The first thing you need to know is that commercially sold vitamins and minerals are manufactured from different sources that vary widely in their composition and their ingredients. We can differentiate nutritional supplements into five separate categories, which are represented below. The very best nutritional supplements are from a category that we call Raw Food-Created Nutrients. Vitamin Code supplements are in this category.
- Raw Food-Created Nutrients (Vitamin Code)
- Fermented Vitamins and Minerals
- Food Concentrates
- USP Isolated Vitamins and Minerals with Food Powders
- USP Isolated Vitamins and Minerals
USP Isolated Vitamins and Minerals and RDA’s
USP is an abbreviation for United States Pharmacopeia, a branch of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The RDA, or Recommended Daily Allowance, which is also known as DVs (Daily Values) or DRVs (Daily References Values) is a U.S. government standard that estimates the minimum amount of a nutrient that the body needs to stay healthy. Look at RDAs like minimum-wage jobs: it’s barely enough to get by and certainly not enough to thrive.
The second issue is that the USP vitamins and minerals are nothing more than synthetic versions of common nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin E. When various vitamins are mass-produced from laboratory-manufactured sources, they are known in the industry as synthetic isolates.
Isolate vitamins don’t contain any of the synergistic co-factors required for the body to recognize or utilize. As a result, USP vitamins have significantly reduced biological activity and a lower rate of utilization in the body.
Synthetic vitamins are less biologically active than vitamins made from food-grown sources. Our bodies usually do not absorb more than 50 percent of the vitamins and minerals we ingest anyway because of the way our digestive system works. So, if you’re taking a multivitamin that is, say, 50 percent less productive for you, and the body absorbs just half of that, you’re only receiving 25 percent of the advertised potency.
|
Vitamin
|
Natural
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Synthetic
|
|
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fish oils
|
acetate or palmitate
|
|
B1
|
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thiamine mononitrate, thiamine hydrochloride, thiamine chloride
|
|
B2
|
yeast, rice bran
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riboflavin, riboflavin phosphate
|
|
B3
|
yeast, rice bran
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niacinamide, inositol hexaniacinate
|
|
B6
|
yeast, rice bran
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pyridoxine hydrochloride
|
|
B12
|
yeast, liver fermentation
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cobalamin, cyancobalamin, methylcobalamin
|
|
C
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citrus fruits, green peppers, rose hips, acerola, wildberry
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ascorbic acid, ascorbyl palmitate
|
|
D
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cod liver oil or fish oil
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irradiated ergosterol or calciferol
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|
E
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vegetable oils, wheat germ, or d-alpha tocopherol
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dl-alpha tocopherol
|
|
K
|
alfalfa
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menadione
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A final word of advice regarding USP vitamins and minerals: stay away from products that come in pink, red, and purple hues, which is a tip-off that sugars, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, and artificial flavorings were used. Nearly all “chewable” vitamins contain high fructose corn syrup, a sugar, to make their taste palatable, especially to young children.