Types of Supplements
The Three Types of Nutritional Supplements
1. Synthetic
- Artificial chemicals made in a laboratory
- Most are made by pharmaceutical companies from coal tar or petroleum byproducts
- Often referred to as “nutraceuticals” (chemical nutrients)
- Based in the same reductionist principles as drug therapy
- Have a pharmacological (not nutritional or rebalancing) effect on the body
- Are essentially over-the-counter drugs
- Lack essential co-factors which complete and balance the nutrient complex
- Create nutritional deficiencies of missing co-factors that naturally occur in food
- Results in a toxic “mega-dose” approach to therapeutics, e.g. hundreds or thousands of milligrams of ascorbic acid (mistakenly referred to as vitamin C)
- Accurately described as counterfeit or fake vitamins
- Have consistently been found less effective than food concentrates
- Common adverse reactions when combined with other drugs
- 99% of the “vitamins” people take (those from the pharmacy, health food store, vitamin store or mail order) are isolated synthetic chemicals
2. Fractionated
- Similar to synthetics in principle and effect
- Chemically extracted from foods or plants
- e.g. d-alpha tocopherol (mistakenly referred to as vitamin E) from soybean oil
- Most standardized herbal extracts are made in this way
3. Food Concentrates
- Concentrated foods and plants that retain the full nutrient complex
- Made by simply removing the water and fiber from the food or plant
- Quality determined by farming methods; soil, water and sun; and the manufacturing process
- Produce far fewer adverse reactions and interactions with drugs
- Non-toxic, unlike isolated chemical vitamins
- Have a nutritional/rebalancing effect on the body; often referred to as “therapeutic foods”
- Provides nutrients in the way the body is designed to obtain them: from foods, not chemicals
- Greater availability of nutrients in their original/natural form
Note: You cannot compare the amounts (milligrams) of vitamins in a synthetic formula to that of a food concentrate. Foods (e.g. a bag of carrots) and food concentrates contain small amounts of hundreds of nutrients not listed on the label. Food concentrates are low-dose and high potency, whereas synthetics are high-dose and low-potency.
