DEFINING NATURAL, CO-NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC VITAMINS

When reading the labels on vitamins, there are a lot of unfamiliar sounding terms you will come across. But before we get to the charts themselves, it is helpful to break down the types of categories those substances will belong to. There are three, Natural, Co-natural, and Synthetic.


Natural

The majority of vitamins that are on the market are not natural. The reason for this is cost. It requires the extraction of vitamins from foods. This is a much more expensive process than simply synthesizing vitamins chemically. These vitamins come directly from fruits, and vegetables. A smaller number are derived from animals, primarily the livers of animals. If you are a vegan, you may want to pay close attention to the sources of Biotin, as liver may be a source. Some products also use fish oils for Vitamin A, and fatty acids like omega 3, 6, and 9.

Co-natural

These are derived from vegetable and animal sources. The process involves using a solvent, distillation, hydrolysis, and-or crystalization. But the vitamin itself does not undergo a chemical alteration or conversion during the process of extraction.

Synthetic

The sources for these vitamins may be natural or chemical, but in this case, they do go through a conversion or chemical alteration. They are about 50 percent as effective as natural vitamins, and parts of them may be regarded as toxins by the body. They are often derived from "dead", never alive materials like Coal Tar, petroleum products, ground up rocks and stones, shells like clamshells, and metals. Corn syrup (vitamin c) , wood, animal byproducts, waste and fecal matter are also used.

So, when reading charts and finding the active ingredients you will have a better understanding of the derivation process and source materials. I can only say that the more I learn the smarter and safer it seems to be to look for products that are vegetable based, not overlooking the value of sea plants as well. Kelp, for instance, offers a lot of different vitamins. So does Blue-green algae. More familiar vegetable based sources with lots of value are Flax, Rice bran, Wheat grass and germ, alfalfa, and other cereal grasses.

Also, keep in mind that the term "organic" may be defined in different ways. While we are thinking that the term refers to plant and animal sources, the use of the term in chemistry simply means that there are carbon atoms in the structure. This can lead to some misleading claims that are still "accurate". All vitamins will have some carbon in them, whether synthetic or natural in their origin.

Want to have some fun? Take your bottle of vitamins and a magnifying glass and look up the active ingredients on the web with a search engine with the term "natural or synthetic".


Here is an excerpt from http://www.lorganic.sg/dpf/supplements.pdf


What You Actually Get In The Store

What commercial-grade vitamin and mineral concentrates are synthesized by the large pharmaceutical and chemical companies from the same starting material that they make their drugs from ( coal tar, wood, pulp, petroleum products, animal byproducts, waste and fecal matter, ground rocks, stones, shells and metal. )

- Most Vitamin B-12 (cobalamine) is made from activated sewage sludge-and
then stabilized with cyanide (thus becoming, cyanocobalamine)
- Most vitamin D is made from irradiated oil
- The bulk of all vitamin E is produced in the labs at Kodak
- Niacinamide is made by boiling sulfur in the presence of asbestos.
- Supplemental calcium, for the most part, is either mined from the earth,
ground from old bones, or made by grinding up oyster shells


There are many sites on the web to check if you want to see for yourself. I don't know anyone who is aware of the "processes" involved in "Big Pharma" vitamin production. These decisions are primarily cost based and profit driven. So be aware you may spend a little bit more money for products that are natural extracts, but knowing about the process for manufacture, you will likely be willing to spend a few extra dollars for products you feel more comfortable with.