oils, spinach and nuts, you can be confident it came from whole food.
For a complete list of synthetic vitamin forms, I recommend you consult my good friend Google. He was a big help to me in gathering all of this research. I am not listing specific sources — as there were a lot of them, and this information was gathered over a period of a few weeks — but I’m confident that with a little digging, you can find all of this out for yourself pretty easily.
And that, my friends, is the basis for my personal decision to stop taking vitamins — at least the ones that don’t come from whole food. But that doesn’t mean I think we should all stop supplementing our diets. All of the toxic chemicals in our environment, combined with inorganic farming and GMO crops have led to nutritionally depleted food sources. The foods we eat today are not nearly as nutritionally sound as they were 50 years ago, because U.S. soils have been tainted. For that reason, we should all be taking whole food supplements in order to get the nutrients our body needs on a daily basis. You simply can’t get everything from today’s food that you once could. For that reason, in addition to eating a healthy, organic, GMO-free diet, my family uses whole-food supplements and we take care to detoxify our bodies’ cells on a regular basis.
74 comments
Colin
Hi, good info. what do you think of Sunrider? also i have 20 pounds or so to lose, what program would you recommend? also what do you think of the plan? thanks in advance!
Selwa Luke
Hi Colin,
I’m unfamiliar with Sunrider, so unable to really give my opinion on that. I highly recommend Maximized Living though! There’s a link to the web store in this post. Check out the products and feel free to get back to me with any questions.
Kimberly Kavanagh
I appreciate your blog entry. I don’t understand why i don’t have the ability to capitalize my letters, but i’ll let it go.
Everyone, do a little research on methylation disorders and you’ll finally understand why synthetic b vitamins are problematic. This includes folic acid. google it. folic acid (NOT folate, which, of course is natural) is synthetic and is linked to colon cancer, among other ailments. in addition, whomever wrote that b vitamins are water-soluble and therefore have no worries about taking too much of them is wrong. check vitamin b6. too much for a long period of time can damage nerves. i personally would never sell products that have questionable ingredients. how do you know you’re not setting your customers up for long-term health problems if they ingest your products? you don’t. You’re meddling in pseudo-nutrition without education.
keri mckenzie
its a big call to voice your opinion and decisions online and you really have to protect your energy space and be ready for what can happen next after posting such posts to such a passionate audience. i applaud you for doing so and understand totally where you come from. when on a health journey it is not just about making your self a lighter person in body, mind and soul but it is also a journey for mother earth too. the ingredients in food, vitamins, drinks, cosmetics or anything have a direct influence on us as humans and on the earth, it is up to us how we want to leave the earth, and my theory is to leave it in a more beautiful sustainable place than we live in now. I thank u for your post as i was researching and found this to be helpful for me personally. i think it is always about right thing right time for the right person. bless you
Geoff
Hi Selwa,
I have read your comments as well as the comments from everyone else. i AM NO EXPERT WHEN IT COMES TO FOODS OR OTHER SYNTHETIC SUBSTITUTES BUT IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE TO REALISE THAT natural WILL ALWAYS BE BETTER AND WIN OVER ALL THE TIME. I agree with you, L would rather place my trust in what god has given us , rather than what man – made has given us. In saying that, man has come a long way in the line of what we put in our bodies and other alternatives.
What you have written has made me aware and inspired to further research what is good for ‘ME’ and l thank you for starting me off into a very fascinating research. Again, thanks for bringing this subject to my attention.
Geofro.
Selwa Luke
Geoff – so glad I could be of assistance! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read. I encourage you, along with everyone else, to do your own research and not just take my word for it when it comes to your health.
