CODEX Archives

Food vs pharmaceuticals. A history of the FDA. (Archive in CODEX.)

This is one of the best pieces that I have read in a long time that clearly explains a lot about the scientific facts, myths, propoganda,manipulation and greed in the vitamin/mineral industry. Quite an eye opener about the synthetic/manufactured products A MUST READ FOR ANYONE WHO IS CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR HEALTH AND WELLBEING.
Cheers, Doug

----- Original Message -----
From: jockdoubleday@aol.com
To: Health_and_Healing@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 12:49 AM
Subject: [Health_and_Healing] vitamin C?? hmm . . .

www.thedoctorwithin.com

WHOLE FOOD VITAMINS:
ASCORBIC ACID IS NOT VITAMIN C
by 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 [delete “ed”] 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
beenenough 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.

WHOLE 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.

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 inte
rplay 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 – 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.

THE FOODS OF COMMERCE
And we're still only talking about people who actually eat raw fruits and
vegetables, which is a minority. Processed food composes the majority of what
most Americans eat. The only nutrients in most processed foods are "enriched" and
"fortified" as described below.
When a doctor says that food supplements are all unnecessary because we can
get everything we need from our food, that doctor is lacking basic information
published and agreed upon by his own peers. Whether or not we need
supplementation is no longer an issue, except for one who is totally out of touch. The
issue is what kind and how much. Vitamin and mineral deficiency can be tagged to
practically ANY disease syndrome known to man. DW Cavanaugh, MD of Cornell
University actually concluded that

"There is only one major disease, and that is malnutrition." (Jensen, p8)
Malnutrition of the affluent is the natural result of the foods of commerce.

WEBSURFING
The best vitamins are called whole food vitamins. It will be difficult
finding this out on the Internet, however, because the Web is dominated by
mainstream nutritional theory. In the area of vitamins, the Internet is 99% marketing;
1% actual information.
But then again, this isn't Mission Difficult. This is Mission Impossible, Mr
Hunt.
There are about 110 companies who sell vitamins in the US. Less than 5 of
them use whole food vitamins. The reason is simple: whole food vitamins are
expensive to make. A few of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world mass
produce synthetic vitamins for the vast majority of these 110 "vitamin" companies,
who then put their own label on them, and every company claims theirs is the
best! It's ridiculous! Americans spend over $9 billion per year for synthetic
vitamins. (Frost p2)
Whole food vitamins are obtained by taking a vitamin-rich plant, removing the
water and the fiber in a cold vacuum process, free of chemicals, and then
packaging for stability. The entire vitamin complex in this way can be captured
intact, retaining its "functional and nutritional integrity." (DeCava p.23.)
Upon ingestion, the body is not required to draw on its own reserves in order to
complete any missing elements from the vitamin complex.
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.

MARKETING AND PROMOTION
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 – 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 – 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
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 – 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

So what do you do? Well, you now have some insight that your vitamin needs
are not being met by the Safeway generics. Wallach used to talk about expensive
urine from these unmetabolized grocery store synthetic placebos.
The water soluble vitamins are best obtained through organic produce grown in
mineral-rich soil. The best supplements in this category are the top-shelf
green foods, like David Sandoval's Best of Greens, and its equivalents.
The fat soluble vitaimins, A, E, and D are best obtained through fish, raw
dairy, avocado, raw nuts, raw coconut, and clean meats. High end supplements
like Udo's Choice and a ton of clean algae can round out your EFA requirements
Beyond this it's MLM marketing roulette, and if you can't spot the mark in
the first 5 minutes, baby, it's 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

[above from www.thedoctorwithin.com]

Jock Doubleday
Director
Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.
A 501(c)3 California Nonprofit Corporation
323 E. Matilija, Suite 110-131
Ojai, CA 93023
http://GentleBirth.org/nwnm.org
www.SpontaneousCreation.org
jockdoubleday@aol.com

The information contained in this email is not a substitute for
professional caregiver advice.

Jock Doubleday is the author of Spontaneous Creation: 101
Reasons Not To Have Your Baby in a Hospital. He is also
active in the international endeavor to bring the dangers of
vaccination to light.

"The study of the evolution of disease patterns provides evidence that during
the last century doctors have affected epidemics no more profoundly than
did priests during earlier times. Epidemics came and went, imprecated by
both but touched by neither. They are not modified any more decisively by
the rituals performed in medical clinics than by those customary at religious
shrines." (Ivan Illich, Limits to Medicine)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]