Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food

by Catherine Shanahan

Synthetic vitamin pills are, of course, a step up from no nutrition at all, but they are a sorry replacement for real food. First, they’re not the same as what nature makes. Many vitamins exist in nature as entire families of related molecules, only a few of which can be recreated in a factory. For example, there may be over 100 isomers of vitamin E, but only about 16 are put into tablets.164 Second, the processing of synthetic vitamins necessarily involves the creation of incidental molecular byproducts, the effects of which are largely unknown. About half of the content of vitamin E tablets are isomers that don’t exist in nature, which might explain why some studies show that taking synthetic vitamin E pills increases mortality. Third, without the proper carrier nutrients in the right balance, many vitamins are not absorbed. Fourth, many vitamins work synergistically with other nutrients in ways we don’t fully understand. Fifth, who knows what else is in that pill? The entire supplement industry is essentially unregulated, and supplements have been found to be contaminated with toxic compounds including lead or dangerously high levels of copper.165 But again, there is some benefit to taking certain supplements, especially in pregnancy, because the food supply is so bereft of nutrients when compared with foods from only seventy years ago.166, 167, 168