What foods are healthy? All nature foods are healthy. Why wholesome foods founds to contain less vitamins and minerals? The labeling system for health foods is very misleading, because (1) It does not represent thousands of phytochemicals which are contained in wholesome plant foods; (2) it makes people believe that as long as they can get the elements on the list, they will be ok. The government is responsible for this misleading, because (taking vitamin C as example) they have decided that you label the vitamin C amount in any health product according to the amount of ascorbic acid it contains. But the real vitamin C naturally existing in ripen vegetables and fruits does not equal to purified ascorbic acid (so-called vitamin C). The routine test method can only measure unassociated ascorbic acid. Vitamin C forms: Chemical forms: Ascorbic form (pure form) Mineral bound ascorbic acid (less acidic): Sodium ascorbate Calcium ascorbate Potassium ascorbate Magnesium ascorbate Zinc ascorbate Molybdenum ascorbate Chromium ascorbate Manganese ascorbate Ascorbyl palmitate Dehydro- form (dehydroascorbic acid) Wholesome form (complex C form), consists of: P factors (enhance capillary and vessel wall strength), J factors (increase the oxygen carrying capacity of blood). Vitamin K (part of the C-complex) Tyrosinase (an enzyme in the center of the C complex) Ascorbic acid (wrapped around the above elements of complex) Please notice a phenomenon: Immature fruits are much sourer than mature ones! Why? Because the amount of ascorbic acid (which is regarded as vitamin C) is much higher in immature fruits than in mature ones and the ascorbic acid amount declines as the fruits become ripe. Since ascorbic acid is vitamin C, and vitamin C is ascorbic acid, here we have questions: Does this means that the vitamin C content in many fruits is higher when it is immature? Should we eat immature fruits rather than ripen ones? Are immature fruits more nutritious than ripen ones? If yes, why don’t you harvest your garden tomato, apple, and many other fruits when they are still in green color? It is obvious that when the fruits are immature, the formation of vitamin C complex has not been finished yet, and hence the amount of the ascorbic acid which is chemically cross-linked to other parts of vitamin C complex is very low and the amount of unlinked ascorbic acid (free ascorbic acid) is relatively high. Because our routine test only targets the unbound ascorbic acid which represents vitamin C (misleading), it is why the so-called vitamin C is richer in immature fruits. We should be careful! Our body needs vitamin C complex, not ascorbic acid alone! Actually this phenomenon applies to many other elements which have very low amount in mature vegetables and fruits if measured according to the amount of unassociated form, such as vitamin A, beta-carotene, lycopene, etc. For example, Vitamin A does not exist in plants. Therefore if a health product is a kind of wholesome food, the vitamin A should be zero on its label. But actually many plants contain rich carotene which can be transformed by our body into biologically effective vitamin A. Even for beta-carotene, its amount in mature vegetables is lower in unheated form than in heated one, and higher in oil-fried form than in non-oil-treated one. Tomato and carote are two typical examples. But we have to eat more uncooked and non-oil-treated tomato and carote! Why? Because they contain more beta-carotene complex and lycopene complex (their beta-carotene and lycopene are associated with many other elements) which will be naturally transformed into real and biologically active elements in our body. Here is the original description about the vitamin C complex: Vitamin C is a very misunderstood vitamin. The government is responsible for this because they have decided that you rate any vitamin C product according to the amount of ascorbic acid it contains. Ascorbic acid is an antioxidant. It is the preservative part of the C complex. To refine out or to synthesize the preservative, in our opinion, is a mistake. The real vitamin C complex contains the P factors, which maintain vascular integrity. These are deficient in people who bruise easily or who have "pink toothbrush." Their blood vessels break too easily and bleed. The P factors strengthen the vascular system. They make the vessels tougher and more durable. Vitamin K is another part of the C complex. It promotes prothrombin. That means it helps in coagulation (blood clotting). Bleeders do not have enough vitamin K. Another factor in the C complex is J. The J factor is the part of the C complex which increases the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. If you have a cold, you want to get oxygen to your tissues where it oxidizes the toxins and carries them off as carbon dioxide and water.* In addition to these, the C complex contains enzymes, the outstanding one being tyrosinase. That's organic copper, an adrenal activator, If you want to rate vitamin C according to one thing, it would be logical to rate the tyrosinase. We have found that the products containing the most tyrosinase produce the best clinical results. But all of these other factors are important for the reasons mentioned, In addition to all these factors, the vitamin C complex also contains ascorbic acid. To say that ascorbic acid is vitamin C is like looking at a wheel and saying that it is an automobile, while it is just a small part of an automobile.