Vitamins are essential components of any diet, whether we introduce them into the body through food or through dietary supplements. They are of vital importance for our health and the proper functioning of our body.
Deficiencies of these substances lead to a wide range of health problems – from anorexia to obesity, disorders and complete failure of certain organs, as well as numerous other chronic conditions of the organism.
We are all aware of what vitamin deficiency means, but we are usually not aware that not all vitamins are created equal. The vast majority are created synthetically, and a very small number of them come from natural resources.
What are "synthetic" vitamins?
A healthy, organic diet should provide a good amount of nutrients needed by the body, but food supplements, popularly called supplements, can help in obtaining a safe amount of certain specific vitamins.
In all of this, there would be no problem at all if these vitamin dietary supplements were created in a natural way. However, this is most often not the case. Many vitamin and mineral supplements are produced synthetically, which involves various chemicals. This means that dietary supplements created in this way do not come directly from their natural sources. They originate from the laboratory and are made to mimic the way natural vitamins work in our body. In contrast to artificial ones, naturally created vitamins come directly from the plant material that contains a specific vitamin.
What is important regarding synthetic vitamins?
First of all, synthetic variants of vitamins contain chemical substances that are not intended for human consumption and do not exist in nature. Naturally, a diet composed of substances that can be grown or harvested from the earth or on the earth is intended for humans, rather than substances created in laboratory conditions.
Regarding natural vitamins that can be dissolved in fats, the following should be emphasized:
- Vitamins A, D, E, and K belong to the group of fat-soluble vitamins
- Vitamins that have this ability, in their natural state, are found in foods such as butter, fish oil, nuts, and green leafy vegetables
- Reserves of fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the liver and adipose tissue
- Most people do not get a sufficient amount of such vitamins through their diet
The difference between natural and synthetic vitamins
Many synthetic vitamins lack substances characteristic of natural vitamins because their main property is isolation. According to the views of certain global consumer associations, such isolated vitamins cannot be treated in the same way as their entirely natural variants.
The natural form of a vitamin is not isolated, but always comes together with other vitamins, enzymes, and minerals, which control the way the body recognizes, metabolizes, and then uses from that natural source what it needs.
The body cannot always use synthetically isolated vitamins, so they are either stored in it until fully utilized or the nutrients necessary for the functioning of the organism are extracted from them, which are then excreted. In addition, laboratory-created vitamins are also deprived of necessary minerals, so in the case of taking them, the body's mineral reserves must be used, which can lead to a dangerous mineral deficiency in the organism.
More than 95% of all vitamin supplements on the market today fall into synthetically isolated substances.
How to distinguish natural vitamins from artificial ones?
This question is not easy to answer because many vitamin manufacturers want consumers to believe that by buying, they are getting a "natural product." Unfortunately, the law regulating this issue is such that vitamins can be called "natural" if they contain at least 10% of vitamins originating from a natural source. This means that the so-called "natural" vitamin can contain up to 90% synthetically produced chemicals!
The most common things served to us as "natural" vitamins are vitamins from the B and C groups, which are, of course, synthetically produced.
To better understand the difference between the two, it is useful to look at the list of commonly synthetically created vitamins, which are recommended to be avoided.
- Vitamin A: Retinyl palmitate
- Vitamin B1 (thiamine): Thiamine mononitrate, thiamine hydrochloride
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): Riboflavin
- Pantothenic acid: Calcium D-pantothenate
- Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine): Pyridoxine hydrochloride
- Vitamin B12: Cyanocobalamin
- PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid): Aminobenzoic acid
- Folic acid: Pteroylglutamic acid
- Choline: Choline chloride, choline bitartrate
- Biotin: D-biotin
- Vitamin C (ascorbic acid): Ascorbic acid
- Vitamin D: Ergosterol, calciferol
- Vitamin E: DL-alpha-tocopherol or succinate any DL form of a vitamin is always synthetic in nature
Among other toxic substances that should be avoided if found in certain supplements are: magnesium stearate (stearic acid), monosodium glutamate (usually labeled as "natural flavor"), carnauba wax (used for polishing cars and shoes), and titanium dioxide (a carcinogenic substance).
