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By Dr. Ben Kim
DrBenKim.com
Here are some facts that you won't find advertised on most of the vitamin supplements at your local vitamin store:
If you want a comprehensive
understanding of what vitamins are and
what they do in your body, it would be
best to take a full course in
biochemistry. Do you remember all of
those molecular formulas and chemical
reactions that you studied in your high
school chemistry class? Biochemistry is
really just an extension of chemistry,
with an emphasis on the thousands of
chemical reactions that occur in your
body on a moment-to-moment basis.
Anyone who studies biochemistry
learns that vitamins do not exist as
single components that act on their own. Vitamins
are made up of several different
components: enzymes, co-enzymes, and
co-factors that must work together to
produce their intended biologic effects.
Vitamins that are found naturally in
whole foods come with all of their
necessary components.
The majority of vitamins that are
sold in pharmacies, grocery stores, and
vitamin shops are synthetic vitamins,
which are only isolated portions of the
vitamins that occur naturally in food.
A good example is vitamin C.
If you take a look at a variety of
vitamin C supplements, you will find
that the majority of them contain only
ascorbic acid or a compound called
ascorbate, which is a less acidic form
of acorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is NOT
vitamin C. It represents the outer ring
that serves as a protective shell for
the entire vitamin C complex, much like
an orange peel that serves as a
protective shell for an orange.
Real vitamin C found in whole foods
like fruits and vegetables contain the
following components:
When you take only ascorbic acid found in your synthetic vitamin C tablet or powder, your body must gather all of the other components of the full vitamin C complex from your body's tissues in order to make use of it. In the event that your body does not have adequate reserves of the other components, ascorbic acid itself does not provide any of the health benefits that the full vitamin C complex does. After circulating through your system, the unused ascorbic acid is eliminated through your urine.
Just like vitamin C, almost all other
vitamins that we know of offer their
full health benefits when they are in
the presence of a number of enzymes,
co-enzymes, co-factors, and even
minerals. For example, Vitamin D may
have as many as twelve different active
components, while vitamin P has at least
five different components. The mineral
copper is needed for full vitamin C
activity, while vitamin E works closely
with the mineral selenium to provide its
health promoting, anti-oxidative effect.
Accesed on: 6/13/08
180
capsules in each bottle
All our Ocean Treasure
Articles
1. Seaweed
and Fucoxanthin
Study: Vitamins Shown to Not
Work and Cause Harm. 2008
Note: ALL THE FOLLOWING STUDIES
USED MAN-MADE SYNTHETIC
CHEMICALS MADE BY DRUG
COMPANIES. ZERO STUDIES USED
NATURAL FORMS OF THE
VITAMIN DERIVED FROM PLANTS
(this fact goes 100% unmentioned
in the studies).
11/08 - CHICAGO
(AP) - News
Keeps Getting Worse for
Vitamins. Huge
study boosts disappointment on
multivitamins.
- The largest study ever of
multivitamin use in older women
found the pills did nothing to
prevent common cancers or heart
disease.
2/07 - The
Big Vitamin Scare: American
Medical Association claims
vitamins may kill you.
10/07 - Study:
We could not find evidence that
antioxidant supplements can
prevent gastrointestinal
cancers; on the contrary, they
seem to increase overall
mortality.
12/07 -
Conclusion: Vitamin
E Does Not Help Head and
Neck Cancer Patients
3/08 - Studies
- Finds B Vitamins Don't Prevent
Heart Attacks
10/07 - Conclusion:
Ingestion of vitamin A affects
bone remodeling and can have
adverse skeletal effects in
animals. The possibility has
been raised that long-term high
vitamin A intake could
contribute to fracture risk in
humans.
6/08 - CONCLUSION:
In patients with vascular
disease or diabetes mellitus,
long-term vitamin E
supplementation may increase the
risk for heart failure.
1/08
- Multivitamins
Linked With Breast Density.
NOTE: Breast
density is used
as a marker for breast cancer
risk, and
is associated with the use of
multivitamins. FACT:
Multi-vitamins increase Breast
Cancer Risk!
10/07 - Almost
a Third of U.S. Kids Use
Supplements -
More than 30 percent of American
children take some kind of
dietary supplement, mostly
multi-vitamins and
multi-minerals, a U.S. National
Institutes of Health study
finds.
7/6/07 CHICAGO -
A study of more than 8,000
infants found a link between the
use of multivitamin supplements
and the risk of asthma and food
allergies
7/06 - The
American Health Foundation - Said
that the US child mortality rate
increased in 2004, the first
rise in 40 years. The United
States now has an infant
mortality rate that puts it
behind 27 other nations.
3/07 CONCLUSIONS - The
failure of vitamin C
supplementation to reduce the
incidence of colds in the normal
population indicates that
routine mega-doses are not
rationally justified, a new
study shows.
11/08 - News
Keeps Getting Worse for
Vitamins. Despite Risks,
Vitamins Popular
With Cancer Patients.
6/08 - Study:
Vitamins E and C Fail to Prevent
Cancer in Men
2/08 - Studies
Suggest B Vitamins Don't Prevent
Heart Attacks
5/08 - Vitamin C May
Interfere With Cancer Treatment
4/08 - Disappointing News on
Vitamin E and Selenium
3/97 - The
Beta Carotene and Retinol
Efficacy Trial or CARET is a
large NCI-funded chemoprevention
trial that is being conducted in
six areas in the United
States. In CARET, after an
average of four years of
receiving supplements, 28
percent more lung cancers were
diagnosed and 17 percent more
deaths occurred in participants
taking beta carotene and vitamin
A than in those taking placebos.
Neither of these studies showed
a benefit from taking
supplements.
4/07 - CONCLUSION:
High-dosage (> or =400 IU/d)
vitamin E supplements may
increase all-cause mortality and
should be avoided.
5/07 Conclusion
- The
evidence for routine use of
multivitamin and mineral
supplements to
reduce infections in elderly
people is weak and conflicting
8/08 - The
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - high-dosage
vitamin E supplementation may
increase all-cause mortality.
7/07 - The
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
- Supplements
Don't Work for Osteoarthritis
Clearly, it is best to get your
vitamins from whole foods because whole
foods provide complete vitamins rather
than fractions of them. In many cases,
whole foods also provide the minerals
that are necessary for optimal vitamin
activity. For example, sunflower seeds
are an excellent whole food source of
vitamin E and the mineral selenium, both
of which need each other to offer their
full health benefits.
How do you know if the vitamins
on your kitchen counter are from whole
foods or if they are synthetic?
If the list of ingredients includes
an actual vitamin like Vitamin
C rather than an actual
food that contains natural vitamin C
like acerola cherry
powder, you can bet that it is a
synthetic vitamin.
If you choose to use nutritional
supplements, it is in your best interest
to use only those products that list actual
foods as their ingredients rather
than synthetic and isolated vitamins.
While some synthetic and isolated
vitamins have been shown to provide
minimal health benefits, on the whole,
most of them cause more harm than good
and you are far better off spending your
money on whole foods.
It is important to note that the
principles in this article are just
as relevant and applicable to minerals
and mineral supplements.
2. Phytochemical
Revolution
3. Benefits
of Ocean Treasure
4. FAQs
5. The
Need for Iodine
6. How
Vegetable Iodine May Increase Your IQ
7. Synthetic
Vitamins vs. Natural Vitamins
8. Powerful
Seaweed Research