vitamin C?? hmm . . .

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WHOLE FOOD VITAMINS:

ASCORBIC ACID IS NOT VITAMIN C

by Dr. Tim O'Shea

 

This will be a short chapter, but after you're finished with it, you will

know more about vitamins than 95% of clinical nutritionists, doctors, supplement

sales force, or bodybuilders. If that sounds arrogant or overstated, it really

isn't my fault. I'm just a messenger; a purveyor of information. Either I'm

right or the 95% are right; can't be both.

Without further ado, here's the kernel: ascorbic acid is not vitamin C. Alpha

tocopherol is not vitamin E. Retinoic acid is not vitamin A. And so on

through the other vitamins. Vast sums of money have been expended to make these

myths part of Conventional Wisdom. If you have several college degrees and all

this is news to you, don't feel bad. Unless you think your education ended at

Commencement. Which is generally true.

 

WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

Vitamins are not individual molecular compounds. Vitamins are biological

complexes. They are multi-step biochemical interactions whose action is

dependent

upon a number of variables within the biological terrain. Vitamin activity

only takes place when all conditions are met within that environment, and when

all co-factors and components of the entire vitamin complex are present and

working together. Vitamin activity is even more than the sum of all those parts;

it also involves timing.

Vitamins cannot be isolated from their complexes and still perform their

specific life functions within the cells. When isolated into artificial

commercial

forms, like ascorbic acid, these purified synthetics act as drugs in the

body. They are no longer vitamins, and to call them such is inaccurate.

A vitamin is

 

" a working process consisting of the nutrient, enzymes, coenzymes,

antioxidants, and trace minerals activators. "

- Royal Lee " What Is a Vitamin? " Applied Trophology Aug 1956

 

FORGOTTEN TRAILBLAZER

Dr. Royal Lee was the pioneer researcher in the field of whole food vitamins.

For decades he documented the basic facts summarized in this chapter. His

work has never been scientifically refuted. Anyone who seriously undertakes the

study of vitamins today corroborates Lee's work. His story is a fascinating

study in itself, a study of indomitable perseverance in the pursuit of true

principles. Jensen tells us that Royal Lee's work will not be appreciated until

the

next century.

Hasn't happened yet.

Lee felt the full weight of organized drugs/medicine bearing down on him.

Reading like something out of Schindler's List, we learn that the FDA not only

persecuted Lee for challenging the economics of synthetic vitamins, produced by

giant drug companies, but that he was actually ordered by a court to burn all

his research of the past 20 years! Burn his research! When has that ever

happened in this country? They didn't even do that to Larry Flynt.

Going off on a tangent, ever wondered [delete “edâ€] how the FDA attained its

present position as attack dog for the drug companies and food manufacturers?

It's another whole story in itself. The precursor of the FDA was the Bureau

of Chemistry. Up until 1912 the Bureau of Chemistry was headed up by a man

named Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. Here's a quote from Dr. Wiley that illustrates where

his interests lay:

 

" No food product in our country would have any trace of benzoic acid,

sulfurous acid or sulfites or any alum or saccharin, save for medical purposes.

No

soft drink would contain caffeine or theobromine. No bleached flour would enter

interstate commerce. Our foods and drugs would be wholly without any form of

adulteration and misbranding. The health of our people would be vastly improved

and the life greatly extended. The manufacturers of our food supply, and

especially the millers, would devote their energies to improving the public

health

and promoting happiness in every home by the production of whole ground,

unbolted cereal flours and meals. "

- The History of a Crime Against the Pure Food Law,1912

Now obviously we can't have a dangerous lunatic like this in charge of the

public nutrition, can we? Dr. Wiley actually filed suit against the Coca-Cola

company in an attempt to keep their artificial product out of interstate

commerce, and off the market. Fortunately Wiley was eventually replaced by a

saner

individual, more attuned to the real nutritional needs of the American people,

as determined by the experts who knew what was best for us: the food

manufacturers. This was Dr. Elmer Nelson, and in his words we get an idea of the

change

in philosophy that marked the transformation of the Bureau of Chemistry into

the FDA:

 

'It is wholly unscientific to state that a well-fed body is more able to

resist disease than a poorly-fed body. My overall opinion is that there hasn't

beenenough experimentation to prove that dietary deficiencies make one

susceptible to disease. "

- Elmer Nelson MD

Washington Post 26 Oct 49

 

Bernard Jensen illustrates how the tobacco industry and the food giants like

Coke were indirectly behind the legal persecution of Royal Lee. Cigarette ads

in the 40s and 50s showed medical doctors promoting the digestive benefits of

smoking Camels. Or the advertising of Coke and other refined sugar foods

stating that " science has shown how sugar can help keep your appetite and weight

under control. " (Empty Harvest)

During this same period, Royal Lee was kept in courts for years, fighting to

keep the right to advertise his vitamin products, because he was a threat to

the food manufacturers. Lee knew they were poisoning the American public. He

proved that refined sugars and devitalized, bleached flours were destroying the

arteries and the digestive system, causing heart disease and cancer.

 

WHOLE VS. FRACTIONATED

OK, natural vs. synthetic. Let's start with Vitamin C. Most sources equate

vitamin C with ascorbic acid, as though they were the same thing. They're not.

Ascorbic acid is an isolate, a fraction, a distillate of naturally occurring

vitamin C. In addition to ascorbic acid, vitamin C must include rutin,

bioflavonoids, Factor K, Factor J, Factor P, Tyrosinase, Ascorbinogen, and other

components.

 

In addition, mineral co-factors must be available in proper amounts. If any

of these parts are missing, there is no vitamin C, no vitamin activity. When

some of them are present, the body will draw on its own stores to make up the

differences, so that the whole vitamin may be present. Only then will vitamin

activity take place, provided that all other conditions and co-factors are

present. Ascorbic acid is described merely as the " antioxidant wrapper " portion

of

vitamin C; ascorbic acid protects the functional parts of the vitamin from

rapid oxidation or breakdown. (Somer p 58 " Vitamin C: A Lesson in Keeping An

Open

Mind " The Nutrition Report)

 

Over 90% of ascorbic acid in this country is manufactured at a facility in

Nutley, New Jersey, owned by Hoffman-LaRoche, one of the world's biggest drug

manufacturers(1 800 526 0189). Here ascorbic acid is made from a process

involving cornstarch and volatile acids. Most U.S. vitamin companies then buy

the

bulk ascorbic acid from this single facility. After that, marketing takes over.

Each company makes its own labels, its own claims, and its own formulations,

each one claiming to have the superior form of vitamin C, even though it all

came from the same place, and it's really not vitamin C at all.

 

FRACTIONATED = SYNTHETIC = CRYSTALLINE = FAKE

 

The word synthetic means two things:

- manmade

- occurs nowhere in nature

From the outset, it is crucial to understand the difference between vitamins

and vitamin activity. The vitamin is the biochemical complex. Vitamin activity

means the actual biological and cellular changes that take place when the

stage is set for the vitamin complex to act.

Think of it like gas and a car. Pumping the gas into the tank doesn't

necessarily mean the car is going anywhere. Other conditions and factors must be

also

present, in order for Activity to occur. The gas line to the carburetor must

be clear, the carburetor jets must be set, there must be an exact mixture of

air flow, the ignition must be turned on, the spark plugs must be clean, the

exact amount of gas must reach each spark plug right before it fires, no gas

must be left over in the cylinder after the plug fires[.] Getting the idea? If

any of this stuff is missing, there's no Activity: the car doesn't run, or at

least not very well.

 

Amazing as it may sound if you're hearing this for the first time, vitamins

are more than the synthetic fractions we are commonly taught they are. The

ascorbic acid you buy at the grocery store every few weeks, thinking you are

buying Vitamin C, is just a chemical copy of naturally occurring ascorbic acid,

which itself is still only a fraction of the actual Vitamin C. Real vitamin C is

part of something living, and as such, can impart life. Your synthetic,

fractionated chemical ascorbic acid never grew in the ground, never saw the

light of

day, never was alive or part of anything alive. It's a chemical, a cornstarch

derivative, a sulfuric acid by-product. In your body it's just another drug.

