Are Organic Discount Vitamins Healthier

That is a good question – are organic discount vitamins healthier. It should be irrelevant whether they are discount or not, so we shall forget that part of it for the time being. It is not totally irrelevant since organic vitamins can cost more, and any discount is a bonus, but let’s look at the difference between organic and non-organic first.

Organic foods are easily defined: they are foods produced using 100% natural materials. A carrot is grown without using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and organic beef is fed with naturally grown grass and with no injected nutrients. The carrot is a carrot however it is grown, and the beef is beef whatever it is fed on. However, what is an organic vitamin? Is a vitamin a vitamin, irrespective of whether it is organic or not?

What is the difference between a vitamin in a tablet or a capsule and one that is contained within a carrot or a beef steak? Is vitamin C any the less because it comes in a supplement rather than in an orange? The answer to that is perhaps. Many would say no, and others would say yes, so the average answer is probably perhaps. But what is the actual truth of the matter? It is an important question because the synthetic vitamin and mineral industry is huge, and if synthetic vitamins are ineffective it will have massive implications for the industry.

Let us look at the arguments and see if we can come to a conclusion other than ‘perhaps’.

It is medical evidence that is needed, not the opinion of one sect or another that believes we should eat only what God gives us: were that the case, then the human population would be in serious trouble right now. Nor is the opinion of the scientists that state that a chemical is a chemical, irrespective of its origin. It might not be so much the construction of the chemical that is relevant in this discussion than what synergies are important and what other chemicals are present within the natural source, the vegetable, fruit or animal, that are essential for the vitamin in question to be put to full use.

For example, vitamin C is a more effective antioxidant in the presence of vitamin E and zinc. Does a synthetic vitamin C supplement also contain traces of vitamin E and zinc? If not, then the organics win the argument. However, the same is true of organic vitamins. Without a balanced nutritional mix of vitamins and minerals, individual organic vitamin combinations, synergistical or not, will have less of an effect than a balance multivitamin tablet. Or will it?

I am not referring to those that claim organic vitamins to be living enzymes, which they patently are not, but to the forms in which nutrients are best absorbed by the body. Organic vitamins are made by processing the natural source, for example carrot powder. Why not, then, simply call it carrot powder? The problem is the ignorance and opinion that abounds on the internet on this topic. That makes it very difficult to find real information.

For example the belief that a vitamin is a living enzyme, or that organic vitamins have no added heavy metals such as “arsenic, aluminum, cadmium, lead and mercury”. That list is the one I saw on a website, not mine. Apart from the fact that aluminum is not a heavy metal, none of these metals are allowed by federal law to be added to any foodstuff since they are all highly toxic. Nor do they appear naturally in any vitamin. So why mention them?

Where can we go to for information if not the internet? The answer is simple. Believe no one but what your common sense tells you. Labeling is controlled by state and federal regulations, and must be accurate. If a vitamin is labeled as 100% organic, it means that it was produced without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. So what does that mean in terms of vitamin C?

If we ignore the silly argument that vitamins are enzymes and take ‘organic’ as described in the paragraph above, what is ‘organic’ vitamin C? Is it crushed and dried blackberries or powdered broccoli, or is it ascorbic acid extracted from organically grown oranges? Or is it chemically synthesized ascorbic acid made without the use of any fertilizers or pesticides? I know that the argument seems facetious, but it is not. It is stated in that way to indicate that no satisfactory definition of ‘organic’ as related to supplements has been offered.

Let us assume that term refers to vitamins and other supplements that have been obtained from living sources that have been grown without the use of synthetic nutrients or pesticides. In that case they could be the vegetable source in a natural, dried and powdered, or extract form. Is there any reason why organic vitamin C cannot be offered in the form of fruit juice, fruit extract or even the isolated ascorbic acid in tablet form? The non-organic source would be defined as synthetic ascorbic acid manufactured from corn syrup or whatever.

In fact there is! This is where you and I as laymen are ignorant of what a vitamin really is. It is very rarely a pure chemical, but is part of a complex of different chemicals that need each other for the whole to provide the desired benefit to our bodies. In a natural vitamin C source, for example, there are a number of organic and inorganic chemicals, most of which act synergistically as previously described.

The same is true of the B vitamins: those that are needed together occur naturally together, along with the minerals and other phytonutrients needed for them to carry out their allotted tasks.

Synthetic ascorbic acid is the same chemical as natural ascorbic acid. If a vitamin C supplement is provided as part of a multivitamin and mineral supplement that contains all the chemicals needed for vitamin C to carry out its antioxidant function, then it will do so. If, however, it is required for its part in the formation collagen that is necessary to prevent scurvy, for example, then it might not do so if the other materials needed for it to carry out that function are absent.

In that case, even just taking vitamin C as an example, and not considering any of the others, a natural organic source must be healthier than a synthetic source. Organic discount vitamins are not only healthier but also less expensive if the discount is sufficient to overcome the difference in price that normally exists between organic and synthetic sources. Taking organic vitamins assures one that there are no harmful chemicals and metals in the vitamins which leads to a healthier disease free life.