Are your synthetic multivitamins slowly killing you?

Are your synthetic multivitamins slowly killing you?

There is a huge problem with many large supplement companies promoting their so called natural vitamins and nutrients when they are in fact anything but natural and are in fact dangerous synthetic versions of these nutrients. Now don’t get confused natural wholefood vitamins and nutrients have been proven to lower disease and promote health but the synthetic versions have been shown to increase instances of certain diseases such as heart and cardiovascular diseases, cancer and even shown to increase the risk of death. Certain vitamins are worse than others such as vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin A promoted which are all found on store shelves and even are being labelled as natural.

The dangers of synthetic vitamin C

Nearly all vitamin C supplements are synthetic and are listed as ascorbic acid and are an unnaturally high dose such as 500mg to 1000mg per serving which is impossible to get into a capsule as a food supplement, A natural supplement will have 100-150mg per serving and will be listed as vitamin C and not as ascorbic acid.

A study shown to the American Heart Association showed a link between taking only 500mg of vitamin C per day and a greater tendency toward thickening of the arteries (Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2000).

A study (from the Jun 15, 2001 issue of Science) showed that “synthetic vitamin C may contribute to the formation of genotoxins

A more recent study showed athletes taking 1000mg of vitamin C per day showed reduced endurance capacity from interference with antioxidant enzymes (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jan 2008).

The Dangers of vitamin E
Vitamin E supplements called d-alpha tocopherol, This apparently natural vitamin E is common in many other supplements. However, even though this vitamin E is a natural form, it is very unnatural for two reasons. First, it’s in an isolated form without the rest of the naturally-occurring vitamin E complex. In wholefoods alpha tocopherol exists with seven other vitamin E compounds: three other tocopherols and four tocotrienols.
Secondly supplements of alpha tocopherol are unnaturally high
consuming a full days worth of high vitamin E-rich foods would yield about 30-40 IU of alpha
tocopherol, yet the typical dose in supplements is 10 times that, sometimes much more.
“The Heart Outcomes Prevention and Evaluation study reported greater all-cause death with isolated Vitamin E.” N. Eng. J. Med. 2,000; 342(3): 154-160
A research study conducted in March of 2009 showed that “taking synthetic Vitamin C and synthetic Vitamin E actually blocked the beneficial effects of exercise in terms of insulin sensitivity and antioxidant activity.” PNAS, published ahead of print May 11, 2009. “Subjects who received naturally occurring Vitamin C and Vitamin E from consuming fruits and plants did not have this problem.”
When purchasing vitamin E product make sure there natural and contain all the four tocopherols and four tocopherols

The truth about B vitamins
Almost all B vitamins are synthetic and most people would be none the wiser and the dose is not a good indicator however they are usually listed as one of their synthetic names such as folic acid. Natural b vitamins are referred to as active b vitamins and below I will outline the synthetic names beside the natural ones

Thiamine (B1): Thiamine pyrophosphate; Thiamine triphosphate
Riboflavin (B2): Riboflavin-5-phosphate; Flavin mononucleotide (FMN)
Niacin (B3): Nicotinamide (adenine dinucleotide)
Pantothenic acid (B5): Pantethine
Pyridoxine (B6): Pyridoxal-5-phosphate
Folic acid: Folinic acid; 5-methyl tetrahydrofolate
Cobalamin (B12): Methylcobalamin; Adenosylcobalamin
Choline: Phosphatydlcholine

In summary always read the label and do your due diligence, because even though the packaging may say natural it probably isn’t so.