MrsFun
I’m struggling with finding an affordable, paleo friendly, organic, as natural as you can get protein powder. My friends sell and use another supplement and are trying to get me to buy it but dang, $300+ a month for the full package is steep. I had my doubts about it after reading the labels, if there is more than 5 ingredients I tend to put it back on the shelf. My friends are having okay results and I feel I can have the same results with fresh local organic produce and high protein diet, like paleo (if I stick with it like i did a few years ago). thanks for explaining what some of the ingredients are, as I questioned them. off to research a little deeper.
theonewedontmention
Lots of reading. one question. why no capitals? the i drove me crazy. might need to od on some vitamin k
Selwa Luke
Funny. 🙂 My blog is designed with all lowercase text. I did it on purpose. It was a stylistic branding decision that I feel reflects my personality.
Po
Lots of interesting comments, but just wondering, why not eat fruit & vege, plenty of water, a bit of vitamin D from the sun? Its not that hard, humans have been doing thus for millions of years.
Chain
I enjoyed your article. With so many Diet/health options around, I have come to the conclusion that fresh is best. I am sticking with a diet of whole foods. Why try and buy your health with expensive processed food? Your article has probably confirmed what we all know, fresh is best (and safe)!
Collette Youngblood
Hi Selwa,
I am glad i found your blog, and I am very excited about my new order from Touchstone essentials. Boy, some folks get really riled up if you disagree with them! I was 39 when I had my last child (number 5!) so I think it took my body a lot longer to bounce back. I came across your well written blog and agree with you 100%. I am very excited to try the touchstone products and make my own protein shake! Talk to you very soon.
Morgan
Selwa, you mentioned several times what you use and qualify that it is for someone who is not trying to loose weight. What about for someone who is?
Selwa Luke
Hi Morgan – I’m not exactly sure what you’re referring to, but I’ll do my best to answer your question. I use Touchstone Essentials because I’d like to maintain a healthy weight and keep it off, in addition to supplementing my body with nutrients that are difficult to get from today’s deficient food supply. If you’re trying to lose weight, there are a few things you could do. I’d suggest eating right, exercising and supplementing your nutrition with a good detoxification system. The daily detox I use is great and is made by Maximized Living – there’s a link to their store in this post if you want to check it out. There is no healthy way to lose a ton of weight really fast, but by eating right, exercising, and ridding your body of toxins, you could lose a healthy amount fairly quickly. When I say eat right, I mean stay away from processed foods, eat raw, whole foods like fruits, veggies and leafy greens, stick to organic meats and produce, and cut down on and/or eliminate sugars (that includes breads, rice, pasta and any grains, which the body metabolizes as sugar). As far as an exercise routine goes, you can get in great shape in just 12 minutes a day with interval training. The Maximized Living program has a great set of DVDs that will guide your workouts, and in 12 minutes … you just can’t beat that. Here’s a link to the workout I do.
They also have some great nutritional supplements. I drink the protein shake, and I think it tastes as good or better than lots of other protein shakes, without all the synthetic nutrients. If you mix half a scoop instead of the full scoop into your smoothies, your supply will last longer, and that amount still fills me up and holds me over for 3-4 hours at a time.
The nutrition plan book is also great. It will teach you what it means to “eat right” – a term I find often gets misdefined, and get you on the path to doing so.
They also have a detox system. I haven’t tried it yet though, because I’m still breastfeeding. Feel free to check it out and let me know what kind of results you get!
Hope this helps. Please don’t hesitate if you have any more questions!
Natalie
thanks for posting this article. i personally don’t take any supplement based product as i’m a bit skeptical about these man-made ingredients doing more harm than good, plus I can’t justify the cost of the products.
Suzy
ps
before leaving the page, i happened to notice this response:
“when you’re gathering information, didn’t you want all of the information?” Absolutely. But it would have taken me years to gather and cite all of the information out there on this subject, and had I done that, this blog post would have been so long as to be unreadable. Call it lazy. Or call it realistic. Maybe it was a little of both. :)”
i can tell you that when i am looking through a product’s ingredients, i need only look at far at b12. if it lists cyanocobalamin, that’s as far as i need to look to know the product isn’t worth taking. why bother looking through every single ingredient to prove the rest aren’t good either?
