Vitamins - a marketing ploy of pharmaceutical companies or do you really need to drink them? Why are pharmacy vitamins harmful? Is there any benefit from pharmacy vitamins

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Recently, proper nutrition has become more and more relevant - everyone is literally obsessed with making it “right”. It has become very fashionable to buy food in farm shops, cook food in double boilers and multicookers, use sugar substitutes, drink 2 liters of water a day, do not eat 2 hours before bedtime, go on low-carb diets and much, much more ... This also includes a passion for vitamins - they are drunk not only during illness, but just like that, for the prevention of the health of the eyes, hair, nervous system and everything.

In itself, the trend towards healthy eating is wonderful! The sad thing is that large industrial companies use this trend not for good, but for harm, aiming only at money at any cost. In this case - at the cost of the health of us - consumers. They impose on people completely false ideas about health. These are pseudo-farmers who actually sell the same chemical-laden products that we see in large supermarkets, only at double the price and are labeled "farm product". These are vegetarian semi-finished products made with the addition of harmful preservatives, thickeners and dyes. And finally - these are absolutely all manufacturers of synthetic vitamins!

Before, I myself became interested in vitamins from pharmacies, sincerely believing that this is how I take care of my health - I support immunity, I get balanced proportions of minerals and vitamins. However, having studied the issue thoroughly, I hasten to inform you that vitamins are harmful, and here I have no doubts.

Pharmacy vitamins are defective.

This is partly because we don't know how to replicate the formula, and partly because artificially synthesizing all the isomers of the vitamin is a very expensive process and pharmaceutical companies are not interested in big expenses. What do we get as a result? The fact that in pharmacies we buy an eighth of the vitamin! As a result, the body tries to reject these artificial substances that are incomprehensible to it. But it cannot completely remove them.

Because of your inferiority synthetic vitamins are absorbed by an average of 1-5%(usually not more than 10%) - a small part is excreted in the urine, and the entire remaining "tail" settles in the liver, kidneys, joints, blood vessels, forming what we call slags. That is, artificial vitamins contribute to the fact that harmful (and sometimes even dangerous) chemicals accumulate in our body, which are almost not excreted from the body. Hence all the side effects of vitamins - it can be hormonal failure, metabolic disorders, weakened immunity and aggravation of certain diseases.

Research on the effect of pharmacy vitamins on health.

Here are some examples of research.

Vitamin C. Study by Professor James Dwyer, 2000. 573 volunteers over 18 months. took 500 mg of synthetic vitamin C. Absolutely all subjects showed narrowing of blood vessels. By the end of the experiment, the rate of contraction increased by 3.5 times. Some studies, however, point to the positive effect of vitamin C on the development of gallbladder disease. But it's not very reassuring. This is from the category of "we treat one thing, we cripple the other."
Vitamin E and beta carotene. 18300 patients participated in the experiment. It was planned to complete the study in 1998, but already in 1996 the experiment had to be stopped, because among the subjects who took the synthetic vitamin, cancer cases increased by 28%, and mortality by 17% compared with the control group. The director of the Institute for Cancer Research at a press conference on January 19, 1996, said that in addition to this, the number of heart attacks and strokes increased in the group. Similar results were obtained in Finland in 1994.
Vitamin A. A team of scientists from Copenhagen, who studied 250 thousand patients who constantly take certain groups of synthetic vitamins, came to the conclusion:
the chemical vitamin A increased the risk of mortality by 16%,
vitamin E - by 4%,
beta-carotene - by 7%.

In addition to vitamins, plants contain minerals and thousands of substances that are beneficial to the body - they are called "phytocomponents". Therefore, when we eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, we get the effect of the complex effect of all the constituents of the plant on the body! There are no phytocomponents in synthetic vitamins, they are defective. Therefore, it is impossible to predict with accuracy their impact on health.

Pharmacy vitamins: we treat one, we cripple the other.

A separate story about the recommended doses, which are considered for the "average person" - this is the same as the average temperature in the hospital. It is impossible to “overeat” natural vitamins. The body is very smart, it easily absorbs everything it needs from plants, exactly as much as it needs here and now. Residues are efficiently and quickly removed through various channels. But with synthetic substances, everything is not so simple - they are foreign to the body (which is organic, not synthetic) and overdose can be dangerous. The consequences may be more negative than the health problem itself, which you wanted to solve with pharmacy vitamins. For example, excessive intake of vitamin A is a direct path to liver disease. An overdose of vitamin D contributes to the development of osteoporosis.

