Natural vs Synthetic

Not all vitamins were created equal – or natural. To be more specific, over 90% of the vitamins purchased by consumers, whether in a supermarket, pharmacy or health food store, are substances formulated in a laboratory. These synthetic, fractionated vitamins simply cannot be easily absorbed by the body which means that when you take them you are literally flushing money down the toilet.

How do you know if you are ingesting a synthetic vitamin or one made from all natural fruits and vegetables? It’s easy really, just read the label. If your vitamin’s ingredients sound like something from a chemistry lab then that’s exactly what they are; chemically created synthetic vitamins.

For example, here is a list of the major ingredients of a leading vitamin brand found in just about every grocery store and pharmacy in America and taken by millions of unsuspecting consumers every day: magnesium oxide; dicalcium phosphate; ascorbic acid; di-alpha tocopheryl acetate; ferrous fumarate; croscarmellose sodium; potassium chloride; calcium panthenate; pyridoxine hydrochloride; hypromelose; polyethelene glycol; manganese sulfate; pytonadione and cyanocobalamin (a synthetic form of vitamin B-12). Do you have any idea what any of those things are? You’d have to be a chemist to know what you are putting in your system with a list like that.

Now look at the list of ingredients on a box of 9 a Day Plus where the vitamins come from these natural sources: carrots; acerola cherry; soy; sunflower; corn; spinach; blueberry; raspberry; apple; cranberry; grape; aloe vera; beets; etc. It is easy to see that there is a difference so now you need to understand why that difference really matters to your health.

The truth is that even though they are often called natural, most non-food vitamins are isolated chemical substances which are crystalline in structure. And most vitamins in these supplements are made or processed with petroleum derivatives or hydrogenated sugars. Vitamins naturally found in food are not crystalline and never isolated. Vitamins found in any real foodare chemically and structurally different from those commonly found in “natural vitamin” formulas. Since they are different, you should consider non-food vitamins as vitamin “analogues” or imitations and not actually vitamins.

The body treats these isolated – or fractionated – vitamins as they would any foreign or chemical substance: it rejects them. This is why the bulk of the content simply passes through the body and is never assimilated into your system. This is why over-consumption of these kinds of vitamins can actually be detrimental to your health as they can build up in the liver or kidneys and do more harm than good.

You may be thinking that your vitamins are different because you buy them at a health food store. You are probably wrong. Here is a list of ingredients from a bottle of vitamin C from a major brand found in a local health food store: ascorbic acid; cellulose gel; corn starch; hydropxypropyl cellulose; hydroxypropyl methylcellulose; magnesium state; silicon dioxide; stearic acid;polyethylene glycol. The front of the label says all natural and it’s on a shelf in a reputable health food store, but the ingredients label doesn’t lie – there’s nothing natural about this product at all.

You may have noticed that a common ingredient is ascorbic acid. Some of you may be thinking that ascorbic acid is in fact vitamin C but here is another myth about the vitamins we waste money on. Though the FDA allows Ascorbic Acid to be labeled as vitamin C, it really is NOT vitamin C. It is only part of the vitamin C complex and what is known as a fractionated vitamin. This is true for many of the vitamins you may be taking now. Instead of getting the entire benefit of the vitamin you are buying you are probably getting only part of the vitamin, which is like taking no vitamin at all. The body cannot use a vitamin unless it is in its entirety. It doesn’t use the isolated parts properly so you might as well not bother taking it at all.

9 a Day Plus uses complete, natural vitamins from fruits and vegetables that your body can easily absorb and put to use. Feel the 9 a Day difference and get all the nutritional benefits from your supplements that you pay for.