One of the key principles of nutrition is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Food provided by nature contains a wide spectrum of different nutritional factors.

Nutritional supplements usually only contain a very small percentage of all the nutritional factors found in foods. Taking a supplement of this kind is not synergy and it’s not a food supplement. This is drug nutrition.

A large proportion of drugs are derived from plants. The most potent extract of the plant is removed and made into a pharmaceutical preparation. The herbalist uses the whole of the plant.

In the same way, to make a nutritional supplement, the chemist will take out the most active element in the nutrient complex. This is what is used to make the supplement. This is now not a food supplement but a weak drug.

Is Ascorbic Acid Vitamin C?

If the label on your supplement bottle states that vitamin C is provided only as ascorbic acid, then you are not getting vitamin C, but only a fraction of the vitamin C complex. To get the complex requires the bioflavonoids that always come with ascorbic acid in nature.

Vitamin E Is Not Only Alpha Tocopherol

Is vitamin E only provided as alpha tocopherol? But this is not vitamin E. This is only part of the vitamin E complex. There are three other tocopherols and four tocotrienols that are also part of the vitamin E complex. Taking alpha tocopherol alone is not just unbalanced, it can deplete the other parts of the vitamin E complex, reducing their potential health benefits.

Is Beta Carotene Vitamin A?

Many supplements provide pro vitamin A in the form of beta carotene. While this does convert into vitamin A, it is only one fraction of the carotenoid complex which comprises 600 or more other pigments.

One of the great early pioneers of nutritional healing was Royal Lee. In 1940 he pointed out that synthetic, chemically purified vitamins are not vitamins in the true meaning of the word. They are simply fragments of vitamins. Whole foods provided by nature contain these vitamin complexes. Supplements need to be derived from whole foods.

So the next time you look for a nutritional supplement to take, ask yourself whether you are ingesting food or swallowing a drug.