Synergy is an important principle in the science of nutrition. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nature provides us with food that contains a wide variety of different nutrients.
When we ingest supplements, we are mostly taking only a very tiny amount of all the different chemicals found in foodstuffs into our bodies. A high dose of a very small amount of nutrients is not synergy, and is not a food supplement. It's drug nutrition.
Something like a third of all drugs are derived from plants. The scientist extracts the most potent element from the plant, synthesises it, and turn it into a drug. The herbalist on the other hand uses the whole of the plant because it is much safer and contains synergistic factors.
In the same way, to make a nutritional supplement, the chemist will take out the most active element in the nutrient complex. This is what is used to make the supplement. This is now not a food supplement but a weak drug.
Ascorbic Acid Is Not Vitamin C
Look on your supplement label. Is vitamin C only provided as ascorbic acid? But this is not vitamin C. This is only part of the vitamin C complex. A good supplement will contain not just water soluble ascorbic acid, but fat soluble ascorbyl palmitate, as well as mineral ascorbates, bioflavonoids and fruit extracts. In this way you will also get the flavonols, flavonones and flavones that are such an important part of the vitamin C complex.
Is Alpha Tocopherol Vitamin E?
If the supplement label states that vitamin E is only provided as alpha tocopherol then the supplement does not contain vitamin E. It contains a fraction of a nutrient. Vitamin E is made up of at least eight elements. Taking just a single element has potentially harmful effects on the body, which requires the whole complex for good health.
Beta Carotene Is Not Vitamin A
If the supplement label states that the precursor to vitamin A is only provided as beta carotene, then you are being shortchanged. What happened to alpha carotene? What happened to the 600 plus pigments that make up the carotenoid complex?
One of the early pioneers of clinical nutrition was Royal Lee. He said back in 1940 that the natural vitamin complexes contain the various closely related principles that are normally found together in foods. That is why synthetic and chemically purified vitamins are not really vitamins at all. They are only fragments of vitamins.
So look at your supplement label. Are you supplementing with foods or are you swallowing a drug?
When we ingest supplements, we are mostly taking only a very tiny amount of all the different chemicals found in foodstuffs into our bodies. A high dose of a very small amount of nutrients is not synergy, and is not a food supplement. It's drug nutrition.
Something like a third of all drugs are derived from plants. The scientist extracts the most potent element from the plant, synthesises it, and turn it into a drug. The herbalist on the other hand uses the whole of the plant because it is much safer and contains synergistic factors.
In the same way, to make a nutritional supplement, the chemist will take out the most active element in the nutrient complex. This is what is used to make the supplement. This is now not a food supplement but a weak drug.
Ascorbic Acid Is Not Vitamin C
Look on your supplement label. Is vitamin C only provided as ascorbic acid? But this is not vitamin C. This is only part of the vitamin C complex. A good supplement will contain not just water soluble ascorbic acid, but fat soluble ascorbyl palmitate, as well as mineral ascorbates, bioflavonoids and fruit extracts. In this way you will also get the flavonols, flavonones and flavones that are such an important part of the vitamin C complex.
Is Alpha Tocopherol Vitamin E?
If the supplement label states that vitamin E is only provided as alpha tocopherol then the supplement does not contain vitamin E. It contains a fraction of a nutrient. Vitamin E is made up of at least eight elements. Taking just a single element has potentially harmful effects on the body, which requires the whole complex for good health.
Beta Carotene Is Not Vitamin A
If the supplement label states that the precursor to vitamin A is only provided as beta carotene, then you are being shortchanged. What happened to alpha carotene? What happened to the 600 plus pigments that make up the carotenoid complex?
One of the early pioneers of clinical nutrition was Royal Lee. He said back in 1940 that the natural vitamin complexes contain the various closely related principles that are normally found together in foods. That is why synthetic and chemically purified vitamins are not really vitamins at all. They are only fragments of vitamins.
So look at your supplement label. Are you supplementing with foods or are you swallowing a drug?
About the Author:
The writer is editor of a nutritional newsletter and manages a complementary health website for the London area of Britain. This contains descriptions of practitioners including the buteyko method and chiropractor london
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