SYNTHETIC VITAMINS

Nature puts up her vitamins in ideal combinations with the other essential elements of our foods. She
gives us lettuce, apples and grapes; the demi-gods of "science" give us the quintessences of these
and other natural products and tell us that these are better than Nature's own creations. They give
us devitalized foods and synthetic "foods"-- substances with nutrition rejects, preferring to starve.
At first, after the discovery of vitamins, they gave us vitamin extracts. The chemist extracted the
vitamin but the vital element was lost, and we were forced to eat uncooked fruits and vegetables to get
it. Later, after some of the vitamins were isolated and analyzed (more or less accurately), he gave us
synthetic vitamins, which, he assured us, are chemically identical with the natural vitamin. He is unable
to manufacture acceptable fats, sugars, amino acids, salts, but he can manufacture "acceptible" vitamins.
He can't produce a viable egg, but he insists that his dummy eggs are just as good as the real article.
The chemist is not only an egomaniac, but he is the faithful handmaiden of the commercial firm that
employs him. He is engaged in the production of "just as good" substitutes for nature's products,
because there "are millions in it." There was never any reason, except commercial reasons, for the
attempt to manufacture synthetic vitamins. The plant kingdom, the sole source of supply, manufactures
these in super-abundance. Old mother nature puts them in all foods. No prudent eater need ever suffer
from a lack of any of them.
Chemists can play with the elements--analyze, synthesize, combine and take apart again--but they
cannot produce living substance. Their syntheses lack many important refinings which only the
metabolic processes of the plant and animal kingdom can accomplish. They say their synthetic vitamins
are chemically identical with those produced by plants, but the results of their use prove unmistakeably
that they are not functionally identical. The garden and orchard turn out products far superior to those
of the laboratory.
It is folly to think you can mix together a lot of synthetic and extracted vitamins and produce a salad
that is equal to a salad of uncooked vegetables or fruits. It is equally as foolish to think you can mix
together a dozen or more different salts supplied you by the druggist and produce a salad that will equal
a salad of fresh, uncooked vegetables or fruits. Nor can you do so by mixing a dozen synthetic vitamins
with a dozen salts from the druggist.
Synthetic vitamins, that is, "vitamins" made in the chemical laboratory, although having practically
the same chemical composition as those of nature's products, are not vitamins and do not have the
effects of vitamins. Despite the claims made for them by the commercial firms and by the drugging
fraternity, who know no difference between nature and their laboratories, except that their laboratories
are "superior," made vitamins are no more valuable than the mineral salts sold at the drug stores and
prescribed by physicians. Certain synthetic vitamins, such as K, are water soluble, whereas the same
vitamins from natural sources are not. This difference in solubility rests upon fundamental differences
in their structure. Synthetic "vitamins" are "paste," not true diamonds.
Manufacturers and their subsidized scientists with commercial motives assert that their synthetic
vitamins are as good as those the cow gets from grass and alfalfa and passes on to your child in her
milk-- providing the milk is not pasteurized. This is a gross misrepresentation.
They also emphasize the fact that synthesis brought the price down much below the cost of extraction.
The fact that extracting the vitamins is neither necessary nor helpful is ignored.