Synthetic vitamins have toxic effects from mega-doses and actually can

increase the white blood cell count. Vitamins are only necessary in minute

quantities

on a daily basis. Whole food vitamins, by contrast, are not toxic since the

vitamin is complexed in its integral working form, and requires nothing from

the body, and triggers no immune response.

 

DEFICIENCY

Scurvy is a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. Scurvy is characterized

by bleeding gums, slow wound healing, softening bones, loose teeth, ulcerations

of the mouth and digestive tract, general weight loss and fatigue. From 1650

to 1850 half of all seamen on transoceanic voyages died of scurvy. It was

discovered by ship surgeon Thomas Lind in the early 1800s that British sailors

were spared the disease altogether simply by a diet rich in citrus fruits. Since

limes travelled well, they were the common choice during the early years, and

thus the expression " limeys " was coined to describe British sailors. It was

later found both at sea and in prison fare that potatoes were equally successful

in preventing scurvy, and much cheaper to obtain. (Lancet. 1842)

We find that there is less than 20 mg of ascorbic acid in a potato. Yet this

small amount, since it is complexed in a food source, is all the body needs

not only to prevent scurvy, but also to cure it, even in its advanced state.

Such a remedy is described in detail in Richard Dana's amazing journal Two Years

Before the Mast, written in 1840.

Whole food vitamin C as found in potatoes, onions, and citrus fruits is able

to quickly cure any case of scurvy. By contrast, the fractionated chemical

ascorbic acid has been shown to be insufficient in resolving a scurvy condition,

simply because it does not act as a nutrient. (Lancet 1842)

Ascorbic acid simply cannot confer vitamin activity, as taught by the

discoverer of vitamin C himself, another Nobel Prize laureate, Dr. Albert

Szent-Georgi.

 

Szent-Georgi discovered vitamin C in 1937. In all his research however,

Szent-Georgi found that he could never cure scurvy with the isolated ascorbic

acid

itself. Realizing that he could always cure scurvy with the " impure " vitamin

C found in simple foods, Szent-Georgi discovered that other factors had to be

at work in order for vitamin activity to take place. So he returned to the

laboratory and eventually made the discovery of another member of the vitamin C

complex, as shown in the diagram above: rutin. All the factors in the complex,

as Royal Lee and Dr. Szent-Georgi both came to understand, ascorbic acid,

rutin, and the other factors, were synergists: co-factors which together sparked

the " functional interdependence of biologically related nutrient factors. "

(Empty Harvest p120) The term " wheels within wheels " was used to describe the

inte

rplay of co-factors.

Each of the other synergists in the C complex has a separate function:

 

- P factors for blood vessel strength,

- J factors for oxygen-carrying capacity of red cells,

- tyrosinase as an essential enzyme for enhancing white blood cell

effectiveness.

Ascorbic acid is just the antioxidant outer shell – the protector of all

these other synergists so that they will be able to perform their individual

functions.

Now I can hear you asking, what about Linus Pauling, double Nobel Prize

laureate, and his lifetime espousal of megadosing on ascorbic acid – up to 10

grams

per day? He lived to be 93. Are we saying that he took a synthetic vitamin

all that time? Yes, that's exactly right. Bernard Jensen suggests that ascorbic

acid has an acidifying effect in the body, making an unfriendly environment

for viruses, Candida, and pathogenic bacteria. " Most infectious pathogenic

bacteria thrive in an alkaline pH. " Pauling's good health was not the result of

synthetic vitamin activity. Good genetics and the acidifying effect are likely

what brought longevity to Linus Pauling. He eventually died of cancer.

