Vitamins vs. Whole Food Supplements - What's the Difference?
Regardless what vitamin companies would have you believe, the truth is that the vitamins and minerals in food is not the same as those found in most supplemental vitamins and minerals. In fact, the vitamins and minerals promoted by USP vitamins cannot be found in any food! Even the word "natural" is completely different! In the aforementioned "natural" supplements, the ingredients are USP (United States Pharmacopoeia) vitamins which means that they are isolated pharmaceutical (drug-like) chemicals and many of the minerals are mined from the ground.

Vitamins Supplements Versus Food
For example: Vitamin B-6 found in ordinary supplements is pyridoxine hydrocholine, a synthetic USP chemical. This is not even similar to the vitamin B-6 in food. You will not find pyridoxine hydrochloride in any food.

The vitamins in good whole-food nutritional supplements are in a high-complex food form, and we might call these a "food matrix" which our bodies can readily recognize and utilize. These food matrixes contain proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, bioflavonoids and other food factors.

The USP vitamins in supplements are NOT found in a food matrix, instead, they are isolated chemicals which your cells cannot readily recognize and utilize properly.

Your body does the most that it can to absorb a small amount of these elements but most them are excreted. The cells of your body were originally designed by nature to be nourished by natural foods not by pharmaceutical chemicals.

Do You Know Your "Food-Based" Vitamin/Mineral Supplier?
Many times the "natural" or "food-based" supplements are formulated with the same USP chemical vitamins and minerals as mentioned above. They simply put them into a big blender and add a small amount of powdered food - then they are sold as powders, tablets or liquids - this does not change the USP vitamins and minerals. Your body will still not recognize them. You can fool your mind but you cannot fool the cells of your body. Does the label on your vitamin mineral supplement list the whole-foods it contains?

I use only Whole Food Supplements made from organically raised produce. There is really only one manufacturer who can make such a claim - that is Standard Process, Inc.

Vitamin E Comlex
To the right is a complete Vitamin E complex as found in nature. However, many incomplete vitamins are sold. Check the ingredients on your bottle. If it says mixed tocopherols or d-alpha tocopherol, the it is not complete Vitamin E. All parts of the complex are required for the proper function of the vitamin. Any missing parts will be taken away from your body's reserves. The vitamin must be complete for it to function. Commonly missing parts are listed to the right. As indicated each on is important in a different area of your metabolism. Over time, it is harmful to deplete your body of these elements needed to form the complete vitamin complex.

 

Vitamin C Complex
A diagram of the complete vitamin C complex is on the right. Don't be mislead by the manufacturer's advertising that ascorbic acid or any other part of the complex is the whole. Similar to the vitamin E complex (above), the body must scavenge for any missing parts of the incomplete vitamin to function properly.

Unfortunately, copper deficiency is one result of taking high doses of ascorbic acid. The body takes copper and the other missing parts from its reserves in order to piece together a whole Vitamin C complex.

Wouldn't it be healthier to take a vitamin that was complete in the first place and avoid the unhealthy body response of depletion?
 

Vitamin B1 Complex
Another common scenario is that almost all synthetic vitamin an mineral products available to the public are synthesized by pharmaceutical and chemical companies. For example, coal tar is used to make Thiamine Hydrochloride (or Thiamine Mononitrate). This is a synthetic form of Vitamin B1 and it is not used as efficiently in your body. The natural form of B1 (Thiamine) is diagrammed above the synthetic form. At a glance you can see the difference in structure and your body can too.

Check the labels of your supplements to make sure they do not use partial or synthetic vitamins. Remember, stay close to nature; any whole food source of vitamins will give you the natural and complete vitamin complexes that your body needs and deserves.