Ansel Keys and Austin F. Herschel of the University of Minnesota tested vitamin tablets and
concentrates to determine their values. The whole alphabet from A to Z was tested. Twenty-six soldiers
were used as subjects for these tests. A total of 256 experiments were made. During the whole of the
period of observation every effort was made to assure standarized conditions. The men were fed the
usual army post rations, wore regulation army clothing and packs at all times and marched on motor-
driven treadmills for definite periods.
Both vitamins and placeboes were used in these tests. The placebos were made up in pill form to
resemble in every way the "vitamins," so that the men could not know when they were getting vitamins
and when they were getting placebos. The two forms of pills looked alike and tasted alike. The synthetic
"vitamins" and the placebos were given both before and after each meal. The soldiers were divided
into two groups. During the first part of the test one group would have his meals supplemented with
"vitamins," the other group would get the placebos. During the second part the first group would
receive the placebos and the second group would receive the "vitamins."
Careful tests of circulatory, metabolic and blood-chemistry responses were made after each period on
the tread-mill. These two men report as a result of these tests that:
"In neither brief extreme exercise nor in prolonged severe exercise and semi-starvation were there
any indications of any effect, favorable, or otherwise, of the vitamin supplementation on muscular
ability, endurance, resistance to fatigue, or recovery from exertion.
"It is concluded that no useful purpose would be served by enrichment of the present U.S. Army
rations with the vitamins studied."
Among the vitamins studied were the much advertised thiamin chloride (B1, ribaflavin (B2),
nicotinic acid (a B factor), pyridoxine (B6), pantothentic acid (a B factor), and ascorbic acid (C).
Similar negative results were obtained in experiments conducted in England during the late war. Both
school children and working men were given synthetic "vitamins" for several months and the results
carefully checked. School children who took multiple vitamin pills for a period lasting from seven to
nine months failed to register a superior record in relation to weight, height or sickness in comparison
with the children who went without the synthetic "vitamins." The tests showed that, despite the war, the
home and school diets of the children contained sufficient real vitamins so that the synthetic "vitamins"
contributed nothing. Similar experiments conducted in war workers failed to result in any health gains
among those workers who received the synthetic "vitamins" as compared to those who did not.
Baffin and Caper of Duke University give some details in an issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association of the results of an investigation made at the request of the Office of the Quartermaster General
of the U.S. Army to determine the value of adding vitamins to the Usual American diet. I think it significant
that the "usual American diet" which is by no means an ideal diet, was used in this series of tests. It carries
me back to Chittenden's experiments made years before vitamins were heard of. For some time now, I have
been convinced that: either Chittenden did not obtain the results he claimed, or else, the vitamin researchers
are kidding themselves and the public about their findings.

Two hundred volunteer medical students and technicians were used in these tests. The volunteers
were divided into five groups. They were all "in apparent good health" and were consuming the "usual
American diet," whatever this may be in any given instance.
The tests were run for thirty days, "because that period is found sufficient for recovery under
vitamin treatment," of patients actually ill from vitamin deficiency.
One group was given vitamins tablets and liver extract tablets.

A second group was given yeast extract tablets and vitamin pills.

A third group was given vitamin pills and sugar pills made to resemble the others.

A fourth group was given vitamin pills only.

The fifth group was given sugar pills only.

None of the volunteers were permitted to know what was in the pills they were taking. Each man kept
a daily record of his weight and of such symptoms as "gas" or indigestion, nausea, vomiting, abdominal
pain, diarrhea. Also he kept a daily record of his impressions of any effect on his appetite and on his
"pep" or energy.
Baffin and Caper report that "a significant increase in diarrhea and a highly significant increase in
abdominal pain and nausea and vomiting occurred in those receiving liver extract and yeast." They
found no evidence to substantiate the view that the use of vitamins will increase one's efficiency and
sense of well-being in cases where no real deficiency exists.
But are we to believe that the "usual American diet" of white bread, denatured cereals, white sugar,
refined syrups, canned goods, pasteurized milk, embalmed and cooked muscle meats, cakes, pies,
preserves, candies, coffee, etc., is not deficient in vitamins? No one claims that present methods of
determining vitamin deficiencies are sufficiently delicate to reveal the earliest stages of deficiency.