* How about the so-called 'natural' vitamin C tablets (ascorbic acid)? Let’s see how these “Natural” tablets are made. (1) Fermenting refined sugar into sorbitol; (2) Then hydrogenating it until it turns into sorbose; (3) Then acetone (commonly referred to as nail polish remover) is added to break the molecular bonds which creates ascorbic acid. What a “Natural” process! Vitamin A forms: Vitamin A Carotene: Vitamin A does not exist in plants. However, leafy green and yellow vegetables and yellow fruits contain a pigment called carotene, which the liver can convert into vitamin A. Among the best sources of carotene are dandelion and turnip greens, carrots, collards, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes and apricots. How to select mutritional products? As a real nutritional product, it should not only contain vitamins and minerals, but also contain rich phytochemicals. More importantly, it must not induce any side-effect after long term use. No matter how many nutritional products are available from market, they fall into two categories: 1. Chemically extracted/purified supplements 2. Concentrated wholesome plant foods Chemically extracted or purified supplements: such as vitamins, minerals, OPCs (Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins), lecithin and so on. They have two disadvantages: (1) They may contain trace chemical extraction reagents, which, although at undetectable level, have long-term negative effects on human health. More importantly, when these supplements get into our body in purified form, they actually act as chemicals. No matter how low the amount is, their long-term use will inhibit our cell functions. They should be used as drugs but not as nutrition. You can tell from the labels: (a) Some labels have “DIN”. It is the abbreviation of “Drug Identification Number”. Just as the labels imply, they are drugs, not nutrition. (b) Many labels have the warning sentence: “Keep out of the reach of children”. Do we have to keep fruits (such as orange, apple, strawberry, etc.) out of the reach of children? You might argue that the supplements are concentrated while the nutrients in fruits are not. Here is the fact: an orange of average size contains 70mg vitamin C. Therefore 20 tablets of 100mg vitamin C equal to 28 oranges in terms of vitamin C amount. The questions are: what if you found your vitamin C bottle missing 20 tablets of 100mg vitamin C in one day? What if your 5-year-old child swallowed these 20 tablets? Would you take him to doctor? You have to, because overdose of vitamin C is dangerous. Would you have the same worry if you found your orange basket missing 28 oranges? Would you take your child to doctor if he told you he ate all these 28 oranges? Why is vitamin C tablet different from orange? The answer is simple: one is drug, and the other is food. (c) Some labels have the warning: “For therapeutic use only”. This will make the manufacturers in a winning side whenever a lawsuit case is involved. For example, years later, if a chemically extracted supplement is found doing harm to our health, the manufacturer will easily deny its responsibility by saying that its label has clearly told people to use it not for nutrition but for therapeutic purpose only, while in therapeutic use, some unknown side effects are expected. Some people may think differently: “well, many researches have shown that the chemically extracted supplements do not have side-effects.” Yes! They may not! But they only may not have short term side-effects! The possibility of its long term side-effects is not small. Be alert! As long as a product has a label containing “DIN”, or “keep out of the reach of children”, or “for therapeutic use only”, it must be called “chemical” and should not be used as nutrition. Many companies know that consumers like the word “natural”. Hence they added this word onto the labels. Now you can easily pick up a bottle of supplement in a shop and find its label saying “extracted from natural source”. Right! It is made from natural source. But, no matter how natural the source is, once chemically extracted and purified, it loses “natural” and becomes “chemical”. There is no difference between chemically synthesized supplements and chemically extracted ones. Both labels must contain some warnings such as “Keep out of the reach of children”. (2) The extracted supplements do not represent the whole spectrum of nutrients critical to health, because they do not contain rich phytochemicals which are highly involved in maintaining normal functions of immune system. Therefore, using chemically extracted or synthesized supplements can cause nutrition imbalance in the body. For years, many advertisements have been misleading, telling people that vitamins and minerals can be routinely used for prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases. Be alert! Are vitamins and minerals really so good that they can be routinely used as nutrition? Is there any misleading which you never knew? Let’s see some facts Vitamin C tablets: It has been used as anti-oxidant to prevent cancer for years. But recent research found that purified vitamin C has pro-oxidant properties and it can increase genotoxins. What does it mean? That means it could be a cancer-inducer! [Reference1: Vitamin C exhibits pro-oxidant properties. Nature 392:559-62, 1998]. [Reference2: Vitamin C-induced decomposition of lipid hydroperoxides to endogenous genotoxins. Science 292 (5524): 2083-2086, 2001] [Reference3: The nature of prooxidant activity of vitamin C. Life Science 64: 273-8, 1999] Vitamin A and E capsules: They have been recommended for routine use to prevent cancer & cardiovascular diseases. However, the world famous research centre, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, conducted a multimember, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled prevention trial with 18,314 people and 4 years of follow-up . They found beta-carotene and vitamin A increased the incidence of lung cancer and heart diseases and also increased the risk of death from lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Many other groups also found the similar results. [Reference 1: Effects of a combination of beta-carotene and vitamin A on lung cancer and cardiovascular disease New England Journal of Medicine 334:1150-5, 1996]. [Reference 2: Chemoprevention of lung cancer: the rise and demise of beta-carotene. Annual Reviews Public Health 19:73-99, 1998]. [Reference 3: Beta-carotene didn't prevent cancer: what's up, doctor? Journal of the National Cancer Institute 82:899-900, 1990]. Calcium: People often take calcium tablets. But it was found that excess calcium interferes with leukocyte function by displacing magnesium ions, thereby reducing cell adhesion. This will lead to malfunctioning of the immune system. Many people do not know, the main reason for osteoporosis is not insufficient calcium intake but increased calcium loss. [Reference: Nutrition and the Immune System: A review of Nutrient-Nutrient Interactions. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 96:1156-64, 1996]. You may ask: If the supplements of vitamins and minerals are not ideal for routine use, should we abandon them? No! When you lack vitamins or minerals, they should be used. But in that case, vitamins and minerals are called drugs, but not nutrition. In November 1999, speaking at the annual international conference on cancer and nutrition, the chairman of the European Cancer Prevention Organisation, Dr Michael Hill said: “Attempts to alter risk of cancer with supplements of vitamins, minerals or chemically purified extracts have so far not been successful and are not recommended for the general population. . . . . . . People need to consume the whole food rather than supplements of vitamins and minerals.” We noticed such a phenomenon: soon after one nutrient in some plants was found important for our health, it will become commercially available in chemically purified form. For examples: “As vitamins are critical to our health, every one should take the vitamin tablets!” “As minerals play important roles, take them in purified form!” “As OPCs (contained in many kinds of fruits, especially in grape and grape seeds) have strong anti-oxidant property, take the extracted OPCs power!” “As lecithin plays a great role in lipid metabolism, take the extracted one!” We have been misled by such kind of approach for more than 20 years!!! Then, does it mean that vitamins, minerals and OPCs are very bad to our health? No! They are good! They are very important! They play important roles in our body. They themselves should not be blamed. The problem is that we are not getting them from the right source. We should not get them in purified form and we should get them only by eating whole foods. Under this principle, concentrated whole plant foods become right choice. (2) Concentrated Wholesome Plant Foods: Producing concentrated whole plant foods only involves physical process, not chemical process and therefore has nothing to do with any chemical extraction reagent. This kind of products not only contain plant proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fibres, but also contain thousands of different phytochemicals which play key roles in maintaining proper functioning of immune system. In concentrated whole plant foods, all nutrients are in the same proportion as those in natural plants, so they are also called Balanced Nutritional Foods. They can be used as routine nutritional supplements. Of course, there are many kinds of concentrated whole plant foods in market. Be alert! The best ones should be free from pesticides, free from pre-mature harvest, free from genetic modification, free from preservatives, free from heating process, etc. Phytochemicals Are phytochemicals important? How important are they? The Following references can help you: ************************** Nutrition and cancer prevention: new insights into the role of phytochemicals. Future directions. Source: Adv Exp Med Biol. 2001;492:255-62. *************************** A possible emerging role of phytochemicals in improving age-related neurological dysfunctions: a multiplicity of effects. Source: Free Radic Biol Med 2001 Mar 15;30(6):583-94 *************************** Diet and prevention of coronary heart disease: the potential role of phytochemicals. Source: Cardiovasc Res 2000 Aug 18;47(3):419-25 *************************** Phytochemicals: Guardians of our health Source: Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 97 (10): 199-204, 1997. *************************** Phytochemicals prevent cancers Source: Cancer Letters. 114(1-2):11-7, 1997. *************************** Phytochemicals prevent cardiovascular diseases Source: Circulation. 95(11):2591-2593, 1997. *************************** Phytochemicals reduce risk of many chronic diseases Source: Advances in Experimental Medicine & Biology. 401:207-212, 1996. *************************** *************************** Phytochemicals for the prevention of breast and endometrial cancer Source: Cancer Treatment & Research. 94:107-34, 1998. *************************** Anti-tumor promotion with food phytochemicals: a strategy for cancer chemoprevention Source: Bioscience, Biotechnology & Biochemistry. 60(1):1-8, 1996. *************************** Plant anticarcinogens: Phytochemicals Source: European Journal of Cancer Prevention. 6(6):515-7, 1997. *************************** Phytochemicals as cancer preventive agents Source: IARC Scientific Publications (Lyon). (139):61-90, 1996. Why ascorbic Acid is not Vitamin C? International legislation on supplements, which includes the European Food Supplements Directive (FSD) and US. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on vitamin and mineral supplements, goes in the direction of not only favoring the pharmaceutical single compound synthetic nutrients but of imposing their use, by disallowing the more natural food-bound complexes as sources of vitamins and minerals. ASCORBIC ACID IS NOT VITAMIN C Dr. Tim O'Shea This will be a short chapter, but after you're finished with it, you will know more about vitamins than 95% of clinical nutritionists, doctors, supplement sales force, or bodybuilders. If that sounds arrogant or overstated, it really isn't my fault. I'm just a messenger; a purveyor of information. Either I'm right or the 95% are right; can't be both. Without further ado, here's the kernel: ascorbic acid is not vitamin C. Alpha tocopherol is not vitamin E. Retinoic acid is not vitamin A. And so on through the other vitamins. Vast sums of money have been expended to make these myths part of Conventional Wisdom. If you have several college degrees and all this is news to you, don't feel bad. Unless you think your education ended at Commencement. Which is generally true. