“Whole Food” Supplements Exposed!
Do natural Whole Food Supplements contain laboratory produced synthetic vitamins?
On the surface the answer to this question seems obvious. The very nature of the phrase “natural whole food” would suggest 100% separation and freedom from man-made vitamins or manufactured synthetic chemicals. But some supplement companies see it very differently.
What if the words “whole food” on many supplement labels didn't really mean what they claimed? What if the content of the supplements that were supposed to be comprised completely of natural elements, were actually made up of just a sprinkling of whole food, and in reality contained as much as 90% synthetically formulated, high potency, unnatural pseudo-nutrients?
In the following paragraphs we will explore this increasingly common phenomenon of false food advertising, and expose the sad truth about a number of prominent supplement manufacturers who indulge in this deceptive practice. Our goal in this article is to inform the consumer and enable wise choices, while helping to eliminate confusion about the controversy surrounding “whole food” vitamins and supplements.
Consider these Case Studies
Here are several examples of current mainstream supplement manufacturers trying to convince their potential customers to buy their products on the basis of their “Pure and Natural Whole Food” ingredients. Unfortunately, as we will see, that's not all that their supplements contain.
Case Study #1
This company’s tagline is “Fresh From Farm To Tablet”. Wow! It would certainly seem as if this phrase, along with the image of fresh harvested fruit on the label, would insure that their products are made completely of farm fresh foods. This multivitamin must be all natural, right? Actually, no - if you delve into this company’s website you will discover this statement from their medical director:
“All of our supplements, regardless of whether they are whole food or food based, utilize USP vitamins and minerals as part of the process. What makes our vitamins and minerals unique is that they are actually delivered in a whole food. That way they are easy to digest and gentle on the body, even when they are taken on an empty stomach. Our vitamin C is delivered in whole oranges, our folate is delivered in broccoli, etc.”
Did you catch that? They are telling you outright that this “whole food” multivitamin is infused with chemically produced, standardized USP synthetic vitamins. If you know what to look for you can clearly see this on their supplement facts label below…
As you read down the supplement facts you can see the synthetically manufactured ingredients right there in black and white. Going down the list:
ascorbic acid for vitamin C – synthetic
menaquinone-7 for vitamin K2 – synthetic
thiamine HCL for B1 – synthetic
riboflavin 5 phosphate for B2 – natural active form, but synthetically made
P5P for B6 – natural active form, but synthetically made
5-MTHF for folate – natural active form, but synthetically made and patented
calcium pantothenate for B5 (pantothenic acid) – synthetic
choline bitartrate for choline – synthetic
Additionally, it is highly likely that most (if not all) the minerals in their yeast base are also synthetically produced USP minerals. This is a perfect example of how many so-called “whole food” vitamins are not exactly what they seem to be. Remember, these manufactures can get away with this kind of marketing as long as 10% of their ingredients are derived from a natural food base. Although taking advantage of this legal technicality is very unscrupulous, this kind of marketing trickery is not illegal, just very misleading.
Case Study #2
The second company’s tagline is much like the first, fully suggesting an all-food line of supplements, “Made From Blended Fruit And Vegetable Juice Powders.”
To the person looking for whole food supplements this statement sounds all good, but when we examine the Nutrition Facts label, we see a far different story. While the products are in a base of fruit and vegetable juice powders (apple pulp, cranberries, oranges, beets, pineapples, acerola cherries, papaya, peaches, dates, and prunes), they also contain isolated lab-created vitamins, and synthetically produced non-food nutrients!
According to their Nutrition Facts, 2 capsules of this product can only make label claims containing a total of 4 vitamins:
42% of the daily value for vitamin A
121 % of vitamin C
27% of the recommended daily value of vitamin E
And 24% of the daily value for folate (vitamin B9).
You can see from the ingredients list on their label that the vitamin A comes from an isolated carotenoid blend that has been added to the whole foods listed above. The vitamin C comes from synthetic calcium ascorbate, the vitamin E comes from an isolated tocopherol blend, and finally the folate comes from the synthetic folic acid listed right on their label. Again, this might be very surprising to people who believed they were getting a purely “whole food” supplement!
Case Study #3
Ok, by now you know where we are going with this. However, we wanted to include this brand due to its enormous popularity. If you looked at this company’s website you would be convinced that there is no way they would include synthetic micronutrients in their whole food multivitamin because the sales page for this product has the following big, bold header, “Why You Should Avoid Synthetic Forms of Certain Vitamins Like the Plague”… Based on this statement it would seem obvious that they would avoid adding synthetically produced vitamins and minerals to their product, wouldn't they? Let’s look closely at the product label and find out.
Amazingly, once again we find this massively popular multivitamin (that unabashedly advertises itself as “Whole Food”) adding high doses of synthetic nutrients to its ingredients.
Vitamin B9 folate (5-MTHF), vitamin B6 (Pyridoxal-5’-phosphate), vitamin B5 (Calcium Pantothenate), vitamin B1 (Thiamine Pyrophosphate), vitamin C (magnesium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate, ascorbyl palmitate), as well as all of its chelated minerals and numerous other micronutrients are all lab-made, synthetically produced additives! And in some cases the added synthetic nutrients are so far removed from “whole food” that they are even patented by drug/pharmaceutical companies such as Merck.
In summary, we want to reiterate that our main goal in this article is not to demonize all Whole Food Vitamins, or the companies that sell them. But to make sure consumers are aware that just because a supplement has the words “Natural” or “Whole Food” on the label does not mean that it is made from 100% natural whole food, or that it does not contain synthetic vitamins and minerals. Likewise, every Supplement Facts or Nutrition Facts label must be read with careful consideration to determine the true source of the claimed nutrient. Even companies with a good reputation should be scrutinized with a very discerning eye.
Call the company directly and ask if their products contain any form of synthetic vitamins or minerals. And then double check the ingredients label for elevated mg, mcg, or IU counts. If a vitamin labels nutrient counts are high, then the contents of the container have very likely been sabotaged with synthetics!
The Bottom Line
If you are truly in search of authentic and legitimate Whole Food Nutritional Supplements, we recommend that you perform your due diligence and make a choice for real food only, instead of settling for a falsely marketed substitute.