Also it is very difficult to figure out the right combination of vitamins. For example, vitamins C and E are incompatible with nicotine, and this combination is very dangerous. It has also long been known that some vitamins can interfere with the absorption of others. Therefore, I consider multivitamin complexes to be the most dangerous. This is a great psychological move used by pharmaceutical companies - in today's society, people are always looking for a "magic button", a "cure for all diseases". No need to worry about what you eat, no need to waste time on tests, no need to “steam” about anything at all. I just bought a bottle of pills. Very comfortably! But this is just an illusion of health. Then you go to the doctor, he will prescribe you pills and be sure to take vitamins, after a while again and so on ad infinitum. Not a very bright prospect.

What are pharmaceutical vitamins made from?

And finally, the very quality of synthetic vitamins. Sad but true - they are NOT made from natural ingredients of plant and animal origin. Oil, tar, bacteria, animal waste - these are the raw materials that underlie the production of vitamins in beautiful packages!

How to do without synthetic vitamins?

Let's take a look at the history of vitamins. In 1923, Dr. Glen King first established the chemical structure of vitamin C, in 1928, Dr. Albert Szent-György first synthesized a semblance of natural vitamin C, and in 1933, Swiss researchers synthesized ascorbic acid. And now let's think about this information - less than a hundred years ago, mankind did not know any synthetic vitamins, and lived perfectly, but today they are supposedly vital to us? For me it is not convincing.

In general, after conducting my investigation, I draw a very definite conclusion - synthetic vitamins, even the most expensive and carefully selected ones, are only a rather primitive copy of what nature has created. They are not needed by the body, and often harmful. Let's still love ourselves and our body, let's not create extra work for it. Pamper him with natural plant food)

By the way, if it is psychologically difficult for you to give up the habit of drinking vitamins so abruptly, or for some reason your diet is really inadequate, then I recommend that you buy non-synthetic vitamins. There are now a lot of complexes on the market, which are plant extracts, or berries and herbs dried in a gentle mode (40 degrees). They can be dissolved in water or added to juices and smoothies!

Are synthetic vitamins healthy? Until recently (the first crystalline vitamin substance was isolated in 1911 from rice bran), mankind, not yet affected by the epidemic of metabolic diseases, received vitamins from vegetables, fruits and other food products. Technological progress has brought us a quick way to get vitamins: why eat a lot of apples if you can provide yourself with the necessary substances with one tablet? But is it all so cloudless?

Everyone knows about the benefits of ascorbic acid - it is an excellent antioxidant. In food, for example in lemon, it works with a substance - an assistant flavoinoid: ascorbic acid is oxidized, and the flavoinoid restores it. And so they work for a long time, without exposing the liver to unnecessary stress. And synthetic ascorbic acid in its pure form, without a substance - an assistant, is oxidized only once and immediately enters the liver for excretion from the body, overloading it. For example, calcium supplements contain calcium carbonate, an insoluble mineral that clogs the kidneys.

In 1923, Dr. Glen King established the chemical structure of vitamin C, and in 1928, doctor and biochemist Albert Szent-Györgyi first isolated vitamin C, calling it hexuronic acid, and in 1933, Swiss researchers synthesized ascorbic acid identical to vitamin C.
Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) C6H8O6 is a water-soluble vitamin used by the body for biochemical redox processes, promotes the formation of deoxyribonucleic acid.

Now think about the previous two paragraphs. A hundred years ago, mankind did not know any synthetic vitamins, and today they are swallowed by more than half of the population of developed countries in Europe and America.

It is generally accepted that among the symptoms of a lack of vitamin C in the body are a weak immune system, bleeding gums, pallor and dry skin, delayed tissue repair after physical damage (wounds, bruises), tarnishing and hair loss, brittle nails, lethargy, fatigue, weakening muscle tone, rheumatoid pain in the sacrum and limbs (especially lower, pain in the feet), loosening and loss of teeth; fragility of blood vessels leads to bleeding gums, hemorrhages in the form of dark red spots on the skin. However, to date (August 2011), there have not been enough studies on the basis of which it would be possible to reliably state that there is a connection between the mentioned symptoms and a lack of vitamin C in the body. Only when its amount is extremely low, some of the listed symptoms appear, signaling the occurrence of an extremely rare disease - scurvy.

