Xtend-Your-Life Newsletter
Issue - 7th October 2005
Enteric coating of tablets, bio-transformed vitamins, and more...
This week's newsletter is in a similar theme to the last issue and its purpose is to help you sift fact from fiction. It was prompted by a customer of ours in the UK.
This is what she wrote:
"When I first joined you as a customer, there was a lot said about your enteric coating, being an extremely important advantage. I recently wrote to 2 top notch supplement suppliers in the UK about this. The Managing Director replied personally to say Hxxxx Nxxx Co do not coat most products, because the stomach is a very important part of complete digestion. (Note: Company name blanked out by author)
They mention their flagship products True Food & I quote: 'True Food is a major advance. Ordinary supplements use isolated vitamins, not the complexed forms found in nature. Vitamin C for example is complexed with other organic molecules. True Food bio-transformed vitamins and minerals are grown in a special culture and are organically complexed just as they would be in any true food. They're also pre-digested with papaya enzymes. (Using a yeast).
Far lower intakes of our bio-transformed nutrients are needed, as the body uses food forms more efficiently'.
They say in their reply to me that True Food products for example contain protein, which needs stomach acid. 'We do enteric coat Pxxxxx (a peppermint & fennel oil) and Sxxxxr (a garlic tablet). In these products it is desirable that their contents are released lower in the intestines, but this is not the case for most products.
Another company Hxxxxxxxx say their products are made using the highest quality ingredients and in forms most readily absorbed. 'We are satisfied our supplements will be well absorbed and have no plans to change to enteric coated.
So basically, they seem to be dismissive of what I believe is your main claim to fame. Can I have your comments please?"
OK... I will comment...
These companies feel that the advantage we provide by enteric coating our Total Balance doesn't improve the efficacy of the ingredients. Now, I don't want to be negative towards these two companies as they are reputable ones and probably in the top tier of supplement companies. But... they do seem to be lacking somewhat in technical knowledge about the mechanism of some supplement ingredients... or, they are choosing to ignore some important facts.
Here is how I replied:
"I think that there is a bit of marketing hype mixed in with the comments made by the MD of the first company. Part of what he said was true and another part is completely wrong. He says... "True Food bio-transformed vitamins and minerals are grown in a special culture and are organically complexed just as they would be in any true food".
The part about the minerals is totally wrong because you cannot grow minerals from cultures. However, they are correct in the way in which vitamins are produced. The reference to 'bio-transformed vitamins' is just a fancy marketing term dreamed up by them. This is how most vitamins are manufactured and they are no different to the vitamins that we use in Total Balance. As a matter of fact I dealt with this very matter in the last issue of Xtend-Your-Life (23 September 2005). You can access it via the archives on the website. In this issue it also explains how minerals are made as well.
'Hxxxxx Nxxxxx' doesn't seem to fully understand the mechanism of action of some of the ingredients, or, they present concepts to the consumer that seem impressive but are not really accurate.
He also talks about 'pre-digestion' which is basically marketing hype, because there is absolutely no logic for such a thing when the ingredients are released in the stomach. In so far as the need to have stomach acid for processing the active ingredients, this is not completely true either. It is indeed the situation for proteins, but for most supplement ingredients it is either neutral or else damaging to the active ingredients.
As I mentioned above, we would agree that protein does need stomach acid but why they would include protein in their supplement is beyond me, as one mouthful of a good wholesome food contains more protein than you will ever get in a supplement, and it is more bio-available (and cheaper!) What is more important than protein in a supplement, are the building blocks for protein such as amino acids.
As they admit, some ingredients need to be enteric coated. (More on that soon). Their peppermint oil capsules are an example of this as there is no choice because releasing peppermint oil directly into the stomach is highly undesirable. For your info, the type of enteric coating used on these capsules is quite different to what we use in Total Balance. We use an aqueous water based type whereas peppermint oil capsules are coated with a thinner layer of a much cheaper solvent type.
With regard to Hxxxxxxxx saying that their ingredients are well absorbed this is true of many ingredients, but only the more common ones. For example, if we were manufacturing a simple vitamin/mineral formula we would not enteric coat the tablets as most of the vitamins and minerals are OK to be released in the stomach so it therefore would not warrant the extra cost.
It is the more sophisticated and complex/sensitive ingredients that require enteric coating to be effective. For example, L-Glutathione which is a very expensive ingredient (approximately 30 times more expensive than Vitamin C) would be totally wasted if it was not in an enteric coated tablet. This is because it can only be absorbed through the upper intestine and that it would be severely damaged if exposed to stomach acid. Therefore, the ONLY way to get efficacy from it is by enteric coating the tablet.
The same applies to the enzymes and many other ingredients that we use in Total Balance.
It is really important to consider the issue of enteric coating in the context of the ingredients used in the supplement. The bottom line is that these companies, as with most of the industry do not use the sophisticated and expensive ingredients that we do, thus they do not need to enteric coat their products.
If a supplement company contracts out the manufacture of their products, it is not practical for them to go to the level of sophistication that we do in order to get a highly effective supplement... simply because it is not economic to attempt it. I know, because we tried 5 years ago to contract manufacture our Total Balance, and it was a nightmare as it is very difficult to control the process and can be very expensive once you deviate from 'common' ingredients and the simple manufacturing protocols followed by contract manufacturers.
This is why we set up our own manufacturing operation to handle these complex products and manufacturing protocols."
So... there it is!
I hope that you found the above interesting and that it helps expand your knowledge about supplements. Thus you may be able to better assess that you are spending your supplement budget wisely.
The above letter does tend to also highlight the greatest challenge that we face, which is trying to explain to customers what makes our products so different and superior. Unlike most producers we do not develop products to a price. Rather we develop what will give our customers the best results and enhance their health so we can retain them as a long term customer.
This policy does have its downside because it costs us more to produce our products and in order to keep them affordable we need to keep the margins slimmer and only sell direct to consumers. But... we will not deviate from that policy.
On a final note, if you are a new subscriber or a non customer you may not be familiar with the process of enteric coating. If this is the case please click here to more about it.
In good health,
Info about the editor
Important notice: All material provided within the newsletter XTEND-YOUR-LIFE is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not to be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken solely on the contents of this publication. Consult your physician or a qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health and wellbeing or on any opinions expressed within this newsletter. The information provided in this newsletter is believed to be accurate based on the best judgment of the editor but the reader is responsible for consulting with their own health professional on any matters raised within.
