FAQ: Why should I care about natural vs synthetic ingredients?

Q- Why should I care about natural vs synthetic ingredients?

A- To the FDA "Natural" means a LOT of things but to us here at TriLight it means coming from a PLANT SOURCE like herbs. Synthetic vitamins and minerals are NOT derived from foods but from scientists in a laboratory. They are much less expensive because they are mass-produced without harvesting from real food.  So when you read the ingredients in Sports drinks and they list potassium, you can be sure it's synthetic.  They are isolated copies of the molecular structure of what is found in food. 

The body knows how to break down and utilize plant based minerals but synthetic?  The assimilation rate is only about 6% for synthetic and about 98% for plant based minerals.  Yes, they are more expensive but your body can absorb and use them!

How do you know if the vitamins on your kitchen counter are from whole foods or if they are synthetic?

If you choose to use nutritional supplements, it is in your best interest to use only those products that list actual foods as their ingredients rather than synthetic and isolated vitamins. While some synthetic and isolated vitamins have been shown to provide minimal health benefits, on the whole, most of them cause more harm than good in the long run.  Many Alzheimer's patients brains that are being examined are find overdoses of certain individual mineral deposits.  Food doesn't overdose.  

Some clues allow us to "see" what is really there in a bottle.  One easy way to tell is to look at the RDA. If the potency is higher than anything you would find in nature (example 1000% Daily Recommended Allowance of Vitamin C per serving), the product contains synthetically produced ingredients, no matter what the producer of that product might claim.  

Search for words listed in the ingredients that begin with “dl.” When a word contains “dl” in the prefix, it is an indication that the vitamin is synthetic. As an example, “dl-alpha tocopherol acetate” and “dl-alpha tocopherol” are synthetic forms of vitamin E.

Find words that end with “ate” or “ide” in the list of ingredients. Usually it indicates that the manufacturer used synthetic materials for increasing the vitamin’s potency and stability. Some words to look for include nitrate, acetate, sodium ascorbate, sodium benzoate, chloride, hydrochloride, silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide.

If you see the vitamin listed as the vitamin itself, such as “vitamin D,”  Look for “citrus” instead of “vitamin C” or “parsley” instead of “vitamin K.”  One is the plant, the other an isolate of the plant.

Be aware that only 10 percent of the product must come from natural food sources in order for a company to claim “natural” on the product’s label in the USA.

Normally, if the vitamin supplement has a high or otherwise unnatural potency, the product is synthetic. For example, a product that provides 1,000 percent of vitamin C is unusually high. This is ten times the amount you need daily, and an amount that even a healthy diet — consisting of natural, whole-food sources — cannot provide.  Not everything is eliminated by the urine and even then you are overworking your organs which could lead to inflammation, the leading cause of cancers.  

Herbs are whole foods. Not pharma, not drugs, not isolated chemicals- they come with all of their necessary components. The majority of vitamins that are sold in pharmacies, grocery stores, and vitamin shops are synthetic vitamins, which are only isolated portions of the vitamins that occur naturally in food and drain the body in order, cause side effects trying to get the ingredients to work.

A good example is vitamin C. If you take a look at a variety of vitamin C supplements, you will find that the majority of them contain only ascorbic acid or a compound called ascorbate, which is a less acidic form of acorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is NOT vitamin C. It represents the outer ring that serves as a protective shell for the entire vitamin C complex, much like an orange peel that serves as a protective shell for an orange. Real vitamin C found in whole foods like fruits and vegetables contain the following components:

Plants absorb vitamins and minerals and provide a balanced nutrition.  

That being said you can't just throw in a bunch of single isolated vitamins in a pill and expect it to just work.  Time testing a formula for specific results does have a LOT of merit. Drugs do clinical testing but we all know that all that seems to reveal is more side effects.  It is not just vitamin and minerals that make a formula work, it is the hot/cold aspects, the on/off switch of some herbs in the formula to activate and give direction to specific organs. This is without side effects because it is NOT synthetic, it really is food that your body knows what to do with it already.  That's why we have over 21 years of success with these same formulas.  It's not a "new break-thru" in science that spends more time listing the side effects than the benefits!

