From: Harvey Newstrom <hnewstrom@hnewstrom.ess.harris.com>
Subject: Re: "Natural" vs. synthetic supplements, etc.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 15:54:45 GMT
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Organization: Harris
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There is a lot of confusion regarding "natural" versus "synthetic"
nutrients.
First of all, be aware that things have changed since the 50's and 60's! 
An
earlier posting referenced a 1959 experiment.

When your read the results of earlier experiments, you need to remember
that their understanding of the chemistry was not as precise as ours. 
They
used to extract vitamin A from carrots and call it natural vitamin A, and
synthesize vitamin A in the laboratory (retinol) and call it synthetic
vitamin
A.  In these older experiments, natural vitamin A and synthetic vitamin a
*were not* the same chemicals!  Today, we are more precise in our methods,
and thus you can buy "natural" or "synthetic" beta-carotene or retinol.

The same comments are true about vitamin E, where the "natural" version
was
the d form of tocopherols, where the "synthetic" version was the dl forms.
Since the body only uses the d form, the "natural" d form seemed to be
more
potent than the mixed "synthetic" dl form.  Also, "synthetic" vitamin D
was made
by irradiating cow's milk, producing vitamin D2.  The "natural" form that
was
referenced was usually vitamin D3.  Again, two different chemicals, not
"natural" and "synthetic" versions of the same vitamin.

They also used to measure vitamins by weight or volume before they figured
out that different forms had different molecular weights or volumes. 
Thus, 
experiments comparing "equivalent" amounts of synthetic and natural forms
often were inaccurate.

Also realize that early extractions of "natural" vitamins were not very
pure.
They often contained other ingredients that affected the results.  An
earlier
post quoted an experiment that indicated that natural vitamin C was
better at
preventing bleeding, bruising, etc.  These are not helped by vitamin C;
these
are helped by bioflavinoids.  Early extractions of vitamin C from citrus
fruits or
cherries often contained large amounts of bioflavinoids.  These help
prevent
bruising and bleeding.  The experiment sited did not really prove that
natural
vitamin C works better than synthetic vitamin C, it actually indicated
that
bioflavinoids with your vitamin C work better than no bioflavinoids at
all.

The last thing to remember is that sometimes experiments are just plain
wrong.
Many early experiments showed vitamin C to actually *cause* scurvey.  How
did
this happen?  They used to mix vitamin C in the experimental rats'
drinking water.
After sitting for a while, ascorbic acid combines with the water to form
dehydro-ascorbic acid, sometimes called antivitamin C.  This chemical
actually
destroys and inhibits vitamin C function in the body.  The experimenters
who
thought they were feeding their rats additional vitamin C, were actually
reducing
the amount of available vitamin C!  There results were actually the exact
opposite
of what they reported.  These results were duplicated by many other
researchers, 
and it was years before the error in the experimental process was
determined.

Sorry to complicate things, just trying to be helpful.
__
Harvey Newstrom   (hnewstrom@hnewstrom.ess.harris.com)   Voice:
(407)727-5176
Harris Corp., Box 37, MS 15-8874, Melbourne, FL  32902     FAX:
(407)727-6611