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DAN ( Dec 2023) asks about whole food vitamin products mentioning the label nutrient amounts in Dr Schulze's Superfood powders.

Dan, you are 100% correct, this product has to contain yeast that is fortified with synthetic B vitamins. The first nutrient to look at is vitamin B12. All whole food vitamin products fail to satisfy this nutrient source. Yeast does not naturally produce vitamin B12. There may be a little in algae and chlorella, but not at the serving amount listed on the label. Plus one has to be careful not to use vitamin B12 and algae in higher quantify together as the vitamin B12 analogues in algae may interfere with regular B12 absorption. Thanks for the reference for the work of Daniel Roytas on whole food vitamin issues.

Another issue with the Superfood label is that there are no amounts given for each ingredient. The ingredient boxes on supplements have only one regulation in this case, the largest ingredient amount is listed first, and then others in order as amounts get smaller. Thus, in the Superfood Plus product, all we know is that yeast should be the largest amount ingredient while Organic Blue-green algae is next to last and the fruit Elaeis Guineensis is the last and potentially at the smallest amount. Elaeis fruit is from a member of the Palm family. But there is also the possibility that all amounts are at equal amounts or nearly the same. Any analysis for what vitamins and minerals each ingredient provides is difficult to discover.

To see what a proper label should look like, check out Paradise's Orac Energy GREENS. Most of the top ingredient amounts are individually listed for a better analysis of the potential contribution of vitamins each ingredient might provide.

One other point has to be mentioned. While Organic is a preferred source, it increases the potential for toxic metals such as lead and cadmium making testing crops for any contamination a constant factor. This issue is related to the use of natural fertilizers such as animal excrement, or manure, and green compost. Luckily, not yet a big issue. ref ref

Last, you mentioned the great sound bites used for Ancient Nutritiontm. I am not a fan. Jordan Rubin is a great marketeer. But his product quality suffered at his past company. Mixing food and probiotics in the same product is not wise. The probiotics start to activate, or change. Plus, soil bacteria organisms, while great for plants, are not necessarily good for humans. And the organics issue just mentioned above has also been a stumbling block in the past.

Collagen is very important for health. ref Collagen gets a lot of good reviews and science. Carefully processed bone both is great. But not mentioned very often is how cancer cells hijack collagen and use it to promote tumor growth. How collagen supplements impact this scenario is still an open question and a precautionary approach might be prudent. People with digestive issues may benefit from some forms of collagen supplements.

Supplements to help the body produce collagen include Vitamin C family, proteins, bone broth, bio-available silicon, and grape seed extract (OPC) to control collagen and elastin breakdown.

LISA  (JUNE 9, 2015)  No need to search for access information for member login as it is not active. Over 90% of website articles are currently accessible and available free. The few that are hidden from the Public are still in development process or contain sensitive material needing verification. Good luck in your search for vitamin usage. As you have seen on this website, this is not an easy task as so much misinformation gets into the web and even Scientists do not agree.

An Important point needs to be stressed. Some Professionals, Doctors and Scientific researchers, are contracted and paid for their services by Vitamin Companies hoping to prove or show vitamins have benefits. Unfortunately, there are ways to construct a test or select parameters that guarantee arrival at the desired answer, one that is not exactly honest according to sound and accepted scientific methods. The Johns Hopkins Vitamin E review of studies that found adverse effects at higher dosages is guilty of this type of manipulation. A study result that was extremely different from any other similar study finding was used even though the study authors stressed their results should not be used in such a comparison. 

NOTE: A number of references posted to this website are really advertisements with links to sell products made to look like information articles. This type of reference now has been completely eliminated.

 LC writes: I use New Chapter, and have been using it for years. I just found out from a friend that Proctor and Gamble bought them about a year ago. I now am very afraid to use the New Chapter products. My friend told me to stop using this line, because it WILL go down hill. P&G is a big company that will eventually try to cut costs by skimping on this amazing product, and yet will charge more and more money to the customer, living off of the product's old reputation. It's just a matter of time. This is what happens when a large money corporation takes over a product line.

