Vitamins and Minerals - Are you Wasting Money? Are they actually Dangerous?

by Pauline Robinson

Why is the number of people purchasing vitamins and minerals increasing daily? Is it because they feel that they are not getting adequate nutrition from the food they eat? If there are so many of these people using supplements why are degenerative diseases such as cancer, arthritis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia etc. still on the rise?

It appears that we are not getting adequate nutrition from our food and even the vitamins and minerals that we faithfully buy and down daily don't appear to help. What is wrong???? Why are people wasting money on something that doesn't appear to work? Are people really getting the benefit from what they are buying?

Is it possible that taking supplements can cause us harm? Commercial grade vitamin and mineral concentrates are often synthesized by the big pharmaceutical and chemical industries in a lab from the same starting material that drugs are made from. Some of these are coal tar, petroleum products, animal by-products / waste and fecal matter, ground rocks, stones, shells and metal. Many nutrient manufactures then purchase these raw materials and formulate their vitamin and mineral formulas with them. The United States Pharmacopoeia (U.S.P.) states that if a product looks similar under a microscope, or in analysis, that it is the same regardless of what it is made out of. Commercially available vitamins are in forms that are not found in nature. For example B-6 never appears in food as hydrochloride. Additionally, it is phosphorylated pyridoxil and pridoxamine (not synthetic pyridoxine hydrochloride) which are the coenzymes necessary for many of the enzymes of amino acid metabolism. It is no longer a matter of how many milligrams you take of a particular nutrient but how much of what you are taking is actually getting into your bloodstream, and the organs that need it. "Pure" vitamins have less efficient absorbtion because in nature, no vitamin or mineral will be absorbed into the blood of any animal or human, or be transported through any plant unless it is combined with many other constituents such as essential fatty acids, active soluble phenols, trace minerals, proteins, carbohydrate and enzymes. Since "natural" (synthetic) nutritents can be produced in higher yields for less cost and have a longer shelf life, they are the nutritents of choice by dietary supplement manufacturers.

Some manufacturers grow food and then extract what they feel are the active ingredients to put into a liquid, tablet or pill form. This process of extraction always leaves important carrier co-factors behind. Some believe that natural vitamins are better than synthetic ones. The unfounded claim is made that the natural vitamins are better absorbed. The "natural" or "organic" vitamins are not only more expensive but are in fact largely synthetic. For example, "Rose Hip Vitamin C" tables are largely synthetic ascorbic acid containing a small amount of vitamin C concentrated form rose hips.

We can absorb some of the synthetic chemical nutrients because our bodies will supply the missing co-factors from other areas as long as possible. Long-term use of isolated nutrients, however, can cause critical shortages of these co-factors within our bodies. If the body robs our DNA for the raw materials it needs, it can cause all sorts of degenerative problems.

Vitamin A toxicity (symptoms include headache, hair loss, loss of appetite, dry skin, joint pains, and vomiting) has been seen in young people who have been taking relatively low megadoses of this vitamin over a period of two years for skin disorders. Large doses of synthesized vitamin A or vitamin A analogs (such as Accutane and Tegison) are particularly detrimental for women during early pregnancy due to the risk of serious birth defects or spontaneous abortions. While large amounts of vitamin A is toxic, beta-carotene (the plant pigment found in abundance in dark-green leafy vegetables and yellow-orange fruits and vegetables) is not toxic. Persons who consume an ample supply of foods that are rich in beta-carotene have lower rates of cancer. What can we do about it?

We can become informed consumers. You may not be aware that there's a revolution going on in the nutrition industry. A unique new process exists that makes supplements much more effective and safer. This patented process actually grows powerful concentrated food source nutrients complete with the essential carrier co-factors to insure optimal cellular delivery and benefit. This new technology has literally unlocked the healing power of vitamins and minerals. Dr. Vinson a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania said "Our research group had been involved in the investigation of vitamins and minerals in animals and humans. Of course vitamins C, E, and beta carotene are the well-known antioxidants. We looked at a citrus extract containing polyphenols and ascorbic acid and found it provided more protection from lipid peroxidation in vivo than did the vitamin C alone. ... We have unequivocally demonstrated that many polyphenols (natural ingredients in plants including fruits and vegetables) are superior antioxidants compared to vitamins. The best antioxidant compound in our model was epigallocatechin gallate, a major polyphenol in green tea, which has been shown in epidemiological studies to be protective for heart disease. Polyphenols are antioxidants in our model at physiological levels, i.e., 1 micromolar. This corroborates epidemiological studies indicating that consumption of fruits and vegetables, which contain both vitamins and polyphenols, may be protective for chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer due to the presence of the polyphenols as well as the vitamins. In other words, the active ingredients in fruits and vegetables are not simply the vitamins. As further evidence, taking single purified vitamins has not been proven to be very successful in clinical studies. It appears that the whole food, containing both the vitamins and polyphenols, is the best way to consume these antioxidants for health benefits."

Is it possible then to have concentrated vitamins and minerals from food? From a production point of view, the challenge was how to concentrate vitamins and minerals in true food complexes. Foodstate nutrients are the product of years of research and experimentation, culminating in a proprietary technology which successfully concentrates vitamins and minerals in food complexes. The process is costly relative to the production of conventional, isolated nutrients.

In short, the Foodstate product is in true food form. As such it has much greater efficacy, while it is more expensive to produce. A group of food constituents that have recently been given a lot of attention by the scientific comminity are food compounds. Over 103,000 food compounds have been identified from various foods and scientists are just beginning to discover what benefit and role these compounds play on our health.

