Vitamins are PARTS of foods, but they are NOT foods. Foods contain vitamins, but vitamins NEVER contain nutrient complexes (synergistic biochemicals). And, NO vitamin is really ‘natural’ once it has been REMOVED from its original food source.
Several supplement companies confuse this issue further by claiming that their products are “whole foods” whey they are actually mixtures of foods and isolates (isolated component of an extracted nutrient). This is deceptive and forces one to really dig into labels to discern food from isolated chemicals.
It is critical to understand not just individual isolates but how vitamins interact and interrelate with other biochemicals found alongside one another within whole food complexes. There are many critically important nutrients, substances, and properties within foods that are just as important as vitamins. These elements help vitamins provide their beneficial effects. Without these other food substances vitamins are used pharmacologically, like drugs.
We cannot subsist on isolated vitamins without the other nutrients provided in nature’s foods.
What are Vitamins?
Vitamins are “biological complexes, bundles of enzymes and trace minerals, biological wheels within wheels. Vitamins in isolation are no longer vitamins but merely extracts. Vitamins fail to fully function when derived.
The origins of the isolates began with chemists’ synthetic isolation of a single element uncombined with its biological matrix. The discovery of the vitamin coincided with the boom in industry, agriculture, and pharmaceutical chemistry. This has been an ongoing attempt to manufacture a better than natural food by extracting just what we “need” and leaving the rest behind.
There are many side effects owing to isolated and synthetic vitamins. A more detailed analysis may be found in my book Man Cannot Live on Vitamins Alone, but here are a few examples:
Vitamin A: Acute intake of extremely high doses of vitamin A (>200,000mg RE in adults) can cause nausea, vomiting, headache, and increased cebrospinal pressure. Symptoms are generally transient. Chronic high intakes (e.g. >10x RDA) can cause hair loss, bone and muscle pain, headache, liver damage, and increased blood lipid concentrations. A particular danger in pregnant women is teratogenesis (birth defects). As vitamin A is fat soluble and can be stored in the liver for long periods of time, it has a high potential for toxicity.
Vitamin B1 Thiamine: The symptoms of thiamin overdosing are similar to those of hyperthyroidism: 1. fast pulse; 2. irritability; 3. tremors; 4. weakness. Twenty to forty milligrams should not be used except in deficiency cases.
Vitamin B3 Niacin: Toxicity will be achieved through large doses of nicotinic acid given to lower cholesterol may product flushing of the skin, hyperuricemia, and hepatic abnormalities. These effects are reversed if the drug is reduced in amount or discontinued.
Vitamin B6 Pyridoxine: Excessive acute or chronic exposure to vitamin B-6 can be neurotoxic. It appears that in most individuals oral intakes of less than 500 mg/day can be tolerated. Larger intakes should be avoided. Because individuals may vary in their susceptibility to toxicity, a physician should monitor intakes in excess of the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA).
Vitamin C Ascorbic Acid: High doses of vitamin C may alter cooper metabolism and lead to deficiency states. In a study published in the April 9 issue of Nature, Dr. Ian Podman and colleagues from the University of Leicester in England found that vitamin C intake, at levels greater than 500 mg/day may not be advisable. These researchers studied 30 healthy individuals who were given doses of 500 mg/day for a period of 6 weeks. Results showed oxidative damage at the cellular level even after excess vitamin C was excreted. The authors of this study conclude that high doses of vitamin C may be doing damage to cells as well.
Back to Common Sense & Science
The human body is not an artificial creation, and therefore should not be fed artificially created and enhanced substances such as isolated vitamins. You can find whole food nutrition at Nutritional-Life where real foods, grown in nature, balanced by millennia of evolution, and complex in their structures, are the perfect match for our bodies. Scientifically speaking, we are designed to consume these foods because they are natural, whole, balanced, and complex. Nothing can replace food nutrients in their ability to sustain life without causing unpredictable side effects.
Dr Shayne is a foremost authority in the area of whole food nutrition. He has found a direct connection between health and nutrition and has studied the effects of extracts and isolates, typically labeled vitamins and minerals. He is Chief Scientific Advisor and Lead Consultant for Nutritional Life and developer of a full line of whole food nutrition (NutriPlex Formulas). In addition, Dr Shayne has published over 5 books and is working on another book at this time.