Selwa Luke
Suzy – thanks so much for your comments! I agree 100% on the ingredients’ list being enough of a source. This particular commenter claims that I didn’t do enough to prove that ingredients like cyanocobalamin are even harmful (though I think the prefix “cyano” should say enough…). It makes me sad that so many people in this world are willing to poison their body with harmful substances in the name of “health” and “prevention”. I feel the same way about vaccines, and people think I’m crazy and selfish. Soon enough, there will come a day when the truth is brought to light. Until then, I guess we have to keep on fighting the good fight. I didn’t mean for those last 2 sentences to rhyme… 🙂
Teresa R
Actually, cyanide is also naturally present in many foods that we eat on a regular basis. specific information can be found here: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=71&tid=19
Suzy
GREAT job doing the research! I wish more people would do this.
As a naturopathic doctor, I know why people -at first- seem to get good results and feel better when taking a synthetic vitamin/mineral. It’s all about our cell-receptor sites. I highly encourage you to research this a bit, and since you are already doing some great research, I know you’ll find it.
I see there are a lot of commenters here who are upset that you spoke your truth – THE truth (all caps on that last bit). Don’t worry about them. They are on their own journey, and they will find out what happens when you take synthetic vitamins and minerals for a period of time… you develop disease. They may think, like many, that it just fell out of the sky and hit them on the head, rather than the fact that it might be contributed to the products they’ve been taking. sad, I know. It pains me to see that happen.
when i have someone bring their supplements to my office so that we can see what they are taking and talk about the good and the bad, some are very upset and rightfully so! they’ve spent good money on these supplements and thought they were great, they felt good at first, and -of course- the company and their upline assures them that they are the best on the market.
popping that bubble is painful. thankfully, they realize there is a reason they are having health challenges and they are there for answers, even if they might be hard to swallow at first.
Those that accept the news and make the changes we discuss are thrilled with their progress. those that don’t, well, nothing changes for them except the severity of their issue – which continues or worsens.
I have someone coming in today who is taking these products, which is how I stumbled upon your site. this is something that hasn’t crossed my desk before, so i wanted to do a little research. Of course, when she comes in this afternoon, i would only need to look at the ingredients to know… and my wanting to do a little research first led me here. I was thinking – who knows? it could have been a fabulous product line. so fabulous i might even recommend it. alas…
keep speaking your truth! there will always be people who will jab their fingers in their ears, but you will help those who are willing to hear!
Luke
Excellent article. You have done a great job from your first post to answering all the replys. While food God’s way is where true health comes. The best shake I have found is nppro made by nature’s pearl. Check it out on my website. http://www.lukeschlabach.com. all natural. We as a family of 4 lost 112 pounds in a several months. My 16 year old son lost 45 pounds. Like you shared eat healthy is the best way.
Thanks for all the time you have put into this article, the many hours dedicated to making a difference in this world may God bless you. Luke
Teresa R
as regards someone else’s comments regarding “overdosing” on b12, b vitamins are water soluble. you can’t overdose on them. you can simply make “expensive” urine as your body flushes out what is unneeded. the vitamins that can be taken in toxic doses are the fat-soluble vitamins: a, d, e and k. with rare exception, you won’t overdose the fat-soluble vitamins when taken in food form. (an exception would be the high risk for vit a toxicity…if you eat polar bear liver! don’t eat polar bear liver, okay?) some water soluble vitamins can be taken in high enough doses that they cause side-effects that are inconvenient, but no deadly. for instance, if you exceed 1500 mg of vitamin c per day, you’re likely to experience diarrhea as a result. the most recent studies show that people who regularly take a multi-vitamin as slightly “more” likely to die younger than those who don’t. this likely has little to do with the vitamin as much as it has to those folks thinking, “i take a vitamin every day, so i can eat whatever crappy food I want.”
selwa, while we will agree to disagree regarding the limited use of synthetic vitamins (i agree that food-based is the best choice) i do believe that many people benefit from the more balanced nutrition when compared to the highly processed foods/drink that most of them are eating on a daily basis. i think you’ve addressed “your” reasons for not taking vitamins in a very gracious manner.
