Supplements & Their Sources
by David Sims
IN this article we will continue our look at the subject of supplementation begun in our last issue; focusing this time on the source of vitamin supplements and their processing. According to Ryan Andrews in his article, All About Where Vitamin Supplements Come From, of Jan. 31, 2011, there are six categories that describe the source ingredients from which vitamins are made. These are:
1. Those claiming to be Natural: In this category, the nutrients from vegetable, animal, or mineral sources are used to isolate the vitamin needed. Some examples are vitamin D3 from fish liver oil, or vitamin E from soybean oil. These natural ingredients go through intensive processing and refining, and often require very harsh chemicals to make the reactions needed. Consider the following thoughts:
* No vitamin is really natural when it is isolated from all the other nutrients that augment its availability and use in the body.
* Caution vegetarians! “natural” often means the source is animal.
* The manufacturer may start out with a natural source, but the processing and the chemicals used in the processing are far from natural.
* Vitamins labeled “natural” can be largely synthetic. There is no government set standard.
For
example: fish oil (often taken by
people who think that it is a natural source for vitamin D) is
usually purified to remove toxic levels of PCBs, Mercury, Lead,
Arsenic, etc. then de-odorized – leaving little vitamin D in the
product, which is then corrected by adding synthetic vitamin D back
to it. (Update on Cod Liver Oil Manufacture: David Wetzel
Thursday,
30 April 2009: webpage info –
http://www.wstonaprice.org/cod-liver-oil/update-on-cod-liver-oil-manufacture)
2. Nature-identical Synthetic: The nutrients in these supplements are actually made in a lab. It is claimed that the molecules of the man made vitamin are identical to the vitamin found in nature.
A good example is the popular
vitamin
C. Ascorbic acid is the most common form of synthetic vitamin C. It
is usually
derived from corn or rice. Much of it is manufactured
in
China. It goes through a so called two step fermentation synthesis.
This process is described thus by Dr. Robert Thiel,
Non-food, so-called “natural” ascorbic acid is made by fermenting corn sugar into sorbitol, then hydrogenating it until it turns into sorbose, then acetone (commonly referred to as nail polish remover) is added to break the molecular bonds which creates isolated, crystalline, ascorbic acid ― (“The Truth About Vitamins in Nutritional Supplements,” Robert Thiel, Ph.D., Naturopath: see webpage — http://www.doctorsresearch.com/articles4.html).
3. Strictly Synthetic: Of this
type we
read:
Starting materials for strictly synthetic supplements can be anything from coal tar to petroleum to acetylene gas. These supplements are made in facilities via chemical manipulations with the goal of duplicating the structure of the isolated vitamin ― (All About Where Vitamin Supplements Come From: Ryan Andrews, Jan. 31, 2011).
4. Cultured Food: Supplements under this category are made by feeding yeast organisms or algae a whole food complex and synthetic vitamins, then the yeast or algae is harvested and made into a vitamin supplement. It is hoped that the yeast/algae will still contain the nutrients it fed on. Some brands also mix in synthetic vitamins to increase the nutrient concentration.
5. Food Based: Here is a description of how these vitamins are usually described:
The manufacturers basically break down vegetables, fruits, and other food ingredients, add vitamins, and formulate that into capsules ― (Real Simple. Nutrition: Preeti Kulkarni, a naturopathic doctor: webpage—http://www.realsimple.com/health/nutrition-diet/vitamins/expert-advice-on-multivitamins-00000000025341/page2.html).
The vitamins added here are usually purely synthetic nutrients, and are in actuality the main ingredient; the fruits and vegetables and other food that have been processed to withstand shelf life are what’s added. If it were truly food, why then buy it in a pill form, and pay many times the price?
6. Bacterial or Yeast fermentation: This category uses the by-products of fermentation to obtain the desired vitamin. Some examples include menaquinone (vitamin K2), riboflavin (fermentation of ribose), cyancobalamin (vitamin B12), melatonin, amino acids, CoQ10, etc. One source tell us that,
The Co-enzyme Q10 that is found in consumer supplements and functional foods & beverages today is derived either from yeast, bacteria or tobacco ― (http://www.kanekaq10.com/wc_3type-scoq10.htm)
As of the beginning of April, 2013 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company withdrew from the manufacture of CoQ10, leaving Kaneka (a pharmaceutical/chemical company) the sole manufacturer in the U.S. and Japan of CoQ10. Dupont, however, holds a patent for manufacturing CoQ10 using genetically altered yeast (see patent 20090142322)
In summary, supplements are manufactured largely by chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and nearly always from one of the following sources or processes:
1. yeast, fungus or bacteria or their by-products (some of which are genetically modified).
2. inorganic minerals (ground up rocks)
3. animal parts
4. petroleum products
None of these sources except the whole food itself, are in the original diet given to us in Genesis 1:29. Can the people expecting translation, who are striving to return to the original Edenic diet, use products like those mentioned above? Never in the history of the world, have people purchased so much of something they knew so little about. If you decide to stop using supplements, you will have to stop using processed foods as well, which are loaded with such supplements.
I have concluded the only safe course is to eat whole foods to obtain nourishment rather than using supplements.
~ Hippocrates ~
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