It's not only the nutrients but the method of processing to yield the herbs in a form your body can use.  We have had other companies copy our formulas and use fast high heat processing and preservatives to save money but I would get phone calls from employees of these companies and tell me there kids where on our products because they worked!  These highly commercialized forms yield high profit margins but at what sacrifice to your children?  

Many synthetic vitamins and pharmaceuticals  deplete your body of other nutrients and tax your kidneys before being excreted through your urine or worse yet stay in the body for long periods of time and cause what we call side effects.

Are certain synthetic ingredients worse than others?

Yes. Some vitamins are water soluble, so the flush out of the body quite easily. Other vitamins are fat soluble. The fat-soluble vitamins include vitamins A, D, E and K. Because they are soluble in fat (lipids), these vitamins tend to build-up in the body's fat tissues, fat deposits, and liver. This storage capability makes the fat-soluble vitamins potentially toxic when consuming high-dose synthetic versions of these vitamins, rather than food-based vitamins that the body knows how to metabolize. Care should be exercised when taking the fat-soluble vitamins, and it is recommended that you avoid the synthetic forms of these vitamins whenever possible.

Also many people are allergic to the chemicals used as a base for synthetic vitamins. Some are toxic, including nicotine, coal tars and alloxal. Avoid toxic ingredients such as magnesium stearate or stearic acid (toxic flowing agents), silicon dioxide (common sand used as an expensive filler that makes the bottle weigh more with the hope that the uneducated consumer will equate weight with higher quality), natural flavors (a common term for toxic MSG used to disguise bland tastes), methylcellulose, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, and many more.

What is wrong with isolated vitamins?

In addition to being synthetic, isolated vitamins are missing all their naturally occurring essential synergistic co-factors and transporters. A synthetic vitamin can stimulate a cell's metabolism, but it cannot upgrade or replace the cell's components with superior, better quality elements. The results? A degraded cell. Nature always packages vitamins in groups. The vitamins work together for better absorption. For this reason, the body responds to an isolated vitamin in the same way it responds to a toxin.

All of our formulas have calcium, if it is just there in the soil.  It is in greater amounts in some herbs than others, combined with different amounts of minerals and to the Herbalist that is the secret.  Like a Chef with food the Herbalist will combine these these for a variety of results.

In the mid-1930s, multivitamins became available in grocery stores and pharmacies. These supplements were made from natural, dried and compressed vegetable and fruit concentrates, but then, in the early 1940s, certain brands began producing synthetic versions.  Synthetic vitamin A comes from fish liver juices loaded with toxic PCB's and mercury. Synthetic vitamin C comes from acid blends that irritate the lining of your digestive track. It's just a chemical copy of naturally occurring ascorbic acid. This kind of fractionated, chemical acid never grew in the ground or received sunlight, but rather it's a sulfuric acid by-product. Once you swallow that pill, it's just another carcinogenic drug in your body, like MSG (monosodium glutamate) or Aspartame that is LEGAL to take but do you really want to use it?

True whole food vitamins don't leech the body of their missing co-factors and don't cause a vitamin imbalance. We are told that synthetic vitamins are the same as natural but that that is not the whole paragraph, the whole story.  It is the fact that they are manufactured to a standardized specification that also gives it the inability for the body to utilize it.  

Many synthetic vitamins lack the transporters and co-factors associated with naturally-occurring vitamins because they have been “isolated.” The Organic Consumers Association emphasizes that isolated vitamins cannot be used or recognized by the body in the same way as the natural version.  The old boring plant has put the nutrition in a form that the body recognizes, metabolizes and uses them to make what it needs.