Vitamins: Natural vs. Synthetic
The well-known fact is that foods in their original form are much healthier and more useful for the organism than when they are processed and treated in any way. Although there are numerous conflicting opinions of nutritionists about what and what kind of food should be on the daily menu, all of them agree that, regardless of the food item in question, it is best for the organism when it is as it is in nature, i.e., when it has undergone minimal intervention before consumption.
We will give an example to this agreement of theirs. Raw, natural honey is a much better sweetener than white sugar. Why should anything be different when it comes to vitamins? There is not a single reason why a natural vitamin (honey) should be worse than an artificial one (white sugar), while there are many reasons why a synthetically created vitamin is more harmful to the organism than one from nature.
Simply put, raw food has an immeasurable health advantage over processed food because the latter is stripped of all additional nutrients that raw foods are rich in. Accordingly, just like with processed foods, "processed" vitamins are isolated from all the additional nutrients that naturally come with vitamins.
Natural "Whole Food" Supplements
Dietary supplements in the form of vitamins and minerals derived from a completely natural source, i.e., from foods that have been processed as little as possible, but without the addition of any additives or other artificial substances, are considered natural supplements. The vitamins found within these dietary supplements are not isolated as in artificial supplements. They have a very complex structure, combined with various enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace elements, activators, and many other factors, which all together, as a complex, function synergistically. This means they support each other to enable a particular vitamin to best "do its job" in the body.
The nutrients within such a complex cannot be taken separately from the whole and then expected to do the same job in the body as that entire structured complex is designed to do.
A perfect, vivid illustration of the difference between an isolated vitamin and a vitamin complex is an automobile. It represents a beautifully designed complex of machines, which requires all its constituent elements to be present in order for the car to function properly. Wheels are certainly an important part of the whole, but you could never isolate them from the rest of the car and consider just them to be a car, nor expect them to function as the whole car.
The identical analogy applies to Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or Vitamin E (delta-tocopherol). They are isolated in supplements that can be found in any store selling such products, but both of these vitamins are only parts of the whole vitamin complex. Individually, they can by no means perform the functions that the entire complex can achieve.
Synergy and Strength
The different parts of a natural vitamin complex work together in a synergistic manner. Simply explained, synergy means that the whole is not merely the sum of the specific parts that make it up, but is much more significant and greater than that sum. If any natural vitamin complex were disassembled into its constituent components, the synergy that the complex possesses would completely disappear! Analogous to the car we mentioned earlier, this means that any car as a whole will function much better (drive) than a bunch of its scattered parts can.
The vast majority of people, when deciding on vitamins as dietary supplements, do not follow this logic. Knowing this mindset, supplement manufacturers try to cram as many things as possible into one small capsule, while convincing us that the more times we take it, the better it will be for us. This is simply not true! As is well known, what matters is not the quantity of nutrients introduced into the organism, but their form and bioavailability (the proportion of the administered dose of vitamin that reaches systemic circulation unchanged). In fact, considering that consuming individual nutrients can create an imbalance in the body, it is concluded that a higher intake level of one specific nutrient will more quickly lead to imbalance.
What does this mean? The power of natural dietary supplements is linked to synergy, not to the actual effect of individual nutrients. It is a combined effect of all parts from food, rather than the chemical action of one specific part.
The Key to a Good Supplement
How can you be sure whether a specific supplement you intend to add to your diet is a good choice for you? For a start, check if it has the following characteristics:
- It should be as close to its natural form as possible
- All phases of its production should be monitored with the utmost care: from the cultivation of its ingredients to the creation process itself, as well as testing its capabilities and verified quality control
- The choice of a specific supplement should depend on whether the company manufacturing it has a long history of providing high-quality supplements that achieve the best possible results