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS Vitamins are not individual molecular compounds. Vitamins are biological complexes. They are multi-step biochemical interactions whose action is dependent upon a number of variables within the biological terrain. Vitamin activity only takes place when all conditions are met within that environment, and when all co-factors and components of the entire vitamin complex are present and working together. Vitamin activity is even more than the sum of all those parts; it also involves timing. Vitamins cannot be isolated from their complexes and still perform their specific life functions within the cells. When isolated into artificial commercial forms, like ascorbic acid, these purified synthetics act as drugs in the body. They are no longer vitamins, and to call them such is inaccurate. A vitamin is " a working process consisting of the nutrient, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and trace minerals activators." - Royal Lee "What Is a Vitamin?" Applied Trophology Aug 1956 FORGOTTEN TRAILBLAZER Dr. Royal Lee was the pioneer researcher in the field of whole food vitamins. For decades he documented the basic facts summarized in this chapter. His work has never been scientifically refuted. Anyone who seriously undertakes the study of vitamins today corroborates Lee's work. His story is a fascinating study in itself, a study of indomitable perseverance in the pursuit of true principles. Jensen tells us that Royal Lee's work will not be appreciated until the next century. Hasn't happened yet. Lee felt the full weight of organized drugs/medicine bearing down on him. Reading like something out of Schindler's List , we learn that the FDA not only persecuted Lee for challenging the economics of synthetic vitamins, produced by giant drug companies, but that he was actually ordered by a court to burn all his research of the past 20 years! Burn his research! When has that ever happened in this country? They didn't even do that to Larry Flynt. Going off on a tangent, ever wondered how the FDA attained its present position as attack dog for the drug companies and food manufacturers? It's another whole story in itself. The precursor of the FDA was the Bureau of Chemistry. Up until 1912 the Bureau of Chemistry was headed up by a man named Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. Here's a quote from Dr. Wiley that illustrates where his interests lay: "No food product in our country would have any trace of benzoic acid, sulfurous acid or sulfites or any alum or saccharin, save for medical purposes. No soft drink would contain caffeine or theobromine. No bleached flour would enter interstate commerce. Our foods and drugs would be wholly without any form of adulteration and misbranding. The health of our people would be vastly improved and the life greatly extended. The manufacturers of our food supply, and especially the millers, would devote their energies to improving the public health and promoting happiness in every home by the production of whole ground, unbolted cereal flours and meals." -The History of a Crime Against the Pure Food Law ,1912 Now obviously we can't have a dangerous lunatic like this in charge of the public nutrition, can we? Dr. Wiley actually filed suit against the Coca-Cola company in an attempt to keep their artificial product out of interstate commerce, and off the market. Fortunately Wiley was eventually replaced by a saner individual, more attuned to the real nutritional needs of the American people, as determined by the experts who knew what was best for us: the food manufacturers. This was Dr. Elmer Nelson, and in his words we get an idea of the change in philosophy that marked the transformation of the Bureau of Chemistry into the FDA: 'It is wholly unscientific to state that a well-fed body is more able to resist disease than a poorly-fed body. My overall opinion is that there hasn't been enough experimentation to prove that dietary deficiencies make one susceptible to disease." - Elmer Nelson MD Washington Post 26 Oct 49 Bernard Jensen illustrates how the tobacco industry and the food giants like Coke were indirectly behind the legal persecution of Royal Lee. Cigarette ads in the 40s and 50s showed medical doctors promoting the digestive benefits of smoking Camels. Or the advertising of Coke and other refined sugar foods stating that "science has shown how sugar can help keep your appetite and weight under control." ( Empty Harvest) During this same period, Royal Lee was kept in courts for years, fighting to keep the right to advertise his vitamin products, because he was a threat to the food manufacturers. Lee knew they were poisoning the American public. He proved that refined sugars and devitalized, bleached flours were destroying the arteries and the digestive system, causing heart disease and cancer. Wholesome VS. Fractionated OK, natural vs. synthetic. Let's start with Vitamin C. Most sources equate vitamin C with ascorbic acid, as though they were the same thing. They're not. Ascorbic acid is an isolate, a fraction, a distillate of naturally occurring vitamin C. In addition to ascorbic acid, vitamin C must include rutin, bioflavonoids, Factor K, Factor J, Factor P, Tyrosinase, Ascorbinogen, and other components as shown in the figure below: __________ A s c o r b i c A c i d ___________ ascorbinogen bioflavonoids rutin tyrosinase Factor J Factor K Factor P ________________________________________ A s c o r b i c A c i d ________________________________________ V I T A M I N C In addition, mineral co-factors must be available in proper amounts. If any of these parts are missing, there is no vitamin C, no vitamin activity. When some of them are present, the body will draw on its own stores to make up the differences, so that the whole vitamin may be present. Only then will vitamin activity take place, provided that all other conditions and co-factors are