Selwa Luke
Thank you so much for your comment, Luke! I appreciate that you’ve taken the time to read the article and the many replies it has garnered. I’ve heard great things about Nature’s Pearl – my brother and sister-in-law actually use some of their supplements. I’ll definitely check it out. Always looking for a good protein shake. 🙂
Melissa
I respect your right to voice your opinion about the products, however, I think it might be helpful if you included the webpages you used for research. I, too, conducted a lot of research after a friend of mine showed me your blog. The sites that I used (webMd, hayden institute, and the university of maryland medical center) do not support your research. In fact, just the opposite. Of course ascorbic acid has adverse side affects…in large doses-if you take a multivitamin or vitamin c supplement and take twice the dose thinking it’s good, *that* is considered a large dose.
Good luck to you in whatever you choose to do, but again, for future reference, please include your sources. If you’ve ever written for college, you’re required to supply sources. *this* is probably a good reason why.
Selwa Luke
Hi Melissa. Thanks for your comment. As I stated in the post, I did not include sources, but anyone could feel free to Google the information I posted and decide for themselves if what I’m saying is true. If this were a term paper, perhaps I would have cited medical research but it’s a blog post – an opinion piece on why I felt it was best for my husband and I to discontinue our use of certain products. I’d be interested to take a closer look at the sources you’ve cited and see exactly what you’re talking about when you say they don’t support my research. My research simply explains what synthetic vitamins are. A lot of people don’t think there’s any harm in taking them, and perhaps there isn’t if you’re taking them in normal-sized doses. But even then, most Americans are probably wasting their money because more and more research is showing that vitamin supplements don’t really do much good. (Here’s one study – from WebMD – that would support that statement.
Oh, and I have written for college. I have a Master’s Degree so I’m well aware of the importance of citing sources when you’re writing a fact-based paper for academic or scientific purposes. An opinionated blog post is a different story though – just my opinion.
Thanks again for commenting! 🙂
Lynn
Just for the record, the RDA is not what our bodies need optimally. it is the bare minimum amount of nutrients needed to prevent disease. lots of research out there shows that our bodies need much more than 100% rda of many nutrients.
None
Check your facts, it’s 200% and only half is absorbed^^^
Selwa Luke
It would help if I knew what you were referring to so I could address your comment…
Melissa
When you’re opinion is swaying the minds of others, don’t you think i’s important to include where you got your research? When you were gathering information, didn’t you want all of the information? It just seems convenient that you don’t include your sources and the one you did, still doesn’t support your claim that these synthetic vitamins are bad. The article you just posted says that the vitamins are no different than taking placebos. Also, Mr. mackay (from the article) says that people take multivitamins to fill a gap in their wellness and so far science shows that multivitamins do, in fact, work in that regard. He does state that taking a vitamin while your diet is “less-than-perfect” may not give the body the boost we’re looking for.
According to some research, only about 50% of 1 mcg is absorbed in to the system. Also, the recommended allowance for the average adult is 2.4 mcg’s of B12 per day. To put this in perspective, 3 oz. of cooked clams contain 84mcg. Even without the multivitamin, I’ve just overdosed on b12 for the day.
This is why research and giving your readers all of the information is so important. by having this public blog, I feel you owe it to your readers to provide them all of the information needed to make an informed decision. In one hour i found 5 medical resource pages that discredit your claims about synthetic vitamin. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of products on the market that contain synthetic vitamins. after doing some simple research on my own, i find your blog to be nothing more than a scare tactic. If you run into a theater and scream fire, you’ll have everyone running because of it. Too bad you didn’t tell them the fire was a block away. having all of the information is key for decision making.
