Many people think that natural and synthetic vitamins have identical molecular and chemical structure. They intake vitamin supplements without realizing what they are, how will they help and what can hurt. Before buying any vitamin supplements for healthy living, it is essential to learn the differences in composition, structure and functions of these supplements.
Synthetic vitamins are formulated using vitamin molecule and chemicals in the laboratory. These vitamins emulate structure of natural products and play with the human bodies. This fake version of vitamins is produced using pesticides, fertilizers and insecticides. A biodegradable and indigestible coating is often found covering the actual synthetic pills. The biggest disadvantage of these vitamins is that human body fails to absorb these vitamins because they are designed to absorb true vitamins. Fake versions vitamins failed to fool human body and are sometimes very harmful.
Natural vitamins are vitamins formulated using various natural products. These may be synthesized using various processing techniques that may not be natural but yet these are better than using synthetic pills. The main difference between natural and synthetic vitamins is the biological function.
Biological activity of synthetic vitamins gets reduced by almost 50% when it comes to Vitamin E and by 30% when it comes to Vitamin C. Human body only absorbs d-form of Vitamin E that is derived from natural sources like vegetable oils. D-form is much different from dl form produced in the synthetic vitamins. This synthetic form has no health benefits and is washed out from the body.
Vitamin C is richly found in oranges and is often associated with riboflavionoids. These riboflavonoids are essential for absorption of nutrients. The structure of Vitamin C in synthetic vitamins is identical to that found in natural vitamins but synthetic vitamin C is not accompanied with riboflavin, resulting in reduced biological activity.
Synthetic versus natural vitamins is several other aspects as well. Both these vitamins show different response when viewing through a beam of polarized light. When a beam of light passes through natural vitamins, it bends towards dextro. Whereas, when the light is passed through synthetic vitamins, it splits into two, one part bending towards dextro and the other towards levo.
Synthetic vitamins are believed to have less health benefits and can cause various health abnormalities.