Isolated vitamins can’t always be used by the body, and are either stored until you obtain or create the nutrients required to use them effectively or are excreted. Synthetic vitamins are also devoid of necessary trace minerals and must use the body’s own mineral reserves which may lead to dangerous mineral deficiencies.

Did You Know? More than 95% of all the vitamin supplements sold today fall in to the synthetic category. Fat soluble vitamins in their synthetic form are especially dangerous because they can build up in your fatty tissues and cause toxicity. The reason that the synthetic form is more dangerous is because you can get a high, concentrated dose of the vitamin rather than the amount that you would get from a food-based form.  Vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat soluble

Fat soluble vitamins are found naturally in butter, fish oils, nuts, and green leafy vegetables

Excesses of fat soluble vitamins are stored in the liver and fatty tissues.  Could this be why the latest data shows overweight people have highest rates of cancer?

Unfortunately, vitamins can be labeled as natural if they contain as little as 10% of the natural form of the vitamin. This means that your “natural” vitamin could contain 90% of synthetically produced chemicals! B-Vitamins and Vitamin C are also usually synthetically produced.

Common Synthetic Vitamins include:

Vitamin A: Acetate and Palmitate,Vitamin B1 (Thiamine): Thiamine Mononitrate, Thiamine Hydrochloride,Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid: Calcium D-Pantothenate, Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine): Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin B12: Cobalamin, PABA (Para-aminobenzoic Acid): Aminobenzoic Acid, Folic Acid: Pteroylglutamic Acid, Choline: Choline Chloride, Choline Bitartrate, , Biotin: d-Biotin, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid): Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin D: Irradiated Ergosteral, Calciferol, Vitamin E: dl-alpha tocopherol, dl-alpha tocopherol acetate or succinate.  The “dl” form of any vitamin is synthetic.

Even in the field of "alternative health" we find this same sort of reductionism going on. Herbal compounds are isolated, extracted and ingested in inappropriate quantities, without the synergy that the whole plant provides.  I don't know of any other company that has a 3 step process, most all are 1 stage high heat liquid extraction, unless they are using alcohol and that sure puts stress on the system.

For us here at Trilight Health we have to ask ourselves if historical usage is a bad thing as compared to a new product to the market that has scientific evidence to prove it's safety.  Plus I would add that not all herbal processes are the same and having over 21 years of the same process, same methods, consistency offers many benefits.

We are not soil eaters—we are plant eaters.  It is necessary that the minerals in the soil be converted into organic compounds by the plant before they can be assimilated by the body.  Otherwise, the body has to work much harder to digest and attempt to assimilate these vitamins and minerals.

Because almost all mineral supplements on the market are inorganic, the body cannot assimilate or use them in the same way as minerals from plants. In fact, the body must work harder to compensate for the inbalance created by ingesting these supplements. The body accelerates its eliminative activities and works hard to expel these foreign substances. This stimulation is often mistaken for the "beneficial action" of the supplement in removing toxins. Actually, the supplements are not beneficial—they are harmful—and they are inanimate and therefore incapable of acting (except chemically).

As health consumers have grown more aware of the differences between organic and inorganic minerals, so have producers of these supplements. Consequently, there are now mineral supplements which are advertised as coming from "organic" sources.  Just because a tree that was organic a million years ago and you crush that rock into a powder doesn't make it organic, it's still dirt and needs to be changed by a plant into an organic mineral for us to utilize it properly.

Minerals do not work in isolation. When they are extracted from their natural sources, the other co-existing vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc., are not also extracted. Even if they were, the process of laboratory extraction destroys any vital benefits that may have been associated with the minerals. That is why a plant has almost all of the minerals in combination with it but in different amounts.  That is why some herbs are used for calcium others for iron as the amounts of minerals are different in different plants.

Trilight makes extreme efforts in step two to heat at temperatures below 120 degrees F to not only preserve the organic minerals but to preserve the enzymes to help utilize them.  These enzymes are vital for the body to utilize them without stressing the organs even further. Especially important during illness.