Your Vitamins Could Be Harming Your Health!

 We tend to assume that the medicine a doctor prescribes is ‘synthetic’ whereas the vitamins that the naturopath suggests are ‘natural’ right? Wrong!While some vitamins can certainly be beneficial – folic acid for pregnant women and iron for people suffering anemia, for instance – it’s important to consider your vitamins’ origins. Not all vitamins are ‘naturally’ made and whether it is ‘natural’ or synthetic’ can affect not only how well your body absorbs it, but your overall health.Consider that synthetically made vitamins are extracted from substances such as coal tar, chalk or petroleum. Not exactly the sorts of ‘supplements’ most of us would have in mind to improve our health and wellbeing!And take, for instance, this extract from Precision Nutrition’s article on vitamin manufacturing:Synthetic vitamins can have the same chemical constituents [as the naturally extracted vitamin], but still have a different shape (optical activity). This is important because some of the enzymes in the human body only work properly with a vitamin of the correct shape. So, what’s the difference between natural vs synthetic anyway? A Synthetic vitamin is made from chemicals in a laboratory and may be processed by toxic solvents. Some research suggests that ‘synthetically made’ can actually harm your health.Naturopath and doctor, Karen Purcell, compares the difference here:For example: a great Vitamin C complex comes from grapefruit, lemons, limes and oranges. A synthetic version comes from hydrogenated sugar processed with acetone. A great Vitamin A carotenoid formula comes from carrots. A chemical version comes from methanol, benzene, and petroleum esters. Synthetic versions of calcium, magnesium and zinc can come from limestone or chalk (calcium). But here’s the clincher; a vitamin can be called ‘natural’ when only 10% is naturally-derived and the other 90% is synthetic! Eep!And that’s before we even get started on the things that coat our supplements. These can come from natural sources, such as seaweed, or animal-based sources, like gelatin.If this is all a little too much information to follow, keep in mind that if your shiny new bottle of vitamin goodness seems cheap, it’s most likely down to synthetic manufacturing, which is far cheaper than natural extraction. OUR TIPLabels can be revealing! If you want to purchase vitamins that are natural, you can try playing detective yourself by reading the ingredients – many vitamin supplements will contain certain things that are giveaways to the fact that they are natural. For example, natural Vitamin A will contain fish oils, while synthetic will contain acetate or palmitate. Yeast is another good indicator that a vitamin is natural. Look for yeast on the labels of Vitamin B-Complex, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine), and Niacin. Make sure your Vitamin C is extracted from real citrus fruits. And if all else fails, reach for “whole food” supplements, rather than extracts, as these are most likely to contain the whole complex family of micro-nutrients that you need to get the most benefit from your supplements. Bottom LineChoose your supplements wisely people!