Have we been counted?

The first thing that worries me is the statistics. 80% of people are deficient in vitamin C (A, B, and so on in alphabetical order). Have you ever taken a blood test for vitamin content for research purposes?

Artificial vitamins are not functional, they are copies of natural ones, isomers, their structure differs from the structure of natural vitamins. Their use leads to the fact that the amount of ballast, artificial chemicals in the body increases, causing irreparable harm to the body.

The famous scientist Pauling, who at one time intensively promoted artificial vitamin C, died of cancer. The beginning of the theory of "horse doses" of vitamins was laid by the American scientist, winner of two Nobel Prizes, Linus Pauling. In his book Cancer and Vitamin C, he argued that very large doses of ascorbic acid improve the condition of patients with certain types of cancer and significantly prolong life. At the end of his life, Pauling focused his attention on the natural sources of essential human nutrients.

Pauling's theory was decided to be tested in practice. For several years, scientists have been conducting clinical trials, but they all convincingly proved that large doses of vitamin C do not prevent cancer or colds, let alone treat them.

The British The Times published the results of a study by physicians from the University of Leicester. They say that a standard dosage of vitamin C, widely advertised as an anti-heart attack, exacerbates a number of diseases.

Back in 2000, at the annual conference of the American Heart Association, a group of scientists made a statement that large doses of vitamin C cause more rapid development of atherosclerosis. The study involved 570 people. A comprehensive examination of volunteers, whose average age was about 54 years, showed that their vessels are normal. A year and a half later, the examination was repeated, and it turned out that atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries supplying blood to the brain was 2.5 times more likely to be noted in those who were overly fond of ascorbic acid. It is noteworthy that people took 500 mg of vitamin C per day just for the prevention of atherosclerosis.

Pediatricians note an increase in allergies in children who were actively fed “for preventive purposes” increased doses of vitamin C.

Vitamin C is not a medicine, but a vitamin! In some children, the breakdown of vitamin C to its final products may be impaired due to a lack of enzymes that regulate metabolism. At normal doses of the vitamin, these disorders would be compensated, but at high doses, decompensation occurred. Under-digested metabolic products - oxalates - cause allergies, can injure the renal tubules and become a source of their diseases (nephritis), and subsequently initiate kidney stone disease.

Vitamin C is synthetically obtained from glucose.

After scientists proved the importance of vitamins for human health, they began to synthesize them artificially, but it turned out that the degree of assimilation and effectiveness of such vitamins is an order of magnitude lower than their natural prototypes. There are several reasons for this. First, the problem is the presence of the so-called left- (L) and right-handed (R) isomers. Many substances, due to the complexity of their chemical structure, can exist in the form of two or more isomers, that is, as if mirror images of each other.

Vitamin C consists of 7 isomers, that is, the complete picture of a natural vitamin consists of 7 mosaics, which are in the finest relationships with each other. These bonds cannot be produced artificially. Ascorbic acid, which is known to everyone, is just one of the 7 isomers of natural vitamin C. It is easy to guess that only natural vitamin is suitable for a person, because only it is recognized by the body and absorbed. The same story with other vitamins. Chemically synthesized vitamins are absorbed by the body by less than 10%.

In synthetic vitamins: Vitrums, Centrums, Alphabets, etc. only one isomer out of seven is present in the composition. The remaining six are not synthesized and therefore simply absent from synthetic vitamins.

The same is true with vitamin E. Only one of the eight tocopherols is present in the synthetic one. Artificially synthesizing all vitamin isomers is a very complex and expensive process, and pharmacological companies are not interested in additional high costs, so synthetic vitamins are harmful, not beneficial.

To visualize the different arrangement of atoms in the molecules of mirror isomers is easier than simple: just bring a piece of paper with a word written on it to the mirror. It seems that the letters are the same, but are reflected topsy-turvy!

Often, chemically synthesized vitamins are just such mirror isomers of natural vitamins, and therefore are ineffective.