Dr. Royal Lee's phrase " biological wheels within wheels " always comes up in

any discussion of whole food vitamins. Essentially it means that individual

synergists cannot function as a vitamin in a chemically isolated form, like

ascorbic acid. Vitamins are living complexes which contribute to other higher

living complexes – like cell repair, collagen manufacture, and maintenance of

blood

circulation. Ascorbic acid is not a living complex. It is a copy of a part of

a living complex known as vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is a fractionated,

crystalline isolate of vitamin C.

Why are you a high school graduate or a college graduate or a doctor, and you

don't know this? Because drug manufacturers like things clean and simple and

cheap to produce. To this simple fact add the politics which always comes into

play when anyone mentions the word " billions, " and you are beginning to get

the idea about where to begin your investigation. Burned his research???

 

DIETARY SOURCES

Most vitamins cannot be made by the body. They must be taken in as food. The

best sources then are obviously whole foods, rich in vitamins. Because of soil

depletion, mineral depletion, pesticides, air pollution, and erosion, it is

common knowledge that foods grown in American soil today have only a fraction

of the nutrient value of 50 years ago. That means a fraction of the vitamins

and minerals necessary for normal human cell function. Royal Lee described the

American diet as the cultivation and production of " devitalized foods. " Dr.

Weston Price describes these empty products as the " foods of commerce. " Think

it's gotten better or worse since their time? Thus the necessity for

supplementation.

Vitamins and minerals are not functionally separable. They make each other

work. Example: vitamin D is necessary for the body to absorb calcium. Copper is

necessary for vitamin C activity. And so on. Mineral deficiencies can cause

vitamin deficiencies, and vice versa. Epidemic mineral deficiency in America is

a well-documented result of systematic soil depletion. (See Minerals chapter:

thedoctorwithin.com)

So that is the other prime difference between whole food vitamins and

synthetics: whole food vitamins contain within them many essential trace

minerals

necessary for their synergistic operation. Synthetic vitamins contain no trace

minerals, relying on, and depleting, the body's own mineral reserves.

 

FUNNY FARMS

Following the German agricultural methods of Von Leibig in the mid-1800s,

American farmers found that NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) was all

that was necessary for crops to look good. (Frost p7) As long as NPK is added to

the soil, crops can be produced and sold year after year from the same soil.

They look OK. But the other necessary trace minerals vital for human nutrition

are virtually absent from most American soil after all these years. Many of

these minerals, such as zinc, copper, and magnesium, are necessary co-factors of

vitamin activity. Depleted topsoil is one simple, widespread mechanism of

both vitamin and mineral deficiency in American produce today. This doesn't even

take into account the tons of poisonous herbicides and pesticides dumped on

crops. According to the UN, two million tons of pesticides are used worldwide

annually. (Jensen, p69)

American agri-business has one motive: profit. Such a focus has resulted in

an output of empty produce and a nation of unhealthy people. The earth's immune

system is its soil. To be vital and capable of growing vital foods, soil must

be rich in both minerals and soil-based organisms - life forms. Healthy

produce naturally resists insects. Insects are like bad bacteria in the body:

they

are attracted to diseased tissue, though they do not cause it.

 

THE FOODS OF COMMERCE

And we're still only talking about people who actually eat raw fruits and

vegetables, which is a minority. Processed food composes the majority of what

most Americans eat. The only nutrients in most processed foods are " enriched "

and

" fortified " as described below.

When a doctor says that food supplements are all unnecessary because we can

get everything we need from our food, that doctor is lacking basic information

published and agreed upon by his own peers. Whether or not we need

supplementation is no longer an issue, except for one who is totally out of

touch. The

issue is what kind and how much. Vitamin and mineral deficiency can be tagged to

practically ANY disease syndrome known to man. DW Cavanaugh, MD of Cornell

University actually concluded that

 

" There is only one major disease, and that is malnutrition. " (Jensen, p8)

Malnutrition of the affluent is the natural result of the foods of commerce.

 

WEBSURFING

The best vitamins are called whole food vitamins. It will be difficult

finding this out on the Internet, however, because the Web is dominated by

mainstream nutritional theory. In the area of vitamins, the Internet is 99%

marketing;

1% actual information.

