Analysis of an article that appeared on Natural News, a timely topic:
Top whole food multivitamin supplements
Friday, June 18, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Read article> http://www.naturalnews.com/029021_multivitamins_whole_foods.html#ixzz2xKDjOYoz
Second paragraph:
"Unfortunately, not all multivitamins are derived from natural sources like plants, fruits and vegetables. Many are synthetically-derived, laboratory simulations of real vitamins, including some common ones like vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin E (dl-tocopheryl acetate). These are the same types of "vitamins" used to enrich many processed foods, and they simply do not assimilate well into the body because they are not truly natural."
Analysis: First they tell you a truth that only some vitamins are derived from natural food sources. Then they go on to explain how synthetically derived vitamins are used to enrich foods. Funny, this is the very same process that the three whole food vitamin companies mentioned later in this article use to develop their vitamins; Garden of Life**, New Chapter, and MegaFood. The impression many vitamin consumers have that the vitamins these companies sell are created naturally by the whole foods is a result of a rather clever marketing verbiage. This is not so! The vitamins were added to the growing yeast, not made by nature in foods. And yes, some are synthetic.
While these companies do explain they use some USP (synthetic) vitamins, it is generally well hidden in their literature. Since the fact that synthetic vitamins added to growing yeast cells often occurs at another company, the Grow Company, this allows the Brands to avoid listing the synthetic vitamin name on the product labels since they did not add it, a legal loophole. If the Brands do make the vitamins themselves, as MegaFood claims, they could very well be in jeopardy of selling falsely labeled products. In fact, it is never mentioned anywhere if the growing process added any natural, or mostly natural, or mainly synthetic vitamins. They are free to use any form. Hopefully, they use the best forms available.
Yes, some of these enriched yeast vitamins do enjoy greater absorption over plain isolated synthetics, but there are a few synthetics that get into the body faster than the fortified yeast type. The enriched yeast vitamins are sometimes called whole food vitamins, a somewhat stretch of the true reality.
From the Grow Company on manufacturing vitamins:
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"Grow Nutrients® are manufactured by feeding a controlled amount of mineral salt (vitamin) embedded into an appropriate glycoprotein matrix to the yeast during the budding and growth process. This controlled metabolization process results in a mineral/vitamin yeast product in its most natural environment. During the budding and growth process, the mineral salt/vitamin is added to the budding yeast at an exact concentration, then after a predetermined time the yeast is harvested. The mineral/vitamin yeast is then thoroughly washed number of times with purified water. Then the product, upon enzyme treatment, is cold pasteurized, spray-dried and packed. These products provide minerals and vitamins in a form that is readily absorbed and bio-available." |
They add the vitamins and minerals to the growing yeast at just the right concentration to arrive at the dosage needed in the finished product. The company claims this process changes or bio-regenerates the added synthetic vitamins into a form similar to those observed in foods. Unfortunately, the digestive system usually breaks down any vitamin complex into free isolated vitamins.
**NOTE: Garden of Life just introduced a new vitamin line called the "Kind Organics" that is different. Click here to see.
Example of MegaFood Label Wording
Look at the MegaFood label for Vitamin E & Selenium, Let's see how much brown rice would be needed to supply 50 IUs of vitamin E if the E was all natural from brown rice. Here is the label:
It appears that 200 mg of Organic Brown Rice supply 50 IU of Vitamin E. Since Brown Rice according to the US Government has about 1.2 mg of vitamin E per 100 grams of rice. And 1.2 mg of vitamin E is equal to .8 IU for International Units. That means to get 50 IU of natural vitamin E, MegaFood would need to extract the vitamin E out of 13.7 pounds of brown rice for each tablet. NOT likely!
Look at that ingredient label line again. Vitamin E (200 mgt; Organic Brown Rice) 50 IU
t =Total Weight FoodState Nutrient to Deliver Daily Value ( 50 IU vitamin E)
So, the tip off is the semi-colon. This means the 200 mgt of a processed FoodState nutrient is one thing, and the organic brown rice is another. Since brown rice does have some vitamin E, it is technically correct that both the items supply vitamin E. The foodstate processed material with added vitamin E, possibly to the yeast S. cerevisiae listed under the Immune Health Blend, must supply about 99%. The implied view that all the vitamin E is naturally from the rice is simply not logical. No other natural ingredients listed separately or added together in this product contain anywhere near the total vitamin E amount of 50 IU.
"Real vitamins are the living ones derived from whole foods and that are maintained in their natural states. These contain the necessary cofactors and enzymes which help the body to process and use them, and they provide the most benefit to the body."
Yes, real vitamins are made by nature. The products these Brands produce may have some remarkable benefits, but their vitamins are not all made by nature and not even sure if they can truly be called "Whole Food" vitamins. Vitamin enriched Organic Whole Food Supplements, maybe, or Fortified Yeast Vitamins. Sure is a better fit for the actual facts.
Of Interest: It is of interest to note that there are two methods to produce "synthetic vitamins" that have existed from day one after vitamin were discovered. In fact, it was with the help of one of these methods that vitamins were even found. It was noted that bacteria used in the production of alcohol left a residual of a yellow material. It was observed that this yellow material was vital to living organisms and thus given the name vitamin, or vital to life. This was vitamin B2. Scientists soon found a way to produce this material in the lab beginning with petroleum distillates and some enzymes, some of which were from bacteria, and other chemicals. Plus, in order to also produce more from bacteria, mutant strains of bacteria were found that increased vitamin production. And yes, you might have guessed it by now, today bacteria used for this vitamin production are developed using GMO, genetic modified organisms, to further increase vitamin amounts.
These two different production methods have always existed to add to the pool of synthetic vitamins. The bacteria method was largely used in the beginning and still today for animal feed. There was a period of time when the chemical lab method was much cheaper, but then as petroleum price went up, the bacteria method became more cost effective, especially with the development of GMO bacteria, and greater quantities of "synthetic" vitamins are now produced by this method. The grow food vitamin companies may now be using this bacteria production method only, but they never mention which source vitamins they add to yeast cells in any of their literature. New Chapter mentions they use a fermentative process during the production of their vitamins. This could aid in breaking down some of the vitamin forms into secondary co-enzyme forms, a process the body also does with vitamins once ingested, but is probalby not the original source of vitamin production.
If one is to call this bacteria vitamin production method natural, then at least 25% or more of synthetic vitamins have been natural for some time now since they are developed using this method. This changes the scenario of FoodForm Vitamins saying synthetic vitamins are not true vitamins and do not work or stay in the body.
SIDEBAR: HOLY BASIL as a source of B vitamins
| Principle | Nutrient Value | Percentage of RDA |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 23 Kcal | 1% |
| Carbohydrates | 2.65 g | 2% |
| Protein | 3.15 g | 6% |
| Total Fat | 0.64 g | 2% |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg | 0% |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.60 g | 4% |
| Vitamins | ||
| Folates | 68 µg | 17% |
| Niacin | 0.902 mg | 6% |
| Pantothenic acid | 0.209 mg | 4% |
| Pyridoxine (B6) | 0.155 mg | 12% |
| Riboflavin (B2) | 0.076 mg | 6% |
| Thiamin (B1) | 0.034 mg | 2.5% |
| Vitamin A | 5275 IU | 175% |
| Vitamin C | 18 mg | 30% |
| Vitamin E | 0.80 mg | 5% |
| Vitamin K | 414.8 µg | 345% |
| Electrolytes | ||
| Sodium | 4 mg | 0% |
| Potassium | 295 mg | 6% |
| Minerals | ||
| Calcium | 177 mg | 18% |
| Copper | 385 mg | 43% |
| Iron | 3.17 mg | 40% |
| Magnesium | 64 mg | 16% |
| Manganese | 1.15 mg | 57% |
| Zinc | 0.81 mg | 7% |
| Phyto-nutrients | ||
| Carotene-ß | 3142 µg | -- |
| Crypto-xanthin-ß | 46 µg | -- |
| Lutein-zeaxanthin | 5650 µg | -- |