Echte Lebensmittel sind ein wesentlicher Bestandteil unserer Gesundheit und unseres Wohlbefindens – aber die Realität ist, dass wir einfach nicht ausreichend Nährstoffe aus der Nahrung bekommen, die wir essen. Das liegt daran, dass die Böden aufgrund von falscher oder Überbewirtschaftung weniger Nährstoffe enthalten. Somit gelangen weniger Vitalstoffe in unsere pflanzlichen Lebensmittel, aber auch ins Tierfutter und dadurch in unsere tierischen Lebensmittel. Selbst kontrolliert biologisch angebaute Lebensmittel enthalten weniger Nährstoffe als früher – kein Wunder, dass so viele von uns unter einem Nährstoffmangel leiden, zumal der Nährstoffbedarf u.a. bei Stress, Krankheit oder Schwangerschaft ansteigt. Daher sind Nahrungsergänzungsmittel immer häufiger das Mittel der Wahl. Aber Achtung: Vitamin ist nicht gleich Vitamin. Warum das so ist, klären wir in diesem Beitrag.
What is the difference between natural and synthetic vitamins?
Natural vitamins are always found in foods together with other important components such as enzymes, co-enzymes and co-factors, which all work together in the body. In addition, most vitamins occur together in different structural forms. If instead a synthetic vitamin, which is only a copy of a fragment of a natural vitamin, is supposed to do the job on its own, this can be problematic.
Synthetically produced vitamins are often a foreign chemical for the body, as an attempt is made to imitate the chemical formula of a vitamin, but this is usually in a different structure to the natural original. The raw materials used for synthetic vitamins are often substances that we would never ingest into our bodies under normal circumstances, such as tar, wool wax or crude oil.
Comparison of natural and synthetic vitamins in terms of structure, benefits and harm
Vitamin E
Artificial vitamin E is obtained as a single structural form from petroleum (crude oil), while natural vitamin E is obtained as an extract from soy, manioc and/or sunflower seeds and consists of up to four different structural forms.
Vitamin C
Natural vitamin C also always occurs in a compound, consisting of bioflavonoids, co-factors and the enzyme tyrosinase. This interaction of the various substances can be described as genuine, complete vitamin C, as you know it from an orange or grapefruit. When vitamin C was researched at the beginning of the 20th century, ascorbic acid was identified as the main component of vitamin C at that time and therefore ascorbic acid was equated with vitamin C. If you suffer from vitamin C deficiency, synthetic, nature-identical vitamin C is a natural remedy. However, you cannot derive good health care from synthetic ascorbic acid because it simply lacks the co-factors that are present in vitamin C-rich fruits in nature. If you only supply your body with ascorbic acid and not the associated tyrosinase (an enzyme), the body has to extract the tyrosinase from your skin, your largest organ. This is because tyrosinase actually helps your skin cells to produce pigments (or tan) to protect the skin from sunlight. However, if this is missing there because synthetic "vitamin C" doesn't supply it, your skin will eventually not have enough tyrosinase, which means you have less protection from sunlight and your risk of skin cancer may increase. In the event that your body does not have sufficient reserves of the other components, ascorbic acid itself offers you none of the health benefits that the complete vitamin C complex from nature offers you. The unusable ascorbic acid is excreted in the urine after it has circulated through your body system.
Vitamin A
Another example is vitamin A. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and can therefore accumulate in the body and be harmful if taken in excess. However, only the precursor β-carotene is found in plants such as carrots. This is converted into vitamin A in the body, and only in the amount that the body needs. This means that overdosing with the natural vitamin A precursor is not as easy as with the synthetic form.
These are just a few examples of how synthetic, incomplete vitamins can do you more harm than good. Of course, the large-scale industrial production of vitamins is much easier and cheaper than the laborious process of growing natural products for months and then extracting the vitamins from them. The lower price tempts many people not to question synthetic products. People buy what is good for their wallets, even if it ultimately comes at a high cost to their health. However, as the health consequences of synthetic vitamins in the body often only become noticeable years later, they are usually no longer associated with vitamin intake.
The natural vitamins in our juices
We at LiveFresh take a holistic approach to healthy nutrition and well-being and therefore only use natural plant extracts to make our cold-pressed juices even more valuable with an additional function. The active ingredients are obtained from fruits and plants using a gentle extraction process. They contain the vitamins and minerals embedded in the plant extract in the way the body best recognizes and readily absorbs them, as if they were a piece of fruit or vegetable. Although this is more expensive than the "vitamins" produced in a chemical laboratory, your body will thank you for it. ➤ Here you come to the selection of our juices, shots and juice cures
