Most Vitamins Are From China. It’s a Bigger Problem Than You Realize

Epoch Times ^ | February 6, 2014 | Michelle Yu

[LibWhacker]

If you are taking vitamins, there is a good chance that they were imported from China.

An aging population and growing focus on health in the United States has fueled the growth of a $28 billion vitamin and nutritional supplement market, and it is expected to continue to grow at about 3 percent a year.

Over half of American adults are popping vitamins and supplements. They may not be aware they are eating products made in China, or made using raw materials from China.

China has captured over 90 percent of the Vitamin C market in the United States, according to the Seattle Times. Think about how many labels advertise added Vitamin C. Vitamin C goes into many food and drink products—almost all processed food for humans as well as pets contains Vitamin C.

The consumer has no way of knowing the added vitamin C comes from China, because there is no rule requiring labeling the country of origin for ingredients.

This may raise quite a few eyebrows as Chinese food safety scandals make headlines every day.

Here are five facts any consumer of vitamins should know.

1. Only 2 percent of all imported vitamins and other supplements are inspected. Why? Vitamins and supplements are classified as “food” by law and therefore not subject to the tough regulatory scrutiny of prescription drugs.

2. China’s top vitamin and supplement production areas are among the most polluted in the country (and thus in the world).

Vitamins and nutritional supplements usually use agricultural products as key raw materials. The top vitamin exporting province, Zhejiang, has an alarming level of soil pollution from heavy metal. As matter of fact, one-sixth of China’s farmlands are heavily polluted.

For example, rice planted in several key agricultural provinces was reported to contain excessive Cadmium, a metal commonly found in batteries, coloring, and the industrial waste from making plastic. It may cause serious kidney disease.

Irrigation water is a nightmare: Half of the country’s major water bodies are polluted, as are 86 percent of city water bodies. Pollution is largely caused by the country’s numerous factories, which rarely have equipment for treating pollution. Seventy to 80 percent of the country’s industrial waste is directly emitted into rivers.

3. Even those labeled as “organic” are not safe, since USDA organic standards place no limit on levels of heavy metal contamination for certified organic foods.

4. Approximately 6,300 Americans nationwide complained about adverse reactions to dietary supplements between 2008 and 2012, according to FDA statistics. But the actual number may be more than eight times higher, some experts say, because most people don’t believe health products can make them sick. While not all such problems would be caused by pollution in China, that pollution may have played a role.

5. Worst of all, China-made vitamins are everywhere, and even those who do not consume vitamins and supplements can hardly escape. Many vitamins end up as ingredients in items like soft drinks, food, animal feed, and even cosmetics.

[Kackikat]

Vitamins made in China....’that’s disgusting’.

[Secret Agent Man]

further diferent forms of vitamins are absorbed at diferent rates. intravenous vitamin c is able to be absorbed and used by the body at a much higher rate than vitamin c taken orally, and you can take more via iv than oral without a possible irritable gut situation. there are certan forms of b vitamins tht can be better absorbed than others. ubquinol, a different form of coq10, can be better absorbed by elderly folks than regular coq10.

also dosing may be a factor why it doesn’t work for some people. too little and no effect.

[Secret Agent Man]

a person reports improvement taking a supplement and his medical readings have confirmed his health has improved. yeah that’s anecdotal.

[Secret Agent Man]

garlic’s a natural antibiotic/antimicrobial. that has been proven in studies.

cinnamon is also a mild antibacterial and helps control blood sugar spikes. again studies have shown this. fenugreek also helps regulate blood sugar levels.

[urtax$@work]

not one brand name listed in entire article.....hmmmm..

[coop71]

What about iodized salt? Iodine (a mineral) is added to salt to prevent thyroid issues and goiters because many parts of the world don’t have iodine freely available in foods/soil.

What about vitamin d fortified milk? It’s added, along with calcium, to milk to prevent rickets. And it does prevent rickets.

While neither of these examples are taken in the traditional sense of a vitamin or mineral (tablet, capsule, liquid form), they’re still “supplements” in the sense that they’re nutrients added to foods which don’t contain the vitamin or mineral in high amounts naturally. But both salt and milk are consumed by many, so it’s a broad-based way to distribute these nutrients to those who may not get them otherwise.

Not being snarky here at all, by the way....But, just to clarify, is your argument that the standard vitamin or mineral supplement we buy in a bottle is worthless and have no impact on health? Or is it that all supplements, regardless of how we get them, outside of the natural sources found in foods and soil (like B12 and iodine), are worthless and have no impact on health?

