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Misty L. Trepke
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WHOLE FOOD VITAMINS:
ASCORBIC ACID IS NOT VITAMIN C

- Tim O'Shea

http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/index_fr.html?
content=/articles/index.html

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 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 been enough 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 as shown
in the figure below:

_____________________A s c o r b i c A c i d______________

ascorbinogen
bioflavonoids
rutin

tyrosinase

Factor J
Factor K
Factor P
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________

A s c o r b i c A c i d

_____________________________________________________________________
________________________

V I T A M I N C

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 interplay 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.

Re: More info about supplements. (Archive.)

Re: More info about supplements. (Archive.)

Re: More info about supplements: Dr. Stoll, to megadose or not to megadose?

Re: More info about supplements: Dr. Stoll, to megadose or not to megadose?

Re: More info about supplements. (Archive.)

Re: More info about supplements: Dr. Stoll, to megadose or not to megadose?