present. Ascorbic acid is described merely as the "antioxidant wrapper" portion of vitamin C; ascorbic acid protects the functional parts of the vitamin from rapid oxidation or breakdown. (Somer p 58 "Vitamin C: A Lesson in Keeping An Open Mind" The Nutrition Report) Over 90% of ascorbic acid in this country is manufactured at a facility in Nutley, New Jersey, owned by Hoffman-LaRoche, one of the world's biggest drug manufacturers (1-800-526-0189). Here ascorbic acid is made from a process involving cornstarch and volatile acids. Most U.S. vitamin companies then buy the bulk ascorbic acid from this single facility. After that, marketing takes over. Each company makes its own labels, its own claims, and its own formulations, each one claiming to have the superior form of vitamin C, even though it all came from the same place, and it's really not vitamin C at all. FRACTIONATED = SYNTHETIC = CRYSTALLINE = FAKE The word synthetic means two things: - manmade - occurs nowhere in nature From the outset, it is crucial to understand the difference between vitamins and vitamin activity. The vitamin is the biochemical complex. Vitamin activity means the actual biological and cellular changes that take place when the stage is set for the vitamin complex to act. Think of it like gas and a car. Pumping the gas into the tank doesn't necessarily mean the car is going anywhere. Other conditions and factors must be also present, in order for Activity to occur. The gas line to the carburetor must be clear, the carburetor jets must be set, there must be an exact mixture of air flow, the ignition must be turned on, the spark plugs must be clean, the exact amount of gas must reach each spark plug right before it fires, no gas must be left over in the cylinder after the plug fires Getting the idea? If any of this stuff is missing, there's no Activity: the car doesn't run, or at least not very well. Amazing as it may sound if you're hearing this for the first time, vitamins are more than the synthetic fractions we are commonly taught they are. The ascorbic acid you buy at the grocery store every few weeks, thinking you are buying Vitamin C, is just a chemical copy of naturally occurring ascorbic acid, which itself is still only a fraction of the actual Vitamin C. Real vitamin C is part of something living, and as such, can impart life. Your synthetic, fractionated chemical ascorbic acid never grew in the ground, never saw the light of day, never was alive or part of anything alive. It's a chemical, a cornstarch derivative, a sulfuric acid by-product. In your body it's just another drug. Synthetic vitamins have toxic effects from mega-doses and actually can increase the white blood cell count. Vitamins are only necessary in minute quantities on a daily basis. Whole food vitamins, by contrast, are not toxic since the vitamin is complexed in its integral working form, and requires nothing from the body, and triggers no immune response. DEFICIENCY Scurvy is a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. Scurvy is characterized by bleeding gums, slow wound healing, softening bones, loose teeth, ulcerations of the mouth and digestive tract, general weight loss and fatigue. From 1650 to 1850 half of all seamen on transoceanic voyages died of scurvy. It was discovered by ship surgeon Thomas Lind in the early 1800s that British sailors were spared the disease altogether simply by a diet rich in citrus fruits. Since limes travelled well, they were the common choice during the early years, and thus the expression "limeys" was coined to describe British sailors. It was later found both at sea and in prison fare that potatoes were equally successful in preventing scurvy, and much cheaper to obtain. ( Lancet . 1842) We find that there is less than 20 mg of ascorbic acid in a potato. Yet this small amount, since it is complexed in a food source, is all the body needs not only to prevent scurvy, but also to cure it, even in its advanced state. Such a remedy is described in detail in Richard Dana's amazing journal Two Years Before the Mast, written in 1840. Whole food vitamin C as found in potatoes, onions, and citrus fruits is able to quickly cure any case of scurvy. By contrast, the fractionated chemical ascorbic acid has been shown to be insufficient in resolving a scurvy condition, simply because it does not act as a nutrient. ( Lancet 1842) Ascorbic acid simply cannot confer vitamin activity, as taught by the discoverer of vitamin C himself, another Nobel Prize laureate, Dr. Albert Szent-Georgi. Szent-Georgi discovered vitamin C in 1937. In all his research however, Szent-Georgi found that he could never cure scurvy with the isolated ascorbic acid itself. Realizing that he could always cure scurvy with the "impure" vitamin C found in simple foods, Szent-Georgi discovered that other factors had to be at work in order for vitamin activity to take place. So he returned to the laboratory and eventually made the discovery of another member of the vitamin C complex, as shown in the diagram above: rutin. All the factors in the complex, as Royal Lee and Dr. Szent-Georgi both came to understand, ascorbic acid, rutin, and the other factors, were synergists: co-factors which together sparked the "functional interdependence of biologically related nutrient factors." ( Empty Harvest p120) The term "wheels within wheels" was used to describe the interplay of co-factors. Each of the other synergists in the C complex has a separate function: - P factors for blood vessel strength, - J factors for oxygen-carrying capacity of red cells, - tyrosinase as an essential enzyme for enhancing white blood cell effectiveness. Ascorbic acid is just the antioxidant outer shell ñ the protector of all these other synergists so that they will be able to perform their individual functions. Now I can hear you asking, what about Linus Pauling, double Nobel Prize laureate, and his lifetime espousal of megadosing on ascorbic acid - up to 10 grams per day? He lived to be 93. Are we saying that he took a synthetic vitamin all that time? Yes, that's