This article summarizes the synthetic or bad vitamins as well as the whole plant food derived or good vitamins. This information is warranted based on the many persons requesting same and the confusion buyers have when reading labels supplements

The information that follows is not a recommendation to use vitamin-mineral supplements.   Instead, researcher Sorochan is merely illustrating the difference between synthetic vitamins and good 'whole-food' vitamins. 

 Bad buy:  Common Synthetic Vitamins to Avoid:  Myers: distinguishing vitamins  Group: Differences between nat-syn vitamins 2013  Read the label! If the individual item label mentions at least one synthetic name below, then you can assume that the label's supplement is synthetic.  Avoid buying it. 

Synthetic labeling clues:  In addition to the above synthetic names, the following label wordings should make you suspect that supplement may be synthetic:

No list of food source on label.
Vit C with acerola cherry powder.
A large amount of vitamin C, having 500 or 1000 mgs, is without supporting co-factors and is probably synthetic.
Salt forms: acetae, bitartrate, chloride, gluconate, hydrochloride, nitrate, succinate, magnesium stearate, magnesium oxide.
Use of word “natural.”
Vitamin D-2.
Following ingredients used as fillers, binders and flow agents are toxic.

• magnesium stearate also known as Stearic Acid) (filler).
• silicon dioxide (flow agent).
• di-calcium phosphate (DCP) (binding agent).

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) disguised as “natural flavors.”
Carnauba wax [ is used in car wax and shoe polish ].
Titanium dioxide [ is a carcinogen ].
So called "whole food supplements" are spiked with other synthetic vitamins and minerals.

"Truly natural dietary supplements are made from freeze-dried real food, or otherwise are not heated, and the nutrients they contain are natural doses without added synthetics. "Unfortunately, most fruit and vegetable concentrates used in dietary supplements are dried with very high heat, destroying various nutrients. They don’t supply much nutrient but are used in the supplement to make it appear natural, while all the nutrients listed on the label come from synthetic or other unnatural additions. These so-called “whole food” supplements containing fruit or vegetable concentrates have to be “spiked” with synthetic vitamins and other unnatural nutrients in order to list any appreciable amounts of nutrients." Read the supplement facts label carefully.  Maffetone Dangers synthetic vitamins2008    

Labeling for supplements? Labeling information can be full of mis-information and lack of it hiding the truth!  The words on labels for different vitamins are difficult to understand and distinguish between whole food and synthetic ingredients and their sources.  So what can we do?  The key to identifying a legitimate whole-food supplement is to READ the LABEL.  

 Label Clues that make you suspect the supplement may be synthetic:  Thiel: Truth about vitamins  Maffetone Dangers synthetic vitamins2008

• Label does not list all nutrient content or substances that make up the supplement.
• GMO based foods mentioned e.g. ascorbic acid is made from GMO corn.
• Contain super foods that are in very high  nutrient content or dosage.
• Contains "no yeast” is basically a guarantee that it contains synthetic nutrients.
• Claim that supplement has USP vitamins or ‘pharmaceutical grade’ nutrients, then the product is not a food source.
• Claim “100% Food” 
• 'natural' and 'organic' on a label has no medical or legal definition, ignore it!
• If word “food” is not adjacent to the name of the substance. It is probably an isolate [normally crystalline in structure] and is synthetic. 
• Avoid supplements that have following on a label:  artificial sweeteners Aspartame, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose or Sorbitol.

 Good Buy:  Table: Natural Food Vitamins   Thiel: Truth about vitamins  Maffetone Dangers synthetic vitamins2008  Vitamins found in and made from natural foods are good and seldom have side-effects.  Below is such a list:

Note: This list is not complete.  The chemical vitamin names on the right side are for natural or whole food sources. Their chemical names on the label indicate that these vitamins should be a good buy. 

Keep in mind that just because you take a vitamin-mineral supplement does not ensure that the ingredients in the supplement will be absorbed from the digestive system.  Indeed research points out that you will be fortunate if a mere 20% of the supplement ingredients are absorbed into the blood stream.  The real pay-off in ingesting supplements is to have these delivered by the blood stream to each somatic cell in your body.  This is not happening at this time.  The only exception to this at this time is when a vitamin or mineral is encapsulated as a liposome. 

Liposomes initially attracted medical scientists because they helped deliver drugs to targeted body sites. Due to their size and composition, they are able to be passively absorbed through the intestinal wall and through cellular membranes.  As a result, liposome-encapsulated nutrients, like Vitamin C, achieve maximum-true  bioavailability in the cells, where they are needed most. The liposomes not only protect the supplement from degrading conditions in the digestive system, but will also deliver them safe and sound to "target" organs and somatic cells of the body.

The application of liposome technology on a large scale to vitamin-mineral supplements is in its infancy.  Only vitamin C has been successfully liposome-encapsulated as of September 25, 2016.

For more information: Supplementals and Vitamin C

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