But then again, this isn't Mission Difficult. This is Mission Impossible, Mr

Hunt.

There are about 110 companies who sell vitamins in the US. Less than 5 of

them use whole food vitamins. The reason is simple: whole food vitamins are

expensive to make. A few of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world mass

produce synthetic vitamins for the vast majority of these 110 " vitamin "

companies,

who then put their own label on them, and every company claims theirs is the

best! It's ridiculous! Americans spend over $9 billion per year for synthetic

vitamins. (Frost p2)

Whole food vitamins are obtained by taking a vitamin-rich plant, removing the

water and the fiber in a cold vacuum process, free of chemicals, and then

packaging for stability. The entire vitamin complex in this way can be captured

intact, retaining its " functional and nutritional integrity. " (DeCava p.23.)

Upon ingestion, the body is not required to draw on its own reserves in order to

complete any missing elements from the vitamin complex.

Mainstream marketing of vitamins and minerals has successfully created the

myth that vitamins and minerals may be isolated from each other, that correct

amounts may be measured out, and then we can derive total benefit from taking

these fractionated chemical creations. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Vitamins and minerals, and also enzymes, work closely together as co-factors

for each other's efficacy. If one part is missing, or in the wrong form or the

wrong amount, entire chains of metabolic processes will not proceed normally.

Result: downward spiralling of health, probably imperceptible for long periods

of time.

 

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

What is the marketing philosophy behind the prevalence of the type of

synthetic vitamins available in the supermarket and mall vitamin stores? Simple:

profit above all else. Once the public is shown that vitamin supplementation is

necessary, the rest is marketing. Marketing is the art of persuading by

suspending logic and twisting data into junk science. Example: what's the actual

difference in composition between Wheaties and Total, two cereals put out by the

same company? Total is advertised as being much more nutrient-rich than

" ordinary " Wheaties. Look at the labels. What justifies the extra $1.30 for a

box of

Total? Answer: 1.5¢ worth of synthetic vitamins sprayed over the Wheaties.

That's it! That's what " vitamin enriched " always means. The other trick word is

" fortified. " Generally that means that the food itself is devoid of nutrients or

enzymes, so they tried to pump it up a little with some " vitamins. " Cheap

synthetic vitamin sprays are all that is required for the manufacturer to use

labels like " enriched " and " fortified. " These words are red flags – if a food

needs to be fortified or enriched, you can bet it was already dead.

The mega-vitamin theory doesn't really hold when it comes to synthetics: If A

Little Is Good, More Is Better. Macro doses of vitamin E, and also vitamin D

have been shown to decrease immune function significantly. (DeCava.) It stands

to reason. Vitamins by definition are necessary in phenomenally small doses.

The discoverer of thiamine, a B vitamin, and the man who came up with the word

vitamin , Dr. Casimir Funk, has this to say about synthetics:

 

" Synthetic vitamins: these are highly inferior to vitamins from natural

sources, also the synthetic product is well known to be far more toxic. "

Nutrition authority DeCava describes it:

 

" Natural food-source vitamins are enzymatically alive. Man-made synthetic

vitamins are dead chemicals. "

--The Real Truth About Vitamins p. 209

 

Oxymorons: military intelligence, rap music, synthetic vitamins.

The marketing of fractionated crystalline synthetic vitamins has been so

successful that most nutritionists and doctors are unaware that there is

something

missing from these " vitamins. " Vitamin manufacturers compete for customers

with identical products – they all bought their synthetic vitamins from the

same

couple of drug companies. To differentiate their product, each makes claims

of " high potency. " Our vitamins are higher potency than theirs, etc. The point

is, the higher the potency, the more the druglike effects are present. Natural

whole food vitamins are very low potency. Remember the 20mg of vitamin C in a

potato that was able to cure a patient of scurvy? That was low potency. Low

potency is all we need. Low potency is enough to bring about vitamin activity.