The second reason is that in nature all vitamins are not present in isolation, but together with the substances that are necessary for their absorption. For example, natural vitamin C in plants is adjacent to bioflavonoids, which ensure its absorption and themselves have a number of useful properties. Synthetic vitamin C is naturally present in the preparation in isolation, without bioflavonoids, and therefore cannot be adequately absorbed.

WHY ARE THESE "ONE-LEGED" VITAMINS HARMFUL?

It is because of their inferiority that synthetic vitamins are absorbed by an average of 1-5%. A small part is excreted in the urine, and the entire remaining “tail” settles in our body: in the liver, kidneys, joints, and blood vessels. It is this fact that leads to diseases that we did not have before the adoption of synthetic vitamins.

It turns out that in the formula of each natural, natural vitamin there is a particle of a protein base, which does not exist in synthetic vitamins. Synthetic vitamins are "dead" substances that do not carry any energy, they are practically not absorbed by the body. They have a crystalline structure that cannot be broken down and processed in the human body. In addition, artificial vitamins contribute to the fact that our body accumulates chemicals that are very dangerous.

Evidence of this is the color and smell of the urine of people taking vitamins. Urine has a characteristic odor, and its color changes. This suggests that the kidneys remove vitamins from the body, working for two. In addition, the liver also feels an additional load.

Recently, proper nutrition has been in trend - everyone is literally obsessed with what and when to eat, so that it is “right”. It has become very fashionable to buy food in farm shops, cook food in double boilers and multicookers, use sugar substitutes, drink 2 liters of water a day, do not eat 2 hours before bedtime, go on low-carb diets and much, much more ... This also includes a passion for vitamins - they are drunk not only during illness, but just like that, for the prevention of the health of the eyes, hair, nervous system and everything.
In itself, the trend towards healthy eating is wonderful! The sad thing is that large industrial companies use this trend not for good, but for harm, aiming only at money at any cost. In this case - at the cost of the health of us - consumers. They impose on people completely false ideas about health. These are pseudo-farmers who actually sell the same chemical-laden products that we see in large supermarkets, only at double the price and are labeled "farm product". These are vegetarian semi-finished products made with the addition of harmful preservatives, thickeners and dyes. And finally - these are absolutely all manufacturers of synthetic vitamins!
Before, I myself became interested in vitamins from pharmacies, sincerely believing that this is how I take care of my health - I support immunity, I get balanced proportions of minerals and vitamins. However, having studied the issue thoroughly, I hasten to inform you that vitamins are harmful, and here I have no doubts.

Research on the effect of pharmacy vitamins on health.

Pharmacy vitamins are defective.

First, and most importantly, scientists have not learned how to synthesize a single vitamin! Synthetic vitamins have a completely different chemical composition compared to natural ones. Scientists in laboratories have learned to reproduce only a small part of the natural vitamin formula. For example, vitamin C - in nature, it consists of 7 isomers of ascorbic acid, which are interconnected in a strictly defined way. Pharmaceutical vitamins contain only 1 isomer. Other scientists simply did not synthesize. Or vitamin E - only 1 out of 8 tocopherols is synthesized.
This is partly because we don't know how to replicate the formula, and partly because artificially synthesizing all the isomers of the vitamin is a very expensive process and pharmaceutical companies are not interested in big expenses. What do we get as a result? The fact that in pharmacies we buy an eighth of the vitamin! As a result, the body tries to reject these artificial substances that are incomprehensible to it. But it cannot completely remove them.
Because of your inferiority synthetic vitamins are absorbed by an average of 1-5%(usually not more than 10%) - a small part is excreted in the urine, and the entire remaining "tail" settles in the liver, kidneys, joints, blood vessels, forming what we call slags. That is, artificial vitamins contribute to the fact that harmful (and sometimes even dangerous) chemicals accumulate in our body, which are almost not excreted from the body. Hence all the side effects of vitamins - it can be hormonal failure, metabolic disorders, weakened immunity and aggravation of certain diseases.

Research on the effect of pharmacy vitamins on health.

Here are some examples of research.