[caveat emptor]

Why prescribe something that’s available over the counter?

Not wishing to be argumentative, but situations sometimes arise. My elderly mother-in-law in a nursing home had a long term wound which wouldn't heal - from large spider bite, she said. The food was terrible, veggies boiled into soggy mass, care was mostly indifferent, some pretty good, some vindictive (she had senile dementia and could get mouthy).

I asked her doctor to prescribe some Vitamin C tablets, nothing over the top, just OTC from a drug store, as well as daily cleaning and debridement. I knew that many aides wouldn't follow through on my say so. He wrote the prescription, issued the instructions, and I bought the pills and put them in her room. The wound headed in a few weeks.

[caveat emptor]

Thread hijacked on second comment by anti-supplement/vitamin obsession (?).

[caveat emptor]

I am pushing 50 and have megadosed vitamin C since I was seven

I'm curious. If you don't mind saying, what's your "megadose"? I'd guess you take it orally. I take 2 or 3 grams a day, down from 10-12 for years after reading and checking on a convincing claim by Gary Taubes (!) that people can't process more than that - don't remember details and can't find with internet search. At 77 my skin and heart (recent echo-cardiagram) are in good shape. A few other things not so much - due to post-op screw ups a year and a half ago by an arrogant surgeon and a ignorant post-op nurse.

IMO there is big potential for avoiding heart disease (arteriosclerosis) and other collagen related issues with some sort of Vitamin C therapy, though not necessarily orally. You seem to be doing OK.

A section in the link to LPI at OSU in comment #6 by aMorePerfectUnion mentions administering vitamin C intravenously - one of the few “alternative” and complementary treatments that the BC Cancer Agency has labeled as investigational, as opposed to outright condemnation. I live in BC and met a summer resident in my community who had been getting such regular therapy for about 10 years - very expensive, apparently - after having been written off by conventional medical practice.

My opinion in the potential for vitamin C therapy stems primarily from the fact that most animals (and plants!) synthesize their own vitamin C - "vast majority" - and don't get heart disease, while those that don't, do. The only exception I've heard of is the Western Lowland Gorilla, which doesn't get heart disease when living wild, but does in captivity.

As a herbivore its primary diet comprises roots, shoots, fruit, wild celery, tree bark and pulp which is provided for in the thick forests of central and west Africa. Wikipedia dismisses their cardiovascular health as being due their their eating the seeds of the "grains of paradise" (Aframomum) plant. Zoo vets disagree, and are beginning to change their diets away from the high-sugar and high-starch food that zoos have fed gorillas for years to the food similar to what they eat in the wild, with no mention of Aframomum.

I'm not optimistic that the potential will be realized. Eg. see Codex Alimentarius here and here.

[Black Agnes]

I’ve taken anywhere from 1g/day while pregnant (500mg, morning and 500mg night) to 50g when I just felt under the weather. I usually take 3-4g, divided during the day. I read Russell Blaylock MD for other stuff besides C.

I take 10K d3, and 10mg K2 (mk4 and mk7 combined) and also selenium and lugols, magnesium and b complex. I also take vitamin A on alternate days with the d3 (they cancel each other so I don’t take them on the same day). Krill oil when we can afford it, molecularly distilled fish oil otherwise. I eat LOTS of eggs, we have our own chickens.

Cardiovascular disease in my family is like fishing in a well stocked, shallow pond. Every other visit with my internist he does the cardio ultrasound looking for anomalies. Each time he’s forced to admit my coronary system is ‘slick as snot on a doorknob’. I also low carb. I’m still overweight although not *nearly* as much as I was when doing the low fat ‘heart healthy’ diabetic diet. I lost 80lbs low carbing and have kept most of that off ovr the past decade in spite of having had 3 kids in that time period. My A1c runs between 4.8 and 5.2. I still take metformin but there are other benefits from that besides blood sugar control. My triglycerides are usually low double digits, usually 20 something.

And my thyroid is splendid. Probably the iodine/selenium/magnesium/bcomplex supplements. My doc is continually amazed that I’m in a ‘danger zone’ agewise for thyroid issues and I have the thyroid function of a healthy teenager. neener LOL.

I avoid gluten. Mainly because one of my daughters is bona fide celiacs and it’s just easier if it’s not in the house at all for her to find and sneak.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for that.

[onedoug]

Wait till they get into pharmaceuticals.