To: LC. You have a valid concern that many people share and have been watching for any signs of change. So far, the only change signs have been to finally upgrade the label to really reflect what has always been in the products. P&G probably purchased the clean environmental image New Chapter to soften the attacks P&G was sustaining due to animal testing on some of their other product lines. As you mentioned, quality could begin to suffer from large corporate mentality, but the opposite is also possible, greater corporate money could upgrade production machinery and find new vitamin and clean food source opportunities. Behind the scene production quality is very difficult to ascertain only from label information. 

You may also find it interesting that Garden of Life vitamin company is or soon will be under the Nestle candy bar ownership group. Nestle is selling off the candy bar division and building a health and wellness empire and already owns a few health companies. It will be worth watching for any changes even though just like with New Chapter, the CEO of Garden of Life is saying no changes, just benefits.

Renew Life, a digestive probiotics and fiber products company, is now owned by Clorox. Plus, Clorox just announced, March 2018, a buyout of Nutranext which owns Rainbow Light, Natural Vitality, and Neocell. 

MegaFood's parent company FoodState, is now owned by Pharmavite LLC. Pharmavite is a large manufacturer of vitamins under the Nature Made Brand label in drug and supermarket channels.

Nature's Way is owned by Dr. Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany. This company controls 26 companies around the world, including Nature's Way, Enzymatic therapy, and Integrated Therapeutics, plus Wellesse Brand liquid herbals. Schwabe mainly produces phytomedicines (herbs) and controls Brands with a farm to market vertical quality concept. 

So, in this age of business acquisitions, it may soon be quite difficult to find companies not bought out by large corporations. A few that come to mind; Country Life, NOW Foods vitamins, Jarrow, Bluebonnet as manufacturers, and MRM, 

Concerning CoQ10 article

Reader Comments (2)

interesting post! is there much data comparing absorption of ubiquinone vs ubiquinol when they're both in oil suspension? Seemed funny to point to Jarrow's product as "one of few clinically studied" when they're simply Kaneka raw material just like pretty much everyone else in the industry, or maybe it just seems that I find that Kaneka seal stamped on many product labels.

how about nano particles? or non-isolated fermented versions? not much data on them, I imagine...

September 19, 2011 | Bruce

Bruce brings up a valuable point regarding many brands of vitamins using the same source of nutrient, in this case Kaneka Company supplied and patented QH form of CoQ10.

While 5 Brands of the same Kaneka supplied QH may have similar dosage on the labels, one has to look at the added ingredients that are used to put the product together to determine extra value.

Since CoQ10 is a fat soluble nutrient, adding an emulsifier to help fat absorption is critical. How a particular Brand's product breaks down and aids assimilation is not on the label unless one knows the emulsifier and in the case of Jarrow's Kanaka QH, has clinical studies using the product Jarrow built around Kaneka's QH to show percentages of enhanced QH blood levels. (It was Jarrow's Q-Absorb product that was used in study and since the same emulsified base used for QH product, an assumption was made that the QH would also exhibit similar absorption benefits. It now has it's own test for absorption and blood level increases, look at the chart on their label.)

Concerning the fermented CoQ10 products: CoQ10 is originally produced using a fermentative process, thus it is questionable what extra value is added by a second fermentation process. CoQ10 does have two forms, an oxidized form ubiquinone, and a reduced form, ubiquinol. Unlike for some nutrients, such as Soy isoflavones, fermenting CoQ10 does not produce another more active form. Studies have shown this fermented CoQ10 has about the same absorption as the emulsified CoQ10, 3 times greater than the plain CoQ10 powder. Nano size CoQ10 is still waiting to be analyzed. Note: Nano size drugs have immense value in getting drugs into certain body areas which increases effectiveness, but there is also the potential that this small size of a nutrient might also get into areas of the body where it does not belong.

Another important report comes from Dr Peter Langsjoen, a cardiologist in Texas. He found that ubiquinone at 450mg was not able to raise blood CoQ10 values enough to benefit in class IV stage congestive heart failure, while switching to the ubiquinol form at slightly lower dosage did advance blood levels. He also found that Vitamin E (d'alpha tocopherol) at amounts greater than 300 IU interfered with CoQ10 absorption if consumed at the same time.

October 24, 2011 | Team Rightway