Vitamin C. Study by Professor James Dwyer, 2000. 573 volunteers over 18 months. took 500 mg of synthetic vitamin C. Absolutely all subjects showed narrowing of blood vessels. By the end of the experiment, the rate of contraction increased by 3.5 times. Some studies, however, point to the positive effect of vitamin C on the development of gallbladder disease. But it's not very reassuring. This is from the category of "we treat one thing, we cripple the other."
Vitamin E and beta carotene. 18300 patients participated in the experiment. It was planned to complete the study in 1998, but already in 1996 the experiment had to be stopped, because among the subjects who took the synthetic vitamin, cancer cases increased by 28%, and mortality by 17% compared with the control group. The director of the Institute for Cancer Research at a press conference on January 19, 1996, said that in addition to this, the number of heart attacks and strokes increased in the group. Similar results were obtained in Finland in 1994.
Vitamin A. A team of scientists from Copenhagen, who studied 250 thousand patients who constantly take certain groups of synthetic vitamins, came to the conclusion:
the chemical vitamin A increased the risk of mortality by 16%,
vitamin E - by 4%,
beta-carotene - by 7%.

Pharmacy vitamins: we treat one, we cripple the other.

Scientists in their research usually focus on the narrowly focused effects of a particular vitamin on a particular disease or organ. There is no holistic approach when the impact on the whole organism is analyzed. And is it possible? When a synthetic substance enters the body, thousands of chemical reactions begin to occur throughout the body. Moreover, the influence often lasts more than one day and more than one month. It's impossible to track it all. So it turns out that at first it is announced to the whole world that vitamin C is allegedly excellent for influenza, and after a few years it turns out that it leads to deterioration of blood vessels. Do you remember how earlier calcium tablets were considered useful, but now it is known that this calcium (of course not natural) settles in the kidneys? There are thousands of such stories!
A separate story about the recommended doses, which are considered for the "average person" - this is the same as the average temperature in the hospital. It is impossible to “overeat” natural vitamins. The body is very smart, it easily absorbs everything it needs from plants, exactly as much as it needs here and now. Residues are efficiently and quickly removed through various channels. But with synthetic substances, everything is not so simple - they are foreign to the body (which is organic, not synthetic) and overdose can be dangerous. The consequences may be more negative than the health problem itself, which you wanted to solve with pharmacy vitamins. For example, excessive intake of vitamin A is a direct path to liver disease. An overdose of vitamin D contributes to the development of osteoporosis.
Also it is very difficult to figure out the right combination of vitamins. For example, vitamins C and E are incompatible with nicotine, and this combination is very dangerous. It has also long been known that some vitamins can interfere with the absorption of others. Therefore, I consider multivitamin complexes to be the most dangerous. This is a great psychological move used by pharmaceutical companies - in today's society, people are always looking for a "magic button", a "cure for all diseases". No need to worry about what you eat, no need to waste time on tests, no need to “steam” about anything at all. I just bought a bottle of pills. Very comfortably! But this is just an illusion of health. Then you go to the doctor, he will prescribe you pills and be sure to take vitamins, after a while again and so on ad infinitum. Not a very bright prospect.

What are pharmaceutical vitamins made from?

How to do without synthetic vitamins?

Therefore, I prefer not to use what I do not understand at all. This is Pandora's box. It is much wiser and healthier to simply avoid "chemistry" in all cases (unless it is a matter of life and death) and eat the most vitamin-rich foods - vegetables, fruits, cereals, nuts. This approach will allow you to get the maximum benefit, avoid overdoses, side effects and allergic reactions. And do not listen to horror stories about the fact that you will almost die from a lack of vitamins. All these stories about the fact that you will not get the whole complex of vitamins from food and immediately your teeth, bones, immunity will deteriorate ... these are myths!
Let's take a look at the history of vitamins. In 1923, Dr. Glen King first established the chemical structure of vitamin C, in 1928, Dr. Albert Szent-György first synthesized a semblance of natural vitamin C, and in 1933, Swiss researchers synthesized ascorbic acid. And now let's think about this information - less than a hundred years ago, mankind did not know any synthetic vitamins, and lived perfectly, but today they are supposedly vital to us? For me it is not convincing.
In general, after conducting my investigation, I draw a very definite conclusion - synthetic vitamins, even the most expensive and carefully selected ones, are only a rather primitive copy of what nature has created. They are not needed by the body, and often harmful. Let's still love ourselves and our body, let's not create extra work for it. Let's pamper him with natural plant food).
By the way, if it is psychologically difficult for you to give up the habit of drinking vitamins so abruptly, or for some reason your diet is really inadequate, then I recommend that you buy non-synthetic vitamins. There are now a lot of complexes on the market, which are plant extracts, or berries and herbs dried in a gentle mode (40 degrees). They can be dissolved in water or added to juices and smoothies!

