Amazing as it may sound if you’re hearing this for the first time, vitamins are more than the synthetic fractions we are commonly taught they are. The ascorbic acid you buy at the grocery store every few weeks, thinking you are buying Vitamin C, is just a chemical copy of naturally occurring ascorbic acid, which itself is still only a fraction of the actual Vitamin C. Real vitamin C is part of something living, and as such, can impart life. Your synthetic, fractionated chemical ascorbic acid never grew in the ground, never saw the light of day, never was alive or part of anything alive. It’s a chemical, a cornstarch derivative, a sulfuric acid by-product.
In your body it’s just another drug. Synthetic vitamins have toxic effects from mega-doses and actually can increase the white blood cell count. Vitamins are only necessary in minute quantities on a daily basis. Whole food vitamins, by contrast, are not toxic since the vitamin is complexed in its integral working form, and requires nothing from the body, and triggers no immune response. DEFICIENCY Scurvy is a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. Scurvy is characterized by bleeding gums, slow wound healing, softening bones, loose teeth, ulcerations of the mouth and digestive tract, general weight loss and fatigue.
From 1650 to 1850 half of all seamen on transoceanic voyages died of scurvy. It was discovered by ship surgeon Thomas Lind in the early 1800s that British sailors were spared the disease altogether simply by a diet rich in citrus fruits. Since limes travelled well, they were the common choice during the early years, and thus the expression “limeys” was coined to describe British sailors. It was later found both at sea and in prison fare that potatoes were equally successful in preventing scurvy, and much cheaper to obtain
According to Scrip OTC News French collaborators of the anti-vitamin movement have poured huge sums of money into a legal battle in order to have doses of vitamin C over 800mg labelled as a medicine. The magazine, which is aimed at investors, says the market for vitamin C in France is worth $69 million.
Ascorbic acid is not vitamin C. Alpha tocopherol is not vitamin E. Retinoic acid is not vitamin A. And so on through the other vitamins. Vast sums of money have been expended to make these myths part of Conventional Wisdom. If you have several college degrees and all this is news to you, don’t feel bad. Unless you think your education ended at Commencement. Which is generally true Vitamins are not individual molecular compounds. Vitamins are biological complexes.
The study by doctors at University Hospital in Uppsala was reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine. It involved 2,322 men. Vitamin A is known as an antioxidant. Antioxidants are believed to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Government studies show one-third to one-half of Americans take vitamin A or multivitamins containing it. Vitamin A can interfere with cells that produce new bone, stimulate cells that break down old bone and interfere with vitamin D, which helps the body maintain normal calcium levels.
Large amounts of vitamin A are found in beef liver and fish liver oils; smaller amounts are in egg yolks, butter and cream. Milk and some cereals are fortified with vitamin A and, per serving, provide about 10 percent of daily needs. And substances in dark green, leafy vegetables and yellow vegetables and fruits are converted to vitamin A in the body.
Most people will get enough of the nutrient through their normal diet. Vegetarians, however, may need to eat more dark-coloured fruits and vegetables, because new research shows that those foods actually yield half as much vitamin A as previously thought. The amounts do not have to be huge, however. Half a cup of cooked carrots is enough. Cooking doubles the body’s absorption of vitamin A, so people who prefer raw veggies need more.
“What you can buy in a bottle doesn’t come close to providing you with the wealth of benefits that come automatically when those nutrients are present in the form of food,” said Linda Van Horn, a research nutritionist at Northwestern University in Chicago. Nutrition advice, though, is never quite as simple as “take your vitamins” or even “don’t take your vitamins.” And further complicating matters, the answer isn’t the same for everybody. Much of the recent criticism of vitamins has revolved around megadoses, which can be 10, 20, even 30 times stronger than the amount recommended for the daily diet. But even multivitamins, which typically contain the recommended daily intake of a host of nutrients, are not universally accepted by nutritionists.