Selwa Luke
Hi Melissa. You do make a good point when it comes to citing sources. Honestly, when I sat down to write this post it was after I had spent weeks poring over articles on the internet. I had stored a lot of information in my head and it all just came out in one sitting. I didn’t even really go back to look at the sources I had read, because they had been in my head for so long. I’ll admit, perhaps it was a lazy approach to writing… However, even if I had cited my sources, I’m sure I’d still encounter quite a few rebuttals, as there is a ton of information on both sides of the debate over synthetic vitamins and whether or not they are harmful.
What it comes down to for me is who and what I’m willing to put my trust in – God’s natural design or men’s knowledge and scientific research. If the people reading this don’t believe in God or his original design, they’re going to cite my opinion as flawed (sources or not), because part of it is based on what I believe. Basically, what I believe is that God designed things to operate in certain ways for certain reasons, and we didn’t start seeing major problems until men decided they could “do it better.” Synthetic vitamins, in my opinion, are evidence of our claim that we can do it better. And when we start thinking we can do it better than the one who created us, we tend to screw things up. I don’t know you or what you believe about all of that, and it doesn’t really matter either way, because as I stated from the beginning, this blog is my personal reasons for the decision that I made (a decision that may or may not be right for others who are reading.)
I’m pretty sure that most of the sources I would have cited would probably be dismissed as “quack doctors” or “uninformed mommy bloggers” who have no medical or credible scientific basis for their claims. The medical industry has many interests to protect and a lot of money invested in a system that we’re supposed to believe works. If at any point, people start to lose faith in that system, it becomes in danger of crumbling. The pharmaceutical industry, in my opinion, is out to protect itself, not the health of people. Our health care system is more about sick care than actually making people healthy, because when people are healthy, there’s no money to be made from drugs, treatments, vitamins, etc. Because I see things this way, I tend to ignore sites like WebMD, and claims made on sites like Natural News and mercola.com actually make sense to me. But people who place their trust in our medical system would discredit those claims in an instant because to them, data and “fact-based” scientific research is more important than what I’d say is pretty much common sense. If our medical system was so good, we wouldn’t have some of the highest rates of cancer and autoimmune disease in the world. We’re supposed to be one of the most medically advanced countries, yet the World Health Organization ranks us at #37… to me, that says a lot.
Also, if my opinion is swaying the minds of other people who don’t bother to do their own research and make decisions for themselves, that’s on them, not me. I don’t consider myself responsible if someone reads my blog and immediately takes it as fact, especially if there are no sources cited. Anyone reading this should, ideally, do exactly what you did – spend an hour or more doing their own research so they can make an informed decision about what they should do regarding their own health.
To answer your question, “when you’re gathering information, didn’t you want all of the information?” Absolutely. But it would have taken me years to gather and cite all of the information out there on this subject, and had I done that, this blog post would have been so long as to be unreadable. Call it lazy. Or call it realistic. Maybe it was a little of both. 🙂
And lastly, I’ll address your point about the recommended allowance of B12… if such a small amount of the vitamin is absorbed into our bodies, and we could eat clams (or other foods) to get that amount, why do we need to take a synthetic form of the vitamin in the first place? Can’t we just eat whole foods? Why waste money on synthetic “placebos”?
Ryan Jacobson
As someone who has just been diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, and have had multiple genetic health problems, I just have to say that there is a time and a place for synthetic vitamins. You have to consider that most people are eating nutritionally bankrupt foods, whether they are clean or whole or organic. They are just not full of the nutrients they used to be. So, we do our best and supplement and cleanse. (sorry, my shift and caps buttons are broken, so grammar is incorrect.) People need to do what helps them. Avoiding all synthetic vitamins makes no sense to me.
