alternavita

Did you know that the supplement brands you used to know and trust may have been bought out by large corporations?

I use very few supplements, during the summer it is usually two and both are food based. One is Salmon oil and the other is vitamin E. In winter though I do use cod liver oil and sometimes sodium ascorbate and I was sorry to see that Solgar brand has made the list of companies that are now corporate owned. I have noticed reviewer comments about loss of quality in some very popular brands so I thought you might like to know just who might now own your favorite brand.

In the end I do think this is about market control and eliminating the competition from their point of view. I don’t see most vitamins and supplements as competition because the majority are at best worthless and in a lot of cases harmful but that harm in no way measures up to the harm caused by pharmaceuticals or fake food. 

The advantage of real food is that you get the whole substance along with whatever that substance contains including beneficial microbes in the case of most vegetables and fruits if you eat them raw. The actual efficacy that drew so much attention to nutrition in the first place, is that early malnutrition studies never used vitamins because they didn’t exist in pill form so whether it be scurvy, rickets, anemia or any other form of malnutrition the known benefits were achieved by consuming the whole food that contained the beneficial substance and those benefits were lost via a synthetic version in most cases. You might be surprised to learn that there are also differences between plant based supplements and animal based supplements when it comes to efficacy so even the word bio identical is often not bio identical when it comes to the way you as a human/mammal bio synthesize that particular substance. I also place natural concentrated substances in the category of fake food, you know the kind of stuff you buy for ‘green drinks’ etc. hoping they will give a boost in nutrition. They don’t. In a pill they are a filler at best.

Bovine colostrum is different because of the standard which demands specific collection procedures and minimal processing of the substance or it can’t be sold at all. I do suspect an eventual attempt to interfere in this particular market (there have been some) but thankfully farmers have a lot more clout than the general consumer.

In the end I am always leery of supplements and the best science eventually gave up on trying to ‘copy’ natural forms and instead tried to introduce the whole substance to a greater market for the highest efficacy rate and as the form best tolerated in the majority with little to no unwanted effects. This is  why I presume nutrition as a field of study is neglected because nothing really stacks up to the real deal. The same is true for colostrum and breastfeeding as a gold standard benchmark up and until liability issues began to gain prominence when it comes to making comparable claims between breastfeeding and formula feeding. Claims that demand inspection. Only liability presents enough threat to make any long lasting effect on public health outcomes but before then there is almost always an attempt at complete control. 

So if you find vitamin studies to be confusing or have noticed a drop in quality of your favorite brand these may just be a few reasons why. I think it is just one more good reason to avoid pills in the first place even when it appears there are gains in production. When it comes to pills from any outlet profit is the motive because they are for the most part not a necessity but a convenience.