VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS vs. WHOLE FOODS

©2004 Suzin Stockton
 

While most health-oriented folks would agree that nutritional supplementation is a must today due to our depleted soils and stressful lifestyles, there’s some disagreement as to what constitutes the most effective supplements. While the multi-vitamin is the traditional supplement of choice, a growing number of health care professionals and informed consumers are opting today for whole food concentrates and herbal supplements. 

The bulk of multi-vitamins on the market today are composed primarily or exclusively of isolated synthetic vitamins. Contrary to popular belief, a multi-vitamin, even one formulated with other isolated elements (like minerals), does not and cannot supply us with all nutrients essential to good health.  To fit every known nutrient into even a large size capsule or tablet would be utterly impossible. There are just too many! Even if we managed such a feat, we’d still be faced with the fact that there doubtlessly exist yet-to-be-isolated nutrients, which obviously won’t be included in our “complete multi.” 

Let’s do a word association game: When you hear the words “ascorbic acid,” what comes to mind? What image do you get for “tocopherol?” If you’re like most people, you think of vitamin C for ascorbic acid and vitamin E for tocopherol. In fact, the dominant belief is that ascorbic acid is synonymous with vitamin C, and tocopherol is the same thing as vitamin E. The truth is that both ascorbic acid and tocopherol (alpha and the others) are just elements of the vitamin C and vitamin E complexes, parts of the whole. Vitamin C also contains bioflavonoids, tyrosinase, and several other vital factors, and the vitamin E complex is made up of all the tocopherols, selenium, lipositols (also known as tocotrienols) and many other less familiar elements. What do you get if you purchase a bottle of synthetic vitamin C (ascorbic acid)? You are getting only a small part of the vitamin C complex, manufactured from super-refined corn sugar. Ascorbic acid acts more like a drug than a nutrient in the body. Because the ascorbic acid cannot be utilized without the other co-factors of the vitamin C complex, your body will leech the other those cofactors from its own tissues in order to use the ascorbic acid. This creates a lot of physical stress. So it is with other synthetic nutrients. Not only do synthetic vitamins stress the body, they can actually make it sick if taken in excess:

Scientific research has proved that excesses of isolated vitamins or minerals can produce the same symptoms as deficiencies of vitamins or minerals. For example, high doses of isolated B vitamins have been shown to cause the depletion of other B vitamins. Similarly, if zinc is taken in excess, symptoms of zinc deficiency can result.1

In view of the growing awareness of the problems associated with synthetic vitamin supplements, an increasing emphasis is being placed on the value of whole foods. Herbs are certainly whole foods, and well- formulated, high quality herbal blends may rightly be called supper foods, for they exert a powerful synergistic therapeutic action. They will provide a full spectrum of truly all-natural nutrients in a bio-available form 

Herbal remedies have been used traditionally by virtually all cultures throughout history. Their use was widespread in the United States up until the beginning of the twentieth century when allopathic (chemically-based) drugs took their place. Interestingly, however, the pharmaceutical industry was then (and still is) producing drugs based on the isolation of so-called “active components” from HERBS. “About 25% of the prescription medicines sold today are (or were originally) derived from plants.”2

Herbal medicine is making a comeback today as the focus of medicine turns increasing to wholism. The healing power of whole herbs, it is being realized, lies in their very wholeness, not in any particular active ingredient. Today’s “phytomedicines” (herbs) are whole-plant preparations, not single isolated chemical compounds like drugs and synthetic vitamins.

Well-formulated whole herb formulas and blends of herb and superfood concentrates like green vegetables and grasses can fill nutritional gaps more effectively than synthetic multi-vitamins. Herbs have been documented to facilitate healing in a number of health conditions. And they often do so more effectively than pharmaceutical drugs, at a fraction of the cost and without risk of serious side effects. Ditto for food concentrates.

For more in-depth information on this important subject, read “Whole Food Vitamins: Ascorbic Acid is not Vitamin C” by Dr. Tim O’Shea.  Copy and paste this address into your browser:   http://thedoctorwithin.com/index_fr.php?page=articles/whole_food_vitamins.php and The Terrain is Everything.

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