exactly right. Bernard Jensen suggests that ascorbic acid has an acidifying effect in the body, making an unfriendly environment for viruses, Candida , and pathogenic bacteria. "Most infectious pathogenic bacteria thrive in an alkaline pH." Pauling's good health was not the result of synthetic vitamin activity. Good genetics and the acidifying effect are likely what brought longevity to Linus Pauling. He eventually died of cancer. Dr. Royal Lee's phrase "biological wheels within wheels" always comes up in any discussion of whole food vitamins. Essentially it means that individual synergists cannot function as a vitamin in a chemically isolated form, like ascorbic acid. Vitamins are living complexes which contribute to other higher living complexes - like cell repair, collagen manufacture, and maintenance of blood circulation. Ascorbic acid is not a living complex. It is a copy of a part of a living complex known as vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is a fractionated, crystalline isolate of vitamin C. Why are you a high school graduate or a college graduate or a doctor, and you don't know this? Because drug manufacturers like things clean and simple and cheap to produce. To this simple fact add the politics which always comes into play when anyone mentions the word "billions," and you are beginning to get the idea about where to begin your investigation. Burned his research??? DIETARY SOURCES Most vitamins cannot be made by the body. They must be taken in as food. The best sources then are obviously whole foods, rich in vitamins. Because of soil depletion, mineral depletion, pesticides, air pollution, and erosion, it is common knowledge that foods grown in American soil today have only a fraction of the nutrient value of 50 years ago. That means a fraction of the vitamins and minerals necessary for normal human cell function. Royal Lee described the American diet as the cultivation and production of "devitalized foods." Dr. Weston Price describes these empty products as the "foods of commerce." Think it's gotten better or worse since their time? Thus the necessity for supplementation. Vitamins and minerals are not functionally separable. They make each other work. Example: vitamin D is necessary for the body to absorb calcium. Copper is necessary for vitamin C activity. And so on. Mineral deficiencies can cause vitamin deficiencies, and vice versa. Epidemic mineral deficiency in America is a well-documented result of systematic soil depletion. (See Minerals chapter: thedoctorwithin.com) So that is the other prime difference between whole food vitamins and synthetics: whole food vitamins contain within them many essential trace minerals necessary for their synergistic operation. Synthetic vitamins contain no trace minerals, relying on, and depleting, the body's own mineral reserves. FUNNY FARMS Following the German agricultural methods of Von Leibig in the mid-1800s, American farmers found that NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) was all that was necessary for crops to look good. (Frost p7) As long as NPK is added to the soil, crops can be produced and sold year after year from the same soil. They look OK. But the other necessary trace minerals vital for human nutrition are virtually absent from most American soil after all these years. Many of these minerals, such as zinc, copper, and magnesium, are necessary co-factors of vitamin activity. Depleted topsoil is one simple, widespread mechanism of both vitamin and mineral deficiency in American produce today. This doesn't even take into account the tons of poisonous herbicides and pesticides dumped on crops. According to the UN, two million tons of pesticides are used worldwide annually. (Jensen, p69) American agri-business has one motive: profit. Such a focus has resulted in an output of empty produce and a nation of unhealthy people. The earth's immune system is its soil. To be vital and capable of growing vital foods, soil must be rich in both minerals and soil-based organisms - life forms. Healthy produce naturally resists insects. Insects are like bad bacteria in the body: they are attracted to diseased tissue, though they do not cause it. MARKETING AND PROMOTION Mainstream marketing of vitamins and minerals has successfully created the myth that vitamins and minerals may be isolated from each other, that correct amounts may be measured out, and then we can derive total benefit from taking these fractionated chemical creations. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Vitamins and minerals, and also enzymes, work closely together as co-factors for each other's efficacy. If one part is missing, or in the wrong form or the wrong amount, entire chains of metabolic processes will not proceed normally. Result: downward spiralling of health, probably imperceptible for long periods of time. What is the marketing philosophy behind the prevalence of the type of synthetic vitamins available in the supermarket and mall vitamin stores? Simple: profit above all else. Once the public is shown that vitamin supplementation is necessary, the rest is marketing. Marketing is the art of persuading by suspending logic and twisting data into junk science. Example: what's the actual difference in composition between Wheaties and Total, two cereals put out by the same company? Total is advertised as being much more nutrient-rich than "ordinary" Wheaties. Look at the labels. What justifies the extra $1.30 for a box of Total? Answer: 1.5¢ worth of synthetic vitamins sprayed over the Wheaties. That's it! That's what "vitamin enriched" always means. The other trick word is "fortified." Generally that means that the food itself is devoid of nutrients or enzymes, so they tried to pump it up a little with some "vitamins." Cheap synthetic vitamin sprays are all that is required for the manufacturer to use labels like "enriched" and "fortified." These words are red flags ñ if a food needs to be fortified or enriched, you can bet it was already dead. The mega-vitamin theory doesn't really hold when it