Nutrients such as Vitamin A, C, D. E, minerals and various other nutrients have significant value to our health and wellness and the FDA does acknowledge it. Ever hear of RDAs? The RDA values "recommended" by the FDA are the amounts a body requires in order to NOT have a deficiency or have symptom related deficiencies. Most of these rather low values have not been updated for many years, some up to 60 years. Considering the devalued nutrients in our food supply, the significant increase in processed food consumption and our exposure to environmental toxins that say a person living in the 50's was exposed to it should be very clear to any human being that our need to increase our intake of nutrients with companion supplements is essential. Many diseases rampant in our society can be related to a long-term nutrient deficiency.
As for supplements. The term synthesized does not meant he same thing as synthetic. There is no such thing as a "vitamin tree" where one could pick a vitamin C tablet off a branch. Supplements are synthesized, or MADE, by man. There are however, synthetic vitamins, not derived from a natural source. Vitamin E is a very good example of that. D-tocopherol (E) is the natural source. dl-tocopherol is the synthetic form (notice the difference in d as opposed to dl). Even the so called "whole food" supplements are misleading. These supplements are still synthesized - Nutrients that are cultured on yeast for example.
Understanding the manufacturing process of supplements is one that most, emphasize MOST, consumers have no knowledge of. Anyone with a keyboard and a monitor can look up the various uses and applications of vitamins and minerals, but to understand why one form is better than another, why one is absorbed and one is not is an entirely different science. How they are manufactured is a topic barely touched by most. Many people can't even pronounce the ingredients on their supplement label, let alone understand what they are and what impact they have on their vitamin product.
I can completely understand why conventional medicine is leary of recommending the use of supplements, other than the basic low dose run of the mill. The supplement industry in general does a horrible job of regulating itself, in many cases putting a persons health at risk, the unknowing consumer thinking they are doing the right thing, and vitamin manufacturers stuffing their pockets with the help of their
PR Department.
If consumers would put as much effort into choosing their supplements as they do the grade of gasoline they put into their cars, some of this issue would clear up. Sadly many don't. The real sad thing is, it almost isn't their fault because manufacturing issues and standards issues are difficult to understand and unavailable to most.
I would recommend that if you are considering a supplementation to your daily food intake to consider going to a health food store that is independently owned and question the owner/clerk about the quality of any given brand. Even this won't give you the whole truth, as many stores will stock nationally know brands that you may be familiar with and still be getting garbage, but if you ask for a professional "brand" or therapeutic quality brand, generally speaking you'll be getting one that is good for you.
This issue could have a thread all unto itself. Very complex. Good luck. M
Very Informative!!! 
Deb
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