Selwa Luke
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I respect your comment about avoiding all synthetic vitamins (though I’ll agree to disagree there!).
katie
thanks for sharing your experience Selwa. i respect the way you have responded to some of the comments and I also respect and agree with your faith. i believe, based on what I have read, that your opinion is valuable and that you are honestly looking to put “first things first” :-). Thank you for your time!!!
paulh
Selwa, thank you for the information on this website. I did not think about the information about using chemical nomenclature as a way to identify synthetic ingredients from natural products. However, how about the preservatives used in “natural” products (based upon your definition that natural as being real whole food since there is no FDA OR USDA RULE ON DEFINING AND REGULATING THE TERM “NATURAL”. I REALIZE THAT http://WWW.ERG.ORG LIST MANY CHEMICAL AGENTS AS BAD TO CERTAIN PARTS OF THE BODY BUT IT DOES NOT INDICATED THE TOLERABILITY LEVEL. THIS COUNTRY FLUORIDATE THE DRINKING WATER SYSTEM, WHEREAS ISRAEL, JAPAN, AND CERTAIN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES DOES NOT. THIS COUNTRY CLAIMS (WHICH I DISAGREE WITH THEIR RATIONALE) THAT FLUORIDATING THE WATER HELPS TO WARD OFF DENTAL DISEASES AND PROMOTE BONE STRENGTH. HOWEVER, IF THIS WAS TRUE, THE UNFLUORIDATED WATER COUNTRIES HAS DECLINING TOOTH DISEASES. also, FLUORIDE (OR FLUORINE I AM NOT CERTAIN WHICH ONE) IS TOXIC TO THE HUMAN BODY. FURTHERMORE, FLUORIDE IS IN THE SAME CHEMICAL FAMILY AS CHLORIDE (FLUROINE AND CHLORINE) WHICH ARE VERY BAD TO THE HUMAN BODY. DRINKING HOT TAP WATER OR (WATER THAT CONTAINS FLUORIDE/FLUORINE) WILL INCREASE SUCH HALOGEN CONCENTRATION. I WOULD ASSUME THAT NON-SYNTHETIC VITAMINS NEED TO USE PRESERVATIVES TO PREVENT THE FOOD ELEMENTS FROM ROTTING. I DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THE PRESERVATIVES USED IN SYNTHETIC OR LESS-SYNTHETIC VITAMINS ARE OF ANY GOOD, IT COMES DOWN TO RISK-BENEFIT ANALYSIS, I THINK. HOW MUCH RISK AVERSION IS ONE WILLING OR UNWILLING TO ASSUME? THE PROBLEM IS THAT INFORMED CONSUMER HAS A DIFFICULT TIME TO DIFFERENTIATE THE RISK LEVELS SINCE SCIENCE AND INFORMATION IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING (FOR EXAMPLE, IN THE 1970’S, SCIENCE CLAIMED THAT MARGERINE WAS BETTER THAN BUTTER/ANIMAL FAT). also, THE LOBBY GROUPS AND SPECIAL INTEREST PUTS UP BIASED INFORMATION AND HIDE THE TRUTH ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS. FOR EXAMPLE, BEFORE 1960, I FOUND OUT THAT MEDICAL DOCTORS (MD) AND DENTIST (DDS) RECOMMENDED SMOKING AS “HEALTHY”. FOR THIS PARTICULAR REASON, I QUESTION THE UNNECESSARY USE OF FLUROIDE OR FLUROINE IN THE DRINING WATER SINCE IT IS UNNECESSARY RISK. THE FLUROIDATED DRINKING WATER IS BACKED UP BY THE ADA (AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION) AS A “HEALTH BENEFIT”. LOOK AT THIS PERSPECTIVE, DOES THE GOVERNMENT BAN TOBACCO? instead, IT TAX ON IT TO PAY MAKE PEOPLE TO PAY FOR THE INCREASED HEALTH CARE FOR THEIR DECISION TO HAVE A HAVE A HIGHER RISK.
Angie
thank you Selwa for this post. i am for the do it the old natural way, eat right and exercise.
Ally
Thank you, selwa, for writing this post. I’m glad there are intelligent people out there who actually do their own research.