I wish you good, good health!

Let's start with the basics: ascorbic acid is not vitamin C, alpha-tocopherol is not vitamin E, retinoid is not vitamin A. The list is endless (until all the vitamins run out), but the fact remains: colossal amounts of money have been spent on " hammering" such nonsense into the heads of the townsfolk.

By themselves, vitamins are complex biological complexes. Their activity (consider usefulness) depends on many factors, which are almost impossible to predict. You can’t just take vitamins just like that, put them in a sweet commercial shell and sell them for 10 rubles per jar. In fact, these are already vitamins at all, but a synthetic poison for any healthy being.

Turning to history, we learn that the true pioneer of the vitamin business was Dr. Royal Lee, who in the middle of the 20th century was the first to ask the question about the essence of vitamins. His work, research data, no one can refute. Everyone who is seriously involved in vitamins today is based on his books.

Lee himself felt the full power of the “drug industry”, against the arbitrariness of which he fought, 40 years ago, an American court in the suit of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made an unprecedented decision, ordering the scientist to burn all the materials for 20 years work! And all due to the fact that Royal managed to prove the detrimental effect of refined sugar and bleached flour on the health of the arteries, the digestive system, the heart and the development of cancer.

How the FDA turned into a watchdog of monopolists is a separate story. At the beginning of the 20th century, the control of medical and food companies was carried out by "Chemical Management". Until 1912, the department was headed by Dr. Harvey Wiley, who had ... an unusual, in our times, point of view on the health of the nation: “No American food product will contain benzoic acid, sulfuric acid, sulfites, alum or saccharin. Soft drinks should not contain caffeine or theobromine. Bleached flour cannot be freely retailed anywhere in America. Food and medical products must be protected from counterfeiting and manufacturing defects. Only then will the health of Americans steadily increase and life expectancy increase.”

Dr. Wylie even tried to knock Coca-Cola out of the market with its artificial drink! Imagine what a psycho! He cared about the health of the nation, what nonsense! It’s good that he was then removed from his post, because Wylie’s colleague, Dr. Elmer Nelson, who replaced Harvey as head of the department, handed over power to the most decent and caring people in the country - food monopolists who certainly could feed all of America.

But back to vitamins. Let's start with vitamin C. Everywhere we find a resource, vitamin C is associated with ascorbic acid, as if they were the same thing! But it's not! Ascorbic acid is only an isolate, a fragment of natural vitamin C. In addition to ascorbic acid, vitamin C should include: rutin, bioflavonoids, Factor K, Factor J, Factor P, tyrosinase, ascorbinogen.

If someone wants to get an active vitamin, then it is important to choose all the components of vitamin C in the right proportion. Ascorbic acid, in particular, is needed to prevent the rapid oxidation of the vitamin and decay. And only ... All American pharmacists stock up, by the way, in one place, at the Hoffman-La Roche factory in New Jersey, where ascorbic acid is produced on an industrial scale from chemicals. At the output, packaging and labels differ, but not the contents ...

The word "synthetic" implies 2 conditions: the product is created by human hands and is not found anywhere in nature.

It is important to understand the difference between a vitamin and its activity. Imagine that the body is a machine, and vitamins are gasoline. Your task is to make the car go. You pour gasoline, but this alone is not enough! The engine, carburetor, fuel supply - everything must work together for the success of the whole undertaking. Got the idea?

Vitamins are much more than ascorbic pills that you buy once a month in a pharmacy. Vitamin C transmits life, a piece of sunlight, earth, and synthetic vitamins only poison cells. Vitamins do not require a lot, enough of those substances that we get from food. By the way, they are absolutely harmless.

Ascorbic acid does not act as a nutrient. It doesn't even cure scurvy! Onion - heals. Potatoes, which contain only 20 mg of vitamin C, also heal! Ascorbic acid is not.

Of course, the environmental situation in America leaves much to be desired, no matter what chemicals farmers use to increase their profits (according to the UN, more than 2,000,000 tons of pesticides are used annually in the world). Food was much cleaner 50 years ago. Although even then Royal Lee described the American diet as "the consumption of mortified food."

Vitamins and minerals are inseparable: vitamin D is necessary for the body to absorb calcium, copper “activates” vitamin C. This is another important difference between synthetic and natural vitamins: by consuming artificial tablets, we force the body to use its own reserves of minerals, which we still get from food . Synthetic vitamins are dangerous “suckers” or “chewers” that our body does not need at all!

In America, 110 companies are engaged in the sale of vitamin complexes. Only 5 of them work with whole food vitamins. The reason is simple: whole vitamins are more expensive. Americans, saving money, prefer to spend on synthetic vitamins (think about it!) $ 9,000,000,000 a year (in 2008, according to some sources, they already spent $ 23,000,000 on nutritional supplements, the original article was written at the end of the 20th century).

Alas, the situation is no better with other vitamins: natural vitamin A is important for maintaining visual acuity, DNA synthesis, and protecting cells from free radicals. Vitamin A (beta carotene) is an antioxidant, supporting the functioning of the heart, lungs, and arteries. In 1994, an independent study showed that synthetic vitamin A did not work. At all. But people who take it are 8% more likely to suffer from heart attacks and lung cancer than (attention!) Taking a placebo.

Synthetic vitamin B simply and tastefully led to infertility in 100% of experimental pigs! They make it out of tar! And B12 from sewage sludge!

Mood swings and chronic depression. And if these symptoms appear in our body during the off-season, that is, from January to June, then we tend to associate them with a lack of vitamins. And then we find the simplest and most correct, at first glance, solution in the current situation - we go to the pharmacy for the treasured jar of life-saving multivitamins.

But wait! Let's first analyze together whether this same jar is able to solve all our problems, or is it better to postpone going to the pharmacy, and instead reconsider your diet in order to make up for the lack of trace elements in a natural way? And in general, is it possible to get all the necessary vitamins from food?

What are vitamins?

Vitamins are a group of low molecular weight substances that enter the human body from the outside through food intake. They do not have any plastic or energy function (that is, they are absolutely calorie-free), but they are an indispensable component that takes part in the synthesis of various substances and hormones in the body, and perform a regulatory function.

About a dozen vital vitamins are known in the world. All of them are usually divided into two main categories: water-soluble (C, B and others), and fat-soluble (A, E, D, F). An excess of water-soluble vitamins is excreted by the body with water and does not accumulate, but fat-soluble vitamins, obtained in excess, can lead to hypervitaminosis, which threatens us with malfunctions in the liver.

What is avitaminosis fraught with?

Lack of vitamins in the body can lead to serious consequences. And if the initial stage of beriberi does not have any external manifestations, with the exception of increased fatigue and sudden mood swings. In its advanced form, this disease first leads to a decrease in the body's resistance to viruses affecting it, and then to increased bone fragility, hair loss, visual impairment, decreased blood clotting, and many other serious consequences.

Can wholesome nutrition replace pharmacy multivitamins?

In nature, multivitamin products do not exist, except for breast milk. And therefore, in order for the body to receive all the trace elements it needs in sufficient quantities, our food must be very diverse. For example, in order to consume the daily intake of vitamins B2 and B1, we will have to eat a whole kilogram of rye bread per day. And the required amount of vitamin C is contained in as many as six single servings of various fresh fruits and vegetables. Agree, in the conditions of modern life, it is not possible to eat so plentifully and variedly.

In addition, the current environmental situation “finishes” the overall picture: water is polluted, raw cow's milk and chicken eggs may contain salmonella, and vegetables and fruits are subjected to repeated chemical treatment to improve yields and extend shelf life. Hence the question: what harms the body more: synthetic vitamins, or "natural" food?

Rules for taking synthetic vitamins

It turns out that in the spring, the period of pregnancy, with excessive physical exertion, nowhere without pharmacy vitamin preparations. The main thing is to approach this issue wisely: do a blood and urine test for beriberi, and then consult with a therapist about the dosage and frequency of using "magic" pills.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that taking vitamins against the background of excessive drinking of alcohol, coffee (over 4 cups daily), smoking and taking medications such as aspirin and antibiotics will negate all your efforts to saturate the body with vital trace elements.

To date, there are two radically opposite opinions about the benefits of vitamins sold in pharmacies. Accept them or not, of course, you decide. The main thing is to approach your decision as deliberately, responsibly and reasonably as possible.