Many conventional and non-conventional healthcare practitioners think that there is no difference between natural and synthetic vitamins, or between chelated minerals and inorganic minerals. This, of course, is incorrect, and has led to enormous confusion in the nutritional field.

THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES ARE A HANDFUL OF HUNDREDS THAT COULD BE GIVEN TO ILLUSTRATE THIS POINT:

• Reported on April 14, 1994 in The New England Journal of Medicine was a study in which 29,000 male smokers were give synthetic beta-carotene and synthetic vitamin E to evaluate the cancer-protective effect of these “vitamins”.  After 10 years, the men taking the synthetic beta-carotene had an 18% higher rate of lung cancer, more heart attacks, and an 8% higher overall death rate.  Those taking synthetic vitamin E had more strokes.

Food sources of these same nutrients, such as fruits and vegetables, consistently demonstrate protection against cancer, heart disease and stroke.

• On November 23, 1995, the following was reported in The New England Journal of Medicine: 22,748 pregnant women were given synthetic vitamin A. After four years the study was halted because of a 240% increase in birth defects in babies of women taking 10,000 IU daily, and a 400% increase in birth defects in babies of women taking 20,000 IU a day.

Women eating natural food sources of vitamin A showed no increase in birth defects.

• Reported in Reuters Health, March 3, 2000 was a study on men who took 500 mg of synthetic vitamin C daily. It was found that over an 18-month period, these men had a 250% increase of the intima-media lining (inner lining) of the carotid artery. This thickening is an accurate measurement for the progression of atherosclerosis. That is, synthetic vitamin C induced atherosclerosis, even at a 500 mg dose.

Whole-food vitamin C protects and repairs the inner lining of blood vessels, and is preventive against atherosclerosis.

IN SUMMARY

You can’t repair and rebuild a living body with dead chemicals.