How does this proprietary process work?

Foodstate nutrition utilizes vitamins and minerals that are naturally absorbed into a living food matrix. Rather than attempting to extract the nutrients from normal food sources, it uses an exciting new technology to add to and fortify budding plants with a nourishing broth enriched with bioactive peptide carriers. As they grow, the concentrated nutrients are incorporated into the plants -- creating a super concentrated food source. Once the plants natural capacity to store the nutrient within its cells is sucessfully achieved, the growing process is complete. Samples of the FoodState nutrients are tested at regular intervals in a state of the art, FDA registered laboratory to determine the exact time when the Growth and Activation processes are complete. Only at this point, when the FoodState nutrients test perfect, are they harvested.

Then, using natural plant enzymes, the cell walls are naturally broken down and the water and fiber removed. The whole food extract or concentrate produced is rich in a particular vitamin or mineral and is delivered in its synegistic state, with all the plant's inherent food attachments intact. Tests are also done on raw material, for pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, and well as potency.

This is an excellent source of real food supplementation that includes carrier co-factors to feed your body at the cellular level where it's needed most. No amount of man-made vitamins and minerals can compare. Unlike most other vitamin or mineral supplements, these nutrients are not the result of mixing vitamins and minerals with proteins and other substances in the laboratory.

Research done?

To get an idea of how well these nutrients work in the living system, researchers at Scranton University tested their effectiveness compared with typical isolated nutrients on baby mammals.

After feeding them nutrient deficient food for two weeks the researchers fed one group isolates and the other foodmatrixtm nutrients. Over the next four weeks the researchers carefully weighed them and charted their progress.

The result was shocking. These babies whose cells were literally screaming for nutrition, received no benefit at all from the isolated nutrients. The results in this group were so bad that their weight quickly declined as illustrated by the dotted line in the chart at the right. Worst of all was the fact that 25% of this group was so poorly nourished that they died during the testing period. Those that survived were sluggish, their hair fell out and their vitality was so low they could barely open their eyes! The study clearly demonstrated that isolated nutrients provided virtually no nutritional support to the growing cells!

In stark contrast, when the necessary protein chaperones and other carrier co-factors are present the results were astounding. This group thrived, gaining almost double their initial body weight in only four weeks. Their vibrant growth and good health were living proof that real food nutrients nourish the body at a cellular level. Finally there is a proven and effective supplemental source of the critical vitamins and minerals our bodies crave, in a form we can really use.

Examples of how these "grown" nutrients can impact our health

When FoodState® Vitamin B12 bioavailability was tested against Cyanocobalamin in animal studies it was found to be 9.1 times greater than the B12 USP grade Cyanocobalamin.

What is the bottom line?

Food concentrate nutrients provide mega-benefits without mega-doses. The high potency products you see in stores are more a result of label wars among manufacturers than scientifically proven need. Food concentrate nutrients are conservative amounts because they are rapidly absorbed, stay active in the body much longer and they are delivered into the cells where they can impact your health.

In addition, the living process that produces these nutrients also results in some incredible additional benefits. Each complex has many different nutrients that are simply a part of the sophisticated proprietary growing process including:

§ B-complex vitamins - B1, B3, B5, B6, B12 as well as Biotin and Folic Acid that support the circulatory, nervous, digestive, hormonal and immune systems.

§ Trace Minerals - many of which are no longer available in farm grown produce.

§ Beta-1,3-Glucan - an immune system stimulant that can kill tumor cells and increase bone marrow production as well as counteract many bacterial, viral and fungal diseases.

§ Glutathione - one of nature's most potent antioxidants believed to have anti-aging effects along with powerful protection against free radical damage to the cells.

§ SOD or Super Oxide Dismutase - the body's primary defense against the most common and possibly most dangerous free radical superoxide radical.How do you know if you are getting foodstate vitamins or not? Supplements in this category will list the nutritent names like vitamin C, folate, calcium, etc., and the mg dosage of each, but the label will not denote a fractionated chemical name. eg (Calcium Ascorbate). Nutrients in food cannot be listed as one identifiable organic compound in this way. This is because they always exhist with a host of other organic compounds, and never as one isolated element. Nutrients in a whole food state will be listed with their food source in the supplement facts panel, for example vitamin C (Citrus spp.). FOODSTATE Summary

- The isolated mineral is enriched into various media such as carrots, yeast, soybean meal, citrus pulp, alfalfa, corn meal and is not an amino acid chelate

- Foodstate does contain live yeast but it is totally inert and no does not encourage candidiasis or dysbiosis

- It is extremely well absorbed and utilized by the body and considerably less is required

- Absorption is not dependent on stomach acidity and is an energy efficient process.

- Fortunately, the mineral occupies the whole mass of the food-complex completely bound to the fats, proteins and carbohydrates (unlike mineral chelates), resulting in an ideal dose, without large quantities being consumed, it is totally possible to obtain optimal health dosages.

- Batch to batch variation in mineral concentration and quality never occurs because of stringent quality control from the manufacturers in the USA, and they are carefully tabletted at low temperature to prevent any degrading of its unique Foodstate delivery system. It is not dependent on plant growing conditions (soils, fertilizers, root quality etc.) because the proprietary process of Foodstate occurs in a modern quality controlled USA based manufacturing plant.

About the Author

Pauline Robinson is a Nutritional and Metabolic Bio Typing Consultant for HealthSmart Nutrition
For Metabolic Bio Typing info go to www.get-fit.ca