By Rafael Avila, Director of Research and Development, New York-based Nature’s Plus
The modern understanding of the benefits of adding whole foods to dietary supplements comes from the pioneering work of Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi, MD, PhD, who discovered the connection between vitamin C and it’s whole food cofactor, bioflavonoids.
According to published accounts, circa 1934 Albert Szent-Györgyi was asked by a colleague to treat a patient who had symptoms of scurvy. Szent-Györgyi could only administer vitamin C, which was in the form of a citrus fruit juice extract, and which included a small amount of impurities from the fruit from which it was derived. The patient recovered quickly.
Later, when pure vitamin C was available, Szent-Györgyi was again tasked with treating another scurvy patient with similar symptoms. Administration of pure vitamin C was expected to yield even better results than those of the impure form. To the doctor’s surprise, the pure vitamin C did not perform as quickly or as well as the crude citrus fruit juice extract.
Later, in 1935, Szent-Györgyi isolated the compounds and referred to them as vitamin P. Over the following years these compounds were found to be cofactors of vitamin C, improving the body’s ability to utilize the essential vitamin. The identification of previously unknown cofactors in citrus fruits yielded the logical conclusion that there may be many other, as yet undiscovered, cofactors in natural whole fruits and vegetables that potentiate the activity of other vitamins. In fact, many such cofactors have been discovered. These cofactors would not be present in dietary supplements composed of purified vitamins and minerals or made from man-made, synthetically produced vitamins and minerals, which are devoid of whole fruit or vegetable matter.
Naturally, supplements made with the benefits of wholesome whole foods are more expensive than baser forms. But the benefits of a superior whole food supplement usually far outweigh the added costs for such quality.
