Bio-Foods, Ltd.



This question has been reverberating through the entire history of the Health Food industry, nearly from its founding in the 1940’s and 1950’s until today, especially when our industry tries to differentiate it’s “Natural” vitamin and mineral brands from drug store or mass market “Synthetic” brands.  Our industry has seen decades of controversy over how to define those terms.

Scientists have pointed out that if a vitamin molecule is synthesized to have exactly the same chemical structure as a vitamin molecule purified from a plant, to call one ‘natural’ and the other ‘synthetic’ has no material meaning.  Some might even consider claiming a difference to be misleading.  

Unfortunately, pure synthesized pharmaceutical vitamins and pure mineral salts as described in the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) are the only practical, low cost, commercially available source for manufacturers.  So companies have taken different approaches over the last six decades to differentiate their products in meaningful ways.

Some Observed Approaches:  

“NaturalVitamins” defined as no artificialcolorsor preservativespresent in the formulation of USP vitamins and pure mineral salts.

“Natural SourceVitamins” meaning the starting material for USP vitamin synthesis was natural, even if the intermediate starting material was not a traditional human food (fat from sheep’s wool for example).

“Natural Source Minerals” meaning the source was natural, even if that source was not a traditional human food (Oyster shells or bones for example).

“Vitamins and Minerals in a Natural Base” meaning the USP vitamins and pure mineral salts had some food plant material mixed in (the plants are usually identified).   

“Vitamins from Food” meaning the starting material for USP synthesis was a traditional food (ascorbic acid USP synthesized from glucose derived from corn sugar isolated from corn for example).

“Vitamins from named sources“ meaning the vitamin named was extracted from the  particular plant named (such as “Vitamin D-3 from Lichen” or “Vitamin C from Amla Fruit”) or the particular food named (such as “Vitamin A from Fish Liver Oil”).  Usually the percent of the claimed potency actually contributed by the extracted plant or food is not disclosed. In reality, due to practicality and cost, only a minor percent of the claimed potency is likely to be from the named source.  The rest is likely made up by or “standardized” (spiked) with regular USP vitamins.

BIO-FOODS’ APPROACH:  WHOLE FOOD VITAMINS AND MINERALS

The historical approaches may have suited their purpose, but finding them unsatisfying as far as emulating food is concerned, Bio-Foods decided to base it’s definition of Natural on how vitamins and minerals exist in nature, in all living systems both plant and animal.  More specifically, on the state of their existence. Clearly, the pure, free, unattached state of a synthesized USP vitamin molecule or a pure mineral salt molecule is “Un-Natural” (not found as such in living systems).  

The “Natural State or Food State” so to speak of a vitamin or mineral is to be in complex formation with other constituents of a whole food matrix made up of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids.  Secondarily, said state of complex formation should be achieved by nature itself, not by chemists working with partitioned chemicals isolated from foods. In our case it’s achieved with the help of living nutritional yeast during lengthy and vigorous fermentation in a media containing whole foods and the individual vitamin or mineral being produced.    

The result is Fermentation Enhanced Whole Food Nutrients in a Natural or Food State, namely in complex formation with constituents of a yeast whole food matrix.  

Our industry has always believed the constituents and nutrients in foods work together like a team.  And that team, like a Roman Phalanx, is linked together. If you drop an orange on the table, it doesn’t shatter into separate crystals of vitamin C, bioflavonoids, fiber, proteins, carbohydrates, etc.  That’s because they are not a simple mixture. They are linked together in a complex formation that only Nature understands, and are endowed with an ethereal aspect of life that purified chemicals unaffected by living organisms do not have.   

We think our industry’s pioneers would agree.