It is not to be supposed that the diet fed to soldiers in the army or the war-time diets of the British
people were so good that they could not be improved upon. At best, the British war-time diet was a
subsistence diet. Good nutrition is necessarily based on a good diet of natural foodstuffs and health
cannot be assured anybody by taking a certain number of vitamin capsules or vitamin pills regularly. A
good diet will supply all the vitamins needed, while taking "vitamin" pills to supplement a poor diet is
ridiculous. Synthetic "vitamins" are doing incalculable narm in inducing people to depend upon these to
the neglect of real vitamins.
What, then is the trouble? First, the vitamins are only imitations. Second, they are not properly used.
They are useful only in the presense of elements of food stuffs that are almost invariably deficient in
the "usual American diet." Better nutrition may be had by better diet, not by eating vitamin pills.
The fact that vitamins are employed best in combination should show the reader that taking large
amounts of vitamin C and not securing sufficient amounts of vitamin B will result in failure of nutrition.
This has led to the preparation of pluri- vitamin pills and extracts. But these fail, not alone because the
vitamins are not real, but also, because the vitamins are not useful in the absence of the minerals that
"act" synergistically with them. Even mixtures of vitamins and minerals fail, for the reason that the
minerals are not available and the vitamins are only imitation.
I would emphasize two other important facts: namely, with all the work that has been done, we do not
yet know all the chemistry involved in a single one of our common foods, nor in the human body. There
may be other vitamins or other food factors of which we know nothing at present. Certainly we do not
know all that we need to know about the mineral composition of foods or of the body. There is every
reason to think that there are amino acids that are as yet unknown. Mineral concentrates contain only the
known minerals of the body. Vitamin concentrates contain only the known vitamins. Amino acids now
sold on the market contain only the known amino acids. The unknown factors of foods are lacking in all
of these substances. Foods contain all food factors now known as well as those now unknown.
Manufacturing chemists, druggists, food manufacturers, etc., cannot compete with nature in preparing
food for man.
VITAMIN PROMOTION

The manufacture of artificial vitamins is an industry organized along the lines of the famous
international cartels and at least one of the corporations of this country was party to an agreement with
the I. G. Farbenindustrie. Millions are spent in advertising and in subsidizing research. Vitamins are
sold over the counters in America today in excess of a quarter of a billion dollars a year.
During the early part of the last War much publicity was given to the fact that industrial workers were
given daily quotas of vitamins to increase their productiveness. This was accomplished by the vitamin
makers or their advertising men going to the heads of these industrial plants and persuading these men
to permit the manufacturers to supply the vitamins to the men as a "scientific" test. It was done as an
advertising program and the cost was charged off to advertising. It resulted in no good. No doubt many
thought they were benefitted, just as many think they are benefitted by taking drugs in other forms. One
of the soldiers used in the tests at the University of Minnesota reported that he felt much better after
taking the tablets given him in the tests. A careful check disclosed that he had been taking the placebos
and not "vitamins" at all.
The German experience with a vitamin pill called piroxin is instructive. The German government
requested the workers to take these pills. At first they thought they were getting wonderful results,
because the pills seemed to lessen the fatigue of the workers. For a few weeks there was a step-up in
production but after a few months industrial accidents had increased thirty per cent. Investigations
showed that the piroxin had undermined the workers' nervous systems and had made many thousands of
drug addicts. Synthetic vitamins are drugs.
TOXICITY

The literature of the subject contains frequent references to the toxicity of vitamins. Numerous tests
have been made in an effort to determine their toxicity. In some of these tests death has resulted from the
use of large doses of these substances. Other vitamins slackened the growth rate. Niacin has been shown
to be somewhat toxic. Thiamine is less toxic than niacin. Pyridoxine is about as toxic as niacin. Other
vitamins have shown varying degrees of toxicity.
Three important facts stand out in these tests, namely:

1. The tests are made with synthetic vitamins, which are drugs, not vitamins.

2. Large doses are employed, such as one would never consume in eating.

3. The so-called vitamins are frequently administered by injection into the skin, a method of
vitamin intake that we never employ in eating.
There is a complete lack of evidence that an excess of natural vitamins, such as an animal might
receive by consuming an enormous quantity of green grass, or a man might receive by eating a large
quantity of oranges while on an orange diet, is harmful. The toxicity of natural vitamins in quantities
that may consumed in eating is not demonstrated. What is demonstrated is that artificial or imitation
"vitamins" are toxic. This is another good reason why we should rely upon nature's own products and
avoid the laboratory concoctions of the manufacturing chemists.
Records of cases of hypervitaminosis (excess of vitamin) A, D and K exist in vitamin literature and
we are told that "certain of the vitamins may possess pharmacologic actions which are not apparent
when administered in the small quantities usually provided in nutritional experiments." These cases of
hypervitaminosis are seen in those dosed with drug "vitamins." There is no such thing as pharmalogic
action.
Dr» Casimir Funk, who coined the term "vitamin," says: "Synthetic vitamins are less effective and
more toxic." The sober fact is that the evidence for the "toxicity" of natural vitamins is almost nil, while
the evidence for the toxicity of the synthetic vitamins is great. It is essential that we understand the
differences between the two kinds of vitamins. Dr. Royal Lee very appropriately says of the synthetic
vitamins: "Unnatural vitamins like unnatural foods, are dangerous." The "synthetic vitamins" are really
drugs. They behave as irritants rather than as enzymes. A Textbook of Physiology by Wm. D. Zoethout,
Ph.D., and W. W. Turtle, Ph.D., says of the synthetically produced vitamins: "their consumption in this
form is less desirable than eating natural foods in which they are found." These physiologists think there
are advantages to be gained by "re-enforcing" white flour with vitamin B1 so long as "people insist on
eatnig fine white bread."
VITAMIN CURES

The use of certain vitamins is said to "cure" certain "diseases." We must not permit ourselves to be
misled by these claims. They have no more value than the claims that drugs, or other such substances,
"cure" disease. There is no so-called disease that is due to a unitary cause-- every disease is the
complex effects of a number of correlated antecedents--and no disease is curable by a unitary cure. On
the other hand, practically all of the so-called deficiency states that are said to require vitamins for
their cure, will and do get well while the patient is fasting and drinking only distilled water. The wild
enthusiasm caused by the discovery of vitamins will sooner or later, give way to sober reflection and it
will then be recognized that the research workers and others have permitted their enthusiasm to run
away with their judgement.
 Thousands of people are taking vitamin pills, pellets, powders, vitamin extracts, etc., and
taking mineral concentrates in powder and pill form, they are supplementing their diets with
these minerals.
Both vitamins and minerals are being taken in specified doses for supposed specific
conditions. The drugstores and health food stores, along with the manufacturers of these
products, are growing rich off their sale. But no lasting good is coming out of the
practice.
The vitamin devotees tell us that vitamin A dissolves kidney stones, vitamin B aids the deaf,
vitamin C softens cataracts, vitamin C helps hayfever, vitamin C relieves arthritis. These things
are not true, of course. The thousands of sufferers who have been dosed with the vitamins for
these conditions and have grown worse instead of better are sufficient proof of this statement.
The statement that vitamins can "help, perhaps cure magically," is an exaggeration by an over-
enthusiast or a commercial-exploiter of vitamins.

Vitamins do not prevent colds; they do not give energy nor prevent fatigue; they do not
prevent nor cure arthritis; they do not prevent graying of the hair nor do they restore the hair
to its normal color.
The drug- store pill eater is led to believe that he can have health by taking these synthetic
"vitamins" without the necessity of removing the many causes of his disease. Taking
vitamins to "cure" disease and neglecting to correct the habits of life that have produced and
are maintaining that disease, is the same in principle and is equally as ridiculous as taking
drugs for the same purpose while ignoring the habits of life. Vitamins cannot erase the
effects of tobacco, alcohol, coffee, worry, fear, anxiety, domestic irritations, overwork, lack
of exercise, overeating, insufficient rest and sleep, foul air in workshop, office, bed room
and elsewhere.