comes to synthetics: If A Little Is Good, More Is Better. Macro doses of vitamin E, and also vitamin D have been shown to decrease immune function significantly. (DeCava.) It stands to reason. Vitamins by definition are necessary in phenomenally small doses. The discoverer of thiamine, a B vitamin, and the man who came up with the word vitamin , Dr. Casimir Funk, has this to say about synthetics: "Synthetic vitamins: these are highly inferior to vitamins from natural sources, also the synthetic product is well known to be far more toxic." Nutrition authority DeCava describes it: "Natural food-source vitamins are enzymatically alive. Man-made synthetic vitamins are dead chemicals. " -- The Real Truth About Vitamins p 209 Oxymorons: military intelligence, rap music, synthetic vitamins. The marketing of fractionated crystalline synthetic vitamins has been so successful that most nutritionists and doctors are unaware that there is something missing from these "vitamins." Vitamin manufacturers compete for customers with identical products - they all bought their synthetic vitamins from the same couple of drug companies. To differentiate their product, each makes claims of "high potency." Our vitamins are higher potency than theirs, etc. The point is, the higher the potency, the more the druglike effects are present. Natural whole food vitamins are very low potency. Remember the 20mg of vitamin C in a potato that was able to cure a patient of scurvy? That was low potency. Low potency is all we need. Low potency is enough to bring about vitamin activity. High potency overshoots the mark ñ the chemical is very pure and refined, like the difference between white sugar and the type of sugar that's in an apple. THE MILLIGRAM GAME Generally speaking, if milligrams are being discussed at length, the author has no clue about vitamins. Synthetic vitamins are refined, high potency chemicals, and therefore may be accurately measured in milligrams, just like drugs. This has nothing to do with vitamin activity or nutrition, except in a negative way. HALF THE STORY The same type of incomplete action can be seen with any synthetic vitamin. Let's take beta carotene for a minute, which the body can turn into vitamin A. Now you'll remember that vitamin A is necessary for good eyesight, DNA synthesis, and protects cells from free radicals. A study reported in Apr 94 in the NEJM of some 30,000 Finnish subjects showed conclusively that synthetic vitamin A had no antioxidant effect whatsoever. A true antioxidant helps to protect heart muscle, lungs, and artery surfaces from breaking down prematurely. In this study, the subjects who received the synthetic beta carotene actually had an 8% higher incidence of fatal heart attacks, strokes, and lung cancer than those who got the placebo (sugar pill). Stands to reason: the synthetic brought no vitamin activity to the tissues that needed it. As a dead, purified chemical introduced into the body, the synthetic further stressed the immune system, the liver, and the kidneys which all had to try to break down this odd chemical and remove it from the body. It would be bad enough if they were harmless, but synthetic vitamins actually have a net negative effect. Vitamin A It was first discovered in 1919. By 1924, it had been broken down and separated from its natural whole food complex: "purified." By 1931, LaRoche - one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, even today - had succeeded in "synthesizing" vitamin A. That means they had created a purely chemical copy of a fraction of naturally occurring vitamin A. Naturally occurring vitamin A is found associated with an entire group of other components: - Retinols - Retinoids - Retinal - Carotenoids - Carotenes - Fatty acids - Vitamin C - Vitamin E - Vitamin B - Vitamin D - Enzymes - Minerals Vitamins and Minerals Somer 1992 Isolated from these other factors, vitamin A is a fraction which cannot perform its biological functions. Taken as a synthetic, it must then draw on this list of resources already in the body in order to complete its make-up. Whole food vitamin A, by contrast, is already complete and ready to go. Most synthetic vitamin A consists only of retinal, retinol, or retinoic acid. The well-publicized potential for toxicity with mega doses of vitamin A involves one of these three. Vitamin A toxicity, known as hypervitaminosis, always results from an excess of synthetic, "purified" vitamin A, and never from whole food vitamin A. (DeCava, p 86) Effects of vitamin A toxicity include: - tumor enhancement - joint disorders - osteoporosis - extreme dryness of eyes, mouth and skin, - enlargement of liver and spleen - immune depression - birth defects Beta carotene is a precursor the body can convert to vitamin A. Unfortunately, as a supplement, synthetic beta carotene is usually "stabilized" in refined vegetable oils. In this trans fatty acid form, oxidation occurs and the chemically "pure" beta carotene can no longer act as a nutrient, because it was changed. Almost all synthetic beta carotene is produced by the Swiss drug giant Hoffman-LaRoche. This form can no longer be converted to vitamin A. The best it can be is worthless, and at the worst is toxic. Natural vitamin A and beta carotene are well known as immune boosters and cancer fighters, in their role as antioxidants. Synthetic vitamin A by contrast has actually brought about significant increases in cancer. A study done in Finland provided smokers with large doses of synthetic beta carotene. Lung cancer incidence increased 18%! ( NEJM Apr 94 " The Alpha Tocopherol Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group") These findings were corroborated two years later in another study written up in Lancet . Pharmacologic doses of syntheric beta carotenes were found to block the antioxidant activity of the other 50 naturally occurring carotenoids in the diet. Anti-cancer activity was thus blocked by the synthetic. ( Lancet 1996) With the vast outpouring of wrong information about vitamins A and C, the findings of a 1991 article in Health Counselor are no surprise: 50% of Americans are deficient in vitamin A and 41% are deficient in vitamin C. Synthetic vitamins cannot prevent deficiencies. FAKE VITAMIN B In one experiment, synthetic vitamin B (thiamine) was shown to render 100% of a group of pigs sterile! 