Whole Food Vitamins Vs. Synthetic

In the past few decades,  Americans have gotten more and more health conscious as a nation.  That is, many Americans have gotten more health conscious; it’s an undeniable and terrible fact that millions of Americans are far less conscious of their health these days, as a quick look at the astronomical rates of increase in things like obesity and adult onset diabetes will reveal.  But even many of these folks are starting to see the light, and are trying to reclaim their health.  All health conscious people take vitamins,  and this has led to a big debate - which are better, vitamins made from natural food products (whole food vitamins), or synthetics?  Or are they pretty much the same?

Well, if you ask a lot of doctors and other medical experts, they will say it doesn’t matter, a vitamin is a vitamin, and that there’s no differences whatsoever with regard to either quality or efficacy when it comes to both kinds of vitamins.   They’ll reply that a lot of people claiming that whole food vitamins are better are not medical professionals at all, but self styled health experts who aren’t qualified to make pronouncements on these subjects.  They’ll also point out that natural vitamins almost always cost more than synthetic one, and there’s no need to pay the higher price, and besides, you could take the money you save and invest in other areas of your life to improve your health.

On the other hand, some doctors and medical experts, and a lot of natural heath enthusiasts will respond that it’s simply common sense that whole food vitamins are better than synthetic, and they’ll ask you to name any other naturally occurring substance whose synthetic imitation is better than the original.  They’ll point out the many follies and foibles of the medical industry - that until recently they said ulcers were caused by stress, and now they know they’re caused by bacteria, and that up until about the 1960s, doctors actually recommended and endorsed cigarette smoking.

Who’s right in the whole foods vitamins vs. synthetics debate?  Well, I’m not sure we can ever “prove” which side is right, but as for me, I subscribe to the old theory that it’s not nice to mess around with Mother Nature, and I’m going to stick with natural vitamins.