High potency overshoots the mark – the chemical is very pure and refined, like

the difference between white sugar and the type of sugar that's in an apple.

 

THE MILLIGRAM GAME

Generally speaking, if milligrams are being discussed at length, the author

has no clue about vitamins. Synthetic vitamins are refined, high potency

chemicals, and therefore may be accurately measured in milligrams, just like

drugs.

This has nothing to do with vitamin activity or nutrition, except in a

negative way.

 

HALF THE STORY

The same type of incomplete action can be seen with any synthetic vitamin.

Let's take beta carotene for a minute, which the body can turn into vitamin A.

Now you'll remember that vitamin A is necessary for good eyesight, DNA

synthesis, and protects cells from free radicals. A study reported in Apr 94 in

the

NEJM of some 30,000 Finnish subjects showed conclusively that synthetic vitamin

A had no antioxidant effect whatsoever. A true antioxidant helps to protect

heart muscle, lungs, and artery surfaces from breaking down prematurely. In this

study, the subjects who received the synthetic beta carotene actually had an

8% higher incidence of fatal heart attacks, strokes, and lung cancer than

those who got the placebo (sugar pill). Stands to reason: the synthetic brought

no

vitamin activity to the tissues that needed it. As a dead, purified chemical

introduced into the body, the synthetic further stressed the immune system,

the liver, and the kidneys which all had to try to break down this odd chemical

and remove it from the body. It would be bad enough if they were harmless, but

synthetic vitamins actually have a net negative effect.

 

Vitamin A

was first discovered in 1919. By 1924, it had been broken down and separated

from its natural whole food complex: " purified. " By 1931, LaRoche – one of the

largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, even today – had succeeded in

" synthesizing " vitamin A. That means they had created a purely chemical copy

of a fraction of naturally occurring vitamin A. Naturally occurring vitamin A

is found associated with an entire group of other components:

 

- Retinols

- Retinoids

- Retinal

- Carotenoids

- Carotenes

- Fatty acids

- Vitamin C

- Vitamin E

- Vitamin B

- Vitamin D

- Enzymes

- Minerals

Vitamins and Minerals Somer 1992

Isolated from these other factors, vitamin A is a fraction which cannot

perform its biological functions. Taken as a synthetic, it must then draw on

this

list of resources already in the body in order to complete its make-up. Whole

food vitamin A, by contrast, is already complete and ready to go.

Most synthetic vitamin A consists only of retinal, retinol, or retinoic acid.

The well-publicized potential for toxicity with mega doses of vitamin A

involves one of these three. Vitamin A toxicity, known as hypervitaminosis,

always

results from an excess of synthetic, " purified " vitamin A, and never from

whole food vitamin A. (DeCava, p 86) Effects of vitamin A toxicity include:

 

- tumor enhancement

- joint disorders

- osteoporosis

- extreme dryness of eyes, mouth and skin,

- enlargement of liver and spleen

- immune depression

- birth defects>

 

Beta carotene

is a precursor the body can convert to vitamin A. Unfortunately, as a

supplement, synthetic beta carotene is usually " stabilized " in refined vegetable

oils. In this trans fatty acid form, oxidation occurs and the chemically " pure "

beta carotene can no longer act as a nutrient, because it was changed. Almost

all synthetic beta carotene is produced by the Swiss drug giant Hoffman-LaRoche.

This form can no longer be converted to vitamin A. The best it can be is

worthless, and at the worst is toxic.

Natural vitamin A and beta carotene are well known as immune boosters and

cancer fighters, in their role as antioxidants. Synthetic vitamin A by contrast

has actually brought about significant increases in cancer. A study done in

Finland provided smokers with large doses of synthetic beta carotene. Lung

cancer

incidence increased 18%! (NEJM Apr 94 " The Alpha Tocopherol Beta Carotene

Cancer Prevention Study Group " )

These findings were corroborated two years later in another study written up

in Lancet. Pharmacologic doses of syntheric beta carotenes were found to block

the antioxidant activity of the other 50 naturally occurring carotenoids in

the diet. Anti-cancer activity was thus blocked by the synthetic. (Lancet 1996)

With the vast outpouring of wrong information about vitamins A and C, the

findings of a 1991 article in Health Counselor are no surprise: 50% of Americans

are deficient in vitamin A and 41% are deficient in vitamin C. Synthetic

vitamins cannot prevent deficiencies.

