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From: marcum@sun.uucp (Alan Marcum)
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Subject: Re: How much Vitamin C is too much?
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Date: Fri, 10-Jan-86 14:42:09 EST
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Posted: Fri Jan 10 14:42:09 1986
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Something I've learned in my studies: there's a huge difference in the way
the body handles "natural" (i.e. from food) and "synthetic" (i.e. from a
vat) nutrients.  Indeed, Vitamin C is Vitamin C is Vitamin C, regardless
of the source.  However, in food, there are lots of things found along
with the Vitamin C -- things called "associated food factors."

Natural vitamins can be up to 4-10 times more useful to the body than
synthetic vitamins.  In addition, excesses are disposed of differently.
A study was done, as follows (numbers are meant to be representative,
rather than precise).  People were given, for example, 2G of Vitamin C --
some of the people were given synthetic, others were given natural
(extracted from foods).  Let's say that their bodies could really use
only 1G, and so 1G was excreted.  The doses were maintained for a while,
and then cut back to, for example, 1G.  Those in the synthetic vitamin
group continued to excrete 1G for quite a while; those in the natural
vitamin group began retaining all the Vitamin C.

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.

One last note, on "natural": many manufactures are claiming "natural" and
"organic" food supplements.  According to the FDA and FTC in this matter
(natural and organic as applied to food supplements), "natural" means
something from nature (and so your great aunt's polyester pant suit is
a "natural" pant suit), and "organic" means in the chemical sense (i.e.
contains a carbon-based compound).  The "natural" I reference above means
extracted from food -- concentrates, and such -- and excludes things such
as the ascorbic acid excreted by yeast when fed corn syrup ("Vitamin C
derived from corn").
-- 
Alan M. Marcum				Sun Microsystems, Technical Consulting
...!{dual,ihnp4}!sun!nescorna!marcum	Mountain View, California