100% would be considered a significant finding. (Dr. Barnett Sure, Journ Natr 1939) Perhaps the fact that synthetic vitamin B comes from coal tar, maybe that has something to do with it, you think? Then there's vitamin B12, which comes from activated sewage sludge. (Frost p 60) Been shooting blanks since you started on those multi's? For the licensed dieticians and clinical nutritionists reading this in disbelief because it is too "unscientific," consider the way Theron Randolph MD delineated between natural and synthetic: "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 ñ especially vitamin B1 and C- when the [same] naturally occurring vitamins are tolerated." IRRADIATION According to Los Angeles naturopath, Dr. Jack Singh, all commercial lecithins in supplements, as well as most vitamin D, comes from irradiated vegetable oils. That's rancid, oxidizing trans fatty acids! A birthday party of free radicals. This is the precise mechanism for arterial wall breakdown prior to plaque deposits, then arteriosclerosis, then heart disease. I thought we were supposed to be taking vitamins to stay healthy! LOST HORIZON Why is this information so difficult to find? It's in none of the "alternative" health 'zines, or any of the mainstream media. Alternative-Lite guru Julian Whittaker, in his summer 1998 newsletter actually had the temerity to state outright "Synthetic vitamins and whole food vitamins are identical." I'm sure his synthetic vitamin company and all its retailers were reassured by this incredibly arrogant and flagrantly inaccurate pronouncement. But who is objecting? Only those clients of the 5 companies who know enough to take whole food vitamins, because they have become educated to realize the difference. These are the vast minority, having no control of the media. Royal Lee and Harvey Wiley lost. Nobody knows who they are today, except we few. This is no accident. What everybody does know is Pepsi and Viagra and Wonder Bread and prednisone and Double Whoppers with Cheese and Zantac and Baskin-Robbins and Long's Drug Store. And grocery store vitamins: synthetic vitamins. That's America, today as the product of yesterday. Control of information in America today is one of the most sophisticated systems of influence ever devised. The simple ideas contained in this chapter are simply not available to the mass consciousness. The documentation is out there, but you really gotta dig. 100 years ago if a medical doctor saw a case of cancer he would call all his colleagues to come and have a look, telling them it was unlikely they would see another case, as cancer was so rare. People rarely died of heart attacks; in fact the term heart attack itself didn't even exist. There was no incidence at all of atherosclerosis. Diabetes was practically unheard of. What did they eat? Fruits, vegetables, meat, butter, and lard. But none of it was processed with drugs and chemicals. Today one in three dies of cancer. One in two dies of heart disease. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. ( Vital Statistics ) Is that progress? If you are a food manufacturer it is, and especially if you are a drug manufacturer. In the 1980s the WHO ranked the US as #22 in the world in infant mortality. Male sperm count is less than 20% of what it was in 1929. (1981 University of Florida report, Natural vs. Synthetic ) Infant mortality is up; birth defects are up. We spend $1.5 trillion per year for health care, most of which goes for administration and executive salaries. Who are the largest advertisers for TV and the printed media? Right: drug companies and food manufacturers. Do they want to keep the ball rolling? You bet. Will they kill you to do it? You bet. Do they want people to take charge of their own health by natural inexpensive foods and supplements? Negative. A cure for cancer has been "right around the corner" since Nixon. People are starting to ask questions; they're less inclined to believe the slick ads coming every 10 minutes on TV and in Newsweek Perhaps Hippocrates did not envision doctors as detail men or drug reps. He most likely thought like Henry Bieler, MD: "Nature, if given the opportunity is always the greatest healer. It is the physician's role to assist in this healing, to play a supporting role." -Finding the Right Cure for You REFERENCES DeCava, Judith --- The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants 1996 Jensen, Bernard, DC --- Empty Harvest 1990 Frost, Mary --- Going Back to the Basics of Human Health 1997 Bieler, Henry MD --- Finding the Right Cure For You 1998 Lee, Royal --- "What Is a Vitamin?" Applied Trophology Aug 1956) Wiley, Harvey W., MD --- The History of a Crime Against the Pure Food Law Robbins, John --- Reclaiming Our Health 1996 Nelson, Elmer, MD --- Washington Post 26 Oct 49 Somer, Elizabeth --- "Vitamin C: A Lesson in Keeping An Open Mind" The Nutrition Report Lancet . 1842 Dana, Richard --- Two Years Before the Mast, p 444 ff. 1840. Lind, James --- "A Treatise of the Scurvy in Three Parts. Containing an inquiry into the Nature, Causes and Cure of that Disease, together with a Critical and Chronological View of what has been published on the subject." A. Millar, London, 1753. Woodall, A --- Caution with b-carotene supplements Lancet 347:967, 1996 Heinonen O MD --- The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers" The Alpha Tocopherol Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group --- NEJM 14 Apr 1994 330;15:1031 Barnett Sure, MD --- Journ Natr 1939 University of Florida report --- "Natural vs. Synthetic" 1981 Randolph, Theron MD --- Human Ecology and Susceptibility to the Chemical Environment 7th ed. 1980 Price, Weston --- Nutrition and Physical Degeneration Keats Publ. 1997 CDC --- National Vital Statistics Report Vol. 47, no.19, June 1999.