 

FAKE VITAMIN B

In one experiment, synthetic vitamin B (thiamine) was shown to render 100% of

a group of pigs sterile! 100% would be considered a significant finding. (Dr.

Barnett Sure, Journ Natr 1939) Perhaps the fact that synthetic vitamin B

comes from coal tar, maybe that has something to do with it, you think? Then

there's vitamin B12, which comes from activated sewage sludge. (Frost p 60) Been

shooting blanks since you started on those multi's?

For the licensed dieticians and clinical nutritionists reading this in

disbelief because it is too " unscientific, " consider the way Theron Randolph MD

delineated between natural and synthetic:

 

" A synthetically derived substance may cause a reaction in a chemically

susceptible person when the same material of natural origin is tolerated,

despite

the two substances having identical chemical structures. The point is

illustrated by the frequency of clinical reactions to synthetic vitamins –

especially

vitamin B1 and C- when the [same] naturally occurring vitamins are tolerated. "

 

IRRADIATION

According to Los Angeles naturopath, Dr. Jack Singh, all commercial lecithins

in supplements, as well as most vitamin D, comes from irradiated vegetable

oils. That's rancid, oxidizing trans fatty acids! A birthday party of free

radicals. This is the precise mechanism for arterial wall breakdown prior to

plaque

deposits, then arteriosclerosis, then heart disease. I thought we were

supposed to be taking vitamins to stay healthy!

 

LOST HORIZON

Why is this information so difficult to find? It's in none of the

" alternative " health 'zines, or any of the mainstream media. Alternative-Lite

guru Julian

Whittaker, in his summer 1998 newsletter actually had the temerity to state

outright " Synthetic vitamins and whole food vitamins are identical. " I'm sure

his synthetic vitamin company and all its retailers were reassured by this

incredibly arrogant and flagrantly inaccurate pronouncement. But who is

objecting?

Only those clients of the 5 companies who know enough to take whole food

vitamins, because they have become educated to realize the difference. These are

the vast minority, having no control of the media.

Royal Lee and Harvey Wiley lost. Nobody knows who they are today, except we

few. This is no accident. What everybody does know is Pepsi and Viagra and

Wonder Bread and prednisone and Double Whoppers with Cheese and Zantac and

Baskin-Robbins and Long's Drug Store. And grocery store vitamins: synthetic

vitamins.

That's America, today as the product of yesterday. Control of information in

America today is one of the most sophisticated systems of influence ever

devised. The simple ideas contained in this chapter are simply not available to

the

mass consciousness. The documentation is out there, but you really gotta dig.

100 years ago if a medical doctor saw a case of cancer he would call all his

colleagues to come and have a look, telling them it was unlikely they would

see another case, as cancer was so rare. People rarely died of heart attacks; in

fact the term heart attack itself didn't even exist. There was no incidence

at all of atherosclerosis. Diabetes was practically unheard of. What did they

eat? Fruits, vegetables, meat, butter, and lard. But none of it was processed

with drugs and chemicals.

Today one in three dies of cancer. One in two dies of heart disease. Diabetes

is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. (Vital Statistics) Is that

progress? If you are a food manufacturer it is, and especially if you are a

drug manufacturer. In the 1980s the WHO ranked the US as #22 in the world in

infant mortality. Male sperm count is less than 20% of what it was in 1929.

