Due to the alarming increase in the rates of diabetes, cancer, and diseases of every kind, an ever-increasing number of people are seeking to improve their health by taking various kinds of vitamins, supplements, and similar health products. So popular has this practice become that Zion Market Research has estimated that the global dietary supplements market, valued at $132.8 billion in 2016, will reach $220.3 billion by 2022.

“Pure” vitamins?

Walk down the aisles in your supermarket, drug store, or health food store, and it is apparent that we have been led to believe that vitamins are purer and more potent when separated and isolated from their original, natural state as components of whole foods. Yet the word “vitamin” (originally “vitamine”) comes from two words meaning “vita” (life) and “amine” (a compound containing amino groups), literally “an amine for life.” Later shortened to “vitamin” when it was discovered that other essential organic, non-amino micro-nutrients were present, the main takeaway is that a vitamin is not actually “one single thing” but rather a part of a nutritive mixture or compound that is exquisitely interwoven and fused within whole foods themselves.

Whole foods and whole food supplements contain not only vitamins, but also all the related nutrients and co-factors — minerals, trace elements (micro-nutrients), enzymes, co-enzymes, amino acids, fatty acids, et al. — that function together and are necessary for proper absorption and assimilation by the body. These vitamin complexes existing within whole foods are vastly different than both chemically-manufactured synthetic substances and even many natural formulations that, while derived from actual whole foods, may not contain the required co-factors and may even contain some synthetic ingredients.

Chemically identical, but…

As is obvious from their name, synthetic vitamins are not actually real, living nutritional complexes but rather laboratory-fashioned, mirror-image duplicates of only a fraction thereof. While chemically identical, they are literally reverse copies, and they differ in structure and composition and behave differently than natural vitamin complexes. (Picture yourself putting your right hand into a left-handed glove, or vice-versa.) The body cannot recognize these clever imposters and so eliminates them almost entirely through the kidneys, skin, and other elimination organs. The great majority of vitamins manufactured and sold today are synthetic.

Even vitamins that have been extracted from actual whole foods are, although natural, still single, isolated substances lacking their necessary co-factors. Take, for example, ascorbic acid, which has come to be thought of as equivalent to vitamin C. The problem here is that ascorbic acid is actually only a part of the natural vitamin C complex, not the vitamin C complex itself. Thus, taking ascorbic acid all by itself and expecting it to work in the body as if it were actually vitamin C as it exists in say, a green pepper, would be akin to dissecting a frog and expecting one of the detached legs to behave like the whole, living frog. No, what made the frog alive — the interwoven and fused complex — has been destroyed, just as what makes a vitamin alive — existing in a whole food with its co-factors — has been destroyed through extraction and isolation.

Why most supplements work for only a short time

Now this is not to say that synthetics or isolates do not have any effect at all. They do, at least for a time. This is because the human body, when it recognizes a synthetic or otherwise incomplete vitamin, will use from its own reserves the co-factors necessary to reassemble it into the natural complex in which it must exist in order for the body to use it. Thus, depending on how many co-factors exist in a given person’s body, and for how long, the now-reassembled vitamin complex will work, and a person often will notice improvements in his health. However, this cannot last for long, because eventually the body will use up those reserves of co-factors and no longer have the necessary components to be able to reassemble the vitamin complex. Therefore, as noted above, the body from now on will simply eliminate the isolate through the urine, skin, et al. This leads to deficiencies in the co-factors and ultimately, and ironically, an actual deficiency in the very vitamins and nutrients that were lacking in the first place!

Synthetic supplements can be harmful

Other things to consider when taking isolated dietary supplements are the difficulties inherent in determining which supplements to take, how much, with which co-factors, whether there are contraindications with other supplements, what are a given person’s specific biochemical needs, and many other considerations. Though it may surprise some, it is actually very possible to cause either a serious, life-threatening deficiency or an equally serious toxic overdose. Whole foods and whole food supplements, on the other hand, because they contain nutritional complexes, provide the body with everything it needs. Then the body, though the process known as “selective absorption,” decides for itself what nutrition it needs at that time and excretes the rest. There is no guessing game or balancing act; the God-given genius of the human body will do its job if only given what it needs.

Is healthy food enough?

At this point one might be tempted to think, “Then really all I need to do is eat a healthy, balanced diet of whole foods!” Well, yes and no. In principle, this is accurate. In practice, however, our modern food supply is incapable of providing the nutrients our bodies need. Industrial methods of farming, harvesting, and food processing, not to mention air and water pollution, have rendered our food supply largely devoid of nutrition. Ironically and paradoxically, the United States may be both the best fed and least nourished nation in the world. Coming full circle, this realization is what has caused many people to turn to supplements!

BioSuperfood is complete, whole food nutrition

What to do between the horns of this dilemma? For those of us who know about BioSuperfood, the answer is easy: BioSuperfood isn’t just a supplement made from whole food — BioSuperfood is whole food — the most nutrient-dense whole food on the planet. It contains all known vitamins and all their co-factors: all known minerals, all known trace elements, all known amino acids, a complete protein makeup, abundant chlorophyll, a full array of mixed carotenoids and antioxidants, essential and non-essential fatty acids, polysaccharides, thousands of enzymes, rare phytonutrients, and many, many others — more than 5,000 nutrients in all! It’s easy to see why Dr. Roland Thomas, BioSuperfood inventor Dr. Michael Kiriac’s main collaborator, calls BioSuperfood “the most advanced nutraceutical superfood available on earth at this time.”

~ Owen Sweeney

Sources: The Real Truth about Vitamins and Antioxidants by Judith A. De Cava, MS, LNC and Vitamin Myth Exposed by Brian Clement, PhD, NMD.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Peak Health Supplements, BioAge, or BioNutrition. Statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). None of the products offered on this website are intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.