There are three basic supplement types available on the market today:

1. NATURAL: Natural means vitamins as found in natural foods, untampered with in any way that might change their molecular, biological or biochemical combinations, or their action. This usually means that only the fiber and moisture are removed. All labels of truly NATURAL food concentrates should indicate the exact food source from which the vitamin is obtained.

2. CRYSTALLINE: Means it had a natural food as its original source but was treated with various high-powered chemicals, solvents, heat and distillations to reduce it down to one specific, pure crystalline vitamin or amino acid; and hence is no longer natural. It no longer has its synergistic components, that is , its enzymes, co-enzymes, minerals, mineral activators, and co-vitamin helpers. It has been reduced to a pure crystalline powder with one definite simple chemical structure. In this form it is but one simple phase of the complete VITAMIN COMPLEX.

3. SYNTHETIC: Means that in the laboratory the scientist has reconstructed the exact structure of the CRYSTALLINE molecule by "putting together" or chemically combining the same molecules from other sources. Therefore, chemically, there is no difference between the two. The Crystalline may have a slight advantage in that it is difficult to reduce any natural product to an absolute pure state and any impurities would be "synergists," hence, giving a little added value to the Crystalline over the Synthetic. On the label for either Synthetic or Crystalline only the chemical name of the single vitamin is usually given. Legally it is not necessary to give the source from which the synthetic chemical is derived.¹

When man realized his foods had been devitalized (through "modern" processing methods), he decided to replace the lost vitamins. But in his effort to extricate himself from the refined food trap, "scientific confusion" led him to try to replace the nutrients with "chemical man-made vitamins."

So, here again, he refined down vitamin products into pure crystalline vitamins, robbing them of important food values just as he had refined natural grains and natural sweets into their pure crystalline carbon–white flour and white sugar.

Then, to save money he duplicated these crystalline vitamins synthetically, mostly from coal tar products. Thus natural vitamins as natural foods were robbed of nature's life and valuable elusive nutrients.

Science proves that while man can isolate from our foods known factors comprising about 99 percent of total weight, we cannot maintain normal nutrition or "life" by consuming the factors thus isolated. Nature still withholds that something that sustains "life."²

"High potency" is a much abused term. Test animals on a "high potency enriched diet" do not live as long as those on the same low vitamin diet WITHOUT the enrichment.³

The human biochemistry requires bioavailable (available to the cells) complexes, NOT huge amounts of crystalline pure or synthetic fractions of vitamin complexes.

The apparent benefits derived from laboratory-made vitamins are short-lived and after a time the benefit is reversed.⁴

Natural food complex supplements are typically of a low dose. It is sometimes difficult to envision that such small amounts of a natural substance could be so efficacious. Then again, nature does not supply micronutrients (essential nutrients required in small amounts) in large amounts in any natural food.

Kleiner and Orten's textbook, Biochemistry, relates that a millionth of a gram (1 microgram) of (assimilable) B12 per day is all that is needed to maintain a person suffering from pernicious anemia.⁵

The literature is abundant with studies demonstrating that large or megadoses can and do create serious problems to human biochemistry.

That natural, low-potency complexes work, while high concentrates do not, was repeated by C.H. Parker in the "Southern Surgeon" pp. 301-338, May 1941. Parker's studies showed that natural Cod Liver Oil ACCELERATED wound healing. When Cod Liver Oil ointment containing high and refined concentrations of the oil were used, wound healing was actually RETARDED.⁶

Then again, as far back as May 1938, H.R. Getz (Proc. Soc. Exp Biol and Med, p. 543) established by careful studies that the healing value of the complex is proven to be in the NATURAL COMBINATION OF FACTORS AND NOT IN ANY ONE COMPONENT.⁷

The information cited to this point, clearly shows the difference between the SYNTHETIC and the NATURAL. Simply, the synthetic does not work in the curative or physiological sense. The natural complex does work, but more importantly, NATURAL COMPLEXES DO THEIR WORK IN PHENOMENALLY SMALL DOSES.

A common, highly deceptive practice, is the manufacturing of pseudo nutrients, labeling crystalline, pure and synthetic vitamin fractions as COMPLEXES, and passing off on a gullible public phony, synthetics-or fractions of vitamin complexes and ballyhooing that the BODY DOES NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.

The meaning of complexes simply is the sum or combination of various things. A more precise definition is: Consisting of various connected or interwoven parts, composite. The latter definition suggests an internal interrelationship, a reciprocal relation which would more closely fit the thought of a vitamin or a micronutrient complex. Nevertheless, many "nutritional" manufacturers define a complex as a compound or mixture containing two or more items, WHATEVER THEY MAY BE.

As a result, the consumer buys a Vitamin C product that says on the label: Vitamin C from Natural Sources (usually synthesized from corn sugar) with bioflavonoinds or rutin. Legally this can be called a "C Complex", natural and organic, but is really not more that a combination of two or more dead, refined chemicals -- not a required-for-life BIOCHEMICAL!⁸

Why the great mystery about all of this? Why don't doctor's know about vitamins or nutrition in general? One big answer was revealed in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Aug. 8, 1980. It honestly admitted: "The area of nutrition has been neglected by the medical profession. Most medical schools devote less than three hours of total instruction to nutritional deficiencies and therapy. In short, physicians in the United States are not required to have any understanding of nutrition to be licensed to practice medicine."⁹

We do not believe in or suggest megavitamin or excess doses of "so- called" nutrients. In turn, a TOTAL general schedule of nutritional supplements cannot be incorporated into a "one-a-day" type pill.

High-potency concentrations are not really nutrients but, in essence, drugs, and can function only in the human body as a pharmacological agent, certainly not as a physiological supporting nutrient.

Because of this fact, several different products must be used to cover the gamut of total nutritional supplementation. they cannot be concentrated into 3-4 tablets and retain biological activity. This is another reason most prescribed supplements today do not have a corrective effect.¹⁰

It is folly and impossible to attempt to equate the doses for a synthetic supplement to the dose of a natural food concentrate -- as they are entirely different substances with different effects. An analogy could be: Attempting to substitute and equate chocolate milk in a fruit drink recipe that calls for a fresh squeezed orange – how could you do this? Both items can be used as liquid sources, but that is the extent of their similarities. The effects of naturals and synthetics are wholly different. The dosages have no relationship on a comparative basis.

From the information above, hopefully you can appreciate even more fully that:

1. There is a difference between natural and synthetic vitamins. Natural vitamins must not be segregated, separated or isolated. The most that can be done to increase the potency without disturbing the Natural balance is to evaporate the moisture and remove the fiber so as to conserve space and temporarily render the vitamin inactive.
    
2. Fractions of vitamin complexes are NOT VITAMINS AT ALL.
    
3. The best to be expected of synthetic vitamin fractions or even natural vitamin fractions is a drug effect.
    
4. Natural, low-potency vitamin complexes do not cause any disease or adverse reaction in the body. Total nutritional supplementation only provides the body with essential elements needed for general biochemistry and physiology - to help the body stay healthy and repair tissue damage.
    
5. Natural food vitamins are never highly concentrated. Nature is interested in balance, not potency. This means that to get higher than normal potency, NATURAL VITAMINS MUST BE CONSUMED IN GREAT QUANTITY. Synthetic and Crystalline vitamins lend themselves to high potency concentrations in a few small pills.
    
6. Natural vitamins build nutritionally, while synthetics build medically.
    
7. Naturals are more expensive because they are perishable, and every precaution must be taken to preserve their life and integrity. Synthetics are "dead", inert, cheaper and present much fewer handling problems. As with any inert material, greater mass production creates cheaper bargain prices.