(1981

University of Florida report, Natural vs. Synthetic) Infant mortality is up;

birth defects are up. We spend $1.5 trillion per year for health care, most of

which goes for administration and executive salaries. Who are the largest

advertisers for TV and the printed media? Right: drug companies and food

manufacturers. Do they want to keep the ball rolling? You bet. Will they kill

you to

do it? You bet. Do they want people to take charge of their own health by

natural inexpensive foods and supplements? Negative. A cure for cancer has been

" right around the corner " since Nixon. People are starting to ask questions;

they're less inclined to believe the slick ads coming every 10 minutes on TV and

in Newsweek.

Perhaps Hippocrates did not envision doctors as detail men or drug reps. He

most likely thought like Henry Bieler, MD:

 

Nature, if given the opportunity is always the greatest healer. It is the

physician's role to assist in this healing, to play a supporting role.- Finding

the Right Cure for You

 

So what do you do? Well, you now have some insight that your vitamin needs

are not being met by the Safeway generics. Wallach used to talk about expensive

urine from these unmetabolized grocery store synthetic placebos.

The water soluble vitamins are best obtained through organic produce grown in

mineral-rich soil. The best supplements in this category are the top-shelf

green foods, like David Sandoval's Best of Greens, and its equivalents.

The fat soluble vitaimins, A, E, and D are best obtained through fish, raw

dairy, avocado, raw nuts, raw coconut, and clean meats. High end supplements

like Udo's Choice and a ton of clean algae can round out your EFA requirements

Beyond this it's MLM marketing roulette, and if you can't spot the mark in

the first 5 minutes, baby, it's you.

 

REFERENCES

 

DeCava, Judith-- The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants 1996

 

Jensen, Bernard, DC --- Empty Harvest 1990

 

Frost, Mary--- Going Back to the Basics of Human Health 1997

 

Bieler, Henry MD--- Finding the Right Cure For You 1998

 

Lee, Royal--- " What Is a Vitamin? " Applied Trophology Aug 1956)

 

Wiley, Harvey W., MD--- The History of a Crime Against the Pure Food Law

 

Robbins, John--- Reclaiming Our Health 1996

 

Nelson, Elmer, MD --- Washington Post 26 Oct 49

 

Somer, Elizabeth--- " Vitamin C: A Lesson in Keeping An Open Mind " The

Nutrition Report, Lancet. 1842

 

Dana, Richard--- Two Years Before the Mast, p 444 ff. 1840

 

Lind, James--- " A Treatise of the Scurvy in Three Parts. Containing an

inquiry into the Nature,

Causes and Cure of that Disease, together with a Critical and Chronological

View of what has been published on the subject. "

A. Millar, London, 1753

 

Woodall, A--- Caution with b-carotene supplements Lancet 347:967, 1996

 

Heinonen O MD--- The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence

of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers " The Alpha Tocopherol Beta

Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group---NEJM 14 Apr 1994 330;15:1031

 

Barnett Sure, MD--- Journ Natr 1939

 

University of Florida report--- " Natural vs. Synthetic " 1981

 

Randolph, Theron MD--- Human Ecology and Susceptibility to the Chemical

Environment 7th ed. 1980

 

Price, Weston --- Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Keats Publ. 1997

 

CDC --National Vital Statistics Report

Vol. 47, no.19, June 1999

 

[above from www.thedoctorwithin.com]

 

 

 

Jock Doubleday

Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.

A 501©3 California Nonprofit Corporation

323 E. Matilija, Suite 110-131

Ojai, CA 93023

http://GentleBirth.org/nwnm.org

www.SpontaneousCreation.org

jockdoubleday

 

The information contained in this email is not a substitute for

professional caregiver advice.

 

Jock Doubleday is the author of Spontaneous Creation: 101

Reasons Not To Have Your Baby in a Hospital. He is also

active in the international endeavor to bring the dangers of

vaccination to light.

 

" The study of the evolution of disease patterns provides evidence that during

the last century doctors have affected epidemics no more profoundly than

did priests during earlier times. Epidemics came and went, imprecated by

both but touched by neither. They are not modified any more decisively by

the rituals performed in medical clinics than by those customary at religious

shrines. " (Ivan Illich, Limits to Medicine)