Whole Food Supplements: Fact or Fiction

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Almost all of the vitamins on the market, even those claiming to be "whole food supplements" are not natural or from food at all.

Conventional vitamins are isolated or synthetic forms of very specific components which are standardized and incomplete sources of nutrients. The dosages found in conventional vitamins are much higher, often suplementy  of times higher than what you would find in food. Synthetics and isolates are very cheap to make, take up little space in a capsule or tablet, are standardized and have stable shelf lives. For these reasons, they are convenient for vitamin manufacturers to use and they are anything but natural.

Another reason these synthetics and isolates are so widely used is that FDA labeling requirements are drastically skewed to be in favor of them, making it very difficult for anyone to try to produce a supplement using natural ingredients. In some cases, a label claim cannot be made based on whole food ingredients unless there is a standardized source added. These labeling requirements are very crippling for most companies making a truly natural supplement where the whole foods are actually the source of nutrition in the product. Vitamin C is an exception to this law and as a result there are several supplements on the market where the vitamin C content is naturally occurring, but only for a select few whole food supplements.

The laws governing supplements in the United States are not only skewed away from natural vitamin sources they are also quite arbitrary. This is most problematic for consumers who take it upon themselves to actually read a label. Labeling requirements make it very difficult to distinguish between natural and unnatural sources of vitamins. Some sneaky companies use this to their advantage and will spike yeast with synthetics, in their "fermentation or culturing process" then sprinkle foods in too. They can then legally call themselves whole food supplements.

Believe it or not, laws governing vitamins in this country are some of the most lax in the world. In fact many ingredients commonly used in American supplements are outlawed in Asian countries. There are pros and cons to this situation. On one hand a lack of regulation allows for people access to alternative medicines and protocols that might not be available find if one is depending on the FDA and the big drug companies for ultimate access. At the same time, a lack of regulation makes it very easy for manufacturers to put anything they want to on the shelves regardless of integrity or consequences.