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From: werner@aecom.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.med,net.cooks
Subject: Re: Re: How much Vitamin A is too much? [That's A, not C this time]
Message-ID: <2193@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-Jan-86 02:25:30 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.2193
Posted: Tue Jan 14 02:25:30 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Jan-86 00:53:52 EST
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Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
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> Regarding the fat soluable vitamins (eg. A, D, E), there is, again, a
> great difference between a natural and a synthetic vitamin (even excluding
> the left- vs. right-handed differences).  It is possible to get an over-
> dose of a synthetic fat-soluable vitamin.  Indeed, the FDA, for a long
> time, limited the amount of Vitamin A in a single tablet.  Yet, there is
> only one known case of Vitamin A toxicity with natural Vitamin A: someone
> was stranded in Alaska, resorted to a diet of polar bear liver for a few
> weeks, and had a slight case.
> 
> Alan M. Marcum

	Actually, there are several cases of Vitamin A toxicity from Bear
Livers. Hunters actually dying after a post-kill feast.  Its not epidemic
or anything, but it exists in a far more mundane manner than Alan's scenario.
	The myth that "natural" and "synthetic" vitamins differ in anything
besides concentration and dose is one of the great canards of the 20th Century.
It is repeated by vitamin salesman, and the well-intentioned misinformed, but
it just ain't so.
-- 

				Craig Werner
				!philabs!aecom!werner
  "Sometimes you have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place."