Whole-Food Organic Vitamins
Providing CoFactors and Natural Nutrients Not Found in Synthetic Multi Formulas
The overwhelming majority of vitamin and mineral supplements are actually some of the most refined, artificial chemicals on the market today. You will not find these isolated, chemically synthesized vitamins and minerals anywhere in nature. Why should this matter to you? Very simply, because it matters greatly to your body.
In the early 1900s, scientists began analyzing food and identified the compounds we now call vitamins and minerals. Vitamin and mineral deficiency diseases were also identified, and for decades it was assumed that these compounds were responsible for the life-supporting benefits of food. Once this happened, pharmaceutical companies began manufacturing USP chemical nutrients - synthetic replications of the individual compounds identified as vitamins and minerals. For example, manufacturers isolate and extract a glucose (sugar) molecule from corn and chemically tweak it so that it mimics the ascorbic acid molecule found in foods that contain vitamin C. They then label it as vitamin C and sell it. The only problem is that it is not truly vitamin C, so consuming this synthetic nutrient does not result in the same benefits as consuming a food rich in vitamin C.
Fortunately, science is finally beginning to catch up with common sense! Once researchers began to notice that there was a decided difference in the outcomes of studies that utilized food versus isolated, synthetic nutrients, they started reexamining the foods that we now know are particularly beneficial to health. In doing so, they have discovered several other classes of naturally occurring nutrients now known as cofactors, coenzymes, and phytonutrients. Some examples of these are trace minerals, bioflavonoids, carotenes, lutein, sulforaphane, anthocyanins and hundreds of others that are being discovered every year by researchers around the world.
These cofactors and phytonutrients, along with the amino acids, lipids and carbohydrates found in whole foods, form an incredibly complex grouping of compounds that also includes vitamins or minerals. In other words, a naturally occurring vitamin or mineral is not just one isolated molecule — it is actually a very complex group of hundreds of compounds bound together and they all are required for optimum health.
Within this complex grouping, the individual components interact synergistically to create the beneficial effects we associate with a particular vitamin/mineral or food. It is essential to understand that no one isolated molecule in any nutrient grouping is responsible for the results or benefits we experience when consuming it, just as no one stone is responsible for creating the Empire State Building or your home for that matter. Moreover, isolated vitamins or minerals are not found in any food. For example, we don’t find just ascorbic acid, by itself, anywhere except in a USP laboratory made supplement. Vitamins and minerals always occur together in nature because they require one another’s support to be effective. It’s a complicated and elegant dance!
Just as the intricate interactions of these complex groupings found in food are not yet fully understood, neither are their complex interactions within the cells of our bodies. We do know that they are necessary to sustain life; that they promote cardiovascular health, strengthen the immune system and support optimal neural functioning; and that they provide antioxidant protection, but how, exactly, all that occurs still remains scientifically a mystery.
Life truly is mysterious, and we will never understand it in all its magnificence and fullness by pulling apart the pieces and studying them. One cannot comprehend the beauty of a rose by plucking off its petals to view them under a microscope — when